Atlantic Canada can do much to support African development, N.S. entrepreneur says

Social entrepreneur Alfred Burgesson says the world has a responsibility to help build Africa.

Halifax's Burgesson is the founder and CEO of Tribe Network, an organization that supports Black, Indigenous and people of colour who are pursuing entrepreneurship.

He was a panellist at the recent Tech Connect Africa summit held in Ghana. 

The summit addressed technology, innovation and community engagement for people living around the world who have roots in Africa.

The event was something of a homecoming for Burgesson. He was born in Ghana before his family immigrated to Cape Breton.

He told CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax host Portia Clark he wanted to share the knowledge he has learned in Atlantic Canada to benefit Africa. CBC spoke to him while he was in Africa.

This is a condensed version of their conversation that has been edited for clarity and length.

You're originally from Ghana although you've been here a long time and are a Canadian citizen. What has it been like being back in Ghana?

It's been great. I was born in Ghana and then my family immigrated to Cape Breton when I was younger.

This is my third trip back home since we immigrated to Canada in 2004. It's just been great to reconnect with my family here and just to be in a place where I know I'm home.

Canada is home, too, but here's where my lineage and my ancestry live. So, it just feels really great to be back here soaking in some good weather and great energy.

In many ways, you're a perfect candidate to be building bridges between Ghana and Canada. In what ways are you hoping to do that?

I'm a big advocate for entrepreneurship and innovation through the work that we do at Tribe Network in Atlantic Canada. Our mandate is to support entrepreneurs and we have the privilege of running an organization that has support from government [and] support from industry in Canada.

 I really wanted to share examples of how we're trying to build a thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada.

The infrastructure in Africa is still very much being developed and this is a really great time for new ideas.

I believe there's a massive opportunity for Canada to engage with African countries in trade. When you think about areas like technology, clean energy, agriculture, now is the time where Africa is looking for investors.

I'm definitely making connections and seeing how what we're doing in Atlantic Canada could potentially benefit Africa and vice versa.

That was the focus of a panel that you were part of while you were down there at this conference. Tell us a little bit about the theme in that conversation.

It was really awesome, honestly, to be in a space full of leaders across the world.

We had the presence of Google, LinkedIn, Facebook/Meta, and a lot of African tech founders.

The panel that I spoke on was titled Whose responsibility is it to build Africa? And my general take away was, I believe the global world has a responsibility to help build Africa.

Africa is the second largest continent in the world and it's been affected by the slave trade and a lot of different countries have benefited from that slave trade.

If we want this global world to be a place for everyone, a place where we can all thrive, Africa does need support.

So, I led with that answer. It's going to take the whole world really thinking about how to support this continent as a whole.

But at the end of the day, Africans on the continent are the ones who need to be driving it, because they're the ones that are feeling the daily effects of all that has happened in the past years.

Does that match in some ways or parallel conversations about developments here in Nova Scotia for African Nova Scotian communities that you've also been part of?

Absolutely. Having that sense of identity, having that sense of ownership is really important in being in a place or to calling a place home.

I know that Dalhousie University is an example. They have an incredible initiative they're launching this year where students of African Nova Scotian identity are going to have a chance to take a trip to Ghana and explore educational opportunities in Africa.

So I think it's incredibly important as we build a stronger African Nova Scotian community.

We're talking about a group of people that were brought over during the slave trade and has been contributing to communities in North America [since] before Confederation.

These are communities and people that have, I would say have been underserved and have traumas and I believe having a stronger connection between the African Nova Scotian community and the place of Africa can be instrumental and and should be a part of that healing process.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.