You will be mesmerized by the stories that illustrate the remarkable life of Yene Assegid. Reading Butterflies Over Africa will touch your heart and bring forth tears of joy, compassion and laughter. As you immerse your self in this colorful tale of Yene's life, you will begin to see the world and the continent of Africa through the eyes and heart of this emerging African leader and Global citizen. Her stories are both deeply personal and universal, told in the same voice and style as if you were sitting across the table from this beautiful and courageous women. Yene's vision for the future of Africa and the world is both inspired and pragmatic. Butterflies over Africa represents an innovation in writing on development, weaving personal experience with conceptual innovation, practical thoughts and guidance on new ways to approach human development and understand leadership in African contexts. It tells a story that many Africans working in international development have often not told, about some of the oversights and negative practice in the aid industry. It also proposes a genuinely holistic way of re-conceiving development, as a process of transforming lives.
Butterflies Over Africa:
Perspectives on Changing
and Transforming the Continent
Yene Assegid
“Butterflies Over Africa releases a multi-perspectival view of Africa that unfolds like the life-cycle of the butterfly. In an entertaining and developmental way Assegid reveals her deep kinship with a continent which was her birthplace but is also her heart. Assegid’s observations and reflections come to life through the personal stories she tells, the advice she receives from her grandmother, and the leaderful insights she shares from her integral studies. Butterflies Over Africa offers profoundly new options for transforming a continent that are culturally sensitive, organizationally strategic and globally complex. We would do well to support this leader of leaders.”
Marilyn Hamilton, PhD CGA
Author, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive
Founder & President: Integral City Meshworks Inc.
“Butterflies Over Africa is a vivid memoir, a deep meditation, and a stirring manifesto for Integral leadership in Africa. Yene Assegid is a stirring storyteller, whose poignant memories and vignettes introduce us to a series of amazing characters. In her eyes, the “poor and disenfranchised” of Africa emerge as three-dimensional human beings, and the reader can’t help but begin to share her passionate love for Africa, as she unfolds the evolution of her life mission to create an Integral education for the next generation of African leaders.”
Terry Patten
Co-developer & co-author, with Ken Wilber, of Integral Life Practice
www.integralheart.com
“Butterflies Over Africa represents an innovation in writing on development, weaving personal experience with theoretical frameworks and practical thoughts and guidance on new ways to approach human development and understand leadership in African contexts. It tells a story that many Africans working in international development have often not told, about some of the oversights and negative practice in the aid industry. It also proposes a genuinely holistic way of reconceiving development, as a process of transforming lives and not simply a game of chasing ‘outputs.’”
Jessica Horn
Women’s rights consultant and
philanthropic advisor
“An important and extremely informed new voice for troubled times. Assegid sows stories and with them, nurtures original ideas and philosophies, and does so with enormous passion and disarming honesty.”
Joan Baxter
Author of Dust in Our Eyes: an unblinkered look at Africa
“I have had the privilege on many occasions of being mesmerized by the stories that illustrate the remarkable life of Yene Assegid. Reading Butterflies Over Africa touched my heart and brought forth tears of joy, compassion and laughter. As you immerse yourself in this colorful tale of Yene’s life, you will begin to see the world and the continent of Africa through the eyes and heart of this emerging African leader and global citizen. Her stories are both deeply personal and universal, told in the same voice and style as if you were sitting across the table from this beautiful and courageous woman. Yene’s vision for the future of Africa and the world is both inspired and pragmatic. May this vision inspire you to action and may it be realized in her lifetime!”
Dana Carman
Principal, Pacific Integral
www.pacificintegral.com
“In Butterflies over Africa I saw and relived much of what I had talked about with Yene one evening long ago about making the difference at the point of “contacta” - making the difference with the person here with you at this time, building the connections over space and over time. To build connections, we have to recognize where we are starting from, who we are, where we stand and what we should keep from our heritage and what should be discarded in order to advance to the next level of consciousness. There is no movement/advancement without loss. A swimmer who does not push air out of his lungs pretty soon cannot swim.
“We all have two time frames—our lifetime and eternity.
We have a life time to plant the seed that will grow in eternity.
What is your timeframe?
What is the real time frame of the Integrated Africa? I think we have only just started.”
Rita Mazzocchi, PhD
Human Rights Lawyer