It began with one question: If Africa was a bar, what would your country be drinking or doing?
一切从一个问题开始：如果非洲是个酒吧，你的国家在喝什么、干什么？
I kicked it off with a guess about South Africa, which wasn't exactly according to the rules because South Africa's not my country.
我先写了一个对南非的猜测，其实这并不太符合规则，因为南非不是我的祖国。
But alluding to the country's continual attempts to build a postracial society after being ravaged for decades by apartheid,
但是这个猜测影射了南非的持续努力，在被种族隔离政策蹂躏了几十年后，它想打造一个后种族歧视的社会。
I tweeted, #ifafricawasabar South Africa would be drinking all kinds of alcohol and begging them to get along in its stomach.
我发了一条推文：#如果非洲是个酒吧，南非一口气喝干了各种各样的酒，然后苦苦哀求把它赶紧消化掉。
And then I waited. And then I had that funny feeling where I wondered if I crossed the line.
然后我就开始等。我突然有那种奇怪的感觉，怀疑自己是不是有些越界了
So, I sent out a few other tweets about my own country and a few other African countries I'm familiar with.
。然后，我又发了几条有关自己国家的推文，还有一些我比较熟悉的非洲国家。
And then I waited again, but this time I read through almost every tweet I had ever tweeted to convince myself,
然后我又开始等，但是这一次，我几乎读完了我曾经发过的所有推文，以此说服自己，
no, to remind myself that I'm really funny and that if nobody gets it, that's fine.
不对……是提醒自己，我其实很幽默，如果别人看不懂，那就算了吧。
But luckily, I didn't have to do that for very long. Very soon, people were participating.
但是幸运的是，我并不用这样长时间提醒自己。人们很快就参与进来了。
In fact, by the end of that week in July, the hashtag #ifafricawasabar would have garnered around 60,000 tweets,
事实上，就在七月那周的周末，那个推特话题#如果非洲是个酒吧大概已经产生了6万条推文，
lit up the continent and made its way to publications all over the world.
它点燃了整个大陆，而且出现在了全世界的各类刊物中。
People were using the hashtag to do many different things.
人们在用这个话题标签做各种各样的事情。
To poke fun at their stereotypes...
调侃自己国家的陋习...
To criticize government spending...
批判政府的财政支出...
To make light of geopolitical tensions...
调侃地缘政治的紧张局势...
To remind us that even in Africa there are some countries we don't know exist...
还有人提醒我们，有些非洲国家即使是非洲人也没听说过...
And also to make fun of the countries that don't think that they're in Africa...
同时也调侃那些自认为不属于非洲的国家...
And to note the countries that had made a big turnaround...
而且还提到了一些做出重大转变的国家...
But most importantly, people were using the hashtag to connect. People were connecting over their Africanness.
但更重要的是，人们在用这个话题标签来交流。人们交流他们内心的非洲特质。
So for one week in July, Twitter became a real African bar.
就在七月的一周时间里，推特变成了一个真正的非洲酒吧。
And I was really thrilled, mainly because I realized that Pan-Africanism could work,
我真的很兴奋，主要是因为我发觉泛非主义是真实可行的，
that we had before us, between us, at our fingertips a platform that just needed a small spark to light in us a hunger for each other.
在我们面前，在我们指尖，就是一个平台，只需要一点火花，就可以点燃人与人之间的渴望之情。
My name is Siyanda Mohutsiwa, I'm 22 years old and I am Pan-Africanist by birth.
我的名字是希杨达·莫胡提瓦，我现在22岁，从出生起就是泛非主义者。
Now, I say I'm Pan-Africanist by birth because my parents are from two different African countries.
我说自己一出生就是泛非主义者，是因为我的父母来自两个不同的非洲国家。
My father's from a country called Botswana in southern Africa. It's only slightly bigger than Germany.
我的父亲来自一个非洲南部的国家，名叫博茨瓦纳。它只比德国稍大一点。
This year we celebrate our 50th year of stable democracy. And it has some very progressive social policies.
今年我们庆祝了祖国获得稳定民主50周年。而且它提出了不少进步的社会政策。
My mother's country is the Kingdom of Swaziland.
我的母亲祖国是斯威士兰王国。
It's a very, very small country, also in southern Africa. It is Africa's last complete monarchy.
它是个很小的国家，同样在非洲南部。它是非洲最后一个完整的君主制国家。
So it's been ruled by a king and a royal family in line with their tradition, for a very long time.
它由国王和皇室所统治，长久以来都依照他们的传统行事。
On paper, these countries seem very different. And when I was a kid, I could see the difference.
从表面上看，这两个国家看上去很不同。当我是个孩子的时候，我就可以看到二者的差别。
It rained a lot in one country, it didn't rain quite as much in the other.
