 All right, folks, welcome to the second keynote of EuroPython 2021. It's with great pleasure and definitely an honor that I'm introducing Abigail as our second keynote speaker. Here she is, welcome. Abigail is a great member of the Python community. She is an organizer of Python, Python Ghana and Python Africa. And if that weren't enough, she's also the lead of PyLadies in Ghana. She's a great advocate of women in technology and a recipient of a PSF Community Service Award. Abigail, that's amazing, that's really great. We are so excited to have you here and I'm really grateful that you took the time to prepare your presentation and we are all excited about your keynote. So I don't want to take any of your time. So the floor is yours, Abigail, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much for this opportunity. Hi, everyone, I'm Abigail and today I'm going to be speaking to you about Python in a Pan-African world. I'm Abuna because I was born on a Tuesday. So a little bit background about that. So tribes or ethnic groups from where I come from, frequently give their children a day name which corresponds to the day and the week when they were born. For example, in Akan, if you are a male born on a Monday, your day name will be Kwejo and if you are a female, your day name will be Ajwa. So audience, if you would want to know what your name will be based on the day you were born, please feel free to ask me in the comment session and I'll definitely answer. A bit more about myself. Again, my name is Abigail, Mr. Nyami Dobe and if you're wondering if I have another name, you're right. I was named Mr. Nyami after my grandfather whom I never met. It literally means I plead with God. And it is a very significant name to me because I get asked sometimes what inspired the name. People are also eager to know where I come from and it's a big deal because then I get to talk more about where I come from and then they also get to learn new things most of the times. So I live in Accra, Ghana and actually I'm speaking from Accra, Ghana and the weather here is actually amazing. We are in the rainy season currently and we are enjoying a very nice weather here. So on community building, I have been involved with the Python software community in Africa since 2017. This has shaped my career and has given me the opportunity to meet other amazing people. So at the start, I was a mentee at my first Jungle Girls event which happened in Accra here and I was inspired by Silent Works, a Jamaican who is based in Ghana. I was inspired by him to also help empower more women in the field. So I took up the task of mentoring three girls as my first mentor experience and since then, I have been on a journey of helping more women become leaders and active participants in the Python open source community. And so I currently lead the PyLadies Ghana community and together with my team, we've helped over 300 women kickstart their journeys with Python, linked them to internship and job opportunities among others. As said earlier, I've also organized three PyCons in Africa. PyCon Ghana, which happened in 2018 and PyCon Africa for both 2019 and then 2020. Earlier this year too, I volunteered at PyCon US. So currently I'm working on a STEM for Girls initiative which is an initiative that is going to help raise the next generation of women in STEM. I believe that women technology and education need to come together as strongly as possible and I'm doing my part to help create a future in which they do. So there's this quote here that I really relate to which goes by, we rise by letting others which was said by Robert Ingersoll. Throughout my journey, I've found it hard to warm in. I've been so fascinated about helping people climb up their career journeys. It sort of gives me some kind of fulfillment when I see especially members of my community climbing up. For example, if I was the one who recommended them for say a job opportunity or a speaking engagement or their first contribution to open source, it really gives me joy. And what I've realized is during these times that I have so much given back to the society. I have met people who have had a lot of impact in my life and have also given me a voice. And also I have seen a massive growth in terms of my career path. And I'm very, very much grateful. So I believe that we rise by letting others. All right. So I'll go on ahead and talk a bit more about pan-Africanism. So pan-Africanism envisions an Africa with its people unified. An Africa where its people both on the continent and in the diaspora share not merely a common history but also a common destiny. And modern day pan-Africanism cannot be talked about without the mention of Kwamin Krumah. He was a pan-African activist who became the first president of Ghana. He's a brain behind the organization of African Unity which is now known as the African Union. This union has brought African leaders together several times to deliberate on agendas that is bringing unity and then strength among Africans. So he basically emerged as a major advocate for the unity of independent Africa and his footprint, I believe, and his endeavor can never be overlooked. All right. So about identity. Identity in Africa is determined by a lot of things but I'm going to be touching on language, art, and community. On languages, so there are over 1.35 billion people in Africa and Africa is home to over 1,600 different languages. Aside that, too, there are also dialects that are spoken by various ethnic groups. The most widely spoken language of Africa is Swahili. And I believe that, or in fact, it is a fact that due to colonialism, European languages such as English, Spanish, French, have become the official languages of some African countries. Still on languages and on software and technology resources I'll be touching on three things. That is the Masakani community, African language data sets and then Paging. So Masakani, pardon me if I'm unable to mention this well but Masakani is an organization in Africa which is interested in natural language processing research in African languages for Africans. And they believe that colonialism has resulted in a technological space that does not understand our names, our cultures, our places