Introducing TEDxEuston 2012 Speakers - Aminatta Forna

Very often we read the autobiographies of politicians or other public figures. Rarely, one stumbles on an autobiography of a person that could so easily fit the the experiences of many of us that attend TEDxEuston. Aminnata's book "The Devil that Danced on the Water" is one such books. Her passionate and vivid account of her childhood during the most turbulent days on the African continent is a book impossible to forget. The The Sunday Times described it as "Enormously compelling and painful reading" and the "Economist" as"Hers is an African Memoir unlike any before it"....we could not agree more . Aminatta has gone on to publish two novels: The Memory of Love (2010) and Ancestor Stones (2006).

Aminatta Forna was born in Glasgow, raised in Sierra Leone and Britain and also spent periods of her childhood in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. She is a serially award-winning author and her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages, including Mandarin. Aminatta has written essays and articles for Granta, The Times, The Observer and Vogue among others and has written for television and radio. In 2003 she established the Rogbonko Project to build a school in a village in Sierra Leone, where she now oversees a number of projects in the spheres of education, sanitation, maternal health and agriculture. Aminatta sits on the Board of the National Theatre of Great Britain, on the General Committee of the Royal Literary Fund and the Advisory Committee of the Caine Prize for African Writing. She has acted as judge for a number of literary awards and is currently a judge of the 2013 International Man Booker Prize. Most recently Sterling Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor at Williams College, Massachusetts, where she taught African literature.

You will not want to miss this fascinating African at TEDxEuston 2012. Tickets are flying off the shelf! Get yours today HERE

Father Matthew Kukah - the folly of ethnic compartmentalisation

Father Matthew Kukah is quite a man. Many that grew up in Nigeria got to know him from his articles in the Guardian. Very few contributors to debates on the Nigerian polity could articulate the complexity of the country as eloquently as Father Kukah. When we invited him to speak at TEDxEuston we expected a lot and wow, did he deliver! He produced a fascinating tour de force of his engagement with the country. Few people can address the complex issues of religion and ethnicity with integrity, authority and wit. Father Kukah left us laughing uncontrollably about the tears in our eyes, and the pain in our hearts. The gentleman below could not hold himself!

His talk beautifully encapsulated the unfulfilled potential of a country that awaits greatness and what Nigerians can do about it. Watch his talk here....



Matthew Kukah is a Catholic Reverend Father and former Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat in Nigeria. He served on Nigeria's Presidential Truth Commission into Past Human Rights Violations. Until recently a Senior Fellow at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, Dr Kukah is a rigorous scholar and respected commentator, Dr Kukah received his PhD from the University of London.

He is the author of the critically acclaimed work, Religion and Politics in Northern Nigeria since Independence (Spectrum, 1994), and most recently of Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria (Spectrum, 2002). Father Kukah is a regular commentator on complex social and political issues in Nigeria.
Professor Bart O. Nnaji is currently the Special Adviser to the President on Power and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power – an organ charged with the reform of the Nigerian Power Sector. He is the founder Geometric Power Limited - the first indigenously owned private sector power Company in Nigeria. Geometric is currently building a US$400 million Integrated Power Project (IPP) in Aba to generate more than 188 MW. He served as Federal Minister of Science and Technology of Nigeria in 1993.

Kemi Adegoke speaks at TEDxEuston

We are proud to present one of our fascinating speakers at TEDxEuston 2010; Kemi Adegoke. 

Kemi is one of the "famous five" people of Nigerian extraction that stood in the April 2010 parliamentary elections in the UK. 

Kemi Adegoke works as a systems analyst within the RBS Group. She studied Computer Systems Engineering (M.Eng) at Sussex University, graduating in 2003, and is also a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society. In June 2009, she completed an undergraduate. degree in Law at the University of London (Birkbeck). 

She is also on the board of Charlton Triangle Housing Association. She was born in London, although she lived in Nigeria until the age of 16, and now lives in Herne Hill, South London. Before her selection as a candidate for Parliament under the Conservative Party, she was the Deputy Chairman of the Dulwich and West Norwood Conservative Association, and worked as a project leader for the Conservative Party Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group in 2006 and 2007. She was selected as the Conservative Parliamentary candidate, running against Tessa Jowell in the Dulwich and West Norwood Constituency in the 2010 Parliamentary election.

Kemi was widely celebrated in the Nigerian press. 234Next led with a story rightly titled Kemi Adegoke blazes trail in UK politics called her the "feisty, outspoken Conservative candidate"....In the article she describes her challenges in winning the votes of Nigerians living in her constituency ....describing the response of one particular man during her campaign as "E ba ti lo si party to favour foreigner...” asking in a mixture of Yoruba and English, why she didn’t choose a party that was sympathetic to foreigners. On the other hand, in this article in the Mail online, she is described as one of David Cameron's "cuties". The paper goes on to suggest that Kemi, with the other "cuties" were chosen for the wrong reason: to carry David Cameron's message that the Tories have changed. Not changed their principles, but their appearance.

Photo credit Daily Mail 

But what does Kemi have to say herself about her experience in British politics? On the challenges and the joys?. On the campaign trail, walking the pavements and shopping centres speaking to people. What does she want to share with us on the joys and pains of seeking public office? What is her take on African politics, knowing that in most countries, the chances of a bright young lady like her standing for office would be almost unheard of ?

Kemi challenged conventional wisdom in many ways - smart, young, female, black and conservative. 

Don't miss her talk at TEDxEuston. To register, get in touch with us through our website at or by emailing team@tedxeuston.com.