•Jessie (second from right) with other Mandela Washington Fellows.

Since childhood, Mandela Washington Fellow (2015) Jessie Chisi dreamed of telling good stories about Africa. But she had to travel to the United States of America (USA) in order to know Africa. In this write-up, Jessie describes how her trip, coupled with her momentous meeting with President Barack Obama, completely changed her world view. STEPHEN KAPAMBWE retraces Jessie’s memorable experience.

“TRAVELLING to America for the leadership training under the Business and Entrepreneurship track of the Mandela Washington Fellowship was a life-changing experience. I was studying at the University of Texas, which is one of the best schools in the USA,” recalls the young film-maker, who has been credited with using film to foster social change in her home country.
Early this year (2015), Jessie, a budding film-maker, became the first of 21 young Zambians to be selected for a six-week Mandela Washington Fellowship. This followed her successful production of an award-winning documentary about Zambia’s female boxer – Esther Phiri.
The documentary captured the story of Esther, the first woman in Zambia to become a professional boxer who has won world championship titles on seven occasions.
Like Esther’s story which portrayed a woman’s experience in what is seen as a man’s sport – Jessie became known for being one of the first females to enter film-making and for using film to challenge traditional beliefs and stereotypes that limit the advancement of females in the typical male-dominated Zambian society.
“I feel privileged being exposed to America’s top business personalities and for the opportunity to network with amazing individuals. We had peer collaborators that allowed us to learn about the American history, its people and culture,” said Jessie.
The Between Rings producer was selected out 40,000 applicants from Africa who expressed interest in the Mandela Washington Fellowship. She was among 500 young people that were selected from 24 countries representing Africa.
The Fellowship is the flagship programme of the US President’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) and embodies President Obama’s commitment to invest in the future of Africa.
“This experience has awakened the entrepreneurial spirit in me and I believe this is the very spirit that every young person needs, to dream to create opportunities and not just wait for chances to come when they are not there,” Jessie says.
She describes her extraordinary meeting with President Obama:
“I sat there watching President Obama walk in with tenacity, confidence and charisma. I was just filled with joy and gladness like I had been waiting for this all my life. I had never ever imagined that I would be in the same room and breathe the same air with the most powerful man in the world.
“When President Obama began to speak, the power and influence in his voice started resurrecting something in me, a passion that began to rise within. Then I felt like he knew me, like he knew I was the right candidate to be in that room because every word he spoke struck a code,” said Jessie, assuming a look of excitement.
She said President Obama spoke like one who had a deep passion for young people.  She said in his speech, President Obama “beautifully described why Africa needs to invest in young people because they are the future of what the world will look like.
“He said he didn’t make us leaders. He was building on what we already have and I appreciated that a lot,” Jessie said.
On the 5th of August, 2015, at Omnishea Hotels, Jessie gladly received her leadership certificate which was signed by President Obama. She was fully mandated to contribute to national development in whatever capacity she could.
Her completion of the six-week crash programme in business and leadership related disciplines gave her even more reason to dream to view the world with different lenses. She said meeting the most educated and talented Africans in the US made her realise the power of education, the importance of entrepreneurship and need to empower young people and women.
She said for Zambia to develop, it needs all these ingredients and infrastructures in which young people can flourish and explore.
“There is need for Zambia to embrace Information Communication Technology (ICT) and ensure that we too are among these young people who change the world with innovations, such as the likes of Micheal Dell, Steven Jobs and Mark Schugerberg, and it is possible because we have minds which we can use to explore creative ideas when given the opportunity,” she said.
Jessie believes young today are changing the world, especially in the US where she saw that the young people there are custodians of their own communities through the use of technology for innovations, education for development, agriculture for sustainable development, arts for social change and entrepreneurship for creating solutions.
Having been to the US, Jessie has a better understanding of leadership. She said a true leader recognises another leader and builds them up; that a leader will mentor his successors and will share his experiences so that development is fostered. She said leadership inspires growth.
“It is not that I am here to worship President Obama, but he made me see that I am a thinker and that I love to analysing things. That’s what he has done for Africa and at least for me. He has invested well in me and I will do my best to use the tools I have acquired to better my community,” she said.
Jessie said President Obama inspired her and other Mandela Washington Fellows to take ownership of their countries by being responsible for their future.
“He said, ‘You will not only be making a difference in your own countries but you will also be a foundation of a new global leadership’,” she said.
Jessie’s trip changed her perception about everything, including Africa. She admitted that before traveling to the US, she knew less about other African countries.
“YALI bringing us together made me realise we are the Ubantu people. We Africans – whether in different countries or not – have similar problems. So I now see Africa in a totally different perspective. It had to take the trip to USA to know Africa,” Jessie said.
She urged young people in Africa that they should know their history and that of others in order for them to gain advantage in whatever their desired to accomplish.
The YALI programme took Jessie to Texas Austin where she did most of her business and entrepreneurship training. She visited San Antonio, Gorge town, Washing DC and Atalnta.
In Washington, Jessie visited the White House. She also visited the Washington Memorial Park and the place where Martin Luther King Junior gave the famous, ‘I have a dream’ speech.
“I stood there and said my dream too, that Africa will one day be an economic giant,” Jessie said.
Visiting those sites made Jessie realise how rich Zambia’s history and culture is. And yet, the stories behind that history and the culture remain obscure.
That thought encouraged Jessie to get interested in documenting Zambia’s untold history and help preserve the country’s culture through film. She said such documentaries can be used as tools to educate and disseminate knowledge.
“There is need to document all historical events of our heroes and heroines. For example when am coming from the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, I do not want to be welcomed by a statue of a chicken like the one at hybrid turnoff in Chamba Valley. I want a stature of Kenneth David Kaunda and every one entering the country should ask about him, and proudly, we would say he is the founding father of our nation.
“I urge President Edger Lungu to consider putting a stature of our founding father somewhere on the route as we enter our country from the airport. In that way, we will be mandated to talk about our history and be reminded as young people where we come from,” she said.
Having returned from the US, Jessie now plans to combine her film making skills with her passion to rebrand Africa through her AfricCAN project of documenting the many positive entrepreneurial and innovative stories. She said for Africa in general and Zambia in particular, entrepreneurship is a key to development.
She said she wants to document and tell inspirational and entrepreneurial stories that will reflect Africa and Zambia in different light.
She also wants to work towards disseminating information that would enable the world appreciate the beauty of Africa.
“When I was in the USA, I realised that many people know very little about Africa. They actually think Africa is a country with nothing but famine, poverty, diseases and so on.
“I realized that an Africa story is a single narrative that has been taught from one side. We now have to take ownership because if we do not take ownership, someone else will stand up and they will take our story and turn it from being beautiful to being ugly,” she said.
Jessie is this September hosting a film training programme which would run into the Zambia Short Film Festival in October. She hopes to train 24 young people in master classes in film and entrepreneurship.
She has also continued working on marketing the Esther Phiri film which she hopes could win sponsorship for a national wide tour and distribution. The film recently featured at the Zimbabwe Images Film Festival.
She is now working on her next major project – Kwasa Kwasa – which would be produced by INZY. She has just finished writing the script and hopes to start shooting next year.
In the meantime, she is focusing on the AfriCAN project where she intends to champion the entrepreneurial spirit in Zambia in her documentary series. She hopes the production could be screened by national television, ZNBC.