and our history. And a lot of their research has gone into making these things readily available and then to help folks understand better all of these things. In that regard, through their research, we have been able to acquire some data sets used substantially in the natural language processing. Examples of these data sets can be found in news, named entity recognition, machine translation, I mean, sentiment analysis that basically helps researchers or I mean, scientists be able to predict sentiment from people's social media posts, for example. There's also data sets for speech recognition and then topic modeling. I believe that these contributions are very much important because then it makes the life of scientists or researchers easy as these data sets are readily available for people to explore it. All right, so Pigeon, so Pigeon is a simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as straight or where both groups speak languages which are different from the language of the country in which they reside. Currently, there are 18 Pigeon languages all over the world and a few can be found in Africa as well. It is also important to note that it is not a native language, but it's instead learned as a second language. And people often switch between these forms depending on the social setting. Researchers are building dictionaries to actually help convert Pigeon to English just so that we can break or better understand that communication barrier between different ethnic groups. They actually also hope that their research can help bridge semantic gap and improve our understanding of public conversations. There's also the BBC News that's also casted in Pigeon. So these are just a few examples of Nigerian Pigeon actually. So a simple hello in Nigerian Pigeon is hafa. Hafa. I'll leave you to actually go through the second example as shown here. This is also the BBC site that's broadcast news in Pigeon language. Please do take time to visit the site and also try to read the news and then see if you better understand what they are trying to communicate. Should in case you don't understand, you can as well use the dictionaries that are available to explain some of the words that are used. All right. So I'll move on to music. Music in Africa is rich and diverse, considering the different languages, beliefs, religions, et cetera in the continent. What actually fascinates me more is how some of them are used to pass down stories from generation to generation. Now in African music, the works of Felakuti cannot be underestimated because he was regarded as the pioneer of Afrobeat and was a staunch pan-Africanist. He was endorsed by a lot of superstars in the Western world and has greatly influenced the style of the majority of current musicians. So I ask, what would you be listening to if it were not for African music? I think it's something to really ponder about. All right. So still on music, hip-hop, I believe, has emerged as a powerful force that has partly shaped black identity worldwide. And hip-hop is also considered to be a pan-African concept. And when we come to the world of Python, people are using the Spotify library in the world of music. An example I found was the fact that people were using Spotify to observe the differences between 80s and 90s hip-hop music. And by the way, if you didn't know about Spotify, Spotify is a Python library for the Spotify web API. If you have deep interest in music and would love to use the library, please go on ahead and feel free to reach out and also let me know what your findings are. Um, talking about African arts, this head, as shown in this slide, is one of many arts and was produced in the kingdom of Benin, which is now in the modern day Edo state in Nigeria. It was part of a huge tradition of artistic metal work that lasted hundreds of years. It is believed that the two largest collections of Benin bronzes are located in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and in the British Museum in London. Well, the third largest collection is located in several museums in Nigeria. I think you agree with me that now it is almost impossible to go into a Western museum and not encounter African art traditions. A lot of them are in the form of looted artefacts. Please, our folks in Europe, it would be nice to have them back, please. But then also, we can agree that European artists have taken vast amounts of inspiration from African art and practices and forms, especially the gents of 20th century modernism like Picasso, Broncusi or Giacometti, sorry about that, or Modigliani. Apologies if I was unable to mention these currently. But this is really how far African art has seen the world and I'm really a proud fan of African art. All right, so on community, I believe that the Python community has contributed massively to pan-Africanism. This is a photo that was taken at the first ever PyCon Africa. This is actually not the entire photograph but yeah, this is really what our community looks like. And I must say that it has really brought us together, united us and has really contributed massively to pan-Africanism. So there has been several PyCons, Python meetups on the continent that have seen the bringing closer of Africans on the continent and in the diaspora. This is just a representation of folks or countries in Africa who are actively organizing Python conferences or organizing meetups. And now this is just a research I personally made. It doesn't necessarily represent what it is now but these are countries that I know are actively actively organizing and doing a lot of community building in terms of the Python software community. So I believe that people have experienced in-depth African culture and have met people with common goals which have led to building healthy relationships and fostering healthy competition. So I want to touch on a bit of lessons that I have learned throughout my years of being a community builder in the Python software community. So I'll be taking quotes or nuggets from this book written by David Noonan, a book entitled ESOP and the CEO. So what David Noonan did was to put together a few of ESOP's fables and also real world stories or experiences and then draw very powerful business insights. So