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Written by the WWLA Founders
Edited by Michelle Mocumbi

We Will Lead Africa, Volume Seven: Refugees, Peacebuilding, Security launches as a celebration of refugee leadership and a call to invest in peace through dignity, cooperation, equality, and collective action. We invite you to read, share, discuss, and join the movement.

In preparation for September 21, the International Day of Peace, we gathered as a community of storytellers, leaders, peacebuilders, refugees, and former refugees to celebrate the launch of Volume Seven: Refugees, Peacebuilding, Security. It was a reflection on leadership, humanity, displacement, resilience, and the collective future we are working to build together.

As we welcomed participants from across Africa and the diaspora, we were reminded of some of the principles that have guided our work from the beginning, from African and Indigenous wisdoms to the dialogic storytelling practices of the organisation development field:

• Whoever shows up are the right people. [Organisation Development, Open Space Principle]
• We are the ones we are waiting for. [June Jordan, Hopi Elders]
• I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am … Ubuntu. [John S. Mbiti]
• Ants pulling [a play on the proverb from Burkina Faso: When ants unite their mouths, they can carry an elephant.]

At We Will Lead Africa (WWLA), our vision is that Africans will own, shape, and lead our own narratives. We are a storytelling platform that uplifts the stories of everyday African leaders doing extraordinary things against extraordinary odds. It does not matter to us whether that leadership is exercised in a board room, a refugee camp, a village, a university, a community organisation, a government office, a startup, or a movement. What matters is that people are leading, creating, building, serving, and refusing to stand on the sidelines.

This volume is a testament to that reality.

Thirty voices, one shared commitment

Too often, conversations about refugees reduce people to statistics, crises, burdens, vulnerabilities, or policy questions.

This volume does the opposite. It introduces us to leaders.

Refugees, Peacebuilding, Security brings together the stories of 25 refugee author-leaders (including the preface) and one fiction writer, artwork by a refugee artist, and reflections from three co-editors who are themselves former African refugees. It includes stories by leaders working in or for communities living in refugee camps and settlements (including urban African refugee concerns), and stories by African leaders who work on the continent outside refugee camps and/or in the diaspora with and for African refugees or peacebuilders, internally displaced persons, and immigrants. Together, these contributions represent the experiences and leadership of 30 refugee leaders whose stories illuminate both the challenges and possibilities of displacement.

The contributors represent countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Given the diverse intersectional and transnational experiences of many of the authors, it further represents experiences that span the globe.

These stories remind us that refugees are not merely recipients of aid and assistance. They are innovators, educators, entrepreneurs, peacebuilders, advocates, artists, organisers, and leaders. They are building stronger communities wherever they find themselves.

The volume invites us to see the creativity, capability, and courage that emerges even under conditions of conflict, displacement, exclusion, and uncertainty. It asks us to imagine what becomes possible when displaced people are viewed not only through a lens of need, but through a lens of human potential.

As one contributor reflected, effective peacebuilding and development emerge when people closest to a challenge are empowered to shape solutions:

The most effective solutions were those created by people who lived the problems daily.

This perspective appears repeatedly throughout the volume.

Whether discussing education, entrepreneurship, community ownership, digital literacy, peacebuilding, advocacy, or economic empowerment, contributors consistently show that sustainable change begins when local people are trusted, equipped, and given agency over their futures.

Stories create: The emergence of a manifesto of refuge

During our launch conversation, co-editor Njamba Koffi reflected on his own refugee journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo through refugee communities in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Eswatini, Germany, and eventually Canada. He reminded us that stories are not merely accounts of what happened. Stories create. Stories connect. Stories organise. Stories help people recognise themselves in each other.

While editing the volume, the editorial team was inspired by critical recurring themes. Again and again, contributors described similar aspirations for equality, cooperation, and dignity. These recurring themes inspired us to develop the REFUGE-E Manifesto, inspired by the title of Njamba’s book, Refuge-e: The Journey Much Desired. It is a manifesto of refuge for everyone, particularly refugees, internally displaced peoples, asylum seekers, and all forms of forced migrants.

The deliberate emphasis on refuge shifts attention from labels to possibility. Rather than focusing only on who a refugee is, the manifesto asks what kinds of communities, systems, institutions, and relationships create refuge for all people. It offers seven enabling principles grounded for any work intended to uphold the shared humanity and human rights of refugees: Recognition, Education & Empowerment, Fairness, Universal Human Rights, Governance, and Economic Justice for Everyone.

Importantly, the manifesto is not merely a statement. It is a platform for action. It is intended to be shared, adapted, discussed, displayed, and used by leaders, organisations, educators, advocates, policymakers, and communities seeking practical ways to advance peace and human dignity.

