Most African geniuses die without being recognised both in the continent and abroad. We often wonder why this is the case or why only a few Africans are honoured with a Nobel Prize, or other prestigious international awards. In over 100 years, for instance, no African scientist has won a Nobel Prize.
When Dr Sifiso Falala realised that African excellence was rarely celebrated, he decided to do something about the
anomaly. In 2021, he founded the African Genius Awards (AGA), a platform that aims to celebrate excellence, advance development, and economic change in the African continent.
”I have been observing with great anguish and pain our subservient position in society as Africans, especially here in South Africa. Looking at the gap between the haves and the havenots, I wondered why we have these major differences. I have been disappointed by the inability of those who are leading us to close the gap,” says Dr. Falala.
He adds: “We always believe that the West is the best, that everything African is the worst and we are in a crusade to move away from anything that is African. Until we are told that morogo is a superfood, until we are told to exercise, and yet we used to exercise all the time. So the awards are about everything African and recognising African excellence.
“When our leaders took over, I was rubbing my hands in glee thinking this is good, but they kicked Africa like a soccer ball, and stole from it. As an African, I asked myself what is wrong with this continent that everyone wants to steal from it? That’s how I came up with the idea, I shared it with some academics. We thought we should recognise some pockets of excellence, the idea was the African Genius Awards,” he says.
Dr Falala adds that the awards will encourage Africans to believe in their innate abilities. He says they aim to create a situation where Africans are confident winners who can compete globally. According to Dr Falala, the awards will foster the values such as problem-solving skills, optimal utilisation of resources, a community culture and self-adulation and love.
What’s unique about the AGA is that the public can nominate anyone who deserves a pat on the back for being excellent. “We’ve got a website that is open to the public, so members of the public can nominate people they feel are exceptional and geniuses. The nice thing about it is anyone anywhere in the world can nominate an African genius,” explains Dr. Falala.
Dr Falala’s market research company Plus 94 Research is not only the headline sponsor of the event, but is also responsible for verifying and authenticating all the winners of the African Genius Awards.
Some of the notable 2021’s winners of the African Genius Awards include Chinua Achebe, struggle stalwart Steve Bantubonke Biko, and Nigerian billionaire business magnate Aliko Mohammed Dangote. There were 24 nominees in total who met the criteria for being described as “geniuses”.
The awards, which were launched last year, were hosted by the University of Pretoria on 25 May 2021, on Africa Day. The audience was treated to a spectacular display by the University of Pretoria cultural ensemble, Ovuwa and 702 presenter, Bongani Bingwa was the host of the event.
“ The future is to grow the awards and start preparing for 2022 to get champions nominated, and people that are willing to make a difference in society. Our values need to be resurrected, so part of the narrative needs to be that we have lost our identity as Africans. We need to make declarations: One, we are African, two. It is UnAfrican to be corrupt, it is unAfrican to be greedy, and it is unAfrican not to care about another person, because in Africa we have Ubuntu,” he says.
When the media praised South African cardiac surgeon, Christiaan Barnard, for performing the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital on 3 December 1967, little was said about Hamilton Naki, an unassuming lab assistant who was often at Barnard’s side. Naki is one of many unsung heroes that deserve an accolade like an
AGA. Dr. Falala agreed: “We need to have a chapter for unsung heroes, and recognise the people that have been denied their honour. Apart from people being geniuses we need to have notable mentions. I am happy to build around what we have to incorporate a resource that is intended to list all African achievers.”
The judging process was fair. Once nominations were shortlisted, the final adjudication was done annually to determine the winners. The adjudication committee met to decide on winners.
“We have judges who are luminaries in the academic world, such as Professor Tawana Kupe, Professor Friedman, Dr. Molokwane, Simon Gathua and Fulufhelo Ntsandeni,” says Dr Falala.
