Through crises, the people of Africa are finding solutions. Whether confronting malaria or plastic pollution, individuals are innovating for the future. Kelly Chibale, Rocco Da Silva and Khensani de Klerk are three such trailblazers changing the continent.
“We are Africans standing up and solving African problems,” Kelly Chibale says. A professor of organic chemistry, his team at the University of Cape Town are on the verge of a groundbreaking cure for malaria. Causing the deaths of over 400 000 people in Africa every year, this disease leaves families and livelihoods devastated. Chibale’s medicine is demonstrating efficacy against malaria in all its stages, and trials are ongoing. “We have discovered the first drug for any disease researched and led by an African-based discovery centre,” Chibale says. Ridding the world of this malady will transform life for people across the continent.
While Chibale fights a life-threatening disease, Rocco Da Silva is taking on a sickness plaguing the seas. Every year, approximately eight million pieces of plastic land up in the ocean. This rattled Da Silva, an 11-year-old environmental activist from Cape Town. “It became important to me to clean up our coasts when I saw how bad our coastlines were looking,” he says. “By 2050, it will be more plastic than fish.” Spurred into action, Da Silva started The Future Kids, educating his peers about plastic waste and pollution online. But he realised he needed to do more. Now, Da Silva leads monthly beach clean-ups with his club. Together, this group of passionate young people have cleared more than 1 200 kilograms of waste.
Architect Khensani de Klerk looks to the past in order to create a better future. During South Africa’s apartheid era, laws and policies were introduced to segregate people according to race. “Architecture was used as a tool to divide people,” De Klerk says. “I want to bring people together.” She is the founder of Matri-Archi(tecture), an intersectional architecture collective led by people of colour and dedicated to African city development. They’re mapping out an integrated vision of South Africa’s tomorrow. “My hope is that we can create a city where the pavement is the safest space for all of us to occupy,” De Klerk says.
Chibale, Da Silva, and De Klerk’s dedication to the future keeps them on their chosen paths. Through it all, this innovator, architect, and activist will keep moving forward for the betterment of their continent.
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