Leadership programmes are facilitating social enterprise projects that could be a viable alternative to aid
When 'Gbenga Sesan touched down onto the tarmac at Lagos airport, he
folded up his ticket and tucked it into his jacket pocket. Hailing a cab
straight to his office, he went to work right away. He was implementing what he
had plotted out during the six-hour flight, and his airline ticket, covered in
pencilled scribbles, was the blueprint for a new Lagos.
Sesan had just returned from Johannesburg, where he was one of 22
emerging leaders selected for the Archbishop Tutu
leadership fellowship programme. Young Africans from business, government
or development backgrounds had been selected in the early part of 2007, by the
Africa Leadership Institute, and flown to a secluded conference centre in South
Africa. There they were put through an intense series of seminars, discussions,
lectures and exercises about leadership.
Critically, their course placed a huge emphasis on social
entrepreneurship and ethical business. When the first participants had
graduated in 2003, inspired by the curriculum and disgusted by widespread
corruption, they spontaneously convened and wrote their own no-corruption pact,
promising each other that they would avoid bribes, and use business as a force
for social change. This tradition still continues at the end of each course,
with participants signatures holding them to a code of conduct they hope will
permeate the African continent as they grow older and ascend into power.
Africa could fit the landmasses of India, China, the US, Europe and
Japan within its borders. So discussing its future is an ambitious task. It has
taken the inspirational force of Tutu, and other leaders like Nelson Mandela, to force these discussions to start. Tutu embodies
a classic model of African leadership – collaborative, serving the community,
true to ones principles.
It's not the story that western newspapers always like to share, with
African dictators like Robert Mugabe and Muammar Gadaffi more often grabbing
the headlines. But the southern African philosophy of "ubuntu"is core to Tutu's teachings
and is taught to all of his Tutu fellows. It is hard to strictly define, but
Tutu, speaking in 2008, described it as "interconnectedness":
"You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality
– ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too
frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are
connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads
out; it is for the whole of humanity."
