Latest News

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.

This essay was submitted by Chude Jideonwo as part of the required work associates must complete during the Tutu Leadership Programme.  AFLI typically posts a selection of the top essays in each year, and this is one of them.

Defining success in leadership within the African continent – or even outside of the continent – is no easy task, considering what it may entail to approach consensus. It would be different – and easier – if we tried defining effective leadership.

For instance, the question: who is the poster figure for successful leadership? And by what measures are these successes defined? Economic growth; increase in purchasing power; obeisance to the rule of law;  freedom – in all its true expression; improved human security; happiness and improvement in the quality of life of the average citizen?

With the 2018 Tutu Fellowship programme having come to a close, the small group of 26 young leaders who made this year's journey of discovery, self-reflection, and growth are sharing the impact it has had on their lives.  The Tutu Leadership Programme seeks to provide the candidates selected for the programme with tools for life-long reflection and decision making as servant-leaders in their various walks of life across the continent. 

The words of some of the members of the Class of 2018 illustrates how they experienced the Tutu Leadership Programme.

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 Archbishop Tutu Fellows are a strong network of exceptional young African leaders from 42 countries, with a shared commitment to help transform Africa, our continent. The Tutu Fellows are deeply concerned about the arbitrary arrest and detention of youth activist Dr Peter Biar Ajak and re-iterate their call for his immediate release.  Peter Biar Ajak, a 2016 Tutu Fellow, is an academic and peace and human rights activist. He is the coordinator of South Sudan Young Leaders Forum, Senior Adviser for the International Growth Centre and Founder of the Juba-based Centre for Strategic Analyses and Research. He was also instrumental to the development of South Sudan Vision 2040.

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.

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.

The African Leadership Institute report, An Abundance of Young African Leaders but no Seat at the Table, will be launched at Strathmore University, Nairobi on August 28, 2018.  It is the result of funding from the Ford Foundation with AFLI as the grantee and Strathmore University as its partner.

For Africa to realise her full potential, leadership initiatives that focus on the targeted development and the continuous nurturing of young people’s leadership capacities are crucial. Whilst a plethora of leadership development offerings exist on the continent, there has not been, to date, a holistic view of what these initiatives are. This study, therefore, represents an important step towards filling gaps in extant knowledge.

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.

Later this month, Moroccan King Mohamed VI will travel to Nouakchott, Mauritania to participate in the 31st African Union Summit. It will be only the third summit that Morocco has attended since its re-admission to the African Union in early 2017.

Morocco withdrew itself from the African Union (the Organisation of African Unity; OAU) in 1984 to protest against the admission of Western Sahara as a full member of the organization. Morocco's relationship with Western Sahara is a complicated one. In 1975, Morocco invaded the territory following the withdrawal of the Spanish colonial administration.

By day, 2015 Tutu Fellow Wiebe Boer is an impact investor who works with partners to increase access to commercial energy products and services.  By night - or in his spare time - he is a Nigerian football historian. 

Dr Wiebe Boer's latest work on Nigerian football, a book titled The History of Football In Nigeria - A story of Heroes and Epics, is to launch in Lagos on 10 June 2018.  It's been favorably reviewed by no less than Aliko Dangote, the President and CEO of the Dangote Group. 

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.

2017 Tutu Fellow Stacey Brewer will be opening her 16th educational facility in 2019 in Witpoortjie, South Africa. Stacey is the co-founder of SPARK Schools, an independent school network that she started in 2012 with Ryan Harrison. They believed that an innovative approach could disrupt the crisis in South African education and dedicated themselves to creating a new model that would provide access to high quality education for all.  The network keeps school fees as low as possible. Despite this, the network has schools rated among the top 10 private schools in Johannesburg.