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The first workshop of the 2016 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme was held at Mont Fleur Conference Centre from 23 to 30 April. The 23 Fellowship candidates, selected from over 250 top quality applicants, came from 11 different African countries as far afield as South Sudan, Chad and Somaliland. However, after 8 days of intensive leadership learning activities at this beautiful retreat in the Stellenbosch mountains, they left as a cohesive and enthusiastic body ready to tackle and make a difference in the challenges of leadership in Africa. Further work awaits them before the second workshop in Oxford and London in early September, but the Mont Fleur experience was a very memorable one, as it has been for the 10 previous Fellowship classes. The candidates were not only encouraged to reflect on the leadership challenges of Africa by renowned African business and civil society leaders, and by political leaders such as Trevor Manuel and Jay Naidoo, but they were also enticed to reflect on their own leadership through carefully structured experiential learning exercises, which teased out some thought provoking self-reflection. The attached photos capture some of spirit of the week at Mont Fleur.

Linda Kasonde has been elected President of the Law Association of Zambia during the association’s fifth annual conference at Livingstone’s Avani Victoria Falls Hotel. Kasonde beat two other contenders to become the first female President of the association. She takes over from George Chisanga who had completed his term of office.

The 2016 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme will be taking place near Cape Town soon. The 2016 candidates make up a strong cohort that bodes well for the future leadership of Africa. The biographies of the 2016 group follows.

BBC News is carrying a series of letters from African journalists and recently carried a piece by novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani on Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency. Nwaubani, an AFLI Leadership for Change Fellow, travelled to the Nigerian town of  Michika and found it split on grounds of ethnic and religious lines.

 Tutu Fellow Jacqueline Musiitwa has written an article for This is Africa in which she examines the role of Chinese immigrants in Africa.  In partnership with Hangwei Li, the article looks at what Chinese immigrants are doing in the face of the global slowdown.  Chinese migration to Africa swelled during the boom years when China was undergoing rapid expansion. 

The World Economic Forum has announced the 2016 Young Global Leaders.  Of the 11 selected by the WEF, five are Tutu Fellows and Associates, a powerful affirmation of the impact of the African Leadership Institute's programs.

WEF describes their list of Young Global Leaders as 'Brilliant scientists. Emerging entrepreneurs. Tech investors. Activist MPs' that represent the most innovative, enterprising and socially minded men and women under the age of 40 who are pushing boundaries and rethinking the world around them. WEF says that this year’s class of Leaders gives hope to tackle the world’s most complex and pressing challenges.  In addition to being honored by their selection, they will also be offered a five-year leadership journey to break down silos, bridge cultures and use their collective skills to get things done for positive impact across private, public and civil society organizations.

The five Tutu Fellows named among this year's Young Global Leaders:

Ada Osakwe
Victor Ochen
James Mworia
Zuki Siyotula
Juliana Rotich

 

Tutu Fellow Ronald Osumba has been appointed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as the Chairman of the country's Youth Advisory Board.  The appointment began in March and runs for three years.  The position is key in that Osumba has the potential to make a big difference to the lives and influence of youth in Kenya. 

The following essay was submitted by Tutu Fellow Uzodinma Iweala as a thought piece for the 2015 Tutu Leadership Programme and garnered a second place.  In it, he asks what it is to be a Nigerian and what are the common threads, the common narratives - myths, if you wish - that all Nigerians need  to create and sustain a common nationality.

Tutu Fellow Lade Araba, who is a founder of the Visiola Foundation, saw a small measure of the fruits of that organisation's efforts when she accompanied two science scholars to the Next Einstein Forum for their 2016 Global Gathering in Dakar, Senegal.  It was the first time the two scholars,  Rachael Asaolu and Omolara Kassim, had been on a plane, their first time traveling outside of Nigeria, and their first time at an international conference.

Tutu Fellow Lorna Irungu has been accepted as a candidate for the prestigious Eisenhower Multi-Nation Program, which starts in April in the United States and runs until May 2017.  The programme is highly selective, with only a small number of people being accepted from invited countries across the world. 

AFLI is pleased to announce the 24 candidates selected for the 2016 Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme, including the 5 candidates nominated by our sponsoring organisations – AGCO, Centum Investments, GSK, Investec and Rio Tinto – without whose generous support this incredible programme would not exist. There were 305 top-quality nominations from 32 countries for a slot in this prestigious programme, and inevitably there will be many disappointed, excellent candidates. The programme has developed a reputation as the foremost leadership programme designed specifically for Africa’s next-generation leaders, and as such is attracting Africa’s highest-calibre emerging leaders from all sectors. Competition is fierce for a place on the programme. It is evident from reviewing the applications that Africa is blessed with a very rich set of top-quality young leaders who have the potential to lead the continent to a bright future, and who are already doing amazing things.

The world is in the midst of a refugee crisis. More than four million Syrians have fled the country since the start of the civil war in that country and more than a million migrants from Africa and the Middle East crossed into Europe in 2015. This is one of the largest movements of people since the end of World War II.  Against this backdrop, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has appointed a Tutu Fellow, Victor Ochen, as their global advisor on Gender, Forced Displacement and Protection.  The appointment of the Nobel Peace Prize nominee was made by the UNHCR in February 2016.

Three Tutu Fellows were selected for a list of leading Africans contributors to an article for up and coming entrepreneurs.  The three Fellows are Monica Musonda, Susan Mashibe,  and Swaady Martin.  The article, which is for the website Lionesses of Africa, is entitled The 50 best pieces of advice we featured in 2015 from some of Africa's leading women entrepreneurs.  The three Fellows are all active entrepreneurs in different fields.  Musonda is the founder of Zambian-based Java foods; Mashibe is the founder of VIA Aviation a Tanzanian business transport and aviation company; and Martin is the founder of YSWARA, a South African tea company.

Tutu Fellow Catherine Constantinides has been awarded a South African state award, the Ubuntu Award for diplomacy.  Constantinides was one of eight recipients across several different categories, with hers being the youth category. She said that she was truly humbled to be acknowledged at such a level for her work as an international climate activist and humanitarian. The work done through the Miss Earth South Africa leadership platform as well as Generation Earth were highlighted. The award was presented to Ms. Constantinides by the President of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. Her work in the refugee camps in North Africa was also emphasised, as much of that work is recognised as official diplomatic work.

In this TEDx talk in Johannesburg, novelist and medical doctor Kopano Matlwa Mabaso tells how she and her friend Chrystelle Wedi sought to turn the tide of preventable deaths in women at childbirth. Their idea made them winners of the first Aspen Ideas Award. Their idea was to set up mobile, ultrasound scan clinics in remote and rural parts of Africa and make lifesaving antenatal healthcare more easily accessible to pregnant women. But the deepest parts of Africa are tough places to do work. Matlwa, with humility, tells how even good ideas sometimes need self-correction during implementation.