I first met Magatte Wade when she came to Nigeria to speak “The Platform” organised by Covenant Christian Centre. The first thing that strikes you about her is the fact that she is proudly African and she shows it.
Though she currently lives in America, she has been involved in many African-allied projects showing that she holds her heritage in high esteem. She was born in Senegal, educated in Germany and France.
Magatte is a serial-entrepreneur and formidable advocate of positive change in business, gender roles, and Africa. Her larger than life personality has led her to entrepreneurial success and a celebrated speaker at international conferences on entrepreneurship, innovation, and competitiveness. She was named “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa” by Forbes Magazines, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum at Davos for 2011, and a TED Global Africa Fellow. She also writes for “The Huffington Post”
She is fluent in, and conducts business in, Wolof, the predominant indigenous language of Senegal, French, and English.
– Creating Jobs in Senegal;
– Exposing Tiossan employees to world-class expertise in creativity, innovation, design, and entrepreneurship;
– Developing world-class expertise in creativity, innovation, design, and entrepreneurship for the next generation of Senegalese.
Francis Ebuehi (FE): How did you come about the Bottle of Ambition Project? How old is the project?
Magatte Wade (MW): Both my first company, Adina, and my current company, Tiossan, are based on bringing the best of indigenous Senegalese culture to the U.S. in the form of high-quality, professionally designed and branded consumer products. Because I sell to the “cultural creative” demographic in the U.S., I am acutely aware that often American young people go to developing countries, discover valuable cultural traditions there, and then create successful companies based on the products they find. Why is this not being done by other developing world entrepreneurs?
I began Tiossan shortly after meeting my husband, Michael Strong. Michael is one of the most innovative educators in the U.S. He creates schools that develop the ability to think independently while also developing high-level academic skills. Both he and I believe that the root of being able to be a great innovator and entrepreneur is the ability to think for oneself. The “Bottle of Ambition” project is the result of hundreds of hours of conversations that I’ve had with him about how to provide my fellow Africans both the skills and the intellectual confidence they need to be able to create world-class products and services. I want to help thousands, and eventually millions, of young Africans develop their voice so that their creativity, innovations, and entrepreneurial vision can change the world.
To go into the details for a moment: I’ve seen Michael work with young children in Africa, Guatemala, and the U.S. Wherever he works, he “teaches” by gently yet persistently asking them questions that get them to think and to explain the reasoning behind their opinions. I’ve seen very young people, six and seven year olds, gradually develop the confidence that I see very few Africans (actually most people) displaying. I often speak at Ivy League universities in the U.S., and sadly often I see students who may have the academic qualifications to attend these universities, but they have lost their own voice. For me, if we want Africa to play a leading role on the global stage, we must raise young people so that they are BOTH academically capable AND completely comfortable speaking in their own authentic voice about who they are and what they believe. This will be a key combination for success in the future, and I want to position our young people ASAP.
FE: Can you tell us more about “Tiossan Tribe: Senegalese Scholars”
MW: Right now, we are in the process of raising the capital to create both factories and schools in Senegal. Once we have sufficient capital, we will create schools for young Senegalese near our factories. The schools will serve both the children of Tiossan factory workers as well as a cohort of young Senegalese that apply for scholarships. We want to create a community of learners that integrates both the worker’s children and the best and the brightest that Senegal has to offer. These will be the “Senegalese Scholars.”
FE: Is this any way the Senegalese government can include these “Soft Skills” of Innovation, design and entrepreneurship in the educational curriculum?
MW: Because government licensing of teachers and certification of schools is a top-down process, it is precisely the opposite of innovation. The more that the government can allow parents to use government funds for their children to attend private schools, rather than government schools, the better. In addition, the more governments can reduce or eliminate occupational licenses the better. Probably the most important thing that governments in Africa can do is to improve the environment for doing business, so that once we provide young people with the skills and confidence they need to be entrepreneurial creators, government red tape won’t stand in their way. The worst-ranked nations on earth on the World Bank’s Doing Business index are mostly African.
FE: Do you think that Africans in diaspora are doing enough to help their countries of origin out of poverty?
MW: There are, of course, millions of diaspora Africans who are extremely generous in the remittances that they send home. That said, in order to create a prosperous Africa, rather than a poor Africa, we need more diasporan Africans investing in African businesses and in working to reform the legal environments so that they are more business-friendly. Relatedly, we Africans need to speak out frankly on the fact that we want to be a respected partner in global business. The condescension of many in the NGO and foreign aid world towards Africans is repulsive to me. I know that many of my fellow Africans can’t stand the stereotypes promoted by the aid industry. We need to persuade these people, many of whom have good hearts, that we Africans are just as capable as anyone on earth. But bad institutions and bad governments AFTER independence have kept us down. The fact that Bono has changed his mind about the relative importance of business in Africa vs. aid is a BIG victory, by the way.
FE: What are the goals for the project in the next 5 years?
MW: We will open the school in 2014, starting with an elementary program. In 2015, we’ll add a secondary school. Initially the numbers will be small, less than one hundred students for the entire program, gradually growing to two hundred five years from now. Later we’ll be able to scale up, but in order to create a high quality program it is important to start small because all of the teachers will need to be trained specially for the school. At the five year mark we should have our first Senegalese teens who have developed substantial projects: Artistic, inventive, entrepreneurial, and so forth. I can’t wait to see what they create!!!!
