 Welcome to today's New Year's conversation with Assistant Secretary Naj. My name is Elizabeth Liu and I'm the Special Coordinator for the Young African Leaders Initiative here in Washington, D.C. Assistant Secretary Naj is a retired Foreign Service Officer who spent 32 years in government service, including over 20 years in assignments across Africa. He has served as U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia and Guinea, as well as Deputy Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Togo. One interesting fact about Assistant Secretary Naj is that he was not born in the United States. He actually arrived in the United States in 1957 as a political refugee from Hungary. I look forward to today's conversation and as you're listening, I wanted to let you know that you can submit your questions for Assistant Secretary Naj in the comments section on Facebook. And also, a recording of the program will be viewable on Yali's Facebook pages a few minutes after the program is complete. With that, I want to turn the floor over to Ambassador Naj. Thank you. Thanks so, so much, Liz, for the introduction. And good afternoon to all of you distinguished young people across Africa. I'm delighted to be able to speak with you and we're having a conversation and a conversation means that I would like for most of this hour to be a back and forth with you, not with me speaking at you. So I'm not going to be making any speeches. I'll make some introductory remarks. And as I was telling Liz earlier, welcome any and all questions. Nothing is off the table, so feel free to be as frank and honest as possible. I came to this job after what Liz said, I had a 32-year career with the government and I was in academia, but I came back to this job because of you, because of the young people, because of the youth, because of a group of young people I met when I was back in Nigeria in 2016. And it really, really was for me a earth-shaking experience. I had never in my life met a sharper group of young people before anywhere in the world and combining Africa's youth energy with the knowledge that Africa's population would double between now and 2050 really shook me to the core because I knew that Africa was facing two possible futures, very, very different from each other. One would be quite optimistic with economic opportunities, with Africa developing very quickly. The other one would be very, very negative with increase in extremism, increase in instability, and millions and millions of very angry young people. So that made the whole theme of our Africa Bureau when I came back to say that we wanted to look at Africa through the windshield or windscreen and not through Europe because we felt that the most critical importance between scenario positive and scenario negative came down to jobs, jobs, and jobs because if Africa's young people could have jobs, then I think we could be assured of that very optimistic future. If not, then the world is going to have big troubles with Africa in the 21st century. And a part of that also was women's empowerment. From my long experience in Africa, I saw firsthand what a critical, critical role women played in the economies of all of the countries where I served. And yet at the same time, women had very few rights. Women were really subjugated, whether it was by law, whether it was by culture, but both. And yet I felt very strongly that by empowering women, Africa's economy could increase its gross domestic product by huge numbers. Another thing that I have learned during this time as Assistant Secretary is that in Africa, we really, really need to change the old for the new. I look around and I see presidents who've been in office for 30, 40 years. And if you look at just the president, the definition of a young person, I think would be somebody who's less than 80 years old. Whereas the populations in their countries are mostly under 30. And the other fundamental kind of big theme that I have learned in this job is that the most important thing anywhere is for the leaders to accept that they serve the people, not the other way around. As long as you have leaders who believe that it's the people who serve them, then we can spend money on elections. We can spend money on election observers. But at the end of the day, we know how those elections are going to turn out. We can have programs on anti-corruption efforts, but they're not going to make much of a difference. We can spend money on democracy programs. But again, will they actually achieve anything? No, besides ending up with a form of government that I call a Potemkin democracy, where you have the structure of a democracy in the picture. But if you look behind it, there's not anything there. What we have tried to do with U.S. policy towards Africa during my time here has been to use job creation through trade and investment as a way to get fundamental reforms. I'm an American Assistant Secretary of State. So my number one priority, of course, is to promote U.S. business-trading investment. Not just because they're American companies, but I think that American companies do a much better job of creating jobs than anybody else in the world. Because we do. We hire locally. We give equal rights to all ethnic groups, to all sexes. We transfer technology. We take care of the environment. We don't smuggle rhino horn and elephant horn out of the country to bring back to the United States. And I think that American companies are really good for Africa. And one of the sad things that I have seen, but we could turn it to our advantage, is that in many other countries I visited, the leadership, even if they were dictators, even if they had their countries under the control of their security forces, they really weren't afraid of the U.S. Because they are afraid of unemployed young people with no opportunities, becoming so angry that they will turn them out of not just office, but do genuine damage. So even those leaders, I found very welcoming to the idea of bringing in increased trade and investment. As a matter of fact, every president I met with, the