Access and download the full manifesto resources for free here.

We Will Lead Africa 10

Next year, WWLA celebrates 10 years of storytelling, leadership, and community building. Over the last decade, contributors across the continent and diaspora have shared stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Volume Seven stands proudly within that legacy.

As we launch this volume into the world, we do so with deep gratitude.

To every contributor who trusted us with their story.

To every refugee leader who continues to serve their community.

To every reader who believes in the power of narrative to create change.

And to every person committed to building a more peaceful, just, and humane world.

This book is our celebration of your leadership.

This manifesto is our invitation to collective action.

And this moment is our reminder that lasting change rarely arrives through a single heroic act.

It comes through communities of people moving together. Like ants pulling.

One ant can carry remarkable weight, but a colony moving together can accomplish what seems impossible. Together.

So join our community next May 2027 in celebration of 10 years of WWLA, as we strategise how to continue pulling together and pulling forward!

As co-editor Adelana Gilpin-Jackson concluded in his reflection in the volume:

When we, the worker ants in this space, pull together, we will achieve Thomas Sankara’s vision and finally become a land of upright people.

Save the date:
May 21 & 22, 2027 @ Windsor Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria

Learn more: WWLA 10

RSVP: Registration form

Written by The WWLA Founders
Edited by Michelle Mocumbi

Last updated: 8 May 2026

Belonging
Poem created on Africa Day 2021,
at the We Will Lead Africa Annual Gathering.

We
Unique, but all the same
New Africa
We rise, we build, we cry
Bold Africa
With empathy, with compassion, and stewardship
Great Africa
We are the blueprint for the future we want
Yes, Africa
We are all
Africa

Will
I will, not because I must, but because I can
I will, not because of, but despite my challenges
I will, not because it might be, but because it’s inevitable
I will, not because I am told, but because I am

Lead
To be in service and of service to your community
From wherever you are, with whatever is in your hands and soul
Lead with love, with guidance from the heart
Multiplying what you have been given to be a blessing to others
With no hesitation and pushing the existing limits
Leading from a place of internal purpose, gift, strength, and abundance
Listening to the context in which you wade,
and dance in the complexity of being
Although scary it might be, quite rewarding it is
To Lead is not to Wait, for we are the Africans we have been waiting for!

Africa
Rising like a long day that promises so much potential that never wanes
Africa, know your worth
Show up as a partner, colourful and strong

We Will Lead Africa: Volume Three: Belonging, Beloving, Becoming was the first volume to emerge from our Griot Masterclass series. In a community of We Will Lead Africa (WWLA) leaders, the masterclass introduced Griots, from countries across the African continent and the diaspora, to the WWLA method for telling and documenting personal stories of everyday leadership. The result was a volume of 24 stories and/or poetic contributions, and 11 Oríkìs (Yoruba-inspired personal praise poetry) that make up the leadership inspirations in Volume Three.

As we reflect on this volume now, we are clear that it emerged as a living, breathing community space that met a deep need at the time. Born in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this volume was shaped through a virtual circle that became a healing, necessary, and profoundly human place to gather, tell stories, affirm each other, and keep leading in the midst of uncertainty.

At the heart of the volume is a spontaneous and striking collective theme that arose organically from the contributors’ shared poetry and responses to the leadership activities we did together: belonging, beloving, becoming. These words say everything. Belonging speaks to community and identity, to feeling held and seen within a collective. Beloving (a word that is no longer used in regular speech) perfectly captures the sense of care and vulnerability the group brought to the discussions each week. The Griots created a space that centred love as an explicit and public practice, something we rarely name so boldly in leadership spaces. And becoming invited growth, emergence, and the constant unfolding of ourselves as leaders and humans.

Volume Three feels especially intimate and sweet. Sweetness here refers to tenderness, care, and an unmistakable sense of love woven throughout the process and the pages. This was a space where we could belong without judgement, love on one another, and celebrate and practise leadership in whatever way it was expressed.

This volume also marks the first Griot process within the WWLA journey, grounding leadership in African ways of storytelling, remembrance, and praise. Through Oríkì and other narrative practices, contributors were invited to reflect, affirm their identities, and honour their ancestors and legacies. We witnessed how naming one’s story and praising oneself can be deeply empowering, how it fills people back up with themselves and reconnects them to who they are, and who and where they come from.

Griot and peer editor Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo mirrors this in her reflection of the process:

Participating in We Will Lead Africa: Volume Three was a profound experience in honouring lineage, memory, and the power of African storytelling. Contributing to this volume invited me to step into the Griot tradition as a custodian of truth, culture, and possibility. Writing my piece required deep reflection on the people, histories, and moments that shaped my leadership journey.

