Latest / Earn Your Leisure / He Built Africa’s Tallest Statue — Now He’s Revealing the Future of the Continent 🌍

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He Built Africa’s Tallest Statue — Now He’s Revealing the Future of the Continent 🌍 · Earn Your Leisure

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Speaker 2: Sounds about your ac comverishments. Congratulations, thank you on your
0:47
Speaker 2: converscement yourself.
0:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're still is really interested in just to
0:51
Speaker 1: see a which you th that is amazing with the
0:55
Speaker 1: name of Tolmas, to see other things that you that
0:57
Speaker 1: you did, so what made you.
0:59
Speaker 2: Get an artisation measured in engineering and architecture both. I'm
1:07
Speaker 2: an engineer as well, so but before I get to that,
1:10
Speaker 2: I think the most important thing, one of the most
1:12
Speaker 2: important things in my little life here is that when
1:18
Speaker 2: I graduated, I came back. I came back for two reasons.
1:25
Speaker 2: The reason number one was that I benefited from a
1:31
Speaker 2: scholarship and I thought I have to give it back
1:37
Speaker 2: because America didn't give me the scholarship for myself. They
1:41
Speaker 2: gave it to me so that when I get the
1:45
Speaker 2: education I wanted to have, I can come back and
1:51
Speaker 2: help my people and help Africa. And this lesson is
1:59
Speaker 2: very very interesting because at trancelaer Wish, as you may know,
2:07
Speaker 2: is one of the biggest engineering schools in America. As
2:14
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, back in nineteen sixty eight when
2:18
Speaker 2: I was there not many black folks because it was
2:23
Speaker 2: very expensive. So if I have that opportunity of having
2:32
Speaker 2: an education, higher education in social institution, I thought I
2:38
Speaker 2: should come back because it was not the money of
2:42
Speaker 2: my parents, it was of scholarship. I'm not trying to
2:48
Speaker 2: give a lesson to anybody. I'm just trying to say, listen,
2:52
Speaker 2: sometimes you even much better off coming back because there's
2:58
Speaker 2: so many opportunities. Enoughter you cannot imagine if I had
3:04
Speaker 2: stayed in America, I was in the same school and
3:08
Speaker 2: the same class with the architect of Bill Gates. His
3:17
Speaker 2: name was John but he passed away about five years back.
3:23
Speaker 2: He was the architect of Bill Gates. But he was
3:25
Speaker 2: not better off than me here. So what I'm saying
3:32
Speaker 2: is that I want people who benefited from a scholarship,
3:38
Speaker 2: and even if you didn't benefit from a scholarship, if
3:42
Speaker 2: you are African, please see what you can do. Of course,
3:48
Speaker 2: the good news is that today with the technology, you
3:52
Speaker 2: don't need to be physically back, and this is why
3:57
Speaker 2: I appreciate what you people are doing with technology. Today
4:02
Speaker 2: you can stay there but just be interested in what
4:08
Speaker 2: is going on in Africa. Business is booming and with
4:15
Speaker 2: the experience you people have there, it's very interesting for
4:21
Speaker 2: you to come back, not physically, but to come back
4:29
Speaker 2: and see what you can do. And this is why
4:31
Speaker 2: again congratulations for what you're doing to try to break things.
4:37
Speaker 2: That's very important. And again days back, yes you have
4:42
Speaker 2: to come physically to do things. But today again you
4:48
Speaker 2: can stay there, come from time to time, but get
4:52
Speaker 2: interested in the development of Africa. And if you do that,
4:58
Speaker 2: success is on the way. You have to grab it
5:04
Speaker 2: and you have to work very hard for it because
5:08
Speaker 2: our folks are very difficult to work with. But if
5:13
Speaker 2: you have the experience there well, and if you have
5:16
Speaker 2: people who can open doors, like our good self here,
5:20
Speaker 2: things can be very very interesting.
5:23
Speaker 1: Last night we got to witness obviously the Renaissance Monument,
5:27
Speaker 1: which is extremely impressive. I think equally as impressive as
5:31
Speaker 1: the amount of people that wanted to come speak to you.
5:33
Speaker 1: And it talks about the level of relationships that you
5:36
Speaker 1: have across the continent.
5:37
Speaker 2: How has that been.
5:38
Speaker 1: Over the course of your career as an architect and
5:41
Speaker 1: just as a person here in Senegale and Africa.
5:43
Speaker 2: Well, of course, you see, the road is not easy.
5:53
Speaker 2: To build up a strong reputation takes a lot of work.
