CEU this year joined the growing list of leading universities in the world that send their students of African origin to the HBWS. To qualify to attend the prestigious Harambe Bretton Woods Symposium, a student of African origin studying in a university outside Africa presents their initiative in an elaborate application procedure and from this pool of applicants; only thirty of the initiatives are selected for presentation at the HBWS. The growing list of universities that send students to the symposium includes Cambridge University, Oxford University, Warwick University, Stanford University, John Hopkins University, Harvard University, Yale University, Peking University to mention but a few. The key factor in the application process is a dream and feasible initiative that contributes to the political, social and economic development of Africa.This year’s symposium started at Yale School of Management on the 30th of March, moved on to the Harvard School of Design on the 31st, before taking the hike to Mt. Washington Resort for the last two days. The symposium is a unique blend of entrepreneurial energy, a networking and connection-harnessing opportunity and an instructive process for a young entrepreneur, irrespective of the stage at which they have reached to develop their initiative. I was also able to recite a rhythmic narrative to the class titled; “The Sun is Speaking” as the Symposium closed.
In the four days, we listened to several speakers talk about business in Africa, about social entrepreneurship and social change and how we the African youth have all it takes to set the ball rolling. Lord Michael John Hastings, KPMG’s Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity and a member of the World Economic Forum implored us to overlook cynicism, quoting Mahatma Ghandi’s famous “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” statement. Lord Hastings was not alone, Ms. Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank Vice President for Africa also talked about the crucial role that youths can play in bringing social change in Africa, beyond the statistics of economic growth to meaningful governance and societal cohesion.
The initiatives of the HEA 2012 Associates as they are known in Harambe jargon, range from a communication platform that will use ICTs (especially the mobile phone) to facilitate constant communication between governments and the citizens in Tanzania, the enabling of communities to build “biodigesters” to produce affordable, ener¬gy-efficient, and reliable biogas as an alternative source of energy in South Sudan, a footwear brand of international standard made from the world’s finest leather in Ethiopia, “a forum for farmers” where technology on how to improve productivity will be discussed prior to implementation in Ghana, a blood pressure device that enables people to remotely record their blood pressure to be made in South Africa and my own initiative that will harness the potential of indigenous knowledge through writing and art to contribute to social-political and economic development of society among other initiatives. 
The gold in the HEA is in the connections one makes at the HBWS and the network. Not a month after the event, arrangements to partner with some of the amazing people I met at the symposium with whom we have similar interests are almost complete. As was said over and over again at the HBWS, quoting one of the Harambe Associates of yesteryears, Harambe does not teach how to fish; it gives the fisher-man/woman a fishing rod and a water-body. It is however to the CEU Rectorate that I reserve the most gratitude. The personal and institutional support I received from the CEU Rector/President, Prof. John Shattuck in more ways than one made it possible for me to attend the HBWS and I am convinced that in future, other CEU students will follow the path. As the HBWS Declaration which we signed at the Symposium reads, “the Africa our generation desires can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, and it is ours.
Bwesigye Brian LLM – Human Rights—Uganda
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