Serving as a peer editor was equally meaningful. It allowed me to witness the vulnerability, brilliance, and resilience of fellow contributors and to help their stories emerge with clarity and dignity. Editing became an act of relational stewardship through listening deeply, honouring voice, and supporting each narrative’s fullest expression.

This volume reaffirmed my belief that storytelling is a form of leadership and liberation. This volume is more than a book; it is a collective archive of African wisdom and a testament to our shared future.

What stands out in this volume is how clearly it embodied everyday leadership. The stories from the Griots and other contributors that responded to the open call are largely grassroots, grounded, and accessible, not dominated by high-profile figures. It reflects everyday people leading in ordinary, but profoundly meaningful ways. Many contributors in this volume are emerging leaders – not defined by age, but by a moment of stepping into new horizons and iterations of themselves and their work. This gives the volume a relatable tone and energy that makes clear: you can lead from anywhere.

This is further reflected across the key learnings in each story. We hear simple yet profound guidance and wisdom that resonates across all contexts of leadership: Go for it before you feel ready. Don’t wait for perfection. Small actions can spark big change. Be yourself. Accept yourself. Have faith. Lift others up. Build your community. These are foundational truths, but their power lies in the act of pausing to reflect on them together, which sparks new visions and imaginations.

Poetry threads its way through the book, surfacing again and again. Collective poems for belonging, beloving, and becoming sit alongside individual Oríkìs that resonate deeply. Poetry, it seems, naturally pours out of this work, offering synthesis, emotion, and insight beyond what prose alone can hold.

Beloving
Excerpt from contributor and Griot Masterclass member, Blen Mandefro

Dear Child,
Shod your feet with skin as soft as My Petals
Clothe your skin with silk as smooth as My Fingers
Crown your head and braids with gems that gleam as My Eyes
Quench your thirst with waters as clear and sweet as My Words
Embrace your lover with pleasure as deep as My Laughter
Let children shine as bright as the rays of My Smile
Make the seeds you plant and the fruits you bear as abundant as the strands of My Hair
Protect your body and nourish it to be as succulent and delicious
as My Kisses
Work your mind to be as glorious and immaculate as the rainbow
of My Dress
Polish your intelligence to be as beautiful and brilliant as My Image
Fill your belly with nothing but the sweet Joy of My Truth
Expand your territory with a vital force as irrepressible as
My Breath
Do this My Child, so that I shall know you as mine in all time
and space
Do this My Child, so that you shall know me as yours in all time
and space
Do this for yourself My Child, and you shall be forever installed in the eternity of My Heart
And you shall become a Guiding Star –
A Shining Star to Home,
A Radiating Star to Here,
to all that behold you.
Arise. Make Africa. Lead Africa. Be Africa.

Yes, Mother. I am arranged as you command.

Finally, the volume widens its lens through voices from the African diaspora, including reflections that remind us of Africa’s rhythm, spirit, and transformative power. As Tanesha Barnes noted in her contribution, ‘Diaspora to the Continent: Reconnecting, Rebuilding, Reimagining’:

The source of humanity has a way of capturing you within its rhythm. The beat of Africa, if you allow it, will cleanse your soul and you will see it with new eyes. Most importantly, you will see yourself anew. Travelling through Africa changes you – it will change the world as we know it.

These perspectives serve as mirrors and invitations, calling us back to source, memory, and possibility.

Ultimately, Volume Three feels like an embodiment of what WWLA aspires to be and, in many ways, already is. It is authentic, healing, and rooted in storytelling that honours both individuality and community. It is a space that held us as we led through difficult times, and one that continues to invite us to belong and to build a beloved community as we keep becoming.

Becoming
We Will Lead Africa Griots 2021 Poem
A Collective Poem

We put the brave in the safe so more people can
come into their own in emergent, brave spaces.
By truth and authenticity
and by being more,
we pass the baton to generations coming.
We continue showing up and developing the story
so generations will hear of our life stories.
Showing up authentically.
To come out with a badass, kick-ass, unforgettable story.
Our commitment is to do exactly what
we have learnt and do it better, so that others can learn as well.
Offering a space of belonging, beloving, and becoming,
to love and to live, to be bold, and strong …

Use the slide deck below to read some inspirational quotes from Volume Three:

Written by The WWLA Founders
Edited by Michelle Mocumbi

We Will Lead Africa: Volume Two: Women is the exemplar of what happens when members of society who are marginalised decide to take up space and lead, despite the societal hurdles in their way. It is a power-packed volume of African women leaders, standing up without apology. It is serendipitous that we are doing this reflection during Women’s Month 2026, and that the volume itself emerged at the end of the African Union’s 2010–2020 Women’s Decade.