first thing out of their mouth during our meeting used to be, we want more American investment. We want American companies to bring jobs. So those two forces feed on each other. Because if we can use investment as a way of genuinely reforming the political environment, the business environment, the justice environment, then we can make major successes. And I want to talk a little bit about what I do see during our time as some major successes. And I'll start with the part I was talking about, which is the economic trade front. During our time, during the administration, we have created a new organization called Prosper Africa. Very, very important. And it will be very important for you moving forward. Because never before has the United States had a one-stop shop in the U.S. for American companies that wanted to do business in Africa. Now, I've said before that the huge companies have no problems doing business, but the companies that really bring jobs are what we call the medium and small-size enterprises. And with Prosper Africa, these companies will be given help in investing in Africa. And on the African side, our embassies will be working with each of the governments to show them what they really need to do to put in place the type of environment where American companies will want to come and invest. Now, of course, companies that want to come and invest, they're always looking at risk. And we had another major success with what we call the Development Finance Corporation, which has a funding of $60 billion to help promote U.S. investments in mostly underdeveloped countries. And unfortunately, in Africa is where we have most of our underdeveloped countries. So we now have a way to point U.S. businesses towards investing in Africa. We have mechanisms for providing funding. And kind of the last part of that was at the level of the U.S. embassy in the countries where you live. And we established what we call deal teams at these U.S. embassies who are there to help local businesses bring business to the U.S., but also help American businesses bring business to those countries and to work, as I said, with the host governments to put in place the type of environment that helps U.S. businesses. Now, other successes around the continent during the last several years, and I'll just mention a few, which for me are real highlights. One is Angola and President Lorenzo's ongoing anti-corruption campaigns, which have made a huge difference in the reputation of Angola. Another one is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which for the first time in its history, under President Chisikati, may actually become Democratic and a Republic. First, the peaceful transfer of power to President Chisikati, and he has put in place a huge, huge list of reforms to take Congo in a totally different direction. Then I'll add to that list Ethiopia, Prime Minister Abin. I know, yes, there have been serious problems in Ethiopia recently with Tigray, with negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, more recently border tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan. Overall, the reforms of Prime Minister Abin have been just absolutely remarkable, and we're talking about a country with a 2,000-year history of 2,000 years of dictatorships, whether through royalty or communist dictators or others, but now it looks like that is going in a positive direction, and we very much hope that those reforms will continue, and Ethiopia will have successful elections next June. Then I have to add to that Sudan. Of course, the changes in Sudan have been absolutely remarkable. To go from a long 38-year dictatorship to a nascent democracy, which is well on its way to transition, and Sudan coming off the list of the state sponsors of terrorism, and just incredible, incredible changes for the better. Again, none of these, there's not 100% guaranteed success, but in each of these countries there are phenomenally good people trying to do the right thing. I would add to the list, and I never thought I would mention this country on the optimistic list, but I have to say that's South Sudan. When I came on board, it was deplorable, deplorable conditions, and for me to even have some optimism about South Sudan is such a turning point. Then I would add Mauritania. President Guazzani is undertaking again reforms and a new way of state governance that has never been done in Mauritania before, so we are very optimistic about Mauritania, and I will end with Malawi. Malawi, not many people in America are familiar with Malawi, but the Economist magazine very rightly made Malawi their country of the year, so we were delighted to see that. I will mention some failures. Unfortunately, extremism is still increasing and really growing in places where it did not a couple of years ago, including Northern Mozambique. Other policy failures I will be honest about is my heart breaks for the situation in Zimbabwe and the situation in Cameroon, and then of course there is Somalia, which unfortunately was in a very negative state when I came on board, and as I'm leaving huge question marks remain. The impact of COVID, in many cases, COVID has not hit Africa as disastrously as many people thought, but unfortunately some governments have taken advantage of COVID to increase their dictatorial tendencies. A few words about the next administration. Here's the good news. Africa is one of those policy issues in the United States which tends to be nonpartisan. Republicans, Democrats all basically want the same things for Africa, so we envision here a very smooth transition to the next administration. The person who was in my chair before I took over, Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield, is now the nominee to become the United States Ambassador of the United Nations. So if confirmed, I have to say, we will have a United Nations Ambassador with incredible experience in Africa and just huge respect for the continent. I don't know who will be replacing me, but I can be sure that whoever comes in will be very, very well experienced. I look for the