6:06
Speaker 2: Let's put it like that. Because you are in an
6:10
Speaker 2: environment where it's easier to go through, not to follow
6:23
Speaker 2: the rules. It's easier. I've always thought that I should
6:30
Speaker 2: be straight and clear. This is why you don't see
6:34
Speaker 2: no worlds. If you do that, and you do things
6:39
Speaker 2: the way you think they should be done, if you
6:46
Speaker 2: have your conscience clear, you're not playing no games. Success
6:53
Speaker 2: is at the end of the road or along the road,
6:57
Speaker 2: and at the end of the road to build up
7:06
Speaker 2: that reputation, it's easy and difficult. Again, it's easy because
7:15
Speaker 2: you just have to do everything not to break the rules.
7:22
Speaker 2: Especially in business. Most people think that well they want
7:27
Speaker 2: to take a short cut. There's no shortcut in good business,
7:34
Speaker 2: especially in Africa. So yes, I was fortunate enough to
7:48
Speaker 2: have taken that path. Because the environment is not always
7:54
Speaker 2: in your favor. Pressure is here. People don't want to
8:01
Speaker 2: think ahead. They just think for tomorrow. And this is
8:08
Speaker 2: one of the problems I have personally because I try
8:12
Speaker 2: to have a vision. But if you have a vision
8:16
Speaker 2: with people who don't have vision, you have a problem.
8:21
Speaker 2: You see, the place where we were yesterday, we were
8:24
Speaker 2: so criticized. They're almost threw stones to me because they
8:31
Speaker 2: didn't understand. Now what was the criticism about. Well, you see,
8:38
Speaker 2: this is a very religious country. They are Muslims, and
8:44
Speaker 2: in their religion they don't always accept sculptures of people
8:56
Speaker 2: portraying people. You can portray a horse or whatever, but people,
9:02
Speaker 2: it's very difficult. Some of them accepted some times, and
9:07
Speaker 2: I was I don't know if you understood the story
9:11
Speaker 2: that I told yesterday, explaining that when we finished building
9:16
Speaker 2: the monument, since the lady was a little denuded here,
9:25
Speaker 2: they started making problems. And then the president asked me
9:31
Speaker 2: can we cover that? Yes, I say yes, but it
9:37
Speaker 2: will cost a million dollars million plus a million and
9:41
Speaker 2: a half. He says, a million and a half just
9:43
Speaker 2: for that cloth. I said yes. He said, okay, let's
9:48
Speaker 2: make it small. I say, it's worse because it would
9:51
Speaker 2: be what we call becho you know, that's what ladies
9:54
Speaker 2: were at night. So again you have to fight incomprehension
10:04
Speaker 2: when you look ahead. So how do you get to
10:06
Speaker 2: buy and from the people to accept it? Well? No, Actually,
10:11
Speaker 2: if you are if you know that what you're doing
10:13
Speaker 2: is right, just be patient. Time will do the rest.
10:18
Speaker 2: And that's what happens. And today, including the big the
10:22
Speaker 2: big religious chiefs, they all accept. Not only do they accept.
10:28
Speaker 2: If this monument was not here, you come to the car,
10:31
Speaker 2: what do you see? Almost nothing. So if in your
10:36
Speaker 2: mind you know that this is good, go ahead and
10:40
Speaker 2: do it right now. The biggest project I have is
10:45
Speaker 2: what is probably building the new city, the new capital
10:49
Speaker 2: city of Gabon called Liberville too. But along that, what
10:55
Speaker 2: I think is my thank you, thank you, thank you.
11:01
Speaker 2: But what I think now is that we are doing
11:07
Speaker 2: what we call the new roads, the new steel and
11:11
Speaker 2: aluminum roads. What is it Bob, let's not talk. It
11:19
Speaker 2: didn't tell you what when we talk about the new
11:26
Speaker 2: steel and aluminum roads, what is that. Everybody knows that
11:31
Speaker 2: Europe has developed because of the steel industry still at core. Now.