As we revisit Volume Two, we find ourselves returning not just to a book, but to a moment of profound becoming. This volume is, at its core, a love letter to African women, honouring those who came before us, reminding us to lift up our heads, and expressing our dreams for the generations coming after us. This framing was captured in the volume’s beautiful introduction: a letter to a future daughter, written by co-founder and lead editor Sarah Owusu. The letter was a response to a creative prescription that emerged from a coaching conversation within our co-founders’ team as we brainstormed for the volume.

My Dear Child,

I write and live and breathe and work to make alchemy with the pain that we – women – have all carried, are all carrying. As I write this, I write with that knowing ache deep in my bones and my texture … and also with an optimism and hopefulness for what is emerging from the cracks of a system that seems finally to be gasping its last breaths.

You will know suffering, and pain, and sadness and anger – because it is hard to be human – but it will not be because you are a woman, nor because you are African. I do not want to protect or shelter you from the full and fraught experience of being alive, but I want you to grow in a place that makes room for you and for all that it means to be an African woman.

The wounds that we – humanity – carry, in all their varying shapes, colours and densities have guided us a long time. Undermining, undervaluing and undoing the contributions that women make has been the norm, and has harmed us all for too long … our struggles have been different, and have been defined by the variety of expressions we embody, have depended on what intersections we lived in and with, and on the specific context and challenges through which we moved.

And despite this, we were leaders, scientists, mothers, activists, soldiers, artists, doctors, home-makers, academics, carers, farmers, politicians.

I hope my stories show you that when our contribution – our full contribution – is valued then the world comes to life. Potential bubbles over and possibilities open up. I hope they show you the story of everyday women, across African countries, leading for the prosperity of their communities and contributing extraordinarily to the future Africa.

In wisdom, power and hope.

An everyday African woman, leading and loving every day.

Originally, we had conceptualised two separate volumes – governance and women. What ensued during the call for submissions told a different story: the leaders who showed up for the governance volume submissions were all women. And so the volume became what it needed to be, a unified volume showcasing African women, leading from communities to boardrooms to cities.

When we merged the volumes, we were faced with unique challenges and decisions. The conceived governance volume was intended to follow a more structured framework, with sections aligned with the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. However, we quickly adapted, adopting an emergent approach with deep trust in the process to determine how to frame the combined volume. Leaning into our background as organisation development professionals, we adopted a Theory U posture – letting go of structure to let the volume take its own shape. What emerged was truly lovely … a volume infused with the feminine: from the invitation to write ‘My Dear Child’, to the invocation of the earth in the prologue, to the opening poem and the closing science fiction short story that each uplifted the necessity and possibility of women’s leadership.

One of our struggles was the impossibility of categorising the stories. These women leaders lived lives that spilled across traditional boundaries. They were mothers, leaders, creatives, activists, entrepreneurs, healers, fighters. Their stories demanded more than organisational neatness into industry sectors; they required archetypes that honoured their complexity, so we tried doing just that. The final sections of the book represented both sectors and the essence of their work in the categories of Influencers, Health Innovators, Entrepreneurs & Business Women, Educators, Bridge Builders, and (De)Constructors.

This volume was not only a documentation of leadership; it was liberation and joy. For one of us, it was validation of the power and strength of the powerful matriarchs and sisterhood circle whose example of bold and unapologetic leadership she emulates consciously and unconsciously. For another, it was a time to reflect on and unlearn Eurocentric scripts of women’s roles. For all of us – founders and invited co-editors (Chengetai Maruziva and Moyra Keane) – it became a site of healing, an antidote to erasure, exhaustion, and the quiet ways patriarchy teaches women to bow their heads. When we read the volume now, it calls us and insists, again and again, that we ‘unbow our heads’.

Moyra reflects this sentiment:

I find resonance and truth in Ben Okri’s claim that ‘Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.’

As someone who has mostly worked in educational institutions, I am immensely inspired by the authenticity of the WWLA team across Africa – boundaryless and brave. As part of the Editorial Team for the Women Volume, we started – as all writers do – from exactly where we found ourselves. Alongside the contributors, we were all determined, caring, collegial, and creative in our shared goal to ‘make alchemy of the pain’ that women carry. The very writing throughout this volume breathes hope in the face of frank acknowledgements that ‘you will know suffering and pain, and sadness and anger – because it’s hard to be human’ (as Sarah writes in the introduction to the book).

