The Harambee Award for the Promotion and Equality of African Women has been awarded this year to the philosopher and university professor, Antoinette Kankindi (Nord-Kivu RD Congo), who will receive her prize in Madrid this coming March 14th, at the hands of Her Emminence Doña Teresa de Borbon, Honorary President of Harambee.
Antoinette Kankindi has been Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, for the past 12 years. She is liscensed in Philosophy and Letters as well as Law, and holds a PhD in Political Philosophy.
Professor Kankindi is convinced that it is impossible to improve life anywhere in Africa if we do not work to improve the situation of women and give young people reasons for hope. The woman, she says, is the real engine of Africa.
In 2012, the Integrity Action Foundation sponsored one of her projects on Ethics and Governance, a project about participating in politics with a sense of ethics and service to the citizen.
In 2013, she was invited to the International Seminar on Women’s Leadership held in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Her conference on “Women’s Leadership in Africa” was welcomed with such interest by the countries present that, over the last two years, UAF-A (Fund for Urgent Action-Africa) has funded a program of hers that brings together women politicians, journalists and scientists from different African countries such as Congo, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya and South Sudan. The project aims to impart leadership skills and character to young women as well as provide knowledge of their rights and responsibilities to help improve the means of sustainable livelihood for women and to work with integrity, fighting corruption at all levels of business.
With all of this, Kankindi has earned for herself the Harambee Award for the Promotion and Equality of African Women, sponsored by René Furterer Laboratories.