TEDxYouth@Khartoum: A Young Speaker’s Story
The TEDxYouth@Khartoum team asked me to come to their first speaker rehearsal with an idea.
When I got there, I didn’t know what to expect. I had an idea, but I didn’t know if it would be any good, or if it was even TEDx material. But what made me feel more confident was that at the rehearsal, everyone around me was young, so I felt like I was surrounded by people who would understand me.
After fellow speaker Wafa Elamin spoke, I went for it. I was nervous and shaky, but still confident that I could share an idea. I got positive feedback, and I started gaining confidence day after day and rehearsal after rehearsal.
Every rehearsal, different people would step forward and share a new idea. By the looks on the faces around the room, it was clear that everyone was quite interested in these new thoughts. We provided each speaker with thorough feedback.
During the rehearsals, I met so many extraordinary young people. Some of them were speakers, and others just came to tell us what they thought about what we were sharing. There was one girl, a nine-year-old, who came up to me to tell me that she thought that my talk was very fun, and that she enjoyed it very much. At that moment, even though the event was ahead of us, I felt like I had accomplished so much.
At the final rehearsal, we got to see the polished version of each talk, and the results were astonishing. People had truly benefitted from the practice — even the people who had started out as strong speakers had clearly improved. What was great became outstanding. We also got a little preview of the event’s performances, such as Madeeh, a group of Sudanese youth who create spoken word and rap.
On the day of the event, everyone was over the moon. The number of people who showed up was spectacular. We had attendees in the room, people following us on Twitter, and viewers of our livestreaming event. It was an amazing feeling to know that we were reaching so many people — Sudanese youth in particular.
When it was time for my talk, I was a bit nervous. But the moment I stepped on stage, I was instantly relieved. I felt genuinely compelled to share my ideas with the audience. I wanted to show everyone that we youth have something powerful within us — that we have creative ideas in us, that we are the change, and that we can do it.
Watching the other speakers perform was surreal. Some of them far exceeded their best practice talks. It felt as though I was hearing their talks for the very first time. Being on stage gave them the push that they needed in the rehearsals.
Furthermore, seeing that the event came together so beautifully by youth was such a source of pride to me. These young photographers, technicians, and all of the people behind the scenes were exactly the reason that this event was so brilliant.
I was approached after the event by young children, parents, and university students, all of whom told me that they enjoyed my talk, and that they will try to be heroes every day. I was overwhelmed with emotion and a sense of accomplishment. I had reached the goal I had set out to reach.
All of the event’s talks inspired me. Wafa told me to think positively. Amal told me that as a young woman, I can have it all. Samreen showed me how to improve myself. Nazim encouraged me to help a young child.
I now realize that what I can do for my community is so much more than I ever thought I could do. I have the desire to tell every single person that he or she can be a hero, and that together we are the building blocks of this nation.
I’ve come out of this shared experience at TEDxYouth@Khartoum with new friends, colleagues, and acquaintances — a new family!
Written by Amna Khalid, a young speaker at TEDxYouth@Khartoum.
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posted 02 December, 2011
by Amna Khalid - 19 notes for this post
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TEDx Africa Organizers Interview: Anwar Dafa-Alla of TEDxKhartoum
Kelo Kubu, Organizer of TEDxSoweto, is a TEDx Ambassador in Africa. In this interview series, she’ll be talking with TEDx Organizers in Africa on what inspires them to host TEDx events in their community.
This week, I find out from Anwar Dafa-Alla about TEDxKhartoum and what it meant for the people of Sudan.
Sudan is the largest country by landmass in Africa, slightly more than one-quarter the size of the United States. With an estimated population of 45 million, only two of its citizens have been to a TED conference — Emmanuel Jal and Anwar Dafa-Alla.
Kelo Kubu: How did you get involved with TEDx and what inspired you to host TEDxKhartoum?
Anwar Dafa-Alla: Being a TEDster , TED’s most active volunteer translator, TEDxYonsei and TEDxSeoul speakers, it is not a privilege but a responsibility to share “Ideas Worth Spreading”. Being from our beloved country, Sudan, the country which has brilliant minds who couldn’t make it to TED/TEDx before made that most appealing to me. We organised the TEDx event as a starter for a big movement and to create community around TED and it’s mission to spreading Ideas.
Kelo Kubu: What was the theme for your event and how did your audience relate to it?
Anwar Dafa-Alla: The theme for our event was “Who We Are”. Our audience was really happy seeing all these variety of speakers who answered the question raised by our theme.
Kelo Kubu: What stood out for you on the day of the event?
Anwar Dafa-Alla: The livestream was really great. We had two channels with English and Arabic translation. If our speaker talks in Arabic, our volunteer interpreters translate into English and vice versa.
Our attendees — business leaders, community leaders, academics and so on — were amazed by what volunteers can achieve in a country that has a real problem in managing resources. We mentioned that the whole country could be run with volunteers, people who do things because they love to do it, nothing else!
Also the interaction between the speakers and attendees. People applauded, laughed, cried, and we were listening to “Aha…” several times. People got their self- esteem in a very critical time for our country. TEDxKhartoum was a new history written by volunteers.
We also announced several initiatives by the TEDxKhartoum team, namely:
1. The completion of translating ALL TEDx Resources ( How to organize TEDx event) into Arabic Language.
2. We started an initiative to make complete profiles for every city or institution to help putting information on the web. Currently there is a big lack of information about Sudan online. We thought it’s cool to make profiles as a way to enrich the online content about our region. Here is Khartoum profile led by Salma Eisa, Amna Abbas, Sara Abdelrahman, and other amazing people.
3. Khalid Elshafie, from TEDxKhartoum online team has created a smart phone application (Android App) for TEDxKhartoum and now available in the market.
Kelo Kubu: How many delegates and speakers did you have at your event?
Anwar Dafa-Alla: We had 13 speakers and 2 live performances. Our speakers were given 15 minutes (some of them used less than 10 minutes, mainly because of 3 rehearsal sessions we had prior to the conference). With 1000+ attendees. We were also really happy to have Dr. Jacob Gelt Dekker of TEDx Amsterdam attend our event. This is the power of TEDx global community.
Pictures of the event can be found on their Facebook page. Plus, an article on TEDxKhartoum in the Sudan Vision newspaper (English).
The TEDxKhartoum Speakers Workshop
Everything we do, it is first time it is happening in our country. We’re enjoying every single moment — we enjoy the struggle, the pain, and everything for a better future
TEDxKhartoum will be held on April 30th, 2011. In preparation for that big day, we finished our TEDxKhartoum Speakers Curation Workshop . The goal was to ensure the quality of presentation during the day of TEDxKhartoum on April 30th Based on TEDx Learning Series: Transform Your Presentation into a Visual Story. It was really nice and we’ve more engaged people now.
