How Africa’s Youth Is Building a Better Future

Renowned Sudanese poet Emtithal (Emi) Mahmoud has always had an issue with the word “empowerment” in relation to harnessing the potential of young people.

“It’s not just building up the youth, but going beyond that to create tangible opportunities for young people,’’ the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador said during the inaugural TIME100 Summit Africa during a panel titled “Building a Better Future.”

With young Africans expected to make up more than 40% of the world’s youth by 2030, the panelists came together to talk about how the world can work together to create better opportunities for the cohort. Mahmoud was joined by Fred Swaniker, the founder of Sand Technologies and Aya Chebbi, founder and president of the Nala Feminist Collective on the panel, moderated by Fiona Muthoni, anchor of CNBC Africa.

Swaniker agreed with Mahmoud. “Youth empowerment almost sounds like young people in Africa don’t have agency and need help,” he said. “But in my experience, we need to build confidence so that they can take their rightful place.”

Swaniker, who founded the African Leadership Group to catalyze a new generation of ethical, entrepreneurial African leaders, warned that there was still “too much deference for age” in a continent that’s overwhelmingly young. Through his work, the Ghanaian entrepreneur helps build new programs so that young people can unleash their unrealized talent and help drive change in their communities. “Young people are the solution to this continent’s problems,” he said. “We’re not doing them a favour by giving them a seat at the table.”

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But there are also ways that young people have realized their full potential—like the wave of Afro music from Nigeria that has taken over the world, Swaniker noted.

“Everything cool now is Afro,” said Chebbi, a Pan-African feminist and diplomat whose mission is the liberation of African women and girls. “But we need to go from having a cultural revolution to a political revolution.”

Still, the panelists agreed that there’s a lot to hope for with a new generation of leaders in Africa. For Swaniker, technology is a great equalizer. “It will allow young people to determine where they will go,” he said. But for Chebbi, the opportunity lies elsewhere. “We need to bring more women in leadership.”

Mahmoud, who this year alone lost six family members to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, closed the discussion by sharing a hopeful vision for the future in a world of immense challenges. “We need to create a collective responsibility for the continent, and we need to strive for peace,” she said.

For the first time ever, TIME has brought its iconic TIME100 franchise to Africa, bringing together international and regional leaders, influencers and visionaries alongside members of the African TIME100 community to a daytime summit to discuss the solutions needed to build a better future and to celebrate their accomplishments at a gala in Kigali, Rwanda.

The TIME100 Summit Africa is sponsored by Visit Rwanda, Kigali International Financial Centre, and RwandAir

Write to Astha Rajvanshi at astha.rajvanshi@time.com.