Roslyn Mould is the Vice President of Humanists International (2023-). She was Secretary and Chair of the Young Humanists International African Working Group from 2014 to 2019 and a Board Member for Humanists International from 2019 to 2023. She was a member of the Humanist Association of Ghana since it was founded in 2012 and held several positions, including President of the group from 2015 to 2019. She is the Coordinator for the West African Humanist Network, an Advisory Board member of the FoRB Leadership Network (UK), a Board member for LGBT+ Rights Ghana, and President of Accra Atheists. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and Modern Languages.
*Interview conducted in early-to-mid-August, 2023.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Okay! We are here, round two, with the new Vice President of Humanists International, Roslyn Mould, following Anne-France Ketalaer. That might be a good point to start the second session. You made an appropriate commentary to the devotion of Anne-France Ketalaer in her terms as Vice President of Humanists International. What do you take from following her? How do you take that forward in your own style, experience, and knowledge?
Roslyn Mould: Like I said in my speech during the GA (General Assembly), she comes with a lot of grace and wisdom. Her style of leadership is impeccable and she is a very good listener. I learned a lot about decision-making. I will take that with me to learn to be even more patient and to use that grace that comes with that position. I am honored to work with renowned and highly experienced professionals on the Board like Andrew Copson and I learn a lot from them as well. Our CEO, Gary McLelland and the hardworking staff are also an amazing team and their cooperation is very much cherished. However, I also know that I come with being proactive, passionate, younger, coming from another part of the world and being a very open person. That combined with hers should make me a pretty good leader.
Jacobsen: You were mentioning, in the first session, the importance of connecting with and bringing up new generations of young humanist leaders.
Mould: Yes.
Jacobsen: The first 70 years of Humanists International, formerly the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the focus, typically, simply given its formalized structure happened to be Western European and North American. However, there is increasing focus on the global South and the far East in general. How can we build those networks over the following decades in a similar manner or, at least, in their own unique manner to have an integrated structure for the global South and the far East to have robust secular humanist communities?
Mould: Okay, soI was honored to be part of a committee set up years ago within IHEU that helped revise the membership structure. The then Board approved many of the suggestions I put forward. It was exciting when the next General Assembly approved and allowed membership to be more diverse in terms of full members and associates. Now, we have a more robust and inclusive membership, which allows people from all over the world to vote and decide on issues, regardless of the size or income of your group, as long as it fits the requirements. Eventually, under the leadership of Andrew Copson, it became such a way that allowed at least one person from Asia, South America/Latin America, and Africa to be on the board. Now, we also have at least one person between 18-35 to bring a youthful perspective to the board as well. This means Humanists International – its voting majority – decided that it was the way they wanted it to go. I like to think that it came from our members, true Humanists as they are, acknowledging that your right to vote should not be dictated by how much you earn or where you come from but from your dedication and contributions to the Organization if we truly want to practice true Democracy. It allowed myself and others the opportunity to be on the Board, even to a position like Vice President. I am grateful to the entire General Assembly for that. Humanists International has truly become International! More ideas to come, now that there is a more equal playing ground for us, we can help the youth be more active. I think that is what has prepared me for the position as Vice President or even as a board member to be a bigger influence, because you start by being active in your local organizations, then being able to attend these General Assemblies is part of the criteria to be voted in as a board member. Having that experience, being active and involved in our causes and in our international community, and our local organizations, as well as interacting with other members and associates of Humanists International will help a lot and keep the youth better prepared to propel the organization forward. I don’t think it would be advisable for people, in my opinion, who have no higher experience in their local organization or within the Humanists International community, to be on the board and make decisions. That’s what I want to do: Keep the organizations and the youth actively involved and support them in whatever they are already doing. That will give a big boost to the next generation of board members, wherever you come from.
Jacobsen: What were the more surprising moments at the General Assembly, and the World Congress since it was a decade since the last, whether workshops, conversations, meeting people, being voted again onto the board?
