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In this Tutu Talk, 2012 Tutu Fellow and Ivory Coast entrepreneur Swaady Martin says: "What drives me is how do I contribute to make the world a more compassionate and loving place with all the gifts that I have. But also the gifts that I acquire along my journey. How else could we bring more peace?"

TutuTalks are a series collaboration between the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute, and it is a platform for African leaders who embody the values and ethics displayed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu throughout his life of service.

In this Tutu Talk, 2011 Tutu Fellow and Ugandan peace activist Victor Ochen is using his voice of courageous leadership to champion the protection of rights of children and promote the culture of peace and tolerance.

Born in northern Uganda, he spent 21 years amidst violent conflict that displaced over three million people. More than 60,000 people - including his own brother - were forcefully abducted and recruited as child soldiers.

In her Tutu Talk, 2015 Tutu Fellow Dr Kopano Matlwa Mabaso talks about the importance of enabling those around you to for meaningful change.  The South African public health physician and novelist says it is possible to make a difference by showing up and being the best you can be, being honest and working with integrity.  

TutuTalks are a series collaboration between the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute, and it is a platform for African leaders who embody the values and ethics displayed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu throughout his life of service.

2017 Tutu Fellow Mimi Kalinda recounts how the big story that revolved around Archbishop Desmond Tutu as she was growing up was courage, and really being fearless. And also timely leadership. Leadership is contextual and time-sensitive, she says. In this Tutu Talk, hear how Mimi dedicates herself to building a critical mass of African stories that need to be told.  Mimi is a communications professional and entrepreneur. 

TutuTalks are a series collaboration between the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute, and it is a platform for African leaders who embody the values and ethics displayed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu throughout his life of service.

In this TutuTalk in the series collaboration between the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute, Hopewell Chin'ono, a 2008 Tutu Fellow and award-winning Zimbabwean journalist explains how he switched his goals from law to journalism and the ethical underpinning beneath that decision.

In his Tutu Talk titled "The Journalist's Calling - Exposing the truth in the face of oppression", Hopewell says journalists must be driven by a clear understanding of what is right and just to be able to report resolutely on the truth and endure the oppression that ensues.

The first Tutu Talk of 2022 - in partnership with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation - features Aidan Eyakuze, a 2006 Tutu Fellow and Executive Director of TWAWEZA East Africa. Hear how this Tanzanian activist unpacks the essence of courageous leadership and the humility needed to do what is just.

Aidan says that “I took that courage of conviction and action from the Arch. It’s not about you. Humility isn’t about thinking less of yourself. It is about thinking of yourself, less. Understanding you have a deep worth as a human being, talents and skills. Humility is employing those skills for the greater good. From there comes a great strength.”

In a Tutu Talk in December 2021, 2013 Tutu Fellow Catherine Constantinides calls on young people to be active citizens and to commit to social change. 

TutuTalks is a platform for African leaders who embody the values and ethics displayed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu throughout his life of service and is a partnership with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute.

The African Leadership Institute has partnered with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation to produce a series of profiles on Tutu Fellows called Tutu Talks.  The foundation is responsible for preserving the example set by Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the future. 

The first of our 2021 Tutu Talks series features 2017 Tutu Fellow, Samantha Mkandhla, the head of philanthropy and partnerships for Médecins Sans Frontières Southern Africa. In it, she tells of the personal cost of servant leadership, and how she learned to overcome it and still work to make the world a better place. Her talk is called The Power of Duality: Success and Failure. In it, she spoke about how her failures led her to a clearer sense of what she had gained and how much more she had to give.

2007 Tutu Fellow 'Gbenga Sesan, who has been immersed in the tech sector for most of his career, has warned that technology alone isn't a solution to inequality.  Tech evangelists have waxed poetic about the ubiquitous nature of technology might be the rising tide that lifts those in poverty out of that state.  In a TED talk, Gbenga argues that centuries of inequality can't be solved with access to technology alone - as limited as that may be. Instead, improved access must be coupled to training and support too.

Sharing the work behind the Paradigm Initiative, a social enterprise in Nigeria that's empowering young people with digital resources and skills, Gbenga details his vision for creating life-changing opportunities for generations of people across Africa.

2018 Tutu Fellow Omoni Oboli shot an informal video of the first Tutu Leadership Programme workshop at Mont Fleur and its surrounds.  She edited it together afterwards and it includes a candid stream of consciousness view of the workshop. The video shows some light-hearted moments that gently poke fun at the deep moments of introspection that took place among the attendees.

The video includes the group's visit to Robben Island where political prisoners were held during the Apartheid years, sessions in the workshop, and periods when candidates were given time to think in the beautiful surroundings.

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.

Candidates from the 2017 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme cohort were interviewed at Mont Fleur, outside Cape Town, about the first workshop in the programme. Rori Tshabalala says that an element of the programme is the self-reflection required to determine why we choose the paths we do.

Candidates from the 2017 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme cohort were interviewed at Mont Fleur, outside Cape Town, about the first workshop in the programme. Abayomi Awobokun mentioned that an area in which leaders often fail is in thinking sufficiently rigorously about the outcomes that a path of leadership might produce.

Candidates from the 2017 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme cohort were interviewed at Mont Fleur, outside Cape Town, about the first workshop in the programme.  Ahmed Zahran, who is from Egypt, spoke of how the group helped him gain a better understanding of sub-Saharan Africa, of which he had had limited exposure previously.

Candidates from the 2017 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme cohort were interviewed at Mont Fleur, outside Cape Town, about the first workshop in the programme. Hema Vallabh talks about how the Fellowship programme creates an environment in which speakers and fellow attendees provide insights that are discomfiting to taken-for-granted positions.