administration to really expand programs about youth, about youth, because I know the next administration values the incredible importance that youth represent for Africa. One of those specific programs that I have done my best to convince them to really expand is what we call the University Partnership Initiative, because we believe with all our hearts that U.S. universities and African universities make natural partners and can benefit both sides tremendously, because we want African universities to be instruments of national development. And for a very selfish reason, I would like the best and the brightest students in Africa to get a U.S. type of education, which is practical, which leads to jobs, and which really are student-centered institutions. So we will continue working about that. But as I said, I'm leaving here just as I came in thinking all about the youth. You're the reason that I came in. And if I have another opportunity to work in Africa, I look forward to coming back again with a priority on youth programs. Your leadership is going to be essential. Now, I know Yali is a very large network with 650,000 of you in the network. I think we have 24,000 Yali alumni through programs like Mandela Washington Fellows and the fellowship centers. But we want many, many, many more youth. And remember, Yali did not make you into leaders. You were already distinguished leaders when you came into Yali. Yali just will develop that leadership in it, you know, and tell you to form those networks, which are so critically important. But remember, the United States wants to be your partner. And I will end with what I love, our African province. Remember, if you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And the United States is always ready to go with you and to go very far. And with that, I will stop and turn it over to you all to talk about what you want to talk about. Thank you, Assistant Secretary. You made so many great points. I don't even know where to start. But I will 100 or actually 1000% agree with you that our Yali alumni and network members absolutely are leaders. And that's why they're a part of it. I'm inspired every day by them. So with that, I think I'll start with a question on leadership. And you made a very good point in the beginning about how it's important that the leaders of Africa are really serving their people and honoring the tenants of servant leadership that the Mandela Washington Fellowship in Yali all about. So the question is, what advice do you have for leaders who are working amid the COVID-19 pandemic? How can you be an effective leader in times of uncertainty? Yeah, that's a great question. Of course, the COVID introduces incredible problems. And I feel very sorry, especially for those countries that depend so much on tourism, because tourism has been absolutely devastated. But here's the good news, I think. With the vaccination, this will be kind of a half-half year. Because I really think that when we get to June, July, the safety concerns will have been addressed. And most people will have been able to receive their vaccination. So I look for a very quick and rapid economic turnaround in the second half of the year, because there's going to be such a huge kind of demand. And part of that will be for tourism, which is one another that we know are the commodities that Africa is so rich in commodities. So the world hunger for African commodities is going to go up very quickly. Of course, at the bottom of all of that comes what you mentioned is governance. And that's where the leaders have to be held accountable to live and serve in accordance with the rules of law, and to not take advantage of the pandemic to increase their own powers, to bring in more dictatorial powers. And frankly, that's where the populations and the people have to keep them honest. And as we see these elections, for example, what's going on in Uganda today, we will just have to watch carefully to see how the leadership reacts, because the economic forces in the world will be very favorable to very rapid economic growth. But there will have to be that leadership to really embrace that growth and direct it in a way that it will benefit the entire populations. And that's where exactly young people in the Yali network through their entrepreneurship, through their leadership, through their networking can help influence to make sure that that goes in the positive direction. Thank you. Another topic you brought up that's of great importance is economic development and prosper Africa. We got one question asking, what are the key priority areas that young Africans should tap into for them to have viable business partnerships with American investors? Yeah, yeah, here's the thing. I mean, when we're talking about Africa, of course, we can't talk about a unitary Africa because in many respects, each country is so different from the other. A couple of common characteristics. I have never ever, I think in my whole life, met an African who did not have a DNA for entrepreneurship. You know, that's that's one quality, I think of Africa in general. Another one is a huge hunger and thirst for education. You know, from a peasant who cannot read and write to the most elite elites, everybody wants their kids to do much better in education than they did. So they are a natural forces, I think for economic growth. So everybody has to look at their own circumstances in their own countries differently as to where are those opportunities. When I first went into Africa, the dream of every African young person was to have a government job, be able to put a suit and tie on, sit in an office and deal with paperwork. I don't think that is the dream of young Africans anymore. Thank God for that. You know, so I think the opportunities are definitely there. Look at local circumstances, work with your your network. And you know, some of the Yali success stories are just incredible in this regard of people who start with basically nothing. Some from very, very, you know, areas where there is no access to schooling, especially for girls. And yet they