Choosing The Hero: Africa's First Woman President

Please join us for a round-table discussion of the challenges women face becoming leaders in Africa. We will start with a presentation by Riva Levison about her new book, Choosing the Hero: My Improbable Journey and the Rise of Africa's First Woman President (http://www.strandbooks.com/african-1/0921-event-choosing-the-hero-my-improbable-journey-and-the-rise-of-africas-first-woman-president-9111775181/). This is a great book about a unique partnership between Riva and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first woman President. Then we will hear from Joyce Banda, former President of Malawi, and Eliza Anyangwe, Editor at The Guardian and CNN, and CEO of The Nizinga Effect.

Questions we want to address:

1. What are the unique challenges women face becoming leaders in Africa?

2. How can we lift up these stories to empower more women to become leaders?

3. What role can The Data Revolution play in overcoming these challenges and building more positive examples of leadership?

4. How should these stories be told and what should the role of social media and forums play in connecting women across the continent?

The meetup will be virtual and it will be recorded:

https://zoom.us/j/9591621164

Speaker bios:

K. Riva Levinson is the President and CEO of KRL International LLC, a Washington communications and government relations firm that focuses on the world's emerging markets. A top strategist in managing international policy issues, Levinson has been profiled in The Hill and quoted in The Financial Times. She has served as a long-time advisor to Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her firm is the consultancy of record for Liberia in Washington, D.C. Levinson, who has a Bachelor's degree from Tufts University and a Master's from Georgetown University, has managed highly complex and sensitive projects in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe.

Joyce Hilda Bandais a Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heads_of_state_of_Malawi) from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014. She is the founder and leader of the People's Party (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_%28Malawi%29), created in 2011. An educator and grassroots women's rights activist, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and Vice-President of Malawi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice-President_of_Malawi) from May 2009 to April 2012. Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingu_wa_Mutharika). She was Malawi's fourth president and its first female president. Before becoming president, she served as the country's first female vice-president. In 2014, Forbes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes) named President Banda as the 40th most powerful woman in the world and the most powerful woman in Africa.

Elize Anyangwe is founder of the Nzinga Effect (http://www.thenzingaeffect.com/), a content site and conference to celebrate stories about African women and women of African descent. She began her journalism career in 2009 at The Guardian where, in November 2014, after 2 years as editor of the Global Development Professionals Network, she moved into a freelance role, writing and commissioning content on the sustainable development goals. In September 2015, she led an editorial project for Guardian Opinion. A week in Africa aimed to challenge the dominant narrative about Africa by publishing many more voices, writing about many more issues besides disease, conflict, and corruption. Its content was published in English, French and Portuguese. Eliza has spoken at events from South by SouthWest in Austin, to the International Conference against FGM in Madrid. She has also hosted panel discussions for NGOs, governments and UN agencies.