11:41
Speaker 2: Everybody also knows that most of the raw material to
11:46
Speaker 2: make steel and aluminum come from Africa. Now the story
11:57
Speaker 2: goes there today. If you trace the road of steel,
12:10
Speaker 2: they take the raw material, let's say in Peppelli. Here
12:12
Speaker 2: in Serra le One, it makes twenty thousand kilometers to
12:19
Speaker 2: go to China to be transformed and another twenty thousand
12:24
Speaker 2: kilometers to come back to Africa to be distributed. If
12:31
Speaker 2: you take aluminum, the raw material of aluminum is called
12:38
Speaker 2: box site. Box site comes from our neighbors, from Guinea,
12:44
Speaker 2: most of it. Of course, Guinea can agree. From the
12:48
Speaker 2: port of Cancer, twenty thousand kilometers to go another twenty
12:54
Speaker 2: two come makes it eighty thousand kilometers. We want to
13:00
Speaker 2: reduce this into one point two kilometers. Eighty thousand, one
13:08
Speaker 2: point two. How because we discovered oil and gas in
13:15
Speaker 2: Senegal and in a radius of less than one thousand kilometers,
13:23
Speaker 2: we have more than twenty seven billion tons of iron ore,
13:31
Speaker 2: twenty seven billion tons of iron ore if you would
13:37
Speaker 2: with the energy that we discovered in Senegal. Instead, we're
13:40
Speaker 2: just selling the energy. When you sell the energy, when
13:44
Speaker 2: you sell the gas, it amounts. It accounts for one
13:51
Speaker 2: point five maybe less, maybe more dollars cubic meter. If
14:02
Speaker 2: you would take thirty cubic meters and by two tons
14:10
Speaker 2: of iron ore for two hundred dollars two hundred plus fifty,
14:15
Speaker 2: it's two hundred and fifty dollars, you would come up
14:18
Speaker 2: with a rod of steel worth one thousand, two hundred
14:24
Speaker 2: and fifty dollars. And that's the challenge. So you will
14:30
Speaker 2: be not only will you be doing that, but you
14:33
Speaker 2: will reduce because Pepel is just eight hundred kilometers from here,
14:41
Speaker 2: So the forty thousand kilometers going back and forth is
14:45
Speaker 2: reduced to eighty eight hundred and fifty kilometers. One straight path. Yes,
14:55
Speaker 2: well you go by the ocean. It's not straight. You
14:58
Speaker 2: go by the ocean. And this is why we want
15:02
Speaker 2: to create what we call the Atlantic Africa Steel and
15:07
Speaker 2: Aluminum Alliance, because we want to put these countries together
15:13
Speaker 2: along the Atlantic, because you don't want to get inside
15:17
Speaker 2: inland because of infrastructures that are not developed. But boats
15:23
Speaker 2: can just go from Peppel to the port of the car,
15:27
Speaker 2: can go from Cancer to the port of the car.
15:31
Speaker 2: And we want to put build a new port in
15:34
Speaker 2: Nikin in the south of Senegal, in Casamos, which is
15:38
Speaker 2: just three hundred kilometers from where most of the iron
15:47
Speaker 2: or the aluminum or which is box site comes from.
15:52
Speaker 2: Three hundred kilometers Ernest, what's up?
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Speaker 2: Forward instead of twenty thousand and twenty thousand back. Because
17:39
Speaker 2: we are preparing for Zlecka. Slecka is the new African
17:47
Speaker 2: come to uh come on there and call well, you said,
17:55
Speaker 2: well in English, we said Leka zone deliberation. So we
18:01
Speaker 2: are preparing for that. But if you want to prepare
18:05
Speaker 2: for that, you have to think about things that You
18:09
Speaker 2: may not see yourself, but that's not important. That's building
18:14
Speaker 2: the future. When you're building the future, you don't think
18:16
Speaker 2: about itself. I will not be here when it starts.
18:21
Speaker 2: We have to build it.
18:23
Speaker 1: Have you seen like you said, you have to have vision.
18:27
Speaker 1: We've been to a few countries and it seems like
18:30
Speaker 1: the vision is starting to become clearer as younger people
18:33
Speaker 1: come into power. Have you seen a shift in how
18:36
Speaker 1: people are looking at the future of unification, at least
18:39
Speaker 1: in West Africa?
18:41
Speaker 2: Yes, of course. You see. The story goes that these
18:47
Speaker 2: new people who took power in Senega, I sponsored them
18:54
Speaker 2: and I had a big fight with the president. But
19:00
Speaker 2: why did I sponsor them? Because they had a vision,
19:07
Speaker 2: they had faith, They wanted to fight corruption. You see,
19:15
Speaker 2: we work hard to get everything. You can see. I
19:19
Speaker 2: don't sleep. I work very hard. I passed seventy eight.
19:26
Speaker 2: I'm still working. But you have these civil servants after
19:31
Speaker 2: one year, they have more money than me. This is
19:35
Speaker 2: what's blocking Africa. Corruption was too hide And if I
19:40
Speaker 2: sponsored these young people, it's because they wanted to go
19:44
Speaker 2: just as what you said. They want things to go straight.
19:50
Speaker 2: They want to develop the country instead of developing their
19:54
Speaker 2: own wealth as civil servants, and they did not give
19:58
Speaker 2: the guidance that we need it. So again I think
20:04
Speaker 2: that things are changing. Sometimes, of course people don't know
20:09
Speaker 2: how to change things. They make cous well, sometimes the
20:17
Speaker 2: cous are positive. If you take Jerry Rowlings to talk
20:24
Speaker 2: about his very beautiful country in Ghana, this gentleman, if
20:29
Speaker 2: he didn't do the coup and took out all these
20:33
Speaker 2: generals who was just taking the wealth of the people,
20:37
Speaker 2: Ghana wouldn't be where it is today. And we hope
20:42
Speaker 2: that these people will just do the same. They will
20:45
Speaker 2: change things so that everybody can profit, can get advantage
20:53
Speaker 2: of the wealth of the country. But to do that again,
20:58
Speaker 2: you have to have a vision and you have to
21:02
Speaker 2: know what you're talking about. And this our vision here
21:08
Speaker 2: is yes, we want to make Africa great again. And
21:17
Speaker 2: if you have that in your mind, if you do
21:20
Speaker 2: everything in the books to get there, honestly by telling
21:26
Speaker 2: the truth, but by working hard and setting the clocks right,
21:36
Speaker 2: success is at the end. I'm looking at Donald Trump.
