Africa Liberty Camp 2023: Miklah Attended & This is How it Happened (Day 1 & 2)
As always, #MiklahLife through our initiative, #TheCitizenry, is participating in the 8th Africa Liberty Camp (#ALC2023) and, in this brief article, I will share all the proceedings of this amazing camp, running from 27th April 2023 to 30th April 2023.
Importantly, #MiklahLife through #MiklahForAlbinism initiative tried to support people with albinism to be part of the camp. Betty is participating through such efforts.
At the same time, later alone, #MiklahLife will be presenting a topic on ‘Design Thinking for Sustainable Entrepreneurship’ and you will get notified when it all drops. Thank you.
Okay, let’s get into it!
First Day of Africa Liberty Camp 2023: 27th April 2023 (Thursday)
I personally set off from Kampala at about 5pm, and travelled with other two ladies. We used the Entebbe bypass or Express. Wait! Did you know that Google Maps actually got lost when it came to locating the venue, Oslo Gardens, Entebbe? I am kidding! We just didn’t trust Google, for the roads were weird! Later, we asked an old man. The old man was going the same direction and so he offered to board the car, and drove towards the site. We made it to the site a little late, at about 7:20pm or more.
The reception was good and, as you would expect, casual and friendly! We registered our names, secured the tents where we were to sleep, males and females separately. Later, we gathered to make camp fire. And we did make it!
In fact, I and another gentleman called Jemba made the camp fire. But wait! Others had actually gathered the required firewood and other requirements. So, the truth is, we just assembled it!
At the camp fire, a lot happened. Introductions happened. I got to know names like Doris (from Kenya), Jemba (the guy I made camp fire with), Daniel, Betty, and of course, the usual guys like Arthur, Denis, Joram, and Leonard (from Nigeria), and many others.
Discussions centered around, firstly, Uganda’s political history, something I landed into as soon as I arrived. This happened a little earlier before the camp fire. Only three friends were navigating these waters, and they really knew their things. I just listened and learnt.
At the camp fire, more highlights in relation to ground rules of the camp, details of our welfare provisions, and security were shared. When we were offered the opportunity to voluntarily go to bed or shower or whatever, I opened my laptop and finished up my article on #COP27Review. Some few friends kept on with more political stories and explorations. I and those few ‘political’ friends left the camp fire late at night, at about 1:30am and rested into our tents.
Personally, I enjoyed the ‘tent’ experience. But the night was cold, very cold! I hope to make it better today, day 2 of Africa Liberty Camp 2023. That is all that happened on first day of #ALC2023. Thank you.
Second Day of Africa Liberty Camp 2023: 28th April 2023 (Friday)
The second day opened up with a lot of expectations, excitement, and fun! By 6am, I was up! Worked out a few things in my tent, visited the shower rooms, and dressed up for the day!
The presentation room was cool; we re-arranged it here and there, made it perfect, enough, and accommodative for everyone! The second day was a day of presentations, some fun, eating, and, as you know youth, everything, both informal and formal activities.
Talking about fun activities, one of these was this: One of the Masters of the ceremony (two beautiful ladies), whispered a word to the person in front and asked him to whisper the same word to the one behind him, who also whispered it to the next until we were all done! Believe me, by the time we were all done, we had changed the message totally from what the MC had whispered into the first person’s ears. That showed how information is usually distorted from the original message by those involved in spreading it without doing further investigations.
Another fun activity involved introducing each other’s profile. Well, I wish you saw how ladies and gentlemen graciously introduced their fellows! Oh what beautiful words to use about a person!
We started off our presentations a little late, but, yeah, we still did it!
The first presenter: Odong Arthur
Arthur presented a topic on individualism and tolerance in an entrepreneurial free society. In brief, Arthur explained few of the Libertarian principles like individualism and free markets. According to Arthur, Individualism isn’t necessarily being alone or believing that you can do without others, but simply the idea that your working with others helps only if you have found yourself, your individual value! On free market, he argued that people should be allowed to trade in whatever value they have and markets should regulate themselves based on the balances of supply and demand, quality and other market-related virtues.
The second presenter: Mwesigwa Joram
Joram of ALED presented about limited government in a free society. According to Joram, politicians are basically ‘useless’, and there is no need to have many of them! I agree with him! He went on, ‘it will take you only 3 weeks or months (I don’t remember if he said weeks or months) to make a politician or an MP, but it will require us 16 years to actually make a primary school teacher’. This is true.
And yet, for some weird reasons, politicians earn a lot, and think they are relevant! Fools just! Joram went ahead and briefed us on the real uses of government, which include ensuring security, justice, and organizing the society. I agree with this position. I surely don’t see the necessity of the more than 550 MPs in Uganda’s parliament. This is ridiculous.
The third presenter: Leaonard Og (the Nigerian)
Leonard, the Nigerian guy, presented about property rights. According to Leonard, there is no point in Government stopping us from buying and owning what we want or can afford. He narrated how property rights enhance entrepreneurship and growth. Of course, personally, I have my reservations when it comes to property rights, but, yeah, there are good and bad sides to everything!