surmount those and end up running large companies with with so many employees or becoming leaders. It's just phenomenal stories. So you know, the opportunities are there. You have the skills. Apply them and network and talk to your colleagues and then use the resources that are available. You know, I'm not I'm not going to say anything against China in my remarks, because Africans have many, many choices today about, you know, who to partner with, who to do business with. And that's good for Africa. I want them to partner with Americans. But at the end of the day, it's the choice of Africans as to where they see those opportunities. So for goodness sakes, use them, advance your countries and hold your leaders accountable. Thank you, sir. And I think over 50% of Yali alumni actually identifies entrepreneurs, which is astounding considering we have three tracks, but no matter what they're doing, they're still, you know, have that entrepreneurial spirit that you mentioned. You also mentioned opportunities for girls. And we had a great question that raises the point that, of course, when we talk about women's empowerment, it's not just an issue for women, it's an issue for everyone. And the question is, how can we train men to be more compassionate? Yeah, you know, this, oh man, gosh, that is a, that is a $50 million question. And if I could answer that in five minutes, you know, I should get some kind of an award. But, but I, but I have studied that issue very, very carefully. And I go back to when I was ambassador in Guinea, and my wife was very good friends with the minister of women's affairs. And the two of them had a bet because my wife Jane and I traveled all over Guinea, visited, you know, every corner of the country. And the two of them had a bet that after our trip, when we came back, my wife was supposed to report to her to say that when we visited a certain place and she looked around, could she ever find men doing something productive? And it was, it was embarrassing to me because we would, you know, come someplace and, and the women would be carrying water, tending the field, running the, doing buy and sell them, running the restaurants. And the men would be doing important things like discussing politics or playing foosball. So, you know, it was a constant, you know, a litany of my being embarrassed. But that's, yeah, that's, that's overstating the fact. But the fact is that women contribute incredibly to, to the economies of these countries. And by holding women back every year, countries are deducting for huge percentages from their gross domestic product. And educated leaders get this, they understand it. Even somebody with whom I have real arguments about both authoritarian tendencies, like President Museveni, when he first came into power, he consciously, consciously brought women into the ministries. And, and I heard him speak on this in his, his ever folksy manner. And he said, I wanted the men working in the ministries to get used to taking orders from women. It's, you know, it's a matter of law is one thing. But without the culture accepting the law, it's going to fail. So it has to be a, what we call them basketball, a full court press. It has to be a matter of law. It has to be a matter of education. And it has to be a matter of cultural change. Of course, when you talk about culture, it's a very, very sensitive issue. Because nobody wants outsiders coming in and telling them what they should or should not do about their culture. So all of this has to come from within. And that's, that's another reason I have such faith in young people. Because young people in Africa, just as in the United States, come with so, so many different ways of seeing the world. I mean, even in the United States, if you can remember the idea of gay marriage, even say 10 years ago, there was a very significant majority of the population that was against it. As young people entered the world and became more mature and, you know, entered universities in the workplace, that switched completely to where now significant majority of Americans support gay marriage. And cultural changes like that, I know are going to happen in Africa. As young people get into power, into positions of power, whether in the business community, in entrepreneurship, civil organizations and in the government. So I think even in my lifetime, I will see dramatic change. Thank you. Yeah, I agree. We've seen that cultural shift here and we're seeing it in Africa as well. We have a question from Lula in Ethiopia. She asks, what do you think needs to be done to ensure peace and stability in Ethiopia and the horn of Africa as a whole? Which, as you know, is a crucial region for global commerce and stability. Yeah, that's another one of those 20 million dollar questions. You know, again, here's the thing, Ethiopians are ready for change. What is happening in Ethiopia? There are problems at four or five different levels. And each of those are quite significant and it will take tremendous capabilities on the part of the government and the people and the civic organizations and the political parties to be able to overcome those. It is in the world, not just America's interest, it is in the world's interest for Ethiopia to continue to move towards assuming its role in the Horn of Africa of being one of the most stabilizing points for exporting stability, being a positive influence in South Sudan and Sudan, Somalia, you know, full stop. But at the same time, Ethiopia is having to deal with a long history of ethnic tensions being put under the lid of dictatorships. Unfortunately, past governments have really promoted ethnic differences. And when you do that, you automatically have problems. I mean, when I teach on Africa, I point to one country in the world where you have three ethnic groups that really historically have disliked each other, but the country has a huge, huge, huge success. And I ask my students, what country is that? And they may they never guess the right country. And I would bet you that out there in the audience, no one is guessing the country