21:46
Speaker 2: He's not that negative, you know. I think that if
21:50
Speaker 2: he succeeds this week, even I would vote for him
21:55
Speaker 2: to have the Nobel Peace Prize.
22:00
Speaker 3: What's maybe mention Africa civilization that we can look back
22:05
Speaker 3: to as as younger African. That makes us for what
22:09
Speaker 3: we had and maybe when we lostization.
22:13
Speaker 2: Well you see, do you know that the richest man
22:16
Speaker 2: ever because Americas, you know, when you talk with Americans
22:21
Speaker 2: talk about money or wealtha the wealthiest person ever was
22:32
Speaker 2: an Africa mm hm who Man Samusa? Yes, he was
22:41
Speaker 2: the richest man ever. If you compare his wealth to
22:49
Speaker 2: Ellen Musk, it's nothing. Ellen moscow wealth is just maybe
22:54
Speaker 2: one third one fifth of what he had. And at
22:58
Speaker 2: that time Africa was great. You've seen Tumbuktu, You've seen
23:03
Speaker 2: what was written by our ancestors. Shahanta Job who was
23:10
Speaker 2: a very good friend, big brother. Yes, he was a
23:15
Speaker 2: very very very good friend of mine. Big brother, big brother,
23:19
Speaker 2: Shaikh Leopols are single and all those We had great people.
23:28
Speaker 2: But then again it's corruption that brought us back. If
23:33
Speaker 2: you have to take a single thing, it's that, that's it.
23:37
Speaker 2: But things are improving. But again, these people who made
23:40
Speaker 2: cools sometimes they don't know how to go about it.
23:45
Speaker 2: They made a cool they have the power. Well they
23:50
Speaker 2: are not well, I don't want to say educated. Most
23:55
Speaker 2: of them have limits, but they wanted to do good.
24:01
Speaker 2: Now the question is what do we do today to
24:06
Speaker 2: make them do good? And this is where the role
24:10
Speaker 2: of the diaspora is very important because you know what
24:15
Speaker 2: progress is. You know what to do to go ahead,
24:22
Speaker 2: which most of our people, our leaders don't. So again,
24:32
Speaker 2: the road is not easy, but if you do it
24:36
Speaker 2: the way you should success is that.
24:41
Speaker 4: The renaissance As an African seeing that coming into synagogue,
24:46
Speaker 4: even though I'm just next door from Ghana, that really
24:50
Speaker 4: inspired me because when you travel the world, you say
24:53
Speaker 4: a lot of monuments and you hardly see anything that
24:56
Speaker 4: is you know, Africans. Our coalition of Africa architects that
25:02
Speaker 4: come together is like an association where there's like a
25:06
Speaker 4: league of Pan African architects that discuss some of these things.
25:09
Speaker 4: Or is this just like a solo trip, because sometimes
25:12
Speaker 4: I wonder if there's like collaboration when these things are happening.
25:15
Speaker 2: Well, okay, the monument is something else the monument. This
25:20
Speaker 2: was the idea of President who was a big intellectual,
25:25
Speaker 2: our former president, who wrote a book in which he
25:32
Speaker 2: saw this African coming out of the rules of the
25:40
Speaker 2: earth and raising to point out towards America because to him,
25:48
Speaker 2: and he is white. The development is towards America, so
25:56
Speaker 2: the young man is printing America. So this was almost
26:05
Speaker 2: an individual thought. But yes, we have a continental association
26:11
Speaker 2: which is called the Africa Union of Architects. We just
26:15
Speaker 2: celebrated what our for the Ethnic Rosary just about two
26:23
Speaker 2: weeks ago in Kinshassa, and I happened to be one
26:28
Speaker 2: of the founders and past president this association that puts
26:34
Speaker 2: together all the architects from Caro to the cap So yes,
26:41
Speaker 2: we do think together. But of course architecture is not
26:46
Speaker 2: something that you do. It's just a personal inspiration. So
26:58
Speaker 2: we tried to do our our best. I was fortunate
27:01
Speaker 2: enough come back back in seventy three and I found
27:10
Speaker 2: low Polisar Single was our former president, a big thinker,
27:18
Speaker 2: a great poet, who wanted us to do a new
27:26
Speaker 2: to think over everything that we're doing, architecture, dance, painting.
