By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
The year 2020 was the 250th anniversary of the world’s greatest composer, Beethoven. Many consider Mozart to be the greatest, but his abilities came too easily, he never had to struggle, his music flowed as if from the heavens. Beethoven was mortal, he was human, he struggled. Mozart found composing easy, as if he had a ‘hot line’ to the angels, and indeed if you see his original manuscripts, there are no corrections, he wrote everything down once (when was the last time you wrote an email with no corrections?) - this was an orchestral work with 20 different parts! Beethoven, however, struggled and with errors, scribbles, corrections, angry lines crossing out, starting afresh many times, he forced incredible music out, finally accepting (begrudgingly) that he had gained immortality on paper.
He also suffered mentally and in bodily health. He lost his hearing (yet went onto write some of his greatest works unable to hear a single note!). He moved to Vienna, only to have sleepless nights listening to Napoleon’s armies bomb the outskirts, not once, but twice in his life.
Following a terrible, death defying illness he wrote what is considered by many to be his greatest piece, his Quartet in A minor Op. 132 "Heiliger Dankgesang" putting into music the light prior in the second movement, followed by the incredible third movement, the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ or ‘Holy Thank You’), where he struggles between being thankful for being alive and the terrifying memory of the pain, anguish and suffering he went through as his body fought against death. It is that memory and the contrast between illness, death, and wellness that is almost impossible to imagine, that one hears in this music. The music takes us from near death to life and light, back to death and returns to the light (for those interested hear the changes at 3.11; 5.35; 8.06; 10.23 - you’ll get the idea!), taking us ever onward to the heavens until it finishes higher than we ever imagined possible. Here was a person who had gone through so much darkness, illness, death and yet could still see the light and not only that, but give thanks!
Without doubt, this is a perfect example of the year 2020.
If we go back to January 2020 (the second movement was just coming to a close), we at the Lionesses of Africa Den were excitedly preparing for our Startup Night Africa London Showcase event. An entire evening in front of 300 invited bankers and C-Suite guests to showcase 14 amazing and inspirational Lionesses, in partnership with the UK Government (DIT and DFID) as part of the UK Africa Summit week of event.
This was all part of the Start-up Night! Africa series which are Lioness events which take place in major cities across the world and are designed to stimulate international market access for Africa's exciting next generation of high potential women entrepreneurs.
Indeed at a meeting a month later the HoF spoke to a Director from Chatham House who said that in their follow up survey of their members to find which event was best, the Lionesses of Africa Startup Night Africa London evening was voted head and shoulders above the rest - no wonder with the amazing Lionesses we showcased there.
What we really loved about this event was that during Melanie’s speech she remarked that she had seen a large number of Lionesses in the audience who had clearly flown over, under their own steam, using their own money, to support their fellow members just by being there. Melanie asked all to stand and about 30 fabulous Lionesses rose to their feet. Now that’s community!
COVID-19 then hit shortly after the event (remember Beethoven scribbling away?). Shutdowns, panic ensued, business evaporated, governments followed the science, then didn’t follow the science, then couldn’t remember if they were following the science and so on. The Arab nations have a curse: “May you live in interesting times…”. Well 2020 was certainly ‘interesting’.
At Lionesses of Africa, we immediately started our Business Unusual portal and our membership reacted as they always do, by sharing their experiences, their knowledge and their brilliant help through amazing blogs and videos. Our Ambassadors such as the amazing Hlubi here and Nomalanga here drove home the importance of community at a time when our mental health amongst such death and destruction (both in person and business) will always take its toll on even the most stoic. Melanie explained more here. As an added advantage these also countered the HoF’s terrible sense of humour that was somehow finding its way into our blogs, so thank you again ladies!
Melanie, of course, was inundated throughout 2020 with phone calls, some great as major international companies came forward to assist (shafts of light), but many bad and some tragically worse as Lionesses battled against this unseen enemy, that cut off without warning oxygen overnight and brought destruction to so many (…and dark of Beethoven again). Some Lionesses had demand shock where demand simply died (travel and hospitality), some Lionesses had supply shock where their production could not keep up with demand (PPE manufacturers). Many Lionesses swivelled their business into making PPE or sanitiser and other essential items. All went online. If nothing else Lionesses are nimble.