I'm thinking about. And that country is Switzerland. And people go Switzerland. Yes, you have Italians, you have Germans, and you have French, but they get along beautifully because they share riches. And unfortunately in Africa, where you have multi ethnic problems, usually ethnicities are having to share poverty and fight over what little resources there are. When a country starts doing well economically, then I maintain the ethnic differences will just, you know, be pushed aside. So Ethiopia is trying to evolve from ethnic federalism to a much more unitary United States. And that those ethnic problems are going to simmer for a while longer. But overall, the Tigray problem is another huge problem. You know, where you had an active secession conflict, but it wasn't Tigray and authorities, the TPL leadership was not wanting to succeed from Ethiopia, because there is a provision in the Ethiopian Constitution for a state to leave Ethiopia. The Tigray and leadership wanted to enforce themselves back into the positions of power that they had before Prime Minister Abe started his reforms. They did not want to move away from their privileged position and their vision of state control of the economy. So, you know, you have that problem going on at the same time, and then you're still going to have boundary problems like what's going on with Sudan right now. But the good uses everyone wants to overcome those problems. And Ethiopia has a 2000 year history as a state, you know, which is incredible. It's one of the longest in the world. So I am a total Ethiopian optimist. I think Ethiopia will succeed magnificently, and it will become a model not just for the rest of Africa, but truly for the rest of the world of a multi-ethnic state overcoming its problems and moving forward. Thank you, sir. Moving over to the DRC, we have a question from Eric. He asked, the DRC has now rejoined Ogoa, and we are very excited. What's the next step to strengthen this and to make it a reality? What support can we expect from the U.S. government to make this happen? Yeah, yeah, here's the thing about Ogoa. You know, Ogoa has been around a long time. It will be around for a few more years, and it will be up to the next administration to decide what the successor to Ogoa will be. A very significant event happened in Africa this year with the implementation of the Africa-wide free trade agreement. Now, admittedly, right now it's just that basically a piece of paper. But it's going to be, but remember the European Union was just a piece of paper. When it started and looked at the European Union now, how wealthy it is, you know, what a unifying force it is. And I know the same thing will happen to the Africa free trade agreement. So, you know, Ogoa plus the Africa-wide free trade agreement, President Chisikati I know is very interested in taking full advantage of Ogoa. DRC has tremendous trade opportunities for the U.S. I mean, you know, without a doubt the DRC is one of the richest countries on earth with all of its wealth. The only problem there is, of course, that the people were not the ones who've ever had the wealth so far. And the goal is to share the wealth with the people, not just the elites. So, you know, President Chisikati, again, has a very, very tough job ahead of him. Obviously, not everything's going to happen during this time, but hopefully he has started a trend which will continue and say within 20 years there will be no longer any abject poverty in DRC. Thank you, sir. You have another question from a fellow on disability rights. How can young people with disabilities in Africa influence policies that will help drive growth and prosperity? Yeah, you know, the whole issue of disability rights is a relatively new one in Africa, even though the problems of disability, as we all know, have been age-old. I remember in the old days when I first started going to the continent, you know, you saw disabled folks everywhere, but I mean, they were ignored, forgotten, and abject suffering. So that is an issue of political sensitization. It's much like men have to be allied with women to assure full empowerment of women. Here again, the disabled have to have a helping hand literally from the non-disabled community to make sure that the issue is brought up to, you know, the top subjects that the leadership has to deal with because you have to provide resources to that issue. I remember in the United States it was several decades ago that, for example, in the cities when they built sidewalks, they started putting ramps into all of the corners to enable people who were in wheelchairs to simply cross the street. And my brother from Hungary, even all of my family is still in Hungary, came to visit and he thought it was kind of a, you know, a novel idea. And then I've been back and now Hungary has the same things. I hope that sooner or later, you know, Africa will also start focusing their infrastructure to make sure that there's accommodations for the disabled, there are rights for the disabled, and most important of all, employment opportunities for the disabled. Because the disabled folks have exactly the same heartfelt goals, desires, you know, that every single person has. Those are uniform to human nature. You know, even especially young people, they want to have access and opportunity to their job fairly. They want to be able to have a way to achieve their goals and ambitions and an outlook for their dreams. And just because somebody is in a wheelchair or somebody is visually impaired, is no excuse for the rest of humanity to not allow folks like that to have the same chances. So I hope very much that this will be an emerging issue. And again, I feel that the incoming administration, this will be one of their focus issues because it certainly has become so in the United States. Thank you, sir. I'm going to ask you about another topic that might be something our next administration will focus on. Alfred Sigo from Kenya would like to know what can we do to reduce climate change? Yeah, I suspect that for the next administration, that will be a huge