TANZANIA YOUTH TOLD TO EMBRACE DIGITAL MEDIA

Youth in Africa have been implored to embrace the digital media as a 

catalyst for socio-economic development.

The new media platforms will not only empower the young generation 

but also open them up on their role in a globalized world.

"Media is a tool. Truly stand for it to know who you are and the way 

forward", said Ms Khalila Mbowe,the director of a regional arts festival 

for which ended last Friday January 29th. 

She said digital media was an important tool that will enable the 

continent, youth in particular, to deliver in the 21st century.

The five-day Knowledge, Arts and Networking (KAN) festival, hosted at 

MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation (MS- TCDC), 

featured live music, storytelling and poetry. 

Digital media is any media that are enriched in machine-readable 

formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified  

and preserved on digital electronics. 

Digital media can be defined as any data represented with a series of digits and  refers to a method of broadcasting or communicating information. These includes text,

audio, video and graphics that are transmitted over the Internet for viewing on 

the Internet.

Other highlights of the event included workshops and film screening, 

intergenerational dialogue,innovation, all intended to spur new thinking 

for the young generation.

Ms Mbowe, who is also the CEO of the Dar es Salaam-based 

Unleashed Africa Social Ventures,said she was shocked to hear some 

Tanzanians playing down the country's post-independence 

achievements.

"We have to have away with the colonial legacy. We had no tarmac 

roads in those years. We have to tell our own stories", she said during 

a media segment of the festival.

Nuzulack Dausen,a CEOfor Nukta Africa, challenged the media in 

Africa to create appropriate content for the kids and the youth.

He told an audience at MS-TCDC centre at Usa River outside Arusha 

that the new media contents for Africa should be geared at developing 

skills that will develop Africa's development agenda.

However, Mr. Dausen admitted that there were a host of challenges 

facing media development in Africa due to government-sponsored 

crackdowns.

He cited increased licensing fees and taxation on social media by 

some countries, insisting that this undermined the noble role the media 

is expected to play to bring change.

Carol Ndosi, another key speaker, said digital media can assist the 

youth in the continent to navigate against the challenges facing the 

people of Africa.

She urged the universities and other institutions of higher learning to 

spearhead the drive by being innovative in the courses they offered.

Jerry Muro, the Arumeru District Commissioner, pleaded to the 

workshop artists to ensure their artistic work was fully protected 

against piracy.

MS TCDC acting executive  director Ms Sarah Ezra said the festival 

was also intended to serve as a platform on which individual and 

collective commitments for development are made in alignment with 

the African Union Agenda 2063.

KAN festival was initiated in 2018 as Africa's one-of-a- kind gathering 

where youth, activists, movement leaders, academia, artists, policy 

makers and development practitioners gather.