Africa is the forward that the world needs to face PIUS ADESANMI obtained a First Class Honours degree in French Studies from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, a masters degree in French Studies from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a PhD in French Studies from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Adesanmi has since pursued a career as a scholar of Francophone and Anglophone African and Black Diasporic literatures, politics, and cultures. He is a Professor of English and African Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. A widely cited commentator on African affairs, he has lectured widely in Universities in Africa, Europe, and North America. One of Nigeria's contemporary leading public intellectuals and celebrated columnists, Among his numerous lecture and keynote credits, Adesanmi has notably addressed audiences on African issues on such prestigious platforms as the Stanford Forum for African Studies, the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation's annual lecture series, the International Leadership Platform of the university of Johannesburg, the African Unity for Renaissance series of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute and the Africa Institute of South Africa, the Diaspora Consultation series of the African Union Agenda 2063, and the Academy of Science of South Africa series. He has just completed a one-year stint in Ghana as a Carnegie Diaspora Visiting Professor of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. Adesanmi is also a writer. He is the internationally-acclaimed winner of the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing (2010) in the non-fiction category with his book, You're not a Country, Africa. His first book, The Wayfarer and Other Poems, won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize in 2001. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx