Promoting Pan-African leadership excellence among youths

Promoting Pan-African leadership excellence is about fostering a new generation of leaders across the African continent who are united by a shared vision of Africa's progress.

It's about developing leaders who are not just competent managers but transformative agents capable of addressing the continent's complex challenges and seizing its opportunities.

To effectively promote Pan-African leadership excellence, Mandela Institute for Development Studies (Minds) Africa brought together 26 exceptional Minds scholars from across the continent to engage in three days of immersive leadership training in Tanzania focused on leadership and Pan-Africanism.

This training was designed to empower scholars by deepening their understanding of Pan-Africanism leadership excellence as a pathway to becoming transformative leaders.

It equipped scholars with leadership mindset, skills, attitudes, and behaviours necessary to foster greater integration and cooperation among African nations.

Additionally, the training challenged scholars to actively commit to leadership excellence and adopt a Pan African approach in leadership thought and practice.

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The training was in line with the mission for Minds is to provide a forum for dialogue, information dissemination and networking, underpinned by rigorous research on the different elements of African heritage to shape policy and practice on governance, economic development and the evolution of African institutions.

In line with Minds-Africa’s vision to develop young leaders who have a continent-wide development mindset and leaders who can facilitate greater cooperation between African countries, the 2024 Leadership Development programme was designed to:

• Enhance scholars Pan-African leadership excellence.
• Enable scholars to identify a key set of skills and values needed to be transformative Pan-African leaders as well as practical tools for Pan-Africanism engagement and solidarity.
• Assist scholars to have a clear framework and tools for understanding, analyzing African leadership.
• Develop a personal Pan-African leadership plan with defined dream and action plan to realize or fulfil that promise.

The Pan African leadership excellence training started by reflecting philosophies enshrined in the following:

“It is my hope that the Mandela Institute for Development Studies will make a real difference in the resolution of the challenges that confront Africa, through a vibrant and robust debate, interrogating current paradigms, and offering new approaches.” – Nelson Mandela

“The future is our youth and young people need to understand that the responsibility of creating the future that works for them is theirs.” – Nkosana Moyo, Minds founder

During the first day of the training, Minds scholars were challenged to define leadership from a practical perspective and some of the definitions brainstormed were:

• Mobilising, guiding, influencing others, as well as creating an environment where they can work together effectively to achieve a shared goal.
• The ability to create a future that others would want to be part of. The definition emphasizes the importance of vision, inspiration, innovation, adaptability, accountability, and ethical principles in effective leadership.

Leadership is important because it enables groups of people to work together towards a common goal, to overcome challenges and obstacles, and to achieve success. Leaders provide direction, inspiration, and motivation, and they help to create a sense of purpose direction that can guide individuals and organisations towards achieving their full potential.

Leading is more, takes more, and requires more than occupying a leadership position.

Leading requires ongoing personal growth, but your ability to lead successfully requires more than academic, professional, or personal qualifications.

 It also involves your ability connect, mobilise, energise, and inspire others in pursuit of shared objectives.

Leading with courage, demands even more. This session engaged scholars on how they can learn and unlearn to be better and more effective leaders in these times.

An interrogation of the above definitions settled on leadership being situational and more caring about the people.

During discussions, it was alluded that it is the duty of the youth to carry the torch of ethical leadership forward.

What is Pan-African leadership?

Pan-African leadership refers to the leadership approach, choices and philosophy grounded in Pan-Africanism, which seeks to promote African unity, identity, and progress.

It involves recognising and embracing the diversity of the African continent, while also working towards common goals and addressing shared challenges.

Pan-African leaders are often characterized by their commitment to promoting solidarity, collaboration, and cooperation among African nations and communities, and their emphasis on collective rather than individual achievement.

They also prioritise issues such as social justice, economic development, and political freedom, and seek to empower Africans to take charge of their own destiny.

Pan-African leadership continues to be an important and influential movement in Africa and the world, as African countries strive to overcome the legacy of colonialism, achieve sustainable development, and promote dignity and prosperity for all Africans.

The world has moved to the new normal, forcing adaptation upon every being and establishment for survival.

Instilling Pan Africanism philosophy ensures young leaders adapt to the new normal without losing their African authenticity, keeping their core values, and empowering their communities to move along with them.

 At the same time, they collaborate with other like-minded leaders to invent new innovative ideas, making their skills more relevant to society with a crucial value proposition.

The training also delved into self-awareness guided by the Johari window to dig deeper into understanding oneself as a leader.

 It stresses gathering 360 degrees feedback from multiple sources to identify blind spots and areas for improvement.

The Johari window four categories are:

• Open: These people are very open and reveal a lot of themselves to others. They are usually very trusting and have a lot of confidence in their relationships.
• Blind: These people do not know much about themselves and do not reveal much to others. They are often insecure and have difficulty trusting others.
• Hidden: These people know a lot about themselves, but do not reveal it to others. They are often very private and may be shy or introverted.
• Unknown: These people know very little about themselves and reveal little or nothing to others. They are often insecure and have difficulty trusting others. The Johari Window can be used to help people understand their own behaviour and that of others. It can also be used to improve communication and relationships.

Call for action

• Young leaders do not just want to be inheritors or beneficiaries of conducive conditions in which they can shine, but they also want to be, must be invited to actively be a part of the processes of creating those conditions.
• Young leaders need to start gaining experience now if they are the inheritors of existing systems. In the absence of such succession planning, a yawning void is pending, inevitable and dangerous.
• In their various spheres, young leaders have proven to be capable, but want a bigger role to play in terms of national, regional and continental agendas.

In conclusion, the interactive nature of the sessions allowed dialogue, sharing and cross-learning among the scholars.

It is hoped that the platform allowed to connect and strengthen their network in furtherance of Minds dream of a new cadre of leaders to address the short, medium, and long-term developmental challenges facing Africa in a holistic and comprehensive manner.

In addition, there is a need to think creatively about how the technical expertise of young leaders, whether they are in the private sector or are entrepreneurs, can be better leveraged.

*Ronald Zvendiya is an independent economic analyst. Contact details: rzvendiya@gmail.com,

These weekly  articles are coordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, an independent consultant, managing consultant of Zawale Consultants (Private) Limited, past president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society and past president of the Chartered Governance & Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe. Email - kadenge.zes@gmail.com and mobile No.+263 772 382 852.