Ethiopian Innovators Project Siree Stood 2nd Place on the World Summit Youth Award

By Prof. Mammo Muchie

Siree is a portable solar powered Wi-Fi enabled device loaded with over 7000 videos, 20,000 interactive exercises, offline educational materials like Encyclopedia and thousands of free eBooks to help schools and other institutions deliver up-to-date learning resources for disadvantaged students residing on areas with no internet access and no electric supply by bringing the power of online learning to the offline worldEthiopian Innovators stood 2nd place on the World Summit Youth Award, Education for All category with a project named Siree: which is a portable solar powered Wi-Fi enabled device to help schools and other institutions deliver up-to-date learning resources for disadvantaged students residing in areas with no internet access by bringing the power of online learning to the offline world.

WSYA has gathered over 451 unique digital projects worldwide in 2016 and an especially assembled multi-professional Jury has selected 16 WSYA winning applications from eight categories for 2016 with eight local impact to be presented to the world.

 II. On The Adwa Great African Victory 121

Thank you very much about  how we all are uniting to celebrate Adwa Victory as  the change  maker and game changer in making Africa a victor. The Great Adwa Africa victory continues.

In South Africa , because of the powerful Ethiopianism Movement, When the Italians invaded Ethiopia, there were South African Ethiopianists who agreed to join the battle. It was not easy for them to reach Ethiopia but they did travel outside South Africa. I discussed with a Pofessor Pitika Nutili who even told me the names of at least 4 of them who wanted to join the battle.

The Current Chancellor of UNISA Dr. Thabo Mbeki  has very rich knowledge about Ethiopianism and Adwa Victory and Ethiopia He did not learn from me. In fact it is the opposite, I learned from him. He is , I think, the first who gave a lecture in Addis Aba University when they made him honorary doctor on July 24, 2010..

I quote Thabo Mbeki’s  organic link of Ethiopia with Ethiopianism and the latter with Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance in our chapter  I co-edited for our African Unity for Rensissance series of conference annual output that initiated  in 2010.

 The Chapter has the title: on Re-discovering and Re-Vitalising the Neglected Roots of Pan-Africanism…

Here is what Thabo Mbeki said:

” For Thabo Mbeki, the link between Ethiopia and Ethiopianism is organic. He unifies the two ideas whilst referring to Ethiopia as providing the “central organising idea for all Africans.” By Evoking the battle of Adwa, the extraordinary leadership of Emperor Menelik and his team, and the geo-political role of Ethiopia and linking this with Pixley Seme’s famous Columbia speech and the activities of Ethiopianists (Like the first president of the ANC, John Langabilele Dube, who was identified by the white authorities as a “pronounced Ethiopian who ought to be watched”. Mbeki established that one cannot draw a line between Ethiopia as the East African nation and the Ethiopia of Ethiopianism”(p.33)