27:37
Speaker 2: If you're in mind in the other room there you'll
27:41
Speaker 2: see the paintings that he promoted were new painters to
27:47
Speaker 2: do a new architecture. As a matter of fact, the
27:50
Speaker 2: first time I went to see a head of state
27:54
Speaker 2: outside of Senegal, it was through the recommendation of President singor.
28:00
Speaker 2: I went to see the President of Congo and the
28:04
Speaker 2: writers letter said that in Senegal we are doing a
28:08
Speaker 2: new we are doing a new dance, African dance, modern,
28:20
Speaker 2: new paintings and new architecture. And he recommended me to
28:26
Speaker 2: work there, which I did, and this is how I
28:29
Speaker 2: started working outside Senegal. So the only yes because you
28:39
Speaker 2: see yes, because unfortunately, if you don't start by the top,
28:47
Speaker 2: you'll lose a lot of time. You'll lose a lot
28:51
Speaker 2: of time. You lose your time for nothing. Even here today,
28:59
Speaker 2: you know, if you want to do some things, I
29:02
Speaker 2: can take my telephone and call the Prime minister or
29:05
Speaker 2: call the president. You're waste your time. And that's very unfortunate.
29:11
Speaker 2: And this is what these people are trying to break.
29:15
Speaker 2: They are trying to correct to this, which is not
29:19
Speaker 2: easy because still if I don't call the prime minister
29:24
Speaker 2: or I don't call the president, things will just keep
29:28
Speaker 2: lingering on nothing. Art's objective.
29:31
Speaker 1: So being American and watching that thing a point, it
29:34
Speaker 1: almost feels like it could be the reverse. Whereas, how
29:38
Speaker 1: do we get ahead? How can we make development at
29:41
Speaker 1: a grand level? We need to work together. So the
29:44
Speaker 1: same way that you came to America to study. She
29:47
Speaker 1: came to America to study and came back. It almost
29:49
Speaker 1: feels like this is almost a call for Black America
29:52
Speaker 1: to say, hey, we need you and your help to
29:56
Speaker 1: help us get to this place.
29:57
Speaker 4: Can it be interpreted that way?
29:59
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely. You know, regardless of what is bad in America,
30:08
Speaker 2: if you take development wealth, that's where it is, and
30:15
Speaker 2: you fully yourself. If you think that yes, that's not important,
30:20
Speaker 2: that's very important because if you see poverty, poverty is
30:24
Speaker 2: very bad. When you see people who cannot eat, who
30:28
Speaker 2: cannot sleep, who cannot cure themselves, who cannot take their
30:33
Speaker 2: children to school, then you know that wealth is something
30:37
Speaker 2: you have to get it the right way. And America,
30:42
Speaker 2: you like them or not. Of course, they have a
30:44
Speaker 2: lot of things that they do bad, very bad, starting
30:48
Speaker 2: your own president. But there are things that you people
30:53
Speaker 2: do good, very good, sometimes your own president. So again,
30:59
Speaker 2: don't be a shamed of the fact that knowledge is there.
31:03
Speaker 2: We are in the week of the Nobel Prices. More
31:07
Speaker 2: than half of them come from America. So you like
31:10
Speaker 2: it or not, that's where it is, and accept it
31:16
Speaker 2: and take profit out of this. See how that can
31:22
Speaker 2: help to develop the country. Because at the end of
31:25
Speaker 2: the day. That's where it lies. How do you develop
31:30
Speaker 2: your country? And this is why we're coming with all
31:33
Speaker 2: these theories, because with our theory, you cannot go ahead
31:41
Speaker 2: of transforming our wealth. You see, I told you, if
31:46
Speaker 2: you would transform these iron ores or these box site
31:54
Speaker 2: into steel and aluminum, you're talking about fifteen trillion dollars
32:01
Speaker 2: and more fifteen thrillion dollars. That's where you know, that's
32:08
Speaker 2: where it hurts. This is why the colonials didn't want
32:12
Speaker 2: us to know that. And that's where it hurts, because
32:18
Speaker 2: you see, even today, I had an argument with one
32:24
Speaker 2: of the leaders of the IMF International Monetary Fund. He
32:29
Speaker 2: came here and we had a meeting with the private sector,
32:34
Speaker 2: and this gentleman tells us, listen, don't you make no mistake.
32:40
Speaker 2: Your oil and gas discovery will not be a game
32:44
Speaker 2: changer in your economy. I said, now, wait a minute, sir,
32:49
Speaker 2: do you know that you damn right? But you're right only,
32:55
Speaker 2: as they say in mathematics, if and only if we
33:01
Speaker 2: listen to you. Now you listen to me, And I
33:05
Speaker 2: explained to him what I just explained to you. Yes,
33:11
Speaker 2: you know that we have x amount of cubic meters
33:16
Speaker 2: of gas. You calculated it as okay, one cubic meter
33:25
Speaker 2: will bring one five dollars. But I didn't see it
33:33
Speaker 2: that way. I see that if I take thirty cubic
33:37
Speaker 2: meters instead of just putting it in the market, I
33:41
Speaker 2: buy two tons of iron ore, I create one thousand
33:47
Speaker 2: dollars out of thirty dollars. And I explained to him.
