DEVELOPMENT AS DIGNITY: Reflections by S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema

One of the hallmarks of my 2019 was co-founding the African Writers [Society] at the University of Sussex with my colleagues, Dr Jennifer J. Agbaire, Sarah Egbo and Michelle Okpo Eruemulor. As founding president, I worked with my cofounders to organise several events independently and in collaboration with other societies and organisations.

One of our flagship projects was the African Writers Development Cafe which was inaugurated with a fantastic event, ‘Development As Dignity’ presented by the brilliant ‘Dapo Oyewole. Sarah Egbo (who was our founding secretary) and I captured a sense of the event in the following blog post which you can read HERE.One of the key arguments in the discourse was Africans taking ownership of their narrative while deliberately creating home-grown solutions to tackle their challenges.

Four years later, I have gone on to do different exploits and collaborated on different international projects with ‘Dapo Oyewole who is probably one of the most strategic unsung leaders in Nigeria. As a boss and senior colleague, I have sure learnt a lot from him too. If time is kind, I will try to write on a few of these projects especially the novel Conference of Speakers of African Parliament which opened me to several conversations on politics and finance in Africa.

Thanks to Olusegun Sangowawa, Adams Alex Osunde, my colleagues in the MA International Education & Development cohort, my fellow Chevening scholars, and the several people who made all our events a reality.

One thing I still hold is we need to have more conversations on African development and create better stories of our land. Beyond these stories, we have work to do to better our lot as a people, moving from ideation to implementation of our fine ideas in the reality of our continent’s political economy. As ‘Dapo put it that evening: “If you find an idea, take it and fly with it. Ideas rule the world so give life to your ideas. Master your trade and build your tools. Make your voice known. Importantly, understand the political economy and find a way to work within it for effect.”

However your day goes today, may it be blessed. SVA