Mazaga Road is a real, listed street in Kano City — chosen because TEDx events are rooted in genuine local communities, not broad or borrowed identities. TEDx naming conventions require a specific, real, place-based identifier, and Mazaga Road clearly identifies a real, local community and audience.
Our mission is to create a trusted local platform where diverse, idea-driven voices from Mazaga Road and nearby communities in Kano can share original, well-prepared ideas that inspire learning, connection, and action.
Our vision is to make TEDxMazaga Road a respected community-rooted TEDx event that reveals the brilliance, creativity, and forward-thinking ideas already present in our local environment — and helps move them from conversation into wider impact.
What's the difference?
TED vs. TEDx
TED is a global nonprofit behind the annual TED Conference and TED.com — "ideas worth spreading," produced by TED itself, with talks watched hundreds of millions of times worldwide.
TEDx is TED's program for independently organized local events. TEDxMazaga Road is not run by TED headquarters — it's locally organized. TED provides the rules, brand standards, and a global platform; our community provides the ideas and the execution. The full licensed name, TEDxMazaga Road, is always used in full.
Why Kano
A thousand years of ideas, dyed into the cloth.
Kano's urban history stretches back over a thousand years — the Ancient Kano City Walls were already rising between 1095 and 1134, among the most impressive monuments in West Africa. Kano's long heritage of trade, craftsmanship, scholarship, and commerce makes it a deeply appropriate setting for an event built around ideas and local community thinking.
Nearby, the Kofar Mata dye pits have spent centuries turning indigo into cloth — one of the oldest continuously operating dyeing traditions in West Africa, closely tied to Hausa craftsmanship and the Kano textile trade. TEDxMazaga Road carries that same spirit of local craft, ideas, and forward-thinking enterprise into 2026.
Core values
What guides every decision.
Integrity
We follow TEDx rules fully and protect the trust of our audience.
Local relevance
We prioritize voices and ideas genuinely connected to our community.
Excellence
Every talk is rehearsed, every detail considered.
Diversity of ideas
Our program spans many subjects, perspectives, and kinds of speakers.
Editorial independence
Sponsors don't control content. Speakers are chosen for their ideas.
Respect
Every speaker, partner, and audience member is treated with care.