for those of us who do not know ESOP, he's popularly known for his fables which generally talked about life. It is believed that ESOP may have been an African from Ethiopia because his fables had the presence of camels, elephants, and apes, et cetera. So as I go on with the lessons too, I'm definitely going to highlight a few key people who have contributed massively to the Python software community in Africa. This here is Malin Mangami from Zimbabwe. She's a director at the PSF and chair of the, chair of Python Africa. So being on the main organizers team has given me a lot of leadership experiences. And on this quote, good managers give street answers including I don't know. I believe that learning to say I don't know as a leader it's a skill you need to master. It's a skill that you need to be okay with and not shy from. Instead of trying to prove you know it when in fact you don't learn to say how can it be achieved or who can do it better? I believe that that way as a leader, you don't have to figure everything all by yourself. And it's also in a way shows your team members that you value their opinions. And I mean, also better still in future they could also become leaders. So I was told that there's this pizza war in Europe I was told that some Europeans love pineapples as toppings on their pizza. And I should also say that in Africa too particularly in Western Africa we also have wars with regards to Jollof rice. So Jollof rice originated from Western Africa and there's always been I mean the fact that say Cameroonians or Nigerians or Ghanians are the best people in making a Jollof rice meal. But then I can attest to the fact that Jollof rice you enjoy the best Jollof rice from Ghana. I think I'm in the best position to say this because I've had Nigerian Jollof rice before and trust me you would enjoy the Ghanaian Jollof rice better. All right, so on this quote, make sure you know your guests before offering them hospitality. Same on food during the time that we organized Pike on Africa. I think one of the things I failed to really research was about the different kinds of foods that people may prefer. And because we're hosting it in Ghana we actually had on the menu a lot of Ghanaian or Western Africa foods. Now I go to find out that West Africans enjoy spices a lot whereas it's not the same when you go to East Africa. And so when they attended a conference a few of them struggled a bit with our food but then I was happy when they started getting used to it and in fact some of them even started asking for more but then I think that to help meet people's needs it is important that you make sure you know your guests before offering them hospitality. This is a very powerful woman in the Django Software Foundation, Anna Makarude. She has also contributed so much to the Python software community in Africa. I'm sorry. So on this quote, the best managers genuinely appreciate their employees. I believe that appreciation could be in the form of recognition, pay raise, et cetera. And also I believe that for open source contributions not all contributions can be found in repository. Some of the contributions are merely sending in response sending and responding to emails about a meetup or a conference such as this. It is a reason why I'm happy about Amanda Kasari and her colleagues project on creating and publishing community-generated contribution schemas for open source ecosystems. The aim is to also clarify who is present in the open source and the impact that they have had. They're currently looking for individuals to help identify these ways that people are contributing. I'll share the link in the comment session so you can apply if you're interested in volunteering. And I think that it's an opportunity for me to also say thank you to organizers of this conference. It's really not easy. I have an experience in organizing this. And thank you so much, Mark Andre, Chouk, the rest of the team members. Thank you so much for putting together this amazing conference. So there's a quote again from David Nunan's book. That reads that a company should seek to develop their leaders at every level, not just managers. I've experienced this leading the Pilates Ghana community. Most of the times, we tend to strictly fall on our team members or people who sort of hold leadership positions in our community when it comes to them delivering their task. But then I think that it's okay to actually train other people or other members of the community just so that should in case some of these folks are unavailable, they would definitely be someone to replace them or to take up their positions. So please do well, if you're a manager, please do well to develop your leaders at every level. Yeah. Yeah, so on purpose, I really love this quote. People want to work for a cause, not just for a living. So inspire workers by helping them understand that their work has higher purpose. This is the amazing team behind PyCons in Africa. A few of them were not captured in this photo and I used the opportunity to mention their names, Isha Bello, Chooks, Jake, Ahmad, thank you all so much. I can't stress enough the impact that Danielle has had on the entire Python community in Africa. I'm sure that a few of us in the audience may know Danielle. Thank you so much for all the work you keep doing with the Python software community in Africa. And there's also Rex Ford who has volunteered so much to capture these amazing images. Without him, we wouldn't have been able to tell our stories graphically or using graphical representations. Thank you all so much. I believe that without the numerous volunteers, advocates and mentors, none of all we have achieved in Africa would be possible. So these are a few challenges that we are facing in Africa, challenges that I believe that we face in Africa. There's this bit about opportunities. I've realized that ever since those spare or arise in remote work opportunities, I have seen a lot of senior developers in Africa get a lot of these opportunities living behind junior developers. And I asked myself, how then do these junior developers become senior developers if we don't give them a shot? So I will entreat you if you're a developer, advocate in your organization