TED Talk Analysis: "A warrior's cry against child marriage"

Eighteen year-old and activist, Memory Banda gave a talk at the TEDWoman Conference in May, 2015.  This talk stood out to me the most because of how young, yet powerful, Miss Banda was during this talk.  Memory Banda is from the African country, Malawi, where woman are given little to no rights as individuals.

As such a young woman, Miss Banda truly understands the severe pressure that is forced upon young Malawian girls to marry and become mothers as soon as they reach the age of puberty.  These young girls are forced into sexual relationships sometimes as young as age eleven, and many times find themselves uneducated, unemployed, and helpless as they try to raise a family.  Of course, as children themselves, it is difficult for these girls to raise children of their own, thus developing a pattern of poverty amongst later generations.  Additionally, Miss Banda speaks about "initiation camps" that young girls are forced to go to where they can learn how to "sexually please a man".  This topic alone was enough to keep me interested; however, Miss Banda's passion is what made it so impactful.

Here is a link to the actual TED talk from this past May: "A warrior's cry against child marriage" -Memory Banda

Memory Banda giving her talk on the TED stage.

The only improvements that I believe could be made during her TED talk is that she could have moved around the stage more.  For the most part, she remained in the center of the stage.  Also, Miss Banda could have also used more gestures to liven up her speech and make it even more powerful than it was.  Other than these small adjustments, I believe that Miss Banda's speaking skill are very impressive, especially since English is her second language.
    

Although Miss Banda did not actively move across the stage or physically engage the audience, her words and passion still seemed to inspire the audience.  Because her own sister was forced to attend one of the initiation camps and became pregnant, Memory is very passionate about this topic.  She speaks to her audience with an urgent and confident tone.  Because this talk was presented at a TEDWoman's conference, the audience was primarily female.  It would be safe to assume that many of these audience members could empathize with the young Malawian girls that Miss Banda spoke of.  Some of the audience was probably very aware of the work done by Miss Banda and others may have not known who she was or what she did; however, based on the audience's reaction it is quite clear that everyone was very impacted by what she said in the end.

Overall, Memory Banda spoke very eloquently during her TED talk.  She maintained strong eye-contact with the audience and organized her speech in a clear way.  Miss Banda organized her information to be very impactful in the beginning and the end.  In the beginning, she read a powerful poem from her friend that repeated the phrase "I'll marry when I want".  This poem was the "warrior's cry" as Miss Banda puts it.  Similarly, she ends the speech with the same powerful phrase.

With a little under a million views on TED.com, this talk is not the most viewed or popular talk to ever cross the TED stage, however, I was very impressed done by the work of a girl who was just as old as me.  Listening to her talk as such a prestigious event, was a very eye-opening experience.  I believe that the most important lesson that I can learn from this talk is that anyone can make an impact in the world, no matter how old they are.  Miss Banda changed laws, questioned society, and gave more independence to the woman who were in desperate need of it.