The pilot project of Together for a new Africa (T4NA) was concluded early this year; 3rd – 6th January, 2022. This marked the end of a training cycle of four years with 100 participants from the East African Community: Uganda, Tanzania , Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo – which recently, officially became part of the East Africa Community. The training focused on Leadership in general and the curriculum and discussions were directed towards the kind of leadership present in Africa, its roots, failure and success and how we can build better leadership for and in Africa.
The first and the second training courses were held in person (physically) in Nairobi, Kenya at Mariapolis Piero. The first summer school took place on 1st– 9th January, 2019 under the theme “ Responsible Citizenship for the Africa we want”. The second summer school or training course was under the theme “Identity Crisis and Leadership for Unity” from 28th December, 2019 to 5th January, 2020. The third training course was split into two different dates due to the Covid- 19 pandemic situation and were held online and in person with the trainees meeting in their respective countries; participants met locally and spent days together while connected with others online through online sessions.
The first semi training of the third training course was held from 3rd to 5th January, 2021 under the theme “Together for a New Africa: Responsibility and Determination”. The second, which was the conclusion of the pilot project of Together for a New Africa, took place from 3rd to 6th January, 2022 with “ Together for a New Africa: Leading into the Future” as the theme. As usual , students and alumni of Sophia University played an important role during these online training courses by coordinating the online sessions, as well as offering translations in French, English and Italian during the sessions.
The impact on participants and activities inspired by T4NA
The T4NA training offered an opportunity for many participants to deepen their knowledge on leadership, to go through and reflect on the concepts of leadership present today in Africa and the leadership that was present in the past, especially before colonialism. A step to have a positive critical mindset on what should be improved and what can be learned from the sort of leadership present today and the one that was present in the past. Though the topics appeared to be broad, the key point was to start observing the environment where one is, see the need, collaborate with others in order to make a change and later evaluate the whole process.
Participants were invited to have an active eye as citizens and be courageous to address the challenges, especially coming from different mindsets, points of views or attitudes. In this way they can help their community, and be a trampolin for the change of their community. 15, 000 people were reached through the activities done in all 7 countries in 4 years; all inspired by the training through reflection and taking action. This number keeps increasing due to the courage and consistency of doing activities that participants still hold till today.
Activities differ from one country to another, depending on the need identified by the participants at local levels. The Democratic Republic of Congo was more driven by the need of improving education and the place of a woman in society. Rwanda focused on educating students at high schools about leadership to prepare them on how to be active in society and for sustainable development. Leadership training, environmental oriented activities, social assistance were the activities that were at core of the participants from Burundi. In order to operate and carry on activities according to the law, the participants from Burundi created an association called Together for a New Burundi. In Kenya participants helped people who were affected by Covid-19 restrictions while Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania did a great job in sensitizing about how to deal with Covid-19 pandemic and more.
”Together for a New Africa got me thinking more about my community. As a result, I started a conversation on a possible co-leadership plan for my community. I began forming a peoples’ parliament where people can meet, discuss, own the challenges in the community together, discuss solutions together and work towards building a better community together. It has proven to be difficult because it requires a lot of empowerment and change of the mindset and attitude at the grassroot” said a participant from Kenya.
The way forward
Mr. Constantine Akeibar from Cameroon, a former student at Sophia University, who participated in elaborating the project at its early stage did not hide his joy in the interview he had with Mppu Interntional center after the last training in which he participated: “I was really impressed with the level of training that the participants have received. I could definitely hear they have developed soft skills in leadership with the way they were speaking, the language and the terms they were using. They were talking about conflict resolution, how to engage with others and also how to manage people. That shows that the training provided by the Together of a New Africa project is of good quality”.
He also expressed himself further saying that his hope for the project is that it should reach as many as possible and that should be the aim for the project. In his words, “the message of the project is a new vision of leadership in Africa. This message should therefore reach African leaders and as many as possible especially in the area of education”. He thinks that “the target should be education, like young students, in politics, in international development and in all sectors. Young students should be reached and be educated on what leadership should look like so they can dream about Africa in the future.”
The success of the pilot project led the project to expand its horizons and reach out to other countries. The coming project cycle will extend the initiative from 7 to 14 countries. There is no doubt that the initiative is moving on the right path. In his closing remarks at the end of this T4NA pilot project summer school on 6th January, 2022, the Chairman of the Board, Professor Justus Mbae, former Vice Chancellor of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and representative of the International Association New Humanity in Kenya stated this: “We do not need a large number for the success of Together for a New Africa. We need the right tutors and the right participants”.
As the project’s pilot came to an end, participants received a certificate of participation of the 3 years training. This was a sign of recognition but doesn’t mark an end of their journey because participants will remain in contact to strengthen the network built through the years. Some of the participants expressed the desire of becoming tutors for the second training course, while others will support and assist the local groups for the second training course. Furthermore, a center of excellence will be created for those who are aiming to become researchers in different fields in the light of African values, traditions and studies. This Center of Excellence is set to be a center of research and empowerment.
We are also proud to state that out of the T4NA project, a few participants expressed interest in the works of the Politics for Unity Movement (Mppu) and are coming together under the guidance of other regional members in other parts of the world and the headquarters to create a Regional MPPU center in Africa.