一个国家下雨下得很多，另一个国家下雨没那么多。
But outside of that, I didn't really realize why it mattered that my parents were from two different places.
但是除此之外，我并没有深刻意识到我的父母来自两个不同国家这有多么重要。
But it would go on to have a very peculiar effect on me.
但是随着时间推移，它对我产生了很特殊的影响。
You see, I was born in one country and raised in the other.
要知道，我是出生在其中一个国家，但是在另一个国家长大。
When we moved to Botswana, I was a toddler who spoke fluent SiSwati and nothing else.
当我们搬家到博茨瓦纳，我是个小孩儿，可以说流利的西斯瓦提语，除此之外就没了。
So I was being introduced to my new home, my new cultural identity, as a complete outsider,
我来到我的新家园，接受新的文化身份，完全是作为一个外来人，
incapable of comprehending anything that was being said to me by the family and country whose traditions I was meant to move forward.
我根本不能听懂对我所说的任何话，而这个家庭、这个国家的传统都是我必须要接受的。
But very soon, I would shed SiSwati.
但是很快，我就抛弃了西斯瓦提语。
And when I would go back to Swaziland, I would be constantly confronted by how very non-Swazi I was becoming.
当我每次回到斯威士兰的时候，我都会深切感受到自己变得多么“非斯威士兰”。
Add to that my entry into Africa's private school system,
还要加上一点，我进入了非洲的私立学校系统，
whose entire purpose is to beat the Africanness out of you, and I would have a very peculiar adolescence.
它的唯一目标就是把你的非洲特质去除掉，正因如此，我度过了一个特别的青春期。
But I think that my interest in ideas of identity was born here,
然而我对个人身份研究的爱好就是在这里产生的，
in the strange intersection of belonging to two places at once but not really belonging to either one very well
我处在一个奇怪的交叉路口，似乎同属于两个不同地方，却又不真正属于其中任何一个，
and belonging to this vast space in between and around simultaneously.
又好像更属于二者之间空旷、虚无的空间。
I became obsessed with the idea of a shared African identity.
我对共同的非洲身份这个想法产生了浓厚的兴趣。
Since then, I have continued to read about politics and geography and identity and what all those things mean.
自此之后，我不断地阅读有关政治的文章，还有地理、身份认知，努力搞明白这些都意味着什么。
I've also held on to a deep curiosity about African philosophies.
我同样对非洲哲学有着强烈的好奇心。
When I began to read, I gravitated towards the works of black intellectuals like Steve Biko and Frantz Fanon,
当我开始阅读的时候，我特别倾向于阅读黑人学者的一些作品，比如史蒂夫·比可和弗朗兹·法农，
who tackled complex ideas like decolonization and black consciousness.
他们研究了复杂的话题，比如说去殖民化问题，还有黑人意识运动。
And when I thought, at 14, that I had digested these grand ideas,
当时14岁的我觉得自己已经消化了这些宏大的想法，
I moved on to the speeches of iconic African statesmen like Burkina Faso's Thomas Sankara and Congo's Patrice Lumumba.
我就转而研究非洲著名领导者的演讲，比如说布基纳法索的托马斯·桑卡拉，还有刚果的帕特里斯·鲁姆巴。
I read every piece of African fiction that I could get my hands on.
我阅读过了我能得到的所有的非洲小说。
So when Twitter came, I hopped on with the enthusiasm of a teenage girl whose friends are super, super bored of hearing about all this random stuff.
于是当推特出现时，我就带着年轻女孩的热情欣然加入了其中，我的朋友们早就对我乱七八糟的话题感到烦躁了。
The year was 2011 and all over southern Africa and the whole continent,
那年是2011年，那时整个非洲南部，甚至是整个大陆，
affordable data packages for smartphones and Internet surfing became much easier to get.
都有了智能手机的流量包，还有网络冲浪资源，这些都更容易获取了。
So my generation, we were sending messages to each other on this platform that just needed 140 characters and a little bit of creativity.
所以对于我这一代人，我们在这个平台互相发消息，只需要140个字符还有一丁点创意。
On long commutes to work, in lectures that some of us should have been paying attention to,
在去上班的通勤途中，在我们本应集中精力听讲的课堂上，
on our lunch breaks, we would communicate as much as we could about the everyday realities of being young and African.
在我们的午休时间，我们尽可能多地交流，讨论作为年轻人、非洲人所要面对的日常现实。
But of course, this luxury was not available to everybody.
但是当然，这种奢侈不是所有人都能享受的。
So this meant that if you were a teenage girl in Botswana and you wanted to have fun on the Internet, one, you had to tweet in English.
所以这意味着，如果你是博茨瓦纳的一个十几岁女孩，你想在网上找点乐趣，首先，你得要用英语发推。
Two, you had to follow more than just the three other people you knew online.
