ROME – There is a plan for Africa that is worth it. It passes through its youth, is not imposed from above and is the result of listening. Proposing it today are students and professors from various countries on the continent in dialogue with Luiss University faculty and representatives of civil society, guests of the Diaspora Program.
The occasion is the second webinar in the University’s series, which kicked off at the end of January. It begins with a minute’s silence in memory of Ambassador Luca Attanasio, policeman Vittorio Iacovacci and driver Mustapha Milambo, who were killed yesterday in an ambush in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Raffaele Marchetti, Deputy Rector for Internationalization Luiss University, spoke of “a difficult meeting” due to those “tragic events”, inviting people to “hold it with passion”, as a tribute to those who have dedicated their lives to Africa. “Luca Attanasio would be happy to know about this webinar of ours,” reiterates Giuseppe Mistretta, former ambassador from Angola to Ethiopia, now Foreign Affairs Ministry central director for Sub-Saharan Africa. His remembrance of his colleague sets the scene for the choice by Luiss and the Le Reseau association partners to listen to the voices of the continent right away.
Here, then, in video links from Senegal and Kenya, Morocco and Cameroon, are wide ranging reflections on the university as a decisive hub in terms of knowledge sharing and, therefore, cooperation and development. Listening to Jean Thierry Somda, professor at the Institut Africain de Management (IAM) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: “It is necessary to create partnerships for training, with a focus on applied techniques and practical skills, getting rid of stereotypes that penalize relationships between different countries and contexts.” And again: “In Burkina Faso Italy is seen as a caricature, limited to spaghetti and football teams, while the rest is unknown; it’s a pity because your country is a leader, for example, in the agri-food sector and has much to offer in terms of innovation,