For this episode of Diaspora at Work, I had a chance to finally have a conversation with Mariéme Jamme (@mjamme), founder of many enterprises including iConscience, an organization she created “to bring together like-minded business experts – with a focus on sharing expertise in building sustainable businesses.” Although she left Senegal at the tender age of 2, Mariéme managed to retain that African connection and has responded to her heart string’s call to come back to Senegal and neighboring countries to share her knowledge by training generations of young men and women to be entrepreneurs. Jamme is passionate about brand Africa and shared excellent opinions on how to put Africa’s “human capital,” or its Diaspora to drive Africa’s rebranding efforts.
Truth be told, rebranding Africa is no easy task, and no one solution is the answer. During the discussion, @ajmunn put it best, we have “to rebrand perceptions of Africa in West, and rebrand Africa within Africa. Double change.” I invite you to listen to the podcast and share your ideas on how to change perceptions about Africa below in the comments or follow the discussion on Twitter under hashtag brandafrica (#brandafrica).
DAW: Mariéme Jamme [ Audio | 52:48 | MP3 ] [ Music: Disco Science by Mirwais ]
DAW:Mariéme Jamme
It’ll take a whole series of podcasts to really highlight the many career accomplishments of Mariéme Jamme. Below is a short list of the organizations she’s been or is currently involved with at various capacities.
BONUS:
Also during the Twitter discussion, @ksjhalla pointed me to this Zina Saro-Wiwa’s AfricaLabs Project. This is Africa, is an example of the small steps that the African Diaspora is making in an effort to take back the mike from Western media and rebrand Africa with positive personal anecdotes of what Africa means to them.
