158. African Perspectives: Ako Essan Emile Shares his Experience Growing up in Cote d’Ivoire

Empathy Media Lab

Ako Essan Emile is from Cote d’Ivoire and is currently based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a Senior Project Manager for Search For Common Ground. Ako was a 2019 Obama Foundation Leader for Africa. He was also a 2019 Institute for Economics and Peace Ambassador, and a 2015 Young African Leaders Initiative Washington Fellow.

I met Ako around the 2015 elections in Cote d’Ivoire to document Ako’s work around a community radio station promoting peaceful messages ahead of the country’s presidential election. That experience taught me a lot about the history of Cote d’Ivoire and I’m lucky to have become friends with Ako Essan Emile. You can see a video of his work here.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Growing up in Cote d’Ivoire and the influences that led him to peacebuilding;
• His experience during the violence following the 2010 election and his work peacebuilding around the 2015 elections;
• Policies that can improve the economic prosperity for the people of Cote d’Ivoire;
• His essay titled, What if Houphouët-Boigny was not the man of peace we were made to believe?; and
• What Americans should know about Africa.

You can follow Ako’s work through the following links:

• seniorako.wordpress.com
• https://twitter.com/seniorako

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