The 27-year-old, who mentions meeting the former South African President in 2008 among her highlights, is Zimbabwe’s sole representative at the Y8 Summit scheduled for London in June.
Mtetwa-Middernacht aims to make the most of the platform, the youth version of the G8 summit, to tell the ‘true African story’.
Ahead of the event, she said youth needed to play a key role in changing the world’s perception about the continent.
“My current concern is that there is still a lot of Afro pessimism around the world, and unfortunately most of the stories told about Africa and Zimbabwe do not portray us in a good light. I acknowledge that we face a lot of challenges, but there are many positive realities that do not get the publicity they deserve. The grass always looks greener on the other side and if we do not realise what we have, we lose our creativity and only aspire to be like the other side,” said Mtetwa-Middernacht.
“Africa is the future. We need to be taking a bigger role in the multilateral decision making bodies. We are at a stage where Africa is no longer willing to be treated as a property, or a geopolitical card, but rather as a key partner in matters of the globe. On a youth level, we have a good opportunity to build meaningful partnerships with fellow youth representatives of other countries.”
She believes the continent is on its way to prosperity and development.
“As we embark on that path, we need to be creative. We need to realise the power of what we have and be confident to use that to assume a model of development.”
Married to a Belgian international and having lived in South Africa, Italy and Belgium, where she now resides, Mtetwa-Middernacht has first-hand experience how the continent and Africans are perceived in Europe.
Mtetwa-Middernacht grew up in Kwekwe and later attended Harare Girls High. She later went to Belgium as a Rotary exchange student, where she studied for a year, living with Belgian host families before returning to Zimbabwe where she did her A levels at the Midlands Christian College. It is while she was at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, pursuing a degree in Psychology that she had the opportunity to meet the former South African president. She later went to the Catholic University in Milan where she studied a Masters in International Relations. During the research period of her Master’s degree she worked in Brussels, Belgium for an organisation called the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples’ Organisation as an intern, after which got a job with Save the Children in Brussels.
“While I have had many challenges, I have also had a lot of opportunities and I suppose that the challenges have largely influenced how I choose to use the opportunities. It is not only about past experiences, it is also about past and present people who have each played their part in the story,” the youth said.
Post published in: News