33:53
Speaker 2: He said, yes, mister President, you are right. I say, okay,
33:56
Speaker 2: if you say that I'm right, you go tell my
33:59
Speaker 2: folks that what we should do is take this hour
34:05
Speaker 2: gas to transform the raw materials of the neighboring countries.
34:13
Speaker 2: Because the one we have to take the iron ore
34:16
Speaker 2: is about six hundred kilometers from the shore. If we
34:23
Speaker 2: have to put a train of six hundred kilometers, it's
34:26
Speaker 2: too expensive. But we are corystal countries. You have the
34:32
Speaker 2: port of Peppel again, the Port of Cancer. But mostly
34:39
Speaker 2: our friends from Angola, they were here about two months
34:44
Speaker 2: ago and they were very proud to explain to us
34:50
Speaker 2: that well with the Americans, your folks, thank you. They
34:58
Speaker 2: are doing the Lobido Corridor. And if you see that
35:02
Speaker 2: the only country that Joe Biden visited during his term
35:11
Speaker 2: The only place he went was in Lobito. You know why,
35:17
Speaker 2: because that corridor will drag all the raw materials from
35:23
Speaker 2: Congo and all these countries, bring it to the Lobito
35:27
Speaker 2: city and send it to America. So I told them
35:34
Speaker 2: because they came, they explained to us the ambolance. We're
35:38
Speaker 2: doing this Lobito corridor. And everybody clap their hands and say, hey, listen,
35:43
Speaker 2: think about why you're clapping your hands. Americans are taking
35:48
Speaker 2: everything to send it to America and you're clapping. Stop
35:52
Speaker 2: being stupid. And this is where I told them, Listen,
35:58
Speaker 2: we cannot use all the to you. We don't have
36:01
Speaker 2: the means. But let's take ten percent of what is
36:05
Speaker 2: going and put in a Lobito. We put an industrial
36:11
Speaker 2: hub that will transform only ten percent of that. And
36:17
Speaker 2: the Americans can help us if we ask them to
36:20
Speaker 2: do that. And then you prepare for this leaker, this
36:25
Speaker 2: common market.
36:27
Speaker 5: Do we as.
36:29
Speaker 2: You ask before imposing, because you cannot impose. We don't
36:34
Speaker 2: have the we don't have the weapons, we don't have
36:36
Speaker 2: the means to impose. Why do you think you're this?
36:40
Speaker 4: Uh?
36:42
Speaker 2: Donald Trump is imposing because he has the means. You know,
36:47
Speaker 2: he brought all these African head of states and tell them, listen,
36:54
Speaker 2: what's your name again? Come on, I just think the
37:00
Speaker 2: English he didn't know the lie there. He was founded
37:03
Speaker 2: by the Americans. Why because he has no weapons and
37:12
Speaker 2: he has the wild If you have both, believe me,
37:16
Speaker 2: you impose your things. So we don't impose. We ask
37:20
Speaker 2: very no, no, no, no no, but now no, not now.
37:28
Speaker 2: I think the international community knows that it's even good
37:33
Speaker 2: for the others that we get deviloped. That's the good
37:38
Speaker 2: side of the story. So again, don't impose. But if
37:43
Speaker 2: you explain to them that this is good for them
37:46
Speaker 2: as well, you see if you would, if you just
37:51
Speaker 2: explain to them that this is good for them. It's
37:54
Speaker 2: just when people say that, okay, they don't want energy
37:59
Speaker 2: coming from God because you've developed your countries. But give
38:05
Speaker 2: us twenty years, maybe twenty five, why not thirty to
38:10
Speaker 2: be green. We cannot be green right now. It's too
38:14
Speaker 2: expensive for us. And they wait until we discovered guys
38:18
Speaker 2: to say, okay, we don't want any powered gas powered machine.
38:23
Speaker 2: We want hydrogen. We're not there yet. Give us sometimes,
38:30
Speaker 2: but you explained to them that while they are working
38:36
Speaker 2: on green technology, we can work with them with the
38:41
Speaker 2: less green technology that they have already, and we see
38:47
Speaker 2: how to bridge the gap in the coming twenty years
38:51
Speaker 2: so that it can be we can start our development.
38:56
Speaker 2: But that you have to discuss, you have to accept
39:03
Speaker 2: some things and well, it's more complex than it looks.
39:08
Speaker 2: But if you have the right if you take the
39:16
Speaker 2: right decisions, development is at the end.