其次，你要关注更多人，不只是你所知的两三个能上网的人。
You had to follow South Africans, Zimbabweans, Ghanaians, Nigerians.
你要关注南非人、津巴布韦人、加纳人、尼日利亚人。
And suddenly, your whole world opened up. And my whole world did open up.
突然，你的整个世界都打开了。我的整个世界的确打开了。

I followed vibrant Africans who were travelling around the continent, taking pictures of themselves and posting them under the hashtag #myafrica.
我关注了许多活跃的非洲人，他们环绕非洲大陆旅行，他们给自己拍照，然后分享到推特上，标记了话题#我的非洲。
Because at that time, if you were to search Africa on Twitter or on Google or any kind of social media,
因为在那个时候，如果你在推特或者谷歌，或是其它社交媒体，
you would think that the entire continent was just pictures of animals and white guys drinking cocktails in hotel resorts.
搜索非洲的内容，你觉得整个大陆都是各种动物的图片，或者白人在度假村喝鸡尾酒的情景。
But Africans were using this platform to take some kind of ownership of the tourism sectors.
但是非洲人利用这个平台，在这些旅游信息中找寻某种意义上的归属感。
It was Africans taking selfies on the beaches of Nigeria. It was Africans in cocktail bars in Nairobi.
尼日利亚的海滩上，是非洲人自己在自拍。内罗毕的鸡尾酒吧里，是非洲人自己在品酒。
And these were the same Africans that I began to meet in my own travels around the continent.
而在我自己的环大陆旅行中，这些非洲人也正是我所遇到的人。
We would discuss African literature, politics, economic policy.
我们会讨论非洲文学、政治、经济政策。
But almost invariably, every single time, we would end up discussing Twitter. And that's when I realized what this was.
但是每次都不可避免的，就是讨论到推特。那时我才发觉这真正的意义。
We were standing in the middle of something amazing,
我们正处于一个伟大的事物之中。
because for the first time ever young Africans could discuss the future of our continent in real time,
因为历史上第一次，非洲的年轻人可以实时讨论我们大陆的未来，
without the restriction of borders, finances and watchful governments.
而且没有国界、经济状况限制，也没有小心警惕的政府盯着。
Because the little known truth is many Africans know a lot less about other African countries than some Westerners might know about Africa as a whole.
因为并没什么人知道，很多非洲人对其它非洲国家的了解，其实少于一些西方人对整个非洲大陆的了解。
This is by accident, but sometimes, it's by design.
这其实是个意外情况，但是有时，这都是设计好的。
For example, in apartheid South Africa, black South Africans were constantly being bombarded with this message
例如说，在种族隔离政策下的南非，南非黑人要持续地接受一种暗示，
that any country ruled by black people was destined for failure.
就是任何被黑人统治的国家，都是注定要失败的。
And this was done to convince them that they were much better off under crushing white rule than they were living in a black and free nation.
这么做是为了说服他们，他们生活在一个受白人压迫统治的社会，比一个黑人统治的自由社会要更好。
Add to that Africa's colonial, archaic education system, which has been unthinkingly carried over from the 1920s
再提一提非洲过时的殖民性教育系统，它被人不经思考地从20世纪20年代带到现在，
and at the age of 15, I could name all the various causes of the wars that had happened in Europe in the past 200 years,
在我15岁的时候，我就可以背出欧洲过去200年里所有战争发生的原因，
but I couldn't name the president of my neighboring country.
但是我连我的邻国的总统名字都不知道。
And to me, this doesn't make any sense because whether we like it or not, the fates of African people are deeply intertwined.
对我来说这简直无比荒谬，因为不管我们喜不喜欢如此，非洲人民的命运是紧紧交织的。
When disaster hits, when turmoil hits, we share the consequences.
当灾难来袭时，当骚乱发生时，结果由我们所共享。
When Burundians flee political turmoil, they go to us, to other African countries.
当布隆迪人逃脱政治骚乱时，他们寻求我们帮助，寻求其它非洲国家的帮助。
Africa has six of the world's largest refugee centers. What was once a Burundian problem becomes an African problem.
全世界大规模的难民中心，非洲占了六个。曾经的一个布隆迪问题，变成了整个非洲的问题。
So to me, there are no Sudanese problems or South African problems or Kenyan problems, only African problems because eventually, we share the turmoil.
所以对我来说，没有什么“苏丹问题”，没有“南非问题”、“肯尼亚问题”，只有“非洲问题”，因为最终，我们要共同度过灾难。
So if we share the problems, why aren't we doing a better job of sharing the successes? How can we do that?
所以，如果我们共享这些问题，为什么我们没有更好地共享我们的成功呢？我们怎么能做到呢？
Well, in the long term, we can shoot towards increasing inter-African trade,
从长远来看，我们可以努力增加非洲国家之间的贸易额，
removing borders and putting pressure on leaders to fulfill regional agreements they've already signed.