Rays of light would appear and of course rather than ‘bums on seats’ at our Breakfast Lean-Ins across Africa, we now had zoom mini conferences with 100-200 Lionesses at a time listening to great speakers discussing their experiences, successes and failures, the first of which back in April, as described here by one of our incredible Ambassadors, Nomalanga.
We also had amazing collaborations that sprung up on our Co-Lab pages. Lionesses thinking outside of the box and then moving fast to bring these new products and services quickly to the market and even launching new start-ups. Brilliant!
Such rays of light through the dark.
In June, Temie (surely she has earned the right to be globally known by her first name!) got honoured as the Sub-Saharan African Laureate of the Cartier Women’s Initiative, which brought a huge ray of light into the entire Lionesses of Africa Head Office (‘Den’) and to our membership who all saw this as a chance for celebration.
Proving yet again that she does not sleep, Melanie brought in the Lionesses Den with VW. How amazing was that! Over 400 South African Lionesses went out of their way to produce brilliant and from-the-heart videos of their businesses. Somehow that was whittled down to 30. How the judges cut that to 12 (as shown), a final 3 and then to the winner, Ntokozo Mbuli, we have no idea. But a winner there was. A huge success and for all of those who did not win, the exposure they got was incredible and well earned.
Then came the Harvard conference. Two days of listening to incredible Lionesses, many of them part of the ‘100 Lionesses’ Network, who constantly send the elevator down to assist and guide other Lionesses. Harvard pulled out all the stops for what was again an amazing conference with over 2,000 guests on Zoom or Facebook Live and behind the scenes many Lionesses and Harvard alumni were huddled (via Zoom) discussing various aspects of the modern world and how we (mere mortals) can possibly move business and finance forward for our membership. Academic papers are currently being written by this global leading University that will be shared in 2021.
Announcing that sleep was for losers, Melanie pushed forward our launch of the Absa/Lionesses Xpo, showcasing over 100 inspirational businesses on our B2B platform. Yet again the Lionesses created incredible ‘shop-fronts’ and videos. In addition to which (and we see this every time we launch something new) the community created Whatsapp groups which became red-hot from the discussion, help, suggestions, collaborations and business being done. That is what the Lionesses of Africa is all about, community.
December is where retail makes its bonus and sadly December 2020 was always going to be different. This December, Facebook joined forces with Lionesses of Africa to bring essential online training to the community. For those who have not seen the videos yet, these are brilliant tips and helpful hints to get the most out of selling on Facebook, watch them here.
Yes, it has been a horrific year for all businesses, but if we as Beethoven did, see the light, there is hope…and where there is hope, there is life.
Then incredibly just like his ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ the year ended on a high, a high that we had never before imagined was possible.
Two of the incredible Lionesses who have walked this journey with us for many years, and who were with us in London in January at the Startup Night Africa event were honoured in one of the world’s truly great awards. The Global Citizen Awards.
We could write for days on the incredible way in which both of these inspirational Lionesses have saved lives in both blood deliveries and in becoming a one Lioness Water Utility. We at the ‘Lioness Den’ are in awe and honoured to personally know them and to also have them as members.
They are of course: Temie and Christelle (another who has earned the right to be known globally by their first name), winning the Business Leader Prize and the Cisco Youth Leadership Award. These are truly serious global prizes, and a huge boost to all Lionesses around Africa who struggled through this terrible year. To have two Lionesses win the two global business leadership awards is a massive ray of light within our membership. This is a sign of greater things to come for both Temie and Christelle, and for all of us.
Without doubt we all recognize (as Beethoven did) that within the terrible dark times within which we have just lived, there is light to be thankful for and exactly because of the dark, the light has been, is, and will continue to be - all the more powerful.
Stay safe.