39:22
Speaker 3: Fashion you're building cities. You're designing cities, and I want
39:28
Speaker 3: to know, how do you design.
39:31
Speaker 5: A city that is reflective of the African identity and
39:35
Speaker 5: that inclusive in terms of community education, capacity transfer and
39:45
Speaker 5: all the social infrastructure that we need.
39:49
Speaker 2: Well, it's easy for me because I'm African and I
39:53
Speaker 2: came back more than fifty years ago, so I know
39:59
Speaker 2: what my people need because I'm part of the people.
40:02
Speaker 2: So to me it's easy. I mean, but in being African,
40:07
Speaker 2: don't forget that you are part of the modern world.
40:11
Speaker 2: My best friend is chat gipt serious. Yes, yes, yes,
40:19
Speaker 2: So you should avoid saying, well, this is Africa, Africa Africa. No,
40:24
Speaker 2: Africa is part of the world. And chat Gipet was
40:28
Speaker 2: more than I how to mix some things. Well, there
40:32
Speaker 2: are a lot of things that I know modern need.
40:34
Speaker 2: But you know, you have to leave your world. You
40:39
Speaker 2: have to leave your time and your time. I'm sorry.
40:45
Speaker 2: It's chat. JIPT is part of it. And unless you
40:48
Speaker 2: integrate it in your thoughts in whatever you're doing, you
40:53
Speaker 2: know that this is progress. You cannot stop it. I
40:58
Speaker 2: used it a lot, you know. I was giving the example.
41:01
Speaker 2: The other day. I was in Kinshasa and I had
41:05
Speaker 2: to rush to come back because it was my former
41:09
Speaker 2: president Abdugyuof's birthday and I wanted a song for abdud
41:16
Speaker 2: So I asked Chad Gpt, can you make a poem
41:20
Speaker 2: for him? In one minute, I had the poem and
41:25
Speaker 2: then I say, hey, listen, can I have the music
41:29
Speaker 2: with it? Two minutes I have the music and then
41:33
Speaker 2: I said listen, I want the music to be played
41:36
Speaker 2: by robots. And five minutes after I had the Roberts
41:40
Speaker 2: playing the music. Now you want me to leave that
41:43
Speaker 2: because that's technology and be writing for two weeks or
41:48
Speaker 2: two months like Yousouldu would do. No, that's finished.
41:56
Speaker 1: You. Last night we got to saw some of the
41:59
Speaker 1: future visions for the car. Specifically, I wonder where the
42:03
Speaker 1: inspiration came from because it feels futuristic, and that goes
42:09
Speaker 1: back to the vision. So what was that process where
42:11
Speaker 1: the inspiration come from. I think we saw it was
42:14
Speaker 1: a gory tower. We're just super impressed by it. So
42:18
Speaker 1: how do you come up with the ideas?
42:20
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think when I do those things, it
42:23
Speaker 2: just comes natural. Because when I take my pen, I know,
42:29
Speaker 2: it's just I don't even think. It just comes. You
42:33
Speaker 2: do this and you do it, but you always I
42:38
Speaker 2: always have the will to develop the continent. This is why,
42:50
Speaker 2: for example, in one of the pictures didn't show good
42:53
Speaker 2: because of the screen that was too large, but you'd
42:59
Speaker 2: see the map of Africa. I do a lot of
43:02
Speaker 2: things with the map of African So you saw did
43:07
Speaker 2: you see the bab ocean bab? If you see it here,
43:12
Speaker 2: if you have two minutes, I'll show it to you.
43:17
Speaker 2: Ocean Baobab comes from the inspiration of the palm in Dubai.
43:23
Speaker 2: The palm is the palm. The palm is the palm. Yeah,
43:33
Speaker 2: the palm is the palm. And the same people, because
43:36
Speaker 2: you know it takes a lot of technology to do that,
43:40
Speaker 2: the same people who did the palm in Dubai will
43:46
Speaker 2: be doing with us, our own entrepreneurs. The mixture will
43:52
Speaker 2: be doing this Bobab amazing, and this is how you
43:58
Speaker 2: mix things the way it should be.
44:01
Speaker 1: They had the marina had the poorest, and they've been
44:04
Speaker 1: saying it, this is the closest destination from America.
