Latest News

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2015 Tutu Fellow Wiebe Boer PhD started as President of Calvin University - his Alma Mater - on 1 July 2022, and within a week, the university had signed a commitment to accelerate its transition to renewable energy.  Prior to accepting the presidency of the university, Wiebe was the CEO of All On, an off-grid energy impact investment fund for Nigeria seeded by Shell. 

With his expertise in the energy sector, Wiebe also serves on the UN Technical Working Group 5: Finance and Investment Board. Calvin University is making history in Michigan by becoming the first university in the state to pursue solar-as-a-service as an approach to accelerating the energy transition. 

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2007 Tutu Fellow Ed Mabaya has been named Director of Cornell's Hubert H Humphrey Fellowship Program.  The Fullbright exchange program provides accomplished professionals from countries with emerging economies an international enrichment opportunity in leadership and public service. The program at Cornell focuses on three areas of interest - agriculture, rural development, and natural resource management. 

Ed has had a long and distinguished career in agricultural development and food security and most recently was the Associate Director at Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development.

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2015 Tutu Fellow, Dr Uzo Iweala, has written a piece for Foreign Affairs magazine titled Nigeria's Second Independence - Why the Giant of Africa Needs to Start Over.  The piece is published in the July/August 2022 edition.  Uzo is the Chief Executive Officer of The Africa Center, a non-profit based in New York. 

In the piece, Uzo begins by saying that from the moment of it's independence in 1960, observers have questioned the country's viability as a multiethnic, multireligious state.  When the devastating Nigerian civil war broke out in 1967, that skepticism appeared warranted.  Since then, he says, the country's leadership has sought to preserve the unified state - even by force.  But what the country needs more than ever, is to reimagine its structures of power and governance.

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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.

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2009 Tutu Fellow James Mwangi connects the dots between climate change and climate action in his TED Talk from June 2022 in New York.  He argues that with the planet missing the IPCC emissions goals that negatively impact climate change, it will be necessary to both push harder on that front, and then also remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere at a massive scale. He says that estimates suggest that the world will need to remove 5-16 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every single year by 2050. 

The Rift Valley, he says, provides a scalable way to remove carbon from the air - and end energy poverty.

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2008 Tutu Fellow Elsie Kanza PhD, the Tanzanian Ambassador to the United States, has met US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office at the White House.  Elsie was appointed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan in May 2021 as one of 22 ambassadors, and in August of that year, assigned to the Embassy in Washington DC, one of the top postings in the diplomatic hierarchy.  She met President Biden on 24 June 2022. 

Elsie was formerly Head of Africa and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum. She has worked in various capacities in the government of Tanzania, including in the Office of the Presidency, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank.  In her role at the Embassy, she is also responsible for diplomatic connections in Mexico.

2015 Tutu Fellow Zukie Siyotula has been appointed as a Chairperson of the Board by York Timber Holdings Limited. York Timber Holdings is a Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed company that is the largest solid wood processor producing lumber and plywood in South Africa with a wholesale distribution network as well. Their clients include truss engineering manufacturers, corporate and independent retailers, remanufacturers, furniture manufacturers and construction contractors.

Zukie serves on a number of other Boards including African Bank, Bidvest Group, Toyota, Ogilvy & Mather, Salungano Group and Conduit Capital Limited. 

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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.

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The Class of 2022 attended the first workshop of the Tutu Leadership Programme in Mont Fleur in April, returning AFLI to its normal programmatic year after a year in hiatus due to COVID. 

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has re-appointed 2012 Tutu Fellow James Mworia to a second term as the Chancellor of Machakos University.  James is the CEO Centum Investment Company, the largest listed investment company in East Africa, with approximately $1.8 billion USD in direct and third party assets under management. 

Machakos University was founded in 1957 as a Technical Rural Training School by the then colonial Government. It was converted into Machakos Technical and Trade School in 1958, Machakos Technical School in 1967, Machakos University College in 2013, and chartered to Machakos University in October 2016.

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2014 Tutu Fellow Ada Osake has been appointed to the board of AGRA - the Alliance for a Green Africa. AGRA is an African alliance with roots in farming communities across the continent that is seeking uniquely African solutions to meet its specific environmental and agricultural needs to sustainably boost production and gain access to rapidly growing agriculture markets. Ada joins five others on AGRA's board to bolster the organization even further in accomplishing its mission. The other new board members are Binta Touré Ndoye, who has a distinguished career in banking; Ambassador David Lane, a former US diplomat with experience in policy reform in food security and development; Delphine Traoré Maidou, the CEO of Allianz Africa; Mallika Srinivasan, who brings farm machinery manufacturing experience; and Dr. Roy Steiner, who is a leader in enhancing access to nourishing food across the world.

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 2015 Tutu Fellow Wiebe Boer has been selected as the next President of Calvin University, a private evangelical university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The university is his alma mater and he has close ties to the university. Wiebe graduated in 1997 as a second-generation Calvin student and is married to Joanna Bachew, who graduated from Calvin in 2003. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution based on the Calvinist tradition, and named after John Calvin, the 16th-century Protestant Reformer. 

Born and raised in Jos, Nigeria to Dutch missionary parents, Wiebe earned his Ph.D. in African History from Yale University.