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The African Leadership Institute is pleased to announce the Associates who have been selected for the 2022 Class of the Tutu Fellowship programme. As has been the case with previous cohorts, the people selected are exceptional emerging African leaders. AFLI received more than 330 nominations of outstanding quality from across Africa, from which the cohort was selected. They are from the following countries: Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. 

A few candidates are included this year who were selected in 2020 but who could not attend that cohort due to COVID restrictions. The selected candidates demonstrate the incredible wealth and breadth of leadership talent that exists in Africa’s young people, which bodes well for Africa’s future.

Five Tutu Fellows are named in the annually released Top 50 Disruptors by The Africa Report.  The report names the top 50 firebrands making waves on the continent, who are 'shaking up the status quo, asking uncomfortable questions, upending business models and fighting preconceptions' and who are 'transforming the African continent. The Fellows are Mitchell Elegbe, Oluseun Onigbinde, Bibi Bakare, Edwin Macharia and Ahmed Zahran. Of the exclusive list, 10% are Tutu Fellows. 

The publication ranks these exclusive 50 individuals based on three factors: innovation, disruption and heft.   According to The Africa Report, these criteria take into account how new the idea is, how big the change is and how many people are impacted.

In March 2020, the African Leadership Institute announced the Associates who had been selected for the 2020 Class of the Tutu Fellowship programme.  As has been the case with previous cohorts, the people selected were exceptional emerging African leaders. AFLI received more than 300 nominees of outstanding quality from 36 African countries, from which the cohort was selected. Before the class could begin, COVID intervened and the programme was deferred until conditions allowed for an in-person convening.

Since that initial announcement of the cohort was made, not all of the candidates were still able to participate in the programme. The names below represent the final cohort who begin the first workshop in the programme in South Africa next week.

2019 Tutu Fellow Akintunde Ayebode has been tweeting about how he experienced the Tutu Leadership programme this past year.  In the past, Fellows have described it as being a deeply personal journey but haven't necessarily been public on social media.   Akin is a Special Adviser for Ekiti State Government, in Nigeria, where he is responsible for leading the state government’s efforts to make Ekiti an attractive destination for investors and innovation driven enterprises.

The cover photo is a tweet of his in which he says: Asked to submit an iconic photo representing our respective countries for a @TutuFellows class. There are many reasons I chose Ken Geiger & William Snyder’s Pulitzer winning photo. What does it mean to you?  The article below is a compilation of some of Akin's tweets about the Tutu Fellowship programme.

Statement by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellows on the unrest in Zimbabwe
17th January 2019

The Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellows of the African Leadership Institute are a diverse group of civic, political and business leaders from 40 African countries, who are concerned with the governance and development of the African continent. We, the Tutu Fellows, are alarmed by the growing unrest in Zimbabwe and, most worryingly, by the Zimbabwean government’s reaction to it. The unrest by ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe is in response to a hike in the fuel price in Zimbabwe, which is now the most expensive in the region.

Archbishop Tutu Fellowship Certificates were awarded to the 2018 Tutu Fellows at an exuberant celebratory event kindly hosted by Lord Hacking at his home in London at the end of an intensive but very rewarding 10-day workshop at Oxford University and in London. Old favourites continued to be amongst the highlights of the week – conducting choristers in Exeter College chapel, Eddie Obeng’s aliens, good kings/queens, warriors and medicine women in Mythodrama’s Henry V, cooking lunch with Caryn and Ros, dining in the House of Lords after a personal conducted tour of the Houses of Parliament, and Andrew Feinstein’s amazing stories of corruption in the global arms trade.

The first workshop of the 2017 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme was held at Mont Fleur Conference Centre from the 22nd to the 29th of April. The 26 Fellowship candidates, selected from more than 300 nominees, were from 11 African countries such as Equitorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Egypt. 

The intensive leadership learning activities at the retreat in the Stellenbosch mountains provided space for introspection and time for friendships to develop among the cohort. This will serve them in good stead when they return home, ready to tackle and make a difference in the challenges of leadership in Africa.

The Financial Times Magazine starts their list like this:  From activists to a Premier League footballer . . . The FT’s Africa team picks the continent’s rising stars.  The three Tutu Fellows included on the list of 25 are:  Amy Jadesimi, Robtel Neajai Pailey, and Lai Yahaya.  Lai is a 2009 Fellow, Robtel was the following year, and Amy is a 2012 Fellow.  They are among stirling company.

We, the Archbishop Tutu Fellows, unequivocally condemn the Afrophobic violence that has erupted in different places in South Africa. We condemn these episodes of violence as much as we condemn the violence experienced by the students and people of Garissa, Kenya; as much as we condemn the violent abduction of the girls in Chibok, Nigeria over a year ago; as much as we condemn war-related rape towards women in different war-torn parts of Africa; and as much as we condemn the violence into which young children are forced to become child soldiers.

10 African countries represented among 23 programme participants

The African Leadership Institute (AFLI) is proud to announce the 2015 intake of selected candidates for the prestigious Tutu Leadership Fellowship. Among more than 250 nominees from 32 African countries, 23 of Africa’s highest potential young leaders were selected to take part in the programme. Spanning more than 15 industries, representing 10 African countries, and ranging from 29 to 40 years of age, the selected candidates demonstrate the wealth and breadth of leadership talent that exists in Africa’s youth.

An entrepreneur who left his career in investment and private banking, Sam Mensah has gone on to create Kisua.com - an international e-tailer of contemporary African fashions and accessories for women. He shares his journey as a businessman following a passion and lessons learned as a leader taking an African brand global: "It's one thing to have an 'a-ha' moment, but it's quite another thing to give up the comfort of a good job." His advice: get comfortable with the possibility of failure.

James Mwangi is a Partner with Dalberg Global Development Advisors and the Executive Director of the Dalberg Group, a collection of impact-driven businesses that seek to champion inclusive and sustainable growth around the world.  James founded and built up Dalberg’s presence in Africa, beginning with the Johannesburg office in 2007, Nairobi in 2008, and Dakar in 2009, and served as Global Managing Partner from 2010 to 2014.

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Aidan Eyakuze, an economist, is a founding director of Serengeti Advisers Limited, a Tanzania-based regional advisory firm in economic and public policy, corporate finance and media analysis. He nurtures a keen intellectual and professional interest in economic policy, financial markets and emerging trends in information and communications technologies and their impact on society. He is also the Associate Regional Director of the Society for International Development (SID).

A dedicated medical doctor, Cephas Chikanda has served in various capacities in both private and public sector organisations, and has worked extensively in the area of HIV/AIDS and development, human rights and health.

Isaac Kwaku Fokuo Jr is CEO of the African Leadership Network and the Co--Founder of the Sino--Africa Center of Excellence, an initiative focused on the exchange of ideas and experiences between China and Africa.