Change your channel | Mallence Bart-Williams | TEDxBerlinSalon

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Mallence Bart-Williams introduced her second home, Sierra Leone, and its talented people, who are part of her project FOLORUNSHO.

Good afternoon.

I am Mallence, and I come
from the richest country in the world.

It is located in the richest
continent in the world,

in the West of the richest continent.

My country is called Sierra Leone.

On the surface we are blessed
with infinite beauty

and abundance of flora and fauna,

producing the most exquisite
harvests of coffee, cocoa,

fruits, vegetables and caoutchouc.

You name it, we’ve got it.

We also have diverse wildlife
and vast marine resources,

and waterfalls, and rivers that run
into the most beautiful beaches.

The land is golden;
literally, a true paradise,

which of course is inhabited
by the most beautiful souls.

We have a very strong cultural heritage.

In fact, Sierra Leone had the first
sub-Saharan university.

Prior to that there was one
in the kingdom of Timbuktu,

which was the first
university in the world,

succeeding the great Gnostic
schools of Egypt and Osiris.

On a deeper level,

we are blessed with the real treasures
the kings and queens of this world desire.

This was the largest
alluvial diamond ever found.

It weighs almost a thousand carats,
969 to be precise.

This beauty was found by an old lady
in her backyard about 2 years ago.

125 carats.

Some people mine gold in their backyards.
That’s quite common.

Besides gold and diamonds,

we have about 20 precious minerals
that have been discovered as of today.

We recently started extracting
huge petroleum reserves

that have been discovered.

We have platinum,

ilmenite to make titanium,
rutile to coat jets, iron ore,

the largest iron ore deposits in Africa,
the third largest in the world.

Tantalite, also known as coltan, used
in your mobile phones and computers.

Bauxite for aluminum production,

zinc, chrome ore, copper, coal,
phosphates, potassium, salt, lead,

granite, asbestos, nickel, zircon.

Furthermore, we have exquisite timber,
like mahogany and teak.

And we have the most beautiful
stamps in the world.

(Laughter)

Of course the West needs
Africa’s resources, most desperately,

to power airplanes, cell phones,
computers and engines.

And the gold and diamonds of course:

a status symbol, to determine
their powers by decor,

and to give value to their currencies.

One thing that keeps me puzzled, despite
having studied finance and economics

at the world’s best universities,

the following question remains unanswered:

Why is it that 5,000 units of our currency
is worth one unit of your currency,

when we are the ones
with the actual gold reserves?

It’s quite evident that the aid is in fact
not coming from the West to Africa,

but from Africa to the Western world.

The Western world depends on Africa
in every possible way,

since alternative resources
are scarce out here.

So how does the West ensure
that the free aid keeps coming?

By systematically destabilizing
the wealthiest African nations

and their systems,

and all that backed by huge PR campaigns,

leaving the entire world
under the impression

that Africa is poor and dying,

and merely surviving
on the mercy of the West.

Well done, Oxfam, UNICEF,
Red Cross, Life Aid,

and all the other organizations

that continuously run multimillion-dollar
advertisement campaigns

depicting charity porn, to sustain
that image of Africa, globally.

Ad campaigns paid for by innocent people

under the impression to help
with their donations.

While one hand gives under
the flashing lights of cameras,

the other takes, in the shadows.

We all know the dollar is worthless,

while the euro is merely charged
with German intellect and technology,

and maybe some Italian pasta.

How can one expect donations
from nations that have so little?

It’s super sweet of you
to come with your colored paper

in exchange for our gold and diamonds.

But instead, you should come empty-handed,

filled with integrity and honor.

We want to share with you our wealth
and invite you to share with us.

The perception is
that a healthy and striving Africa

would not disperse its resources
as freely and cheaply,

which is logical. Of course.

It would instead sell its resources
at world market prices,

which in turn would destabilize
and weaken Western economies,

established on the post-colonial
free-meal system.

Last year, the IMF reports

that six out of ten of the world's
fastest growing economies are in Africa,

measured by their GDP growth.

The French treasury, for example,

is receiving about 500 billion dollars,

year in, year out, in foreign exchange
reserves from African countries

based on colonial debt
they forced them to pay.

Former French president Jacques Chirac
stated in an interview recently

that we have to be honest and acknowledge
that a big part of the money in our banks

comes precisely from the exploitation
of the African continent.

In 2008, he stated that without Africa,

France will slide down
in the rank of a Third World power.

This is what happens in the human world.
In the world we have created.

Have you ever wondered
how things work in nature?

One would assume that in evolution
the fittest survives.

