Filmmaker Mahen Bonetti of Sierra Leone, Rockefeller Foundation Director Betty Wambui Kibaara of Kenya, and IBM Vice President Solomon Assefa of Ethiopia were honored at the 38th annual Africa-America Institute Awards Gala, which recognizes the vast contributions of Africa and its diaspora around the world.
The awards ceremony took place on Thursday, September 22 in New York City, with 425 guests in attendance, and was co-hosted by marketing executive, entrepreneur and author Bozoma Saint John and New York Times bestselling author, speaker and podcast host Luvvie Ajayi Jones.
Launched in 1984, the AAI Awards Gala is New York City’s most anticipated Africa-centric event. Held during the week of the United Nations General Assembly, the Gala brings together distinguished guests including heads of state, diplomats, government officials, business and civil society leaders, and academics.
This year’s awards ceremony was held face-to-face under the theme “Africa in the World”. This year’s winners, it was explained, are advancing and causing substantial change at the local, national and global levels in their respective fields.
Ambassador of the African cinema
Mahen Bonetti, founder and executive director of the African Film Festival, Inc. and executive director of the New York African Film Festival, received the African Film Ambassador Award. She was recognized for her role as a curator of African films and champion of filmmakers from the African diaspora, as well as for her commitment to creating platforms that give voice to African filmmakers and their work for over 30 years. Founded in 1990, the African Film Festival, Inc (AFF) is dedicated to promoting a better understanding of African culture through film. Its goals: to use African cinema to promote and increase knowledge and understanding of African arts, literature and culture; to develop an audience for African films; and to expand distribution opportunities for African films in the United States and abroad.
Born in Sierra Leone, Bonetti is a film/media consultant, community organizer, and former print editor. Prior to founding AFF, she worked at Young and Rubicam and at Newsweek’s editorial and advertising division. As the founder of African Film Festival, Inc. and the Executive Director of the New York African Film Festival, she curates and facilitates all AFF programming in conjunction with AFF staff and participating partners.
She has served on panels for the PanAfrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, several United States universities, Africa’s U.S. diplomatic offices, among many others. Mahen Bonetti is the recipient of France’s Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres (a distinction awarded by the French government) and she is also a Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Head of IBM’s African labs
The Science and Technology Leadership Award was presented to Dr. Solomon Assefa, vice president of IBM Research, for his work leading IBM’s global activities to develop core technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation, health care and life sciences, computing and nanotechnology.
Dr. Solomon Assefa is a Vice President at IBM Research. He leads the global effort focused on developing core technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation, healthcare and life sciences, computing and nanotechnology. Under his leadership, hundreds of researchers from IBM’s global labs are pioneering disruptive and commercially viable technologies for sustainable hybrid cloud, material discovery for carbon capture, carbon footprint reduction, climate risk and impact modelling, and discovery of therapeutics and biomarkers. In 2021, Dr. Assefa incubated and lead a company-wide taskforce that provided strategic input on IBM’s internal sustainability strategy, and how IBM can become a leading technology provider to enable clients in advancing their sustainability goals. This taskforce informed IBM’s broader strategy that led to a new technology offering called Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS).
Furthermore, Dr. Assefa is responsible for IBM’s Africa labs, located in Kenya and South Africa. He is responsible for fostering local innovation ecosystems by forming new models for partnership with government, industry, academia, non-profits, and start-ups. Under his leadership, the labs have developed scalable technology solutions for emerging markets in areas of financial services, telcos, healthcare, supply chain, energy and utilities, agriculture, and public sector. The Africa labs have also been instrumental in the development of technology in climate and sustainability, thereby not only contributing towards solving Africa’s grand challenges but also serving as a model on a global scale.
Early in his career, Dr Assefa was based in IBM’s iconic Yorktown Heights (NY) Research Lab, where he worked on IBM’s nanophotonics and MRAM technologies with responsibilities spanning scientific research, product development, and technology transfer. In addition, he has also co-authored over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, has over 70 patents granted, and has appeared as a guest speaker at numerous high-profile forums and conferences worldwide, including Davos. His work has been featured in Nature magazine, The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, CNN, Forbes, Technology Review, EE Times, and IEEE Spectrum, among many others.
Dr. Assefa is a recipient of several technical awards including the Technical Accomplishment Award, Corporate Recognition Award, and Invention Achievement Awards from IBM. He was named one of the World’s Top Young Innovators under 35 and received the TR35 awarded by MIT’s Technology Review (2011). He was honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2013. He is an Honorary Professor at University of Witwatersrand (Wits), a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Futures Council. Dr. Assefa is also a member of IBM CEO’s Acceleration Team (AT), where members of the AT are key senior executives who drive IBM’s innovation and growth strategy.
Distinguished Alumna Award
For her part, Betty Wambui Kibaara, director of the Food Initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation and a former fellow of the Africa-America Institute, received the Distinguished Alumna Award, which recognizes an alumna of an AAI program who has made a significant contribution to his or her country or field of work. Betty Wambui Kibaara leads the Rockefeller Foundation’s investments in food systems and its efforts to increase access to nutritious food and improve nutrition.
She is said to be the regional champion for the Foundation’s initiatives to strengthen food security, agribusiness and resilience to the devastating effects of climate change to enable real, sustainable and equitable economic growth.
At its Gala next year, AAI will celebrate its 70th anniversary on September 26, 2023.
AAI connects students and leaders from different sectors, facilitating access to reliable information about Africa and transforming the way we understand Africa and its global diaspora. Over the past six decades, AAI has awarded more than 23,000 scholarships and fellowships to African students. The annual awards gala raises funds to support AAI’s programs and initiatives, such as its work in assisting K-12 districts and schools in the United States to expose students to scholarly and unbiased knowledge about Africa, and the scholarship and advanced training programs for professionals on the African continent.
