Social entrepreneur Alfred Burgesson says the world has a responsibility to help build Africa.
Burgesson of Halifax is the founder and CEO of Tribe Network, an organization that supports Black, Indigenous and people of color who are pursuing entrepreneurship.
He was a panelist at the recent Tech Connect Africa Summit held in Ghana.
The summit addressed technology, innovation and community engagement from people living around the world with roots in Africa.
The event was something of a homecoming for Burgesson. He was born in Ghana before his family immigrated to Cape Breton.
He told CBC Radio Information Morning Halifax Host Portia Clark wanted to share the knowledge she learned in Atlantic Canada for the benefit of Africa. CBC spoke to him while she was in Africa.
This is a condensed version of their conversation that has been edited for clarity and length.
Information Tomorrow – NS7:15Halifax entrepreneur speaks at Tech Connect Africa conference in Ghana
Alfred Burgesson is in Ghana where he participated in a conference that brought together young leaders from the global African diaspora to discuss innovation and technology. We asked Burgesson, the founder and CEO of Tribe Network in Halifax, about that experience.
You are originally from Ghana although you have been here for a long time and you are a Canadian citizen. What has it been like to be back in Ghana?
It has been great. I was born in Ghana and then my family immigrated to Cape Breton when I was younger.
This is my third trip back home since we immigrated to Canada in 2004. It has been great reconnecting with my family here and being in a place where I know I am home.
Canada is also my home, but this is where my lineage and ancestry lives. So it feels really great to be back here enjoying great weather and great energy.
In many ways, you are a perfect candidate to build bridges between Ghana and Canada. How do you expect to do that?
I am a big advocate of entrepreneurship and innovation through the work we do at the Tribe Network in Atlantic Canada. Our mandate is to support entrepreneurs and we have the privilege of running a government-supported organization. [and] industry support in Canada.
I really wanted to share examples of how we are trying to build a thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada.
The infrastructure in Africa is still developing a lot and this is a great time for new ideas.
I think there is a great opportunity for Canada to engage with African countries in trade. When you think of areas like technology, clean energy, agriculture, now is the time when Africa is looking for investors.
I’m definitely making connections and seeing how what we’re doing in Atlantic Canada could potentially benefit Africa and vice versa.
That was the focus of a panel you were part of while at this conference. Tell us a little about the topic of that conversation.
It was honestly amazing to be in a space filled with leaders from all over the world.
We had the presence of Google, LinkedIn, Facebook/Meta and many African tech founders.
The panel I spoke on was titled Whose responsibility is it to build Africa? And my overall conclusion was that I believe the global world has a responsibility to help build Africa.
Africa is the second largest continent in the world and it has been affected by the slave trade and many different countries have benefited from that slave trade.
If we want this global world to be a place for everyone, a place where we can all thrive, Africa needs support.
So, I started with that answer. It’s going to make everyone really think about how to support this continent as a whole.
But at the end of the day, Africans on the continent are the ones who should drive it, because they are the ones who are feeling the daily effects of everything that has happened in recent years.
Does it coincide in any way with parallel conversations about developments here in Nova Scotia for the African communities in Nova Scotia that you’ve also been a part of?
Absolutely. Having that sense of identity, having that sense of ownership is really important to being in a place or calling a place home.
I know that Dalhousie University is an example. They have an amazing initiative that they are launching this year where African identity students from Nova Scotia will have the opportunity to travel to Ghana and explore educational opportunities in Africa.
So I think it’s incredibly important as we build a stronger Nova Scotia African community.
We are talking about a group of people who were brought over during the slave trade and have been contributing to North American communities. [since] before the Confederacy.
These are communities and people who, I would say, have been neglected and have trauma and I think having a stronger connection between the African community in Nova Scotia and the place of Africa can be critical and should be part of that healing process.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians, from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community, check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