issue. You know, I have spent a lot of years in Africa. And even during my short time, because in the scheme of things, even in the 30, 40 years on the continent, it's not that long of a time, but I have seen just incredible changes. I remember my first tour in 1978 when I was in Zambia, you could almost set your calendar by when the first rains will come to Lusaka. In late October, the big thunderstorms would start. Same in Ethiopia, when I was in Ethiopia back in the early 80s, the first time. And then the climate began to shift and strange things started to happen. There was no rain where there was supposed to be rain and rain where there was not supposed to be rain. So obviously, the incoming administration has said that climate change is going to be a huge priority. And you can pretty well accept the fact that they will put significant resources into that. And U.S. programs in Africa will have a focus on that. Because I know some of, and I'm Prime Minister, this is one of the other causes that he's championing, because the statistics are showing that Africa will be one of the world regions that will be most impacted. With some estimates, you know, very, very dramatic estimates that some parts of the Sahel might become so hot that it could become, you know, inhospitable to human beings. How it could get any hotter than what I have felt when I have been in places like northern Chad, I don't know, but I cannot even imagine. Thank you, sir. We have a couple of questions from alumni and network members in Cameroon, Moncache and Boyer. I'm sorry if I mispronounced those names. But they want to know about doing business during conflict. What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs in conflict stricken areas whose business is a threat? Yeah, you know, that is an extremely difficult question. Because when I have done so much recruiting of U.S. businesses to go invest in Africa. And that's why I use the slogan Africa through the windshield and not the rear view near, because with some people still, when I say the word Africa, the image that comes into their minds is the foreworsement of the apocalypse, you know, war, famine, pestilence, and hunger, you know, kind of thing. And to attract investment, you really need to have some form of stability. So it's very difficult to bring outside investment into a conflict zone, aside from the big global corporation. Like I said, you know, the huge energy companies are used to investing in places where there are conflicts, because they take care of their own security, they're used to it, they have a long history. So they can do that. But the usual investor is not going to be able to manage the conflict. So again, as an entrepreneur, the only thing I can advise is to adopt your strategy and your business plan to your circumstances, and also work your tails off to try to bring those conflicts to a close. I mean, you know, you mentioned Cameroon, and that's why I said that Cameroon breaks my heart, because the conflict in the Northwest and the Southwest, it is needless. It never has happened. And it has become a cycle of violence, which is getting worse and worse and worse. And with the right, you know, outside involvement with the right steps on the part of the government and acceptance on the part of the hardcore secessionists, that conflict should be resolved more fairly quickly, because no one wants to get killed, you know, to that poor, you know, school master who gets shot or gets his arms chopped off. It doesn't really matter if it's the security forces or the secessionists who chop his arms off or kill him. I mean, at the end of the day, he's dead. He's unable to take care of his family and to teach children. You know, what a travesty. You know, so I would work as much as I could to try to bring an end to the conflict and then use the economic opportunities that are available. But the truth is, you're not going to get most international investors into a conflict zone unless they are gangsters, unless they are abusing, you know, the investments, i.e., you know, mining for gold, not paying taxes, contributing to the instability like is happening in parts in Central African Republic. So, it's a tragedy. It is a very, very challenging situation. Excuse me, I have a question from Mozambique asking, what role can the Yali community play to secure trade between the U.S. and African countries that really targets the needs of youth in an inclusive manner? Yeah, well, you know, you have to look at what are the needs of youth. What kind of business or entrepreneurship and enterprise can you do that will both meet the goals of the young people in a profitable way for you? You know, I'm sorry, I'm a filthy capitalist. I see nothing wrong with profit as long as you do it in a responsible way. And, you know, it's a win-win for the customer as well as for yourself. So, you know, look, you know, tremendous amount of young people. Young people are the ones who are buying everything. I mean, when you get to be as old as I am, you have just about everything you need. So you're not going to be buying lots of stuff. Young people, oh yeah, you know, they're going to be standing in line for the newest newest iPhone or, you know, technology and you're going to want your houses. You know, you're going to be paying for marriages, all those types of things. So, yes, meet the needs of the young people, do it in a responsible way. And since young people do care about things like the environment, young people care more about the, you know, equality between the sexes and ethnic groups and things like that. Do it in a green, responsible way. And then, hopefully, you'll make a fortune. And you will remember to help people when you're filthy rich. Great advice, sir. We have a question from Nigeria from Adebayo. This alumna asked, what would you recommend Yali alumni do differently in order to discontinue the alarming trend of dictatorship style of leadership seen across the continent? Well, I would say that the big thing is to network, to work together, work locally. You know, you say, take an