In theatre, they say “the world is a stage” and in life, we say that we attract what we think of and what we draw attention to.
It was in 2019 when I first heard of the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG). In my mind, I thought it was a university where one goes to attain a degree, a Master’s or even a PhD. So I gave it a shot and applied for the seventh AfriSIG while still at the foundation stage in the internet governance space and just an ordinary officer at the Internet Society (ISOC) Namibia chapter.
I surely feel like I undermined this ecosystematic (if there is even such a word, “LOL”) AfriSIG university, as my engagement in AfriSIG 2021 surely proved a lot of knowledge and connections gained through the two weeks of online training. Unfortunately I did not make it through for the 2019 fellowship. When this year’s call opened, I remember seeing the call, but it totally slipped my mind until the closing date on 23 August.
I remember emailing Koliwe [Majama, the AfriSIG coordinator] on the closing date, pleading if I could still submit my application. Luckily I was given time to submit before 30 August. That week I reached out to a professor that I look up to for advice and guidance, Prof. Shava from the Namibia University of Science and Technology. I wasn’t sure what to say to her in such a short time and I just gave it a shot and reached out. She was very helpful and came to my rescue in such a short time with a recommendation letter. I remember sitting down the evening of the 26th writing that application like someone who was writing a state of the nation address speech for a president, working on every detail of my application.
Read the full blog post on the AfriSIG website.
Image: Elgin Theatre, by Viv Lynch via Flickr Commons.