消除国界差异，然后给各国领导者施压，让他们努力完成他们签署的地区协定。
But I think that the biggest way for Africa to share its successes is to foster something I like to call social Pan-Africanism.
但是我认为非洲分享成功的最重要的方法，就是促进一种我称为“社交泛非主义”的思想。
Now, political Pan-Africanism already exists, so I'm not inventing anything totally new here.
目前，政治上的泛非主义已经存在，所以我并不是在发明什么新东西。
But political Pan-Africanism is usually the African unity of the political elite.
但是政治泛非主义一般指的是非洲政治精英的合作。
And who does that benefit? Well, African leaders, almost exclusively.
这又对谁有好处呢？几乎只对非洲领导人有好处吧。
No, what I'm talking about is the Pan-Africanism of the ordinary African.
不，我在讨论的，是普通非洲人的泛非主义。
Young Africans like me, we are bursting with creative energy, with innovative ideas.
像我这样的非洲年轻人，我们充满了创造的能量，富有创新的想法。
But with bad governance and shaky institutions, all of this potential could go to waste.
但是糟糕的统治和不靠谱的制度，会让这种潜能全部白费。
On a continent where more than a handful of leaders have been in power longer than the majority of the populations has been alive,
在这个大陆上，有许多国家领导人，他们在位的时间，比大陆上大多数人的寿命都要长，
we are in desperate need of something new, something that works. And I think that thing is social Pan-Africanism.
我们极度渴望一些新鲜血液，一些有实效的东西。而我认为，这种东西就是社交泛非主义。
My dream is that young Africans stop allowing borders and circumstance to suffocate our innovation.
我的梦想，是非洲的年轻人不再受国界和个人处境所限制，我们的创造力不被其扼杀。
My dream is that when a young African comes up with something brilliant,
我的梦想，是当非洲年轻人产生了一个新颖的想法时，
they don't say, "Well, this wouldn't work in my country," and then give up.
不会被人嘲讽，“这想法不可能在我们国家实现的”，然后就此放弃。
My dream is that young Africans begin to realize that the entire continent is our canvas, is our home.
我的梦想，是非洲年轻人逐渐开始意识到，整个大陆都是我们的画板，是我们共同的家园。
Using the Internet, we can begin to think collaboratively, we can begin to innovate together.
利用因特网，我们开始用合作方式思考，我们可以共同开拓创新。
In Africa, we say, "If you want to go fast, you go alone, but if you want to go far, you go together."
在非洲，我们常说，“你想走快些，就得自己走；你想走远些，就得一起走。”
And I believe that social Pan-Africanism is how we can go far together.
我相信社交泛非主义就是我们可以一起走远的道路。
And this is already happening. Access to these online networks has given young Africans something we've always had to violently take: a voice.
而且这已经在发生了。非洲年轻人接触到了在线网络，获得了一种曾经要武力夺取的东西：自由之声。
We now have a platform. Before now, if you wanted to hear from the youth in Africa, you waited for the 65-year-old minister of youth --
我们现在拥有一个平台。在此之前，你如果想了解非洲青少年的状况，你要等那个65岁的青年部长--
to wake up in the morning, take his heartburn medication and then tell you the plans he has for your generation in 20 years time.
早上从床上爬起来，吃了他的胃药，然后才慢慢告诉你，接下来20年他对年轻一代的计划。
Before now, if you wanted to be heard by your possibly tyrannical government, you were pushed to protest,
在此之前，如果你想你的声音被专制的政府听见，你就被逼着去游行，
suffer the consequences and have your fingers crossed that some Western paper somewhere might make someone care.
还要承受可能的后果，还得交叉手指默默祈祷，希望某家西方的媒体会做些报道，吸引某些人的关注。
But now we have opportunities to back each other up in ways we never could before.
但是现在，我们有机会互相支持，而且以一种前所未有的方式。
We support South African students who are marching against ridiculously high tertiary fees.
我们支持南非的学生，他们正在游行反抗价格高得离谱的高等教育。
We support Zimbabwean women who are marching to parliament.
我们支持津巴布韦的女性，她们反抗国家的议会。
We support Angolan journalists who are being illegally detained.
我们支持安哥拉的记者，他们被人非法扣押。
For the first time ever, African pain and African aspiration has the ability to be witnessed by those who can empathize with it the most: other Africans.
有史以来第一次，非洲的痛楚、非洲的理想，能够被那些最能感同身受的人关注：非洲的其他同胞。
I believe that with a social Pan-Africanist thinking and using the Internet as a tool,
我相信，利用社交泛非主义的思维方式，并且借助网络工具的力量，
we can begin to rescue each other, and ultimately, to rescue ourselves. Thank you.
我们可以开始拯救他人，最终，拯救我们自己。谢谢。