News
The latest news from the African Leadership Institute and its Fellows. AFLI Fellows are leaders and change-makers, so this section has a lot of news. All text in all of the posts is fully searchable.
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- Written by: Sello Hatang
- Category: News
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It has been one year since students shook up the establishment and called for "fees to fall", and now we find ourselves once again facing a violent confrontation between students, the university establishment and the government.
Underpinning this violence and anger has been the inequality and lack of capacity of the state to provide financial resources and opportunities.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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2019 Tutu Fellow Ronak Gopaldas has delivered a powerful talk about thinking beyond the binaries and embracing Africa’s diversity. He delivered the talk in Cape Town in 2016. At the time, Ronak was the Head of Country Risk at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) in Johannesburg, where he managed a team of analysts who provide the firm with in-depth analysis of economic, political, security and operational dynamics across sub-Saharan Africa.
In his talk he describes his job as a political economist as trying to predict the future without a crystal ball. Ronak has travelled extensively across Africa to identify key country themes and trends, which in addition to a network of contacts and resources, help inform the qualitative and quantitative research the team produces, with the aim of guiding RMB’s strategic investment decisions.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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South Africa has seen a series of protests at a girls' school prompted by enforcement of the dress code, which impacted students who wanted to be able to wear afro hairstyles. In a piece for the BBC, Nigerian novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani questions whether a South African school's hair rules really were racist.
She recalled her days as a student at one of Nigeria's most prestigious boarding schools for girls where rules were rigidly enforced and falling foul of them could result in a shaven head.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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James Mwangi, the Executive Director of The Dalberg Group, says that small enterprise - if it is given the support it needs - has the power to create growth and prosperity for Africa. The 2009 Tutu Fellow said that elements like providing early access to small amounts of capital and mentorship could unlock the potential of entrepreneurship. Innovative solutions to problems facing developing countries were likely to emerge with this kind of support.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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Tutu Fellow Ifeoma Malo was interviewed by This Day Live on her views on renewable energy in a country with a chronic energy shortage. Malo is a former senior policy advisor to the Nigerian government on energy and is now active in advocacy for renewable energy use in countries such as her own and others facing the challenge of meeting growing energy demands. She makes the case that renewable energy is the best solution to Nigeria's struggle to meet its energy needs.
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Written by: Gbenga Sesan
- Category: News
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In a piece I wrote on my blog, I made the point that the visit by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to Nigeria is a big deal. He drew attention to the importance of technology startups, helped validate the country's technology ecosystem, and held high-level meetings with the Nigerian government. Zuckerberg also controls the largest pool of private data in the world of 1.71 billion active users and 1.5 billion mobile users - which is more than the entire population of China or India. His visit has important lessons that must not be lost.
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Written by: Peter Wilson
- Category: News
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The African Leadership Institute will have a new Chief Executive Officer starting 1 October 2016. The Board of the African Leadership Institute in South Africa has appointed Dr. Jacqueline Chimhanzi as CEO. Jackie Chimhanzi is a 2010 Tutu Fellow and has been a member of AFLI's Board for several years. Her involvement at Board level and being a Tutu Leadership Fellow enables her to enter the post with considerable knowledge and understanding of the various dimensions of the job.
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Written by: Peter Wilson
- Category: News
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Twenty three dynamic young leaders were awarded their Tutu Leadership Fellowship certificates last month at a farewell dinner hosted by Lord Hacking at his home in London, having completed the six-month, part-time programme with an intensive but richly rewarding ten-day workshop in Oxford and London. This immensely rich and varied programme has made a deep impression on the graduating Fellows. A couple of comments illustrate the impact:
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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Social media in Lagos erupted after police and heavy equipment showed up and a short while later began demolishing a street of shops and small businesses in Ikoyi. Among them was one owned and very recently opened by 2014 Tutu Fellow Ada Osakwe. The shop, Nuli Juice, was just six weeks old. Local news reports report that officials said the landlord had been given notice after non-payment of taxes. Osakwe said that she had paid all taxes relevant to running an eatery with no notification of impending action.
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- Written by: Neema Ndunguru
- Category: News
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The 2016 class of Tutu Fellows offered a vote of thanks to the leadership of the African Leadership Institute at the farewell dinner at Lord Hacking's house. It follows:
Two quotations mark the point of departure for this vote of thanks.
- On our first day in Mont Fleur, Stellenbosch, in South Africa, Peter Wilson said: “This is more than just a programme. This is a learning opportunity”.
- During the day spent at the Investec offices in London on the last day of the Programme, in speaking about the importance of enjoying the work you do, Ciaran Whelan – Investec Global Head of Private Banking, said: “Life is too short to have another bad day.”
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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South Sudan has been troubled by war since it's inception. 2016 Tutu Fellow Peter Biar Ajak has been trying to bring a measure of peace between the sides through a common passion - wrestling. During the recent cease-fire brought about by the stuttering peace process, he was given just days to organise a wrestling tournament. At the last moment, nervous government officials wanted to cancel it, but wrestlers from both camps wanted to know from the President, "Is he against peace, or is he against wrestling?"
This documentary, by VICE Sports, covers the tournament.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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Students who attended the Visiola Foundation's 2016 STEM Summer Camp for teenage girls impressed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and American ambassadors when they visited Abuja, Nigeria. One of the projects the girls had was to make a robotic forklift (see video below). The Visiola Foundation was founded by 2014 Tutu Fellow Lade Araba. It educates high-potential girls and young women in the STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering & Math) fields to build a pipeline of leaders and innovators who will help to transform African countries.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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2016 Tutu Fellow Amanda Gicharu-Kemoli has been recognized by the Anita Borg Institute, winning the 'Change Agent' category in their annual GHC ABIE awards for 2016. The Anita Borg Institute is a nonprofit organisation focused on the advancement of women in computing. It seeks to connect, inspire and guide women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative. Founded in 1997 by computer scientist Anita Borg, the organization is active in more than 65 countries.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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2016 Tutu Fellow Succès Masra has been appointed to the Presidential Task Team team at the African Development Bank that has been tasked with delivering the New Deal on Energy in Africa. The team will be in charge of projects like Inga Hydroelectric, which will be the largest of its kind on the continent, and the African Renewable Energy Initiative. Masra, the Principal Energy Economist at the bank, will play a pivotal role in mobilizing capital for financing of the energy projects that will be part of this project's portfolio.
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Written by: Norman Smit
- Category: News
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Shared working spaces are one of the ways in which startups can keep costs down while simultaneously working in an environment providing networking opportunities and a sense of community. Tutu Fellow Zied Mhirsi co-founded a space called Cogite in Tunisia, which has been listed as one of the top ten co-worker spaces in the world.
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- Open letter to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
- Tanzania's next 1,600 days with 'The Bulldozer'
- African fashion featured in Forbes
- Democracy, good governance & the Rule of Law in Zambia
- Tutu Fellow nominated for Peacemaking Award
- Tutu Fellow on Forbes’ Most Promising list for 2016
- 2016 Tutu Fellowship Workshop at Mont Fleur
- Introducing the 2016 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Cohort
- Tutu Fellow elected 1st female president of Law Association
- Nigerian community divided by Boko Haram