election. And I'm not going to say just an African. I'll take an election. Depending on local circumstances, the incumbent has tremendous advantages. But even the, even the most genius dictator can only steal so much of the vote. So if people come out massively and they vote for change, then that dictator will go away. And to me, the prime example is the BRC. When the election came about, it wasn't that 80% of the people voted for President Chisikati. It's 80% of the people voted because they wanted President Gabila gone. They voted against his handpicked successor. So they wanted, they wanted the regime to change in a positive way. And that's what happened. So, you know, organize, network, and sometimes you may have to be courageous. You know, you look at some of the elections around Africa happening right now. And lo and behold, opposition candidates have had a rough time. You know, they get beaten up. Unfortunately, there have been, there's the loss of life, arrested, newspapers closed down, Facebook closed down, things like that. So, unfortunately, or fortunately, there's always a place for personal courage. And everyone has to make that decision for themselves. Throughout history, positive changes come about when women and men have been willing to, out of courage, step forth boldly. And that's when change happens. Thank you, sir. Since you brought up ethnic conflict and elections, I'm going to go ahead and ask about the elephant in the room, which is, I know folks are thinking about race relations in the United States now and current events here in Washington. Could you comment on the state of American democracy and how we can continue, how can we justify continuing to promote democracy abroad? Yeah, I will. Obviously, we still have huge race problems. The murder of George Boyd showed that. The encouraging thing there is it's not going away now. In the past, when things like that have happened, you had kind of a blip of a lot of attention and public commentary, and then it kind of faded away. This time, I get a sense. I've been alive a long time. I'm now 71 years old. So I have seen a lot of these things. But in my experience, this time it's going to be different. And the forces for change are going to carry forward into the next administration. You know, change has to come about two different ways. It has to come about in the law, but it has to come about also within each human being. And in the past, we've had changes in the law. We have not had nearly as many changes in human beings. Just like with the issue of gay rights in the United States, I think, again, I'm encouraged that young people have a totally different point of view. I mean, the concept that when I first came to the United States in 1957, through the 60s, even into the 70s, the concept of interracial marriage, a white person marrying a person of color, you know, was almost taboo. In large parts of the United States, it never would have happened. And even in parts of the United States where it happened, I felt sorry because people got a lot of looks and stares and a lot worse. That was especially the younger generation. That's gone. It's no longer an issue. I mean, in the past, there never would have been advertising on television showing ads for something with a mixed-grace couple because the product would have been put out of business. Now it actually increases their business to show ads like that. So, you know, again, the laws change, but the change is starting to really take place inside the heart and soul where it has to happen. Now the recent events with our political system. Initially, I started out being very pessimistic. I said, how could this happen here? But then the more I thought about it, it took on a totally different point of view because I said to myself, you know, it is a blessing that in the United States, we have a system that is based on institutions and not people. Of course, it's people who make an institution, but the real strength and bedrock of American institutions are the people at the middle and lower levels who come to work every day and do their jobs. And they take their oath, those who swear an oath to the Constitution seriously because the top people can come and go and they can try anything they want to, but at the end of the day, that institution is going to prevail. The rioters took over the Capitol for a short period of time because law enforcement was unprepared. You don't expect that in the United States. But when they were ejected from the Capitol, the U.S. Congress got right back to business that night and officially certified the election for the person who got the most votes. And that's how it should be. Now, the other thought I had was, you know, we've had these institutions in place for a long time. And is it really a bad thing for institutions to be tested? Because unless an institution is tested, you don't know how well it's going to hold up the stress. That's why every now and then, you know, they give banks what's called a stress test to make sure that a bank can survive when some kind of an economic trouble comes along. And in some respects, maybe it's a positive thing historically to give our institutions of democracy and government a good stress test and see that they not only survive, but they will come out thriving. You know, I had another thought shortly after that happened. Most of you know that Facebook and Twitter and other social media formats have suspended the account of the president. Now, you compare that to some places where presidents suspend Facebook and Twitter and social media accounts because they have the right to do that. You know, and I said to myself, I would much rather live in a country where social media can suspend the most powerful person in the country, i.e. the president, than in a country where the president has the right to suspend and stop social media and turn off the internet. So at the end of the day, I have to say, I left a communist dictatorship as a little boy to come to America. And I thank God that I am in America and that it is a system that can withstand the