Speakers
Mrs Graça Machel
Graça Machel is an African stateswoman whose decades long professional and public life is rooted in Mozambique’s struggle for self-rule and international advocacy for women and children’s rights. Machel lends her expertise to a number of organisations in a governance role. She serves as Board Chair of the Africa Child Policy Forum, Board Chair of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, Board Chair of United People Global as well as Executive Chair of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies. She is a Board Member of several other organisations.
Graça Machel has dedicated her life to improving the fate of women and children, inspiring hope, and building a more just and equitable world for us all.
Sheila Khama is an independent consultant and a minerals, oil and gas policy advisor with more than two decades’ work experience. Sheila is a former executive of Anglo American Corporation and De Beers Groups in Botswana. She has extensive knowledge of the mining industry, the Africa business environment and sustainability challenges in mineral, oil and gas industries. She worked for the World Bank and African Development Bank’s mineral, oil and gas policy advisory units leading teams of experts advising governments in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia.
Sheila is a non-executive director Tullow Oil, a FTSE 250 company. She serves on the Sustainability Panel of LafargeHolcim, the Advisory Boards of Columbia University Centre for Sustainable Investments, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Networks and the Audit Committee of the UN Office of Operations. She is a former of CEO of De Beers Botswana and served as a non-executive director of several companies including the world’s largest producer of gem diamonds by value, Debswana. She has served on the Sustainability Panel of AngloGold Ashanti, Technical Committee of Oxford University’s Natural Resources Charter among others. She has lived and worked in Botswana, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, the UK and USA.
(Professor of Textile)Textile and Fashion Design Section, Department of Industrial Design, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. Author of ‘Textile Ascendancies’, an empirically rich, beautifully illustrated collection of essays that explores the meanings, making andtrading of cloth in northern Nigeria over more than a century. Thecollection's contribution to the history of aesthetics, commoditymeanings and commercial transactions in Africa is profound.
Her areas of research interests include early childhood education, philosophy, African arts and humanities. She is currently teaching in the Institute of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. Author of: An Appraisal of the Aesthetic Dimension to the African Philosophy of Cloth of which explains how Cloth has metaphorical import which helps to define concepts of the people and their culture, social relationships, beliefs and their understanding of human existence. Also explains Cloths inherent aesthetics in its symbolic usage, motifs, colours, and even in the message cloth “speaks”.
Dr. Bridget O. J. Omatseye (Benin)
Chief Nike is a Nigerian batik and Adiretextile designer. Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye is one of the internationally known and renowned female designers and artists. She was brought up amidst the traditional weaving and dying practice in her native village of Ogidi in Western Nigeria. Her artistic skills were nurtured by her parents and great grandmother, who were musicians and craftspeople specialising in the area of cloth weaving, adire making, indigo dying and leather. She was appointed a member of the UNESCO Committee of the Nigerian Intangible Cultural Heritage Project. Was Invited by Harvard University, Cambridge to conduct workshops and lectures on batik and technique of adire textile processing and African dyeing techniques.
Priya is an artist and founder of Mia Kora. Priya is the creator of the Fabric Map of Africa which went viral last year, inspiring a wave of young Africans on the continent and diaspora to reclaim their heritage and stand proud of their African identity through textiles. Priya has a degree in Textiles and Design from the Winchester School of Art at University of Southampton in the UK.
Laduma is an award-winning designer, entrepreneur, and creative artist from South Africa. He founded and created MAXHOSA AFRICA, showcased on international platforms like the New York Fashion Week. MAXHOSA AFRICA designs showcase the beauty, culture, language, and aspiration of the Xhosa people. Evolved and amended in a modern way and a current design context, it translates into a form that resonates with multiple fashion markets globally.