The fourth presenter: Kusiimwa Francis
Francis presented something amazing about lean methodology in business. He insisted that it isn’t just a methodology, but a life style of focusing on quality and value delivered to customers. In his amazing examples of Amazon, Apple, Safe Boda, and other amazing companies, Francis inspired us to take small steps to getting bigger while focusing on delivering quality in terms of everything.
The fifth presenter: Vicent Nemeyimana
I or Miklah life joined the stage a little late and when most audience were hungry and tired. Therefore, among all the goals I had, shortening the presentation was part of them. Well, I introduced the topic with my name and what I do, which is training and mentoring youth in innovations and entrepreneurship for sustainable development (people and the planet). The topic was ‘design thinking in sustainable entrepreneurship’ and I covered the 5 easy steps to innovate amazing solutions for world’s complex problems.
NB: Since it is my blog and my article and my everything, let me share a second photo of myself presenting
The steps are: 1. Empathize (possible through qualitative exploration of people’s pains); 2. Define (briefly and clearly state what the issue is); 3. Ideate (Using brain storming and other tools like SCAMPER, brainstorm all the possible ideas); 4. Prototype or make the basic version of your solution (also called, the MVP); 5. Test, get feedback, and redefine. Details, get the presentation below:
The Lunch Time
Yes, after the fifth presenter, it was a few craziness and fun here and there, and then lunch. Lunch was amazingly great. A lot of food, crazy, delicious, finger-licking food!
The Panel (Four on the stage and the moderator, Kenyehamba George)
I love George Kanyehamba (1st from right) of the Africa Media Justice, the moderator. This young man is just talented, and asks questions that are on point. He is a very good moderator.
Panelists were Gilbert (number 1 from left), Jemba (number 3 from left or right), Abia (number 2 from left), and Piloya Barbra (4th from left or 2nd from right). The question was, should the rich be taxed by the Government so as to make life easy for everyone, especially the poor? Well, the panel was well-balanced.
Some, for example, Gilbert, completely opposed the idea of Government and the ‘nonsense’ of taxes. Jemba also took this side though a little lightly. He argued that Government models of giving out money without value, for example, the parish development model, are useless!
On the other hand, Barbra directly agreed to the idea of taxation, and insisted that the true concern should be to simply question the use of taxes. Abia too took this direction but a little lightly. She bent towards the opposers and claimed that, over the years, we have taxed people but the poor haven’t been improved. In her view, taxes shouldn’t be seen as a major financier of Government programs.
The audience were allowed to come in. Well, I proposed that strong libertarians like Arthur should try to explore other knowledges and see how some strong beliefs in free market and economy, property rights, and individualism are challenged. Betty said that taxes are good. She, however, insisted that we need to ask how taxes are used. Other members questioned the opposing side a lot!
Odong and Joram insisted that, if everything was okay, they would set-up their own island where there is no such thing as Government. Can you imagine that? Lol. These guys strongly gave moral grounds upon which it is stupid to demand tax from someone who is working her own life mbu you wanna save the ‘people in Kalamoja who have no value they are producing’!
The discussion became stupid serious! And we suggested to expand it during our camp fire, the coming night!
And then we were given a break, just 10 minutes! Imagine that! Lol. The day was already over. It was about 5:30pm. In few seconds, someone brought up the game of ‘throw-up a water bottle to stand-still and eat’. I participated, and lost on all occasions! Lol.
And it’s when I escaped to Entebbe town! To do what? Well, first, to find money and buy a small mat so I don’t get too cold lying on the bare tent again! Lol!
The Windup: The Night Fire Camp
The evening was full of relaxing, with most of us relaxing on rooftops viewing the bare L. Victoria waters and the numerous planes flying over to land at the nearest Entebbe International Airport.
That lasted up to like 8PM, and then we had supper. As always, food was kawa, a lot, delicious, and, yeah, finger-licking. After our supper, it campfire time!
At the campfire, Kenneth took over the moderation of the evening and invited most of us to share experiences with various opportunities, and how, generally, we are running our lives! Well, people like Aisha Ganda, Leya, and Gideon shared various life stories that were inspirational.
Aisha works a lot through Rotaract, her community skilling initiatives, Snacks4U, and other means. Leya inspires change through cooking, and, Gideon shared how his efforts and interaction with Atlas Network had won him an opportunity to attend a fully-funded leadership training in Plague of Czech Republic.
I shared a little about what Miklah does through #SacredEntrepreneurship program, hinted to the recently released 10 funding opportunities for sustainable businesses this May 2023, and even called upon the audience to consider signing up for #Miklah updates regarding funding and developmental opportunities. Lastly, I shared how I was blessed with the opportunity to join Mandela Washington Fellowship 2023, and used the chance to inspire the audience to always look for such opportunities and endeavor to put in the required work.
Well, when all was said and done, it was time for everyone to decide to go to sleep or to keep up at the campfire. Well, I kept around the campfire for some time and completed this article. I later went to bed at about 1am and, yeah, called it a night!
THE END. Thank you.