Latest News

2009 Tutu Fellow Dr Julie Makani is on the 2018 list of the 100 Most Influential Africans compiled annually by New African Magazine.  She joins other Fellows in previous years who have been selected for this prestigious list. For years, she has been steadily working towards improving outcomes for people born with sickle-cell anaemia, a condition that disproportionately affects Africans, with more than 210 thousand children in Africa born each year with it.  

She is a Principal Investigator in Clinical Medicine at Oxford University and has researched the genomics of the disease to better understand the genetic and environmental factors affecting sickle-cell disease (SCD).  

Prolific author, academic, political economist and 2015 Tutu Fellow Landry Signé has released his latest book titled: African Development, African Transformation: How Institutions Shape Development Strategy. In it, he makes the case that Africa is home to many of the world's fastest-growing economies. The book traces new continental institutions for development and their capacity to affect economic growth, regional integration, and international cooperation in Africa.

More specifically, Landry examines the role of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA) in transforming African economies and facilitating interstate cooperation.

2017 Fellow Natalie Jabangwe has been appointed to the global Task Force on Digital Financing by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres.  It caps a headline year for Natalie, who is the head of the company she founded, EcoCash.  In 2018, she was an AABLA Young Business Leader finalist, was selected as one of  four Tutu Fellows on the Choiseul 2018 list, and was also selected as a World Economic Forum 2018 Young Global Leader. 

She has also just listed CassavaSmarTech on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, which brings together a mobile money operator, a bank, and various smart tech services under one banner.  The digital task force to which she has been appointed will recommend strategies to harness the potential of financial technology in advancing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

A small farmer development project launched by 2017 Tutu Fellow Samuel Kariuki as part of his Fellowship is bringing new hope to a troubled area of Kenya.  The area is one of the country's most populated rural districts and once a leading coffee producer.  But social decline has led to poverty and hopelessness, something Sam is turning around by giving locals tools to succeed.  In an outgrower program that occurred in conjunction with the Fort Hall Eye project, he recently shared some examples.  One is of a farmer growing organic sweet potatoes.

He said that a typical sweet potato, planted in the traditional way, weighs about 750 grams.  The lead small farmer in his outgrower program has produced a 6 kg sweet potato (see photo top) and over a 90-day period, earned about $3,600 USD from his patch of land. 

2018 Tutu Fellow Alice Namuli partnered with the British Council of Uganda to collaborate on an event titled: Accountable Leadership - a tool for promoting good governance in Uganda for sustainable development.  It comprised a panel that included a Justice Kenneth Kakuru, a judge in the Appeal Court; Asan Kasingye, the Assistant Inspector General of Police; Francis Gimara, a partner in a Kampala law firm; and Perry Aritua, the Executive Director of the Women's Democracy Network.  Alice moderated the panel, which was sponsored by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK and held in Kampala on 6 December. 

She said that the discussion was on how to learn to raise personal accountability in our work, family and communities to better hold leaders accountable.

2013 Tutu Fellow Peggy-Sue Khumalo has been appointed as the new chief executive for Standard Bank's Wealth South Africa Division.  She leaves Investec, where she's been for much of her career, to join Standard Bank in February.  She will be responsible for the South African operations of Standard Bank's wealth business, which includes short and long-term insurance, asset management, pension fund operations, and fiduciary services.  The division serves high net-worth individuals, corporate clients, and commercial and retail clients. It has a footprint in a number of other Sub-Saharan Africa countries as well as international offices in London, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Mauritius and the sum Peggy-Sue will be responsible for will total around R175 billion in earnings.

In a TEDx Lagos talk, 2006 Tutu Fellow Janah Ncube speaks about the power of the general public in directing economic and even political agenda through the concept of collective action. She challenges the audience through case studies that show how collective action can have had significant impact in policy making.

Janah makes the case that Africans can bring changes themselves rather than looking for others to provide solutions or for elected political leaders to do so. She describes the concept of collective action as several individuals working together for the same goal and putting together all their ideas, thoughts, skills and resources towards it.

A mutiny is occurring in the notorious prison in South Sudan called Blue House, where people are being detained without trial.  The prison is also where 2016 Tutu Fellow and peace activist, Peter Biar Ajak, has been held since the end of July 2018.  He has yet to be charged.  News sources say about 200 detainees broke into a weapons store in the prison and are holding two guards.  They are demanding the government provide prisoners with due process. 