and you're looking into hiring African talent, please do want to look in the way of junior developers as well. Another issue that we also have or is centered around internet. These are, this particular internet issue can be seen in two different ways. Either you don't easily have access to internet or internet is expensive here in Africa. I also think that another challenge is travel and then visa. So I've experienced this and I know a few other Africans who have also experienced visa denials to be able to contribute to same. Other big conferences that happen in the Western world. I believe that it is a problem that we really face here. So putting everything together and going back to the beginning, I would like you to ponder on these. On language, we all can now attest that Africa is a continent of resourceful, inventive polyglots and also the fact that Europe has left its languages in Africa and they are now in our hands. African words, patterns and concepts have entered the languages. They are changing them or we are changing them and Africanizing them whether anyone likes it or not. Thank you so much. Africa is going to take care of your languages for you. And so on thought, I believe that Kwame Prumas politist of pan-Africanism has helped shape not just the African continent but the entire post-colonial world. And also if we are going to consider whether East or West African, it will be a nice example if it is true. But either way, the world is thinking or the world's thinking is full of African concepts, stories and ideas. On food, European cooking is full of African ingredients and flavors. I believe you can attest to the fact that you are literally eating African influences. On arts, African arts traditions have driven European arts forward for over 150 years. On people, African people are at work right here and right now. We are making a difference in our Python community. We have folks like Marlene, Jessica O'Pane, Mani Young, Michael, just to name a few. Taking part in the international Python community. And in fact, myself here, given this talk, we are making a difference that affects you. So on how will Python programming be transformed in African hands? I believe that Africa has made its marks on the world's languages, music, food, arts, communities, just to name a few. And it has a history and culture of taking all the influences that comes its way, adapting them to its needs and sending them back transformed. Does anyone imagine an Africa or does anyone imagine Africa will not do the same with Python programming language or in fact, or with programming in general? Python is in Africa and growing. And that means that Africa is in Python as well. Nobody can see what software will look like in future. But without doubt, I believe that Africa will be a part of it and a way it works and what it's useful and what it does. On this note, if you're an African in the diaspora, I mean treating you to go back to your roots, find ways to positively impact the hope and Africanism movement. We all look forward to a better Africa with its people continually impacting the entire world. On this moment, and in the many languages that I can speak, I say, biebla, medase, ape, and thank you. Wow, that was fantastic. I loved it. Thank you so much. Really, it was really great. It was really interesting. I also liked, and I was looking at and there was confetti now in the room. I was also looking at the questions and everybody was saying how, also just listening to you is just fantastic. I will say one thing. Don't put anything like pineapple on pizza. No, no, no, that's not okay. So we have a few minutes left. So there were some questions. I will go in order here in the room. There are lots of comments here. And Chuck is also showing up. Hello, Chuck. So first of all, there was a question about pigeon. So I will show it here on the screen. And the question was, do you think that pigeon could be thought a little bit like Esperanto, trying to create a global language that everybody can speak? Well, I don't know much about Esperanto, but then yes, it's, pigeon has proven to break the communication barrier in some areas in Africa. And I believe that if it is similar to Esperanto, I believe that it is really helping to sort of bridge that communication barrier. Yeah. Fantastic. Another question here. I will show it to you here. So one thing that we do a lot at EuroPython is processing visa support letters for people. And we do have the issue that, especially for some countries, it's we get a very high rejection rate for visas. Do you think we can do something better there to avoid this problem of getting this visa denied? Yes. I think so. And I have actually experienced that where organizers of DjangoCon really went all out to try and then get my visa. I mean, then when it was denied, I think, yes, the community can do a lot. I mean, say if we have a way to kind of reach out to the embassies and give them all the info they need on say Africans who are traveling to Europe to kind of experience the conference, I think it would really be of much help because then we wouldn't have to answer a whole lot of questions and there wouldn't be doubts from the embassies as to if we are indeed attending the conference. Yeah, yeah, I can understand. I can understand. Then there was a quick, just in the last minute, there was just a quick comment saying that we are happy to see, I'll also show it, that there are initiatives, written documents, written information, written resources in pigeon because lots of people speak it and it's important. So I was very happy that you showed us the BBC and other. Yeah, I'm really glad I was able to highlight that. Thank you. Awesome. So we are out of time. Remember, folks, there are two, not one, two social events. There is a cooking show by Chok, we use so far, appearing is appearing briefly and there is a game board games with Alan, I believe. They are in Optiver and in Brian, they will be on Zoom and the links are in the room descriptions, in the room topics. So click and join. They will start in three minutes at 1805 Central European Summer Time. All right, so thank you, Abigail, again. It was a fantastic presentation and we really loved it. Thank you. Bye.