stresses and where even private sector institutions don't discriminate between the most powerful person in the country and the least powerful. Thank you, sir. I never thought of it that way about the social media platforms. That's a great point, as with all the other points. I'm going to ask you a question about the other big event of our times. I guess you could say COVID. How do you think COVID-19 has impacted diplomacy and what role does global health play in traditional diplomatic relations? Yeah, it has impacted it very severely. You know, for most of this year, I mean, when I came to this job, I wanted to visit every single African country in the years that I had, and I was well on the way. And I am ashamed to say I've not taken a trip to Africa now since last February. It is horrible for me because in diplomacy, everything is person to person. You can do so much, you know, by Zoom, you can do so much email and telephone. But at the end of the day, there is nothing like walking into the room where you're conducting negotiations or discussions with other people and immediately use your God-given skills of perception to see the reactions in people to the conversation going back and forth. I mean, a good diplomat has the type of radar that they feel how someone will respond to what they say. You know, there's the whole science of nonverbal communication. And you can see whether somebody puts up their arm like this or they lean towards you or they lean back from you when they say something. So it really is, you know, there's this old saying that 80% of life is showing up and that is so true. 80% of life is showing up because I can tell everybody in the world, you know, I can tell my students what it's like to be in Lagos, Nigeria, for example. But until you land, we're telling Muhammad International Airport and step outside into that Lagos city scene, there is no way that a discussion can prepare you, you know, for that overwhelming awesomeness. So, yes, it has hurt us terribly. And I cannot wait, you know, I'm stepping out of diplomacy next week, unless I come back in four years, you never know. But, you know, it's all people to people. Thank you, sir. And amidst all this turmoil with the pandemic and everything else, one of our fellowship alums asked, how does the Assistant Secretary take care of his mental health and that of loved ones? Well, you know, yeah, that's a great question because it comes down to everything is personal. And it's been a real, real challenge for me because doing our work really involves interacting with each other. And we've had to totally, you know, do that mostly by distance. I mean, I have made it one of my priorities to make sure that we can keep our people as safe as possible. Because for an institution, which does diplomacy, our most valuable resource is not the gold mines or the steel mills, you know, or the computers, it's the flesh and blood, it's the people. So to be to be effective, we have to keep our people safe and to keep our people's morale up. They need to know in their hearts that the leadership is intent to keep them safe. Not just that they issue memos, but that they actually do that. So, you know, everybody reacts differently to these types of stresses. But the good news is that human beings are unbelievably resilient and unbelievably flexible. You know, we are all that way as kids. And unfortunately, when we become adults, we somehow grow out of it, unless we hold on to it. And I have seen, you know, I have seen 90 year old people that are very young. And I have seen 20 year old people that are very old. So the key is to stay young in your outlook and flexibility and to say that this too shall pass. Humanity has been through so, so many disasters. We made it through, you know, the plague with many plagues, we made it through Ebola's, we made it through the nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, made it through September 11 terrorism, Africa's made it through so many different, you know, pestilences, and you still have a lot. And after this, this, I feel in my heart that this will be the century of Africa. So, you know, but it depends on you guys to make that happen, not the old dictators, you know, even they cannot go on forever. There is a there is a termination date on every product, including us. So they will be gone and you will be there and just remember to not not do their ways, but to remember that you work for the people. It's not the people who work for you. Thank you, sir. We have one last question and then I'm going to ask you to add in any closing remarks you have. This comes from Sydney in Kenya. She says, it was great to get to know you during the 2017 fellowship program at Texas Tech. Thumbs up, guns up. Sydney would like to know how your transition to Assistant Assistant Secretary was and what's the most critical area where African youth should focus on today to have a better future? Well, yeah, because of you that I came here, you know that you reminded me. Now, the transition coming here was very easy because I came already with a preconceived notion that my focus would be on on young people, you know, getting young people empowered as quickly as possible, really promoting entrepreneurship with young people, getting young people focused on the fact that they can make a huge difference. They will be the way that Africa will get truly rich, not just rich in the wealth, but by wealth I mean the wealth of the intellect, the wealth of the spirit, the wealth of opening up society to the disabled, to women, to ethnic groups that are in some countries underprivileged just because, you know, they're members of that ethnic group to have a totally, totally new Africa that colonialism could not destroy, that the Cold War could not destroy, that imperialism could not destroy. So as I said, I am an Afro-Optimist to the core. Thank you, sir. Any final last words? No, that's just it. Keep Africa in the windshield, not through your view mirror. Don't ever go backwards. Okay. Thank you and thanks to everyone for joining today. Thanks so much. Thanks, Liz.