About two dozen up and coming leaders from countries across Africa are heading home after spending the past six weeks as part of a fellowship program at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. Political consultant and strategist Ciri Ba of Senegal says the Young African Leadership Initiative was a reality check in terms of understanding his fellow Africans.
"We found out that from eastern to western Africa, we all have the same problems," Ba said. "We might be dealing with them in different ways. But we all have the same cultural, tribal issues...peace building, poverty, and gender issues. What's different is is the level of government involvement.”
Meanwhile, Adelaide Cubidoof South Africa thought it would be easy to engage and connect with the other fellows as someone who values and embraces diversity. But she actually found it challenging at times…
"Saying that you embrace diversity doesn't necessarily mean that you do," Cubido said. "That was a key learning...to listen to people, to let go of my biases, my assumptions, my expectations, and my beliefs to really be able forge those connections so I could learn from Africans about Africa."
Many might find it amusing they had to come to Syracuse to do just that. But of course, the young leaders walked away with other lessons , including ethics in public service, budgeting, and how a democracy should work. Ciri Ba says he plans to boost citizen participation in government, starting with a national survey.
"The platform is going to be named Senegal 2020," Ba said. "They'll have to choose 5 to 6 issues from a list of 20, like education, gender equality, pay equality, food safety, LGBT rights, all those things.”
In South Africa, Adelaide Cubido says she’ll continue her professional development, including pursuing a law degree, before returning to local government in a few years.
“Although I'm a legal person, and I'm closely involved with governance, I've really started to get a deeper appreciation of the trade-offs that politicians make when they have to consider whether they want adequacy as an outcome, or equity or equality," Cubido said. "There's always a trade-off. As a citizen, we criticize often what our governments do, and what our politicians do, but we don't know the complexity in designing these systems."
The graduates represented 20 different African countries.