Mould: To be honest, this was my first World Humanist Congress. The last one was in 2014. That was when I was first elected for my position within HI and YHI, where I was voted as the Secretary of the African Working Group. I was elected in absentia. Honestly, I’m not the best person to compare Congresses, but I have been to multiple General Assemblies – getting bigger and better. It was really good and there was a huge turnout. Even though it was held in a Scandinavian country, we had more diversity. We hope it gets better. Unfortunately, there were people from Asia and Africa who were refused visas based on their age or some other excuse. Unfortunately, the sad reality for a lot of us from places like Africa. Most people didn’t even need a visa based on where they come from. It is unfortunate that some people were unable to attend. But that’s why we keep working on it. I know this because without Humanists International, I would probably never have been able to travel outside of Africa. I know what it is like to apply for a visa. It is not easy for me either. I also have to cross some hurdles just to be able to attend this Congress. That is one thing we seriously consider as a Board hence the provision of travel grants for some of our members and I hope that it gets better so that we have more speakers and attendees. We had speakers from Africa and Asia. We had influential people like Sandi Toksvig, the Danish-British writer, comedian, political activist and broadcaster , Prof. Sofia Näsström from Uppsala University in Sweden whom I was honored to introduce as the first panelist to the Congress, Abid Raja ( Chair of IPPFORB Steering Group), Nazila Ghanaea ( UN Special Rapporteur for FoRB) and many other very interesting mini-sessions. Everything went as planned and it was a huge success. Everybody had the opportunity to interact with each other. We had a very amazing display of activist art and artwork by Victoria Guggenheim. So many interesting things, I was impressed but there is still room for improvement. I know we can do even better. I am really excited and hope that the next congress in the USA will be even more remarkable, more diverse, more programs, more focused on the members and associates as well, and more welcoming to anyone who is curious to know about Humanism, to know about the international humanist community.
Jacobsen: With respect to Secular Humanism and cultural and national context, you can consider governments, policy, constitutions, social life, etc., as a sort of river that Secular Humanism flows into and is influenced by, so we have a cultural milieu in which these contexts are influenced and the values are rank-ordered, in a way, differently. With that in mind, the African context will differ depending on the country. However, statistically speaking, the African continent and the nation-states within it will have a much different context than countries or nation-states in Asia, in North America, in Latin America, in Europe, etc. What are those contexts in Africa in general that Secular Humanism has an answer for and that Secular Humanism can provide a robust response for improving general human wellbeing and developing a civil discourse around human wellbeing in general?
Mould: I think that Secular Humanism is the best way forward for Africa as a continent. Mind you, Africa in itself is even more diverse in culture from village to village, city to city, country to country. Sometimes, culturally and nationally, we think very differently all around the world. But when it boils down to people, to what we want in our lives, in the pursuit of happiness, we are more similar than we think. I think that Secular Humanism, first of all, breaks those barriers down to the idea of the “human- ” in Humanism. Humans are all the same people. That is one aspect of it. Secondly, Africa is the most colonized part of the world. The duration of colonialism is different from most of the other parts of the world. Secular Humanism is what will help decolonize the negative ideas, the mental barriers, the mental and physical oppression of Africans. We see that from people like Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana; Someone who identified around that time as a secular humanist when he wrote a bit about African Humanism, in his book “Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-colonization and Development with Particular Reference to the African Revolution”. He came up with the ideas on how to govern, how to help decolonize Africans and with five other people, helped to emancipate Ghana out of colonization to become the first African country to gain Independence. This inspired other African countries to rise up including influencing major activists of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement such as Martin Luther King, W.E.B. Dubois, Maya Angelou who visited Dr. Nkrumah in Ghana. So we know that this is the way humanists taught people to stand up for themselves instead of praying to a god to save them. It took the people to bring us out of colonialism. We are still facing the remnants of this colonization in our societies today. We need to continue to promote Secular Humanism to emancipate us out of that. Thirdly, it is about democracy. Humanism supports the philosophy of democracy. Democracy has been a valuable social cause in Africa. For decades, since we got out of slavery, many countries have not enjoyed full democracy. What we have are some leaders who are democratically elected and decide to change or manipulate the systems to their own selfish interests, which leads to coups, civil war, uprisings and protests. Again, it will take Secular Humanism to get us out of it. A lot of our issues when it comes to superstition, religion, and cultural beliefs, it is the key factor leading people to be oppressed, marginalized people, especially women, children, LGBT+ people, the elderly, atheists and minorities, etc. These are not issues that are unique to our side of the world. This is something still happening in Asia and Latin America. If not there, in places like Europe, USA a few hundred years ago. There is a lot we can all do together in defending and promoting Secular Humanism and fighting these issues with logic, reason, and compassion, as a people.
Jacobsen: Ros, thank you!
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Photo credit: Gigi studios, Accra.