The detention centre called Blue House is at the headquarters of the National Security Service in South Sudan's capital, Juba.  A national security service statement released to the media says the standoff began when a prisoner, Keribino Wol, overpowered a guard and seized his weapon. 

2017 Tutu Fellow John-Allen Namu has released a documentary exposing the complicity of individuals in the Kenyan and Ugandan elite in illicit financial flows in support of South Sudan's warlords. John-Allen is an award-winning investigative journalist and the co-founder of Africa Uncensored.

The powerful three-part documentary titled, The Profiteers, is an expose of how South Sudan warlords plunder public resources to live in opulence in Nairobi while ordinary South Sudanese live in abject poverty. The money looted from Sudan's public coffers is then siphoned off to Kenya and Uganda through banking institutions where the cartels are laundering it by investing in other businesses. 

2014 Tutu Fellow Linda Kasonde reflects on her own experiences shattering the glass ceiling in the legal profession in this TEDx talk in Lusaka.  In it, she asks "where are the women?"  Linda shares her journey to leadership, while challenging other women to fulfil their leadership potential.  Linda Kasonde was the first female President of the Law Association of Zambia and is now a partner in a leading Zambian law firm. Leadership in itself is difficult; but when power structures - like the glass ceiling women face - place obstacles in your path, it is that much more difficult.

The Co-Creation Hub, which was started by 2017 Tutu Fellow 'Bosun Tijani, is partnering with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) to launch NimCure, a phone app that acts as a digital patient care tool to promote adherence to treatment of tuberculosis. TB remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide and is considered by the World Health Organisation as one of the most important infectious diseases across most developing nations.  TB is curable but there has been an increase in drug-resistant cases, because patients aren't following their treatment plans. NimCure is an attempt to support and enhance adherence to TB treatment, making outcomes better and  reducing the incidence of drug-resistant strains.

Several Tutu Fellows were involved in the CNBC Africa Celebrates Leading Women in Business series. The series interviewed leading women in business as part of International Women's Month, looking at how Africa’s leading women are redefining business and entrepreneurship across the continent, and more specifically in South Africa. The Fellows involved in the series included Stacey Brewer, Lynette Ntuli, Mandisa Maholwane, and Dr Theo Mothoa-Frendo. Subject matter discussed during the month-long series was wide-ranging.

In a TEDx Maitama talk, 2017 Tutu Fellow Jude Abaga shares with his audience some examples of how much dividing people can affect the outcome of their goals. Jude makes connections in the music business in which he focuses on the importance of collaboration and how other industries can learn from what record labels have been able to do in the music industry so far - as well as how much there is still left to be done.

Jude Abaga also known as M.I, is a Nigerian Hip Hop Artist, lyricist, producer, songwriter and instrumentalist. He’s won numerous awards, including the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009. Jude is the CEO of the record label Chocolate City Music. Moving beyond music, he makes it clear that only by working together as one can the African people continue to achieve more and progress.

2006 Tutu Fellow Aidan Eyakuze is warning Tanzanianians that the loss of open discourse in the country could lead to a breakdown of the country's ability to be fully democratic. Eyakuze, who heads the East African civic organisation Twaweza, begins his piece by ticking off positive campaign promises President John Magafuli kept on rolling back corruption in the country. He goes on to say in his piece in Civicus that the acclaim President Magafuli obtained early in his term when his approval rating soared to 96% obscures other decisions that are troubling.

Three months into his President Magafuli's rule, live radio and TV broadcasts were stopped. Magafuli's government has also banned political rallies and meetings.

2016 Tutu Fellow Peter Biar Ajak has been arrested in South Sudan by the South Sudan National Security Service. He has been held since 28 July 2018 without any charges being made public by the South Sudanese government. He is a Harvard and Cambridge graduate who has worked for peace in South Sudan and built bridges using a common passion in the country, wrestling. He recently formed the Center for Strategic Analyses and Research in Juba, South Sudan, a policy think tank that has at times been critical of the government. Peter has called for a grass roots movement to hold the government accountable on peace and has met with a broad range of groups to promote conversations amongst rivals as a means of establishing trust and a pathway to peace.