However in nature,
any species that is overhunting,

overexploiting the resources
they depend on as nourishment,

natural selection would sooner
or later take the predator out,

because it offsets the balance.

Now that I shared my perspective with you,

I would like to share
my initiatives with you.

As a Sierra Leonean,
I am a diamond expert.

I find them in the rough.

What nature created
from the darkest substance,

under the influence of heat and pressure,

transforms into the strongest,
most brilliant rocks.

These rocks have the consistency
to sustain an entire nation.

These will be our future leaders.

Please meet the FOLORUNSHO
creative collective

I formed with 21 street kids
that were orphaned and displaced

as a result of the Sierra
Leonean civil war,

and ended up living in the street
as early as age 3,

growing up as outlaws of society.

(Video)

"My name is Timothy.
But my gangster name is A Fame."

"I'm Donald Williams
but my nick name is Wanee."

"My name is Patrick Christian Kargbo."

"My name is Allusine Jalloh."
"My name's Momoh Alpha Kamara."

"My name is Lamin Bangura.

But in the streets
they call me Crazy Exhibit."

"My name is Sahr Morsay."

"My name is Sheku Conteh.
In the streets they call me DMX."

(Music)

"I lost my mother and father
during the civil war in Sierra Leone.

I was brought up by my
grandmother in the village."

"At the age of 5 years,

my stepmother maltreated me,

she even put poison into my food."

"In Jesus name I pray, amen.
This is the story of my life."

"We were the ones that formed Lion Base.

We were the first ones
to lock the place down,

till other gangsters came after some time.

Now Lion Base is fearful.
It is a fearful crew."

"You have the hard way and the soft way.

The soft way is to steal.

The hard way is to carry load
for people at Dorfcourt

or to collect people’s rubbish."

"If you are not strong in the streets,

you will die at a young age
or you're going to end up bad."

"2001 when I came into the streets
I used to do a lot of bad stuff.

I stole, I used to steal people’s
phones, I used to live a bad life,

till 2010 when I met Mallence."

"From the streets she took me
and put me into a school.

I live good, now.

Then my own thing that I want to do
in the future is to study law.

I always had that determination
to become a lawyer.

This is my future."

(Music)

"My future plan is to be able
to afford my own family.

Because I've now decided to go to school
to be an international business man."

"The rough life some of my fellows
in the streets are living,

I wish they would
or could change like me."

"Leave the bad lifestyle behind,

because this is not how human beings
are supposed to live.

Human beings are supposed to reason,

and wish for a better future
in this world."

(Music)

"It’s not about charity.
It’s all about sharing!"

(Applause)

These guys are my biggest inspiration.
Destiny brought us together.

I met them by a chance encounter in 2010.

In 2011 they all started
living with me, 21 in number.

Wonderful things happen
when creatives meet with mutual respect.

How did we go about it?

Creativity; that same creativity
that ensured their survival

under the most adverse
circumstances in the streets

is channeled into outlets

such as art, music, film and fashion.

They made the impossible possible.

From Lion Base in Sierra Leone

to luxury fashion stores
in Paris, New York and Berlin.

This is what we created single-handedly,
without a single cent in donations,

without running water,
without electricity,

most of them not being able to read
and write at the time when I met them.

And now some of them are studying law,

engineering, being filmmakers, and so on.

This is made with pure energy,
inspiration and love in Freetown.

With creativity and passion
as the sole ingredient,

we participate in a global market
of international competition

and find our way into the world’s
most exclusive department stores,

onto the bodies
of the world’s fashion icons,

and into the most distinguished
art collections and exhibitions

in Berlin, Paris, New York, Miami.

A proven concept that produced
self sufficient individuals,

financing their own education
into lawyers, engineers,

filmmakers and artists,
within only three years.

A concept based on mutual
respect and sharing,

a blueprint that can be replicated
anywhere, under any circumstances.

I only had the vision and the insight
to recognize diamonds in the rough,

and was determined to prove to the world

that the absence of donation produces
quality in a self-sufficient manner.

I believe charity merely creates
inferiority and dependency.

I want to serve as a bridge
between two worlds I call home,

to facilitate a fair exchange
between two contrasting worlds

that become powerful
once balance is reinstalled.

It’s not about charity,
it’s about sharity.

Today I invite you
to change your perspective.

Own your visions of a brighter world.

Never see lack, see abundance,
always, everywhere,

and watch the universe conspire.

Don’t focus on problems
but on the solution.

Remember our perception
of any given situation

is the only thing
that determines the outcome.

I am Mallence. I am German, too.

Change your channel.

(In German) Thank you for your attention.

Thank you for listening.

(Applause)