African Music and Choreography Stars Drum Up Support for Greater Investment in Youth, Agriculture and Rural Development

By Iminza Keboge
Published September 5, 2019

A popular Afrobeat musician and an award-winning choreographer have called upon leaders across Africa to urgently invest in agriculture and rural development to create opportunities in support of the millions of young people who will soon enter the job market.

Mr Eazi (Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade from Nigeria), Africa’s hottest Afrobeat star, and Sherrie Silver, an MTV award-winning choreographer and youth advocate for the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), have made their appeal in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, where they are attending the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), September 3 – 6, 2019.

Silver, who traces her origin to Rwanda, said, “We are going to AGRF to capture the attention of African leaders and to share a message with young people everywhere: our generation can end global hunger, but only if governments invest more in agriculture and the next generation of young farmers.”

According to 2019 Rural Development Report: Creating Opportunities for Rural Youth by IFAD, Nearly a billion of the world’s 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries; about half of them in rural areas where they are most often poor, lack economic opportunities and face constraints to access land, services, technology and training.

It is estimated that 10 million – 12 million young people enter the job market in Africa every year. And in rural areas, agriculture is still the biggest source of livelihood.

“With government investments and policies in support of economic development, agriculture can provide opportunities for millions of young people who might otherwise migrate to nearby cities or further abroad in search of work,” said Silver prior to the meeting.

Mr Eazi and Silver, two Afrobeat stars, are participating in AGRF as part of an IFAD youth-focused campaign called Our Future is Here that includes a TikTok “dance challenge” that calls on people around the world to make their moves matter by recording a 15-second dance video to Mr Eazi’s song, Freedom.

IFAD says the song was specially created by Mr Eazi with the aim of depicting agriculture positively and thus attract young people to farming. The song has also been used to create a campaign video featuring rural youth in an IFAD-supported project in Cameroon dancing with Silver to her choreography.

IFAD projects itself as an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency based in Rome – the United Nations’ food and agriculture hub.