Kamdi Okonjo - The 20-year-old with a unique approach to solving Africa’s problems.

Interview by Agbetiloye Adekunle

According to the United Nations, Africa is home to more than a billion people. After Asia, it is the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent. Vibrant and resilient youths aged under 25 accounts for roughly 60 per cent of this robust population. And as a result of this population composition, Africa is the world’s youngest continent.

With such an abundance of human and natural resources, the blessed continent is also plagued by a slew of issues, many of which are attributed to poor leadership. Due to the underutilization of these resources, Africa is the poorest continent in terms of per capita wealth.

While there are problems unique to each country on the continent, Kamdi Okonjo, founder of Africans For Africa (AFA), believes the Zulu ideology of ubuntu – I am, because you are – can help overcome these obstacles. When people work together, they can accomplish more than when they work separately. She confers the power to achieve this on African youths, who are the future of the continent and the world. She also advocates the rejection of negative stereotypes about Africa and the positive rewriting of history. 

Kamdi intends to project her concerns through her platform, AFA-AFA, which officially launched in 2019. AFA’s mission is to educate, uplift, and inspire African youths, providing them with the tools they need to develop meaningful solutions to Africa’s current problems.

In this interview with Ventures Africa, she discusses what inspired her to establish the organization, as well as the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

When did you establish AFA, and why?

AFA, formerly Teen Tate Africa, officially launched in 2019, but I founded it when I was 15 years old.

Why the name change?

Teen Tate was initially a platform for teenagers. It was for teens in Nigeria and South Africa to connect as I wanted to bridge the divide between Africans from different countries. I saw that there was a lot of Afro-phobia between teenagers. I experienced Afro-phobia myself, so I wanted people to understand the racial context. I discovered there was a lot of ignorance concerning racism and tribalism and that these issues have the same roots. That was when I turned it to AFA to educate people, make them think and push boundaries.

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