Miami University hosted renowned speaker and human rights activist, Naomi Tutu, daughter of former South African Archbishop and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu, Wednesday evening at Hall Auditorium.

The South African native presented "Urembo: Growing Economies in Various African Countries." Tutu emphasized how seriously she regards the issue of Africa's portrayal to the rest of the world as being exclusively negative.

While introducing her speech, Tutu clarified the word "urembo" translates to "beauty" in Swahili, and she used this objective as a message throughout her speech.

"I am struck that all we see in Africa is the problems," Tutu said. "I want to focus on African economic success stories, as Africa is becoming a growing economic power."

Tutu also shared personal anecdotes referring to her experiences in local communities throughout Africa and outlined the improving economies of various territories such as Angola, Cameroon and Uganda. Tutu said the populations of these nations are independent and self-reliant.

Tutu said despite the economic recession prevalent in the Western world, Africa is establishing itself as a crucial component to globalization, particularly due to its abundance of raw materials and resources.

Tutu also focused on the role of women and their contributions to the growing economic success of Africa.

"I would ask the local women what they did and they would respond, 'Nothing,'" Tutu said. "So I decided to follow them throughout their daily routine, and their 'nothing' really wore me out."

Tutu said the negative representation towards Africa is detrimental and has a significant impact.

"We disservice Africa when we portray Africa as a failure," Tutu said. "People in these African communities are helping themselves."

Junior Andrea Messmer attended the lecture and said she agreed with Tutu's standpoint on the issue of Africa's distorted reputation.

"I realized the extent to which we are kept in the dark about achievements that have been made, and are only exposed to the negative issues," Messmer said. "It makes sense that our perception would be skewed."

Messmer also said she supported Tutu's argument that Africa's success can be attributed to its collaborative dynamic and functioning.

Sophomore Tyeisha Cole, an urban and regional planning major, said she is responsible for bringing Tutu to Miami as a result of her concern that students were receiving the wrong perception of Africa's economy and as an attempt to incorporate more appreciation of the African culture on campus.

"I wanted a speaker to talk about the growing economy of Africa and focus on the positive aspects of it as opposed to only the negative ones," Cole said.

Cole said the department of geography, the geography urban regional planning society, the Miami African Student Union and AIESEC all sponsored the lecture.

Cole said she hopes, as a result of the lecture, Miami will not only be more conscious of the advancements being made in Africa but will incorporate the culture into its academic realm.

"With Miami being 87 percent Caucasian and having so many students that study abroad, it is important to consider different cultures while deciding where to study," Cole said.

Also, a petition to develop Swahili as a foreign language class to be offered at Miami was available to all audience members that attended the lecture, Cole said.

Along with the petition, the lecture featured a podcast created by Cole, displayed before Tutu's speech, highlighting the advantages for students to study abroad in Africa.

"Learn from Africa," Tutu said. "Learn what it means to be a community."