ONE Member Diana Kakoma reports on a cool event from Chicago.
It was a particularly beautiful Friday morning when I met the seven African business owners visiting Chicago as part of US State Department’s Young African Leaders Program. Like many of their colleagues who had gone to other cities, they came to the US to learn more about American business practices, network with other African entrepreneurs, and of course, visit the US.
They are pioneering innovations in fields as diverse as mobile technology, agriculture, finance and healthcare to name a few, but soon they will return to Angola, Chad, Djibouti, South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi and Kenya to apply their new skills while leveraging new relationships.
However, what I will remember most about that Friday morning is what they represented: the courage that comes from conviction, the power of collaboration to bring about real and lasting change in Africa, and that magnetic energy that emanates from all entrepreneurs irrespective of what country they call home.
Diana Kakoma is in charge of AfricanChicago.com, a digital gathering place for Africans in Chicago.