44:09
Speaker 2: Absolutely, well it's a little I'll show you where the
44:12
Speaker 2: closest destination to the continent is. This is just this
44:16
Speaker 2: is about well two kilometers away because this is at
44:20
Speaker 2: the point of the car in front of Gore. The
44:23
Speaker 2: story behind Ocean Baobab is that this leave came out
44:27
Speaker 2: of Goret from the small gate to the small door,
44:32
Speaker 2: and he comes back with technology, with development, and he's
44:37
Speaker 2: re entering Goret by the big gate. That's why you
44:41
Speaker 2: saw the big tower Goret out. They came back here
44:47
Speaker 2: and this is what they came. They came from here
44:50
Speaker 2: and this is what they bring to the war. Going
44:53
Speaker 2: back to Gore, you'll see the story. But but that's
45:00
Speaker 2: and again what people don't know. I'll show you what
45:06
Speaker 2: we call smart islands, and these are things that you
45:11
Speaker 2: people going back to America can help you know that
45:14
Speaker 2: the future is of course with big datas. The new
45:24
Speaker 2: data center will be the big brothers, and we're developing
45:29
Speaker 2: in the sea what we call smart Island, Smart Island.
45:38
Speaker 2: I'll show it to you if you have a minute.
45:40
Speaker 2: Smart Island wants to develop the future of Africa in
45:48
Speaker 2: an island with the shape of Africa. And what people
45:54
Speaker 2: don't know is that building that island on the sea,
46:00
Speaker 2: the land is cheaper than the land on shore because
46:08
Speaker 2: in that area the land have taken so much value
46:14
Speaker 2: that it's very difficult to acquire a piece of land there.
46:18
Speaker 2: But if we build an island, the island is twice
46:22
Speaker 2: cheaper than the But you have to know it. If
46:26
Speaker 2: you don't know it, you cannot say it. So I'll
46:30
Speaker 2: show you Smart Island. Where I need your help is
46:33
Speaker 2: that we need for example, black folks come here all
46:37
Speaker 2: the time. They go to goy Oh, our ancestors, all this,
46:41
Speaker 2: all that you don't see a penny when they go.
46:47
Speaker 2: How would they take this emotion? She's good and turn
46:52
Speaker 2: it into facts for developments. Again talking about not a vision,
47:04
Speaker 2: but just thinking yesterday you didn't see her. The one
47:09
Speaker 2: of the ladies of Black Panther was there, Wakanda. You
47:17
Speaker 2: know Black Panther. The lady I don't know her name.
47:21
Speaker 2: She came for dinner a year, but come she's the
47:28
Speaker 2: warrior you know she's the number three. You have the
47:33
Speaker 2: black panther. Uh huh, I don't know. I mean the name,
47:41
Speaker 2: why why she was that's the one. She was here,
47:46
Speaker 2: But I didn't anyone, you know, come out. She was
48:03
Speaker 2: there with us. She had the bodyguards, etcetera. She gave
48:07
Speaker 2: me buddyguards. Huh. I mean she's a star.
48:16
Speaker 6: But no, no, no, I didn't well no, i'd probably huh.
48:30
Speaker 2: I don't know. Mons. I mean she gave anybody we
48:36
Speaker 2: even at dinner with the buddyguards. I mean, I mean
48:41
Speaker 2: too means not a problem. But you know, oh wow,
48:44
Speaker 2: I s uncle, say uncle, No, I'm fine. So any
48:58
Speaker 2: other question for this my last question.
49:01
Speaker 1: I just wanted to know how do you think that
49:03
Speaker 1: affected synagogue society, just that one monument that you built,
49:08
Speaker 1: Like what has that done for the country.
49:11
Speaker 2: While people can identify themselves with the monuments, and you know,
49:17
Speaker 2: people are proud to see that, well, there is something happening.
49:22
Speaker 2: And especially the kids, you know, when they tell them
49:24
Speaker 2: that I am the architect, you cannot imagine what happens.
49:28
Speaker 2: You cannot imagine, you know, when you don't interviews play
49:35
Speaker 2: well with me. So you can, especially for the young people,
49:41
Speaker 2: to see that. You know, they all know the Eiffel Tower.
49:47
Speaker 2: Effel Tower is here when they go to Paris. Well,
49:51
Speaker 2: but now they are proud to see that. People come
49:53
Speaker 2: and say, wow, this is the monument of the Renaissance.
49:59
Speaker 2: So yes, it's anything you do that can bring proud
50:04
Speaker 2: and happiness to the people. Why not. But again that
50:11
Speaker 2: I asked for and again I appreciate what you people
50:15
Speaker 2: are doing. You should invite people to come back here
50:19
Speaker 2: because again if I tell you that with this still
50:26
Speaker 2: an aluminum role, you will be generating You could be
50:33
Speaker 2: generating more than fifteen trillion dollars. That means that there's
50:40
Speaker 2: plenty of work for everybody lent and please you will
50:49
Speaker 2: have the expertise and who know the people who can
50:56
Speaker 2: develop this continent. Do everything in the books to bring them.
51:04
Speaker 2: Because the chance, the chances you have acquire wealth in Africa,
51:18
Speaker 2: you cannot have the same chance anywhere else. So again,
51:26
Speaker 2: come back for us to make Africa great again. Thank
51:35
Speaker 2: you so much, Thank you so much, Thank you appreciate
51:39
Speaker 2: Merciboku