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Leo Mwape’s confident and energetic delivery has been recognized by the speech judges.
The energetic and emotional speech about the racial relationships of teenagers in Palmerston North won the National Award.
15-year-old Leo Mwape won the Tohu Auahatanga Award for delivery at the Race Unity Speech Final in Auckland.
His speech used the puzzle analogy as a way to dismantle racism and previously won the highest honor in the Manawatu Regional Finals in May.
A 11th grader at Palmerston North High School Boys’ High School, Mwape was the youngest speaker of the six national finalists on Sunday after a pool of 21 regional winners competed on Saturday.
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Mwape’s speech had a great impact on the listeners.
Aidan MacLeod, a spokesman for the Baha’i Faith community in New Zealand, said he had heard a lot of speeches over the years, and Leo’s speech was special.
“Leo has taken this idea of racial unity at a very deep level and shared it with us in a beautiful and compelling way.”
Taking advantage of Zambia’s heritage and experience as an immigrant in New Zealand, Mwape spoke with six other high school students at Manukau Institute of Technology’s Daejeon Campus.
His speech encouraged unity by seeing it as a piece of a broken puzzle that allows individuals to be brought back together.
“Our puzzles are completed only when we stand with our arms engaged,” he said.
Warwick Smith / Staff
Mwape giving a speech at the regional final held in Palmerston North in May.
The Baha’i Faith community in New Zealand has organized the Race Unity Speech Awards for 22 years, and for the first time two speakers have been selected as joint national champions. Joe Howells of Kerikeri High School and Cheryl Chand of Solway College in Masterton.
Futy Watson, a spokesman for the Baha’i Faith community, emphasized how this year’s theme – Ngāmatima tinōtering a kotahi – one-handed finger – is how racism is false and harmful.
“If we really understand the unity of mankind, it is clear that everyone must play their part in dismantling racism.
It is neither a Maori issue nor an immigration issue. This is a problem that everyone solves together. “