Whether you’re a young leader, a mentor, or someone passionate about sports and social change, this is your invitation to be part of a movement. It is time to lead the games.
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At We Will Lead Africa (WWLA), our purpose/mission is clear: creating platforms for sharing and inspiring everyday African leadership through storytelling.
This purpose made it very easy to link arms with Champs for Change (C4C) to bring you this sports volume, featuring stories of Purpose, Perseverance, Passion. These stories are indeed exemplars of what leading on and for the African continent looks like today: the foresight to grasp a new, perhaps even unlikely vision for Africa; the passion to pursue it; and the perseverance to see it through. It is what everyday African leaders have always done that has gone unacknowledged.
In sports leadership, there is a quiet revolution that is becoming a rumble and, with the perseverance of those featured in this volume and many more, will soon be a thunderous reverberation around the world. Africans in sports are no longer satisfied to be on the sidelines, used only for their myriad sportsmanship talents, more often than not to the benefit of others around the world.
This collection features 40 real-life stories from athletes, executives, entrepreneurs, journalists, and advocates who are redefining what it means to lead in African sports. From basketball courts in Senegal to sports startups in Nigeria and media rooms in South Africa, each story offers a window into the lives of trailblazers using sports to drive social impact, create careers, and elevate youth across the continent.
In doing so, Champs for Change and We Will Lead Africa: A Sports Volume continues the journey we began years ago: to amplify the everyday African leadership that is changing, shaping, and building the continent’s future. It is time to lead the games.
About the C4C founders
Memuna, Clarisse, and Randy are the co-founders of C4C and the co-editors and curators of A Sports Volume.
Memuna Williams, DBA, is an executive on a mission to drive sustainable change through education, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Raised by first-generation educated Sierra Leonean parents dedicated to public service, Dr Williams has over thirty years of global career experience. A lifelong sports enthusiast, Memuna is the co-founder of C4C—a social enterprise developing Africa’s next generation of sports professionals. She holds degrees from Concordia University, Université de Montréal, Queens University of Charlotte (McColl School of Business), and the University of Liverpool. Memuna lives between Johannesburg and Washington, DC, with her husband. They have three sons.
Clarisse Machanguana is Mozambique’s most successful professional basketball player. Her achievements reach beyond her twenty-two-year career, which included playing for the WNBA in the United States. Clarisse is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and a well-known, inspirational figure in Mozambique, acting as a powerful role model for young people, especially young women. Queen Elizabeth II of England appointed her the Thirteenth Point of Light for the Commonwealth in recognition of her work. The Clarisse Machanguana Foundation represents the institutionalisation of Clarisse’s beliefs and goals. Clarisse is on a mission to prepare and advance future leaders through education, life skills, and sports.
Randy Soumahoro is a co-founder, project manager, and communications lead at C4C. He specialises in sports and marketing and supports brands in telling stories and developing strategies that positively impact lives and drive action. With a career that spans Africa, Europe, and North America, he offers a blend of global perspective, cultural insight, strategic acumen, and creative vision and is dedicated to leveraging his expertise to empower youth through sports.