New African Magazine has published its list of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2017.  Two Tutu Fellows are on the list, both from the class of 2012. They are Julie Gichuru and James Mworia. New African magazine says that among the people on their list there is a deaf, blind Harvard University law graduate activist, an attitude-changing teen dance troop from a Ugandan slum, a Mauritanian modern day slavery abolitionist hero and renowned business magnates, political heavyweights and showbiz stars. 

2009 Tutu Fellow Dr Theo Mothoa-Frendo has founded and launched a company that offers a skincare range specifically for African skin, called Uso. The company, African Dermal Science, describes itself as a South African, black female owned business, focused on the research, development and manufacturing of advanced skin and healthcare solutions targeted at addressing the specific needs of Africans.

2017 Tutu Fellow Mimi Kalinda has launched a new radio show called Talking To Africa on Africa Business Radio.  Broadcasting weekly on Wednesdays in the afternoons, Mimi discusses with guests the narrative of Africa.

She asks questions such as what is the current narrative, who shapes it, how does it impact the continent’s development and what can be done to ensure Africans own their own storytelling tools and platforms.

In an essay in African Business, 2014 Tutu Fellow Linda Kasonde says that the role of governments is to manage institutions that promote development, good governance and the rule of law, while making efforts to empower their citizens and increase their role in the governance of the country. This is not only because that is in line with modern trends, but also because it is necessary in any country aspiring to attain the highest standards of economic development, democracy and good governance.  She makes the point that without the rule of law in democratic governance, Africa risks seeing the sun set on gains made through democracy on the continent.

2010 Tutu Fellow Eric Kacou has joined forces with Hassan El-Houry to write a book on some of the difficulties facing aviation in Africa and how it could revitalise African economies.  Titled Fly Africa: How Aviation Can Generate Prosperity Across the Continent, the book highlights how aviation could become one of Africa’s greatest strengths, underpin its economic growth and connect it with the rest of the world. Africa’s aviation industry currently trails much of the world, and although Africans make up 12% of the world’s population, they are only 2% of its flying passengers.

2010 Tutu Fellow Bright Simons is one of four people selected by the Tallberg Foundation as a 2017 Tallberg Global Leadership laureate. The Tallberg Foundation was founded in 1981 to address the systemic challenges resulting from an increasingly globalised world.  The foundation described Bright Simons as the founder of mPedigree and a technologist and social innovator from Ghana known for his combination of business with social activism and knowledge-driven public advocacy for improved governance at multiple levels of society.

2012 Tutu Fellow Swaady Martin has published a children's book titled Malaika and the Angel.  The book series is a collection of spiritual tales, suitable for children of all ages, from five onwards. For younger children, beautiful watercolor illustrations are the gateway to the stories that parents can use to their own imagination. The title character, Malaika, is a normal young girl who is open to the reality of the spiritual world. When Rafiki, her guardian angel, makes its presence known, she is bursting with questions. The stories provide a memorable trip with Rafiki, where Malaika is introduced to new experiences that will change her life forever.

For millions in Zimbabwe born since liberation, the ZANU-PF government led by 93-year-old Robert Mugabe is the only government they have known. So the removal of President Mugabe from power by the military this month has been a watershed moment.  With long-time government insider Emmerson Mnangagwa now the new President, Zimbabwe is wondering if the country will continue the trajectory it has held under ZANU-PF, or if the country will chart a new positive course. 

The anti-corruption children's book, Gbagba, by 2010 Tutu Fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey has been adapted and turned into a stage play.  The play, which has an all-child cast, made its debut in September 2017 at Monrovia City Hall in Liberia. The children in the ensemble cast were trained for five months by premiere theatre company, Flomo Theatre.  Gbagba is a Bassa word which loosely translated, means 'trickery' or, 'corruption'.  In the book and its stage adaptation, children navigate the confusing ethical codes of the adults in their lives, in places as diverse as traffic jams, schools, churches and markets. The children express clearly and honestly the concrete ways in which gbagba hurts rather than heals society.

2017 Tutu Fellow Hema Vallabh has been recognised at this year's Fortune: Most Powerful Women in Business for 2017 and presented with the Fortune/Goldman Sachs Global Leader's Award. The event took place in Washington, DC on 10 October.  Fortune's Most Powerful Woman founder Pattie Sellers presented her with the award. 

This year, the excesses of gender inequality has rocked Fox News, Uber, and the Weinstein Company, in which powerful men have taken advantage of women or created workplaces hostile to gender equality.  So for Forbes to feature 2014 Tutu Fellow Samuel Mensah - along with three other men in South Africa - a country hardly known for gender equality in business, says something of their credibilty.  Mensah is the co-founder of the leading African fashion brand, Kisua.

Two Tutu Fellows are collaborating on a pioneering and ambitious agribusiness training programme.  They hatched the idea last year, when 2015 Fellow Martin Mbaya and 2013 Fellow Nuradin Osman got chatting at the 10-year celebration of the Tutu Leadership Fellowship at Nirox Foundation Park.  The new AGCO agribusiness qualification will develop skills, leadership and strategic expertise in youth to support the African agricultural sector at a time when farmers are being asked to do more with less.

There was a time when Africa was the destination of investment from external investors for a variety of reasons. The sluggish global economy and a variety of other factors make that kind of investment landscape one that can no longer be counted on, and it has had a negative impact on a number of African country's economies. But 2010 Tutu Fellow Lerato Mataboge writes that the reduced external investment in Africa may provide the pain that African countries need to reimagine the way in which they do business with each other. 

There is no such thing, of course, as a 'grey rhino'.  2009 Tutu Fellow James Mwangi writes that he came across the the term in a piece on business in China and that he found it instructive.  In the piece, a grey rhino was analogous to highly probable, high-impact threats that people should see coming, but don't.  Writing about the threat of 'grey rhinos' in Africa for African Business, he looks at some of the factors that should be obvious to governments across the continent and which they have failed to address. 

Mo Ibrahim addressed the 2017 Tutu Fellows in the UK during their second workshop, covering some of the more vexing questions facing African leaders today.  The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he leads, was established in 2006 to improve governance and leadership in Africa. Ibrahim spoke on leadership challenges in Africa and on opportunities and challenges facing the private sector.