Cornhusker Speech and Debate is excited to host Christian Bahire and Sandrine Umubyeyi from the iDebate Global Debate Series for a virtual debate on Friday, February 18 at 1pm.

Christian and Sandrine will be debating Senior “Andy” Andromede Uwase and Junior Nicholas Wallenburg from the Cornhusker Speech and Debate Team. Both Andy and Nick have been recognized as top speakers this season, participated in multiple elimination round debates, and will both represent the university as the National Forensic Association tournament in April.

iDebate will argue in favor of the motion that: “This house would make foreign aid contingent on human rights records.” Nebraska will oppose.

The debate will be livestreamed on the Global Debate Series channel on YouTube (https://tinyurl.com/GlobalDebateSeries2022).

The Global Debate Series is organized by iDebate Rwanda, an NGO that is using debate to change the lives of young Rwandans and East Africans. iDebate Rwanda gives students the tools to change their own world by teaching them how to think critically how to solve problems creatively and how to how impact their own society.

Started in October 2012 by former debaters who plan on sharing the knowledge that they acquired in debate with their community, it has grown into a series of global debates with University debaters across the United States. Due to the impact of COVID-19, those events have moved online and received thousands of views through broadcast and on YouTube.

Cornhusker Speech and Debate hopes that the debate will spark interest and excitement for a future time when we can welcome the team to campus in person and host dialogues about the importance of debate as a pedagogical activity and its importance to civic society.