The prologue, Oni Aningo’s poem ‘Steel Magnolia’, sets the tone of unbending fierceness and sharpness which will take down insulting, condescending praises of a ‘pretty’ woman, as well as annihilate the most brutal of attack.

All the diverse stories of this volume inspire and fend off the desperate despondency that sometimes seeps up through global disinformation, violence, rampant greed, and stupidity. I am again immensely inspired, not only at the significance, leadership, and impact of each contributor, but the power that stories have to impart wisdom and hope. Stories make the invisible visible and sink into our legacy, our history, like ephemeral DNA. Obenga reminds us: ‘…history is the salt and leaven of human life. History is the repository whence we fetch our reason for living.’ I believe that these leaders, these women whose stories we uplift in our volume, are making history.

Similarly, Chengetai shares:

Being part of Volume Two: Women was a deeply grounding experience for me. What stays with me most was encountering women doing powerful, transformative work quietly and consistently, often without recognition, but with real impact. There was something incredibly humbling about witnessing that kind of everyday, lived leadership – the kind that happens while life is still happening.

The process of putting the book together and collaborating with the other women in the volume amplified this for me. Learning from one another and experiencing the different ways we each showed up – across sectors, across countries, across the many roles we hold as women – felt like a reflection of what the book itself stands for. It was a reminder that leadership doesn’t sit in one identity; it moves with us through all the spaces we occupy, whether as mothers, daughters, partners, or simply as ourselves.

Reflecting now, especially in a world that often feels in turmoil, what this book represents comes back to me in a very real way. It’s in the daily choices – choosing to show up, even when it’s inconvenient; choosing to lead with a sense of what could be, not just what is; choosing to hold onto a vision of who we can be, both individually and collectively. For me, that looks like showing up fully, bringing all parts of myself – bold, loud, reflective, even a little whimsical – into the spaces I’m in, and creating room for others to do the same.

Ultimately, it reminds me that change doesn’t only happen in grand moments. It happens in how we choose to live every day, how we show up for one another, and how we hold space for those who are still finding their voice.And that, in itself, is a powerful kind of leadership.

This volume invites us to stand up straight inside ourselves, to step forward with all the stubborn joy and perseverance of our foremothers.

In that way, it is not merely a collection of stories – it is a healing remedy and always an invitation to joyful practice.

We still marvel at the women who grace these pages:

• A mayor shaping the future of her city
• A princess preserving the soul of her community
• Queer African women navigating identity and belonging
• Violence against women survivors transforming pain into purpose
• Visionaries building companies, movements, and new ways of being
• Creatives and innovators reminding the world that African women’s contributions make a unique difference to our shared challenges.

Some of these contributors have since become our business partners and collaborators. Others have risen into continental leadership roles. Their trajectories remind us that Volume Two captured not just who they were, but who they were becoming.

[Photo of the cover]

The cover itself – Elizabeth Mwambulukutu’s luminous photography and Romy Gad el Rab’s  striking cover design – remain iconic. Both women have continued to grow as creative forces, and revisiting their work only reinforces how perfectly they channeled the spirit of this volume.

As we reread and reflect, we find ourselves asking the question this volume stirs in us every time: Who are we not to rise, when these women do?

Their stories ignite something – a clarity, a fire, and a call that we share with you now:

• What must we now say to our daughters?
• What must we offer them as the world shifts, as old battles persist, and as new forms of courage are demanded?

Perhaps one answer is already in these pages: Read Volume Two. See yourselves reflected. Unbow your heads. And lead.

Here are some inspirational quotes from Volume Two:

Written by The WWLA Founders
Edited by Michelle Mocumbi

We pay tribute to the memory of Volume One Contributor Christopher Mulenga, who passed away in 2018. We never met or knew him, but the ripples of his impact reached us because he said YES to a call that resonated with this work. That even strangers like us mourn his passing is a testament to his undeniable leadership. RIP, sir. Thank you for your life of service, leadership and impact.

This blog post is a retrospective, a return to 2017 when we launched our first volume, and our reflections as We Will Lead Africa (WWLA) founders on the volume that started it all. It is the first in a series of reflections that we will publish this year, taking you on a journey through the WWLA series, volume by volume. Follow along.

Who will lead Africa?

Forward, onward, fully into the land of its potential.

To the realisation of the blossoming dream of prosperity held by so many, for so long, throughout this place we call home.

Again I ask, Who Will Lead Africa?

You, for who Africa runs in your veins, your consciousness, your very being. You, in all your colours, shades and hues, whose heart beats with the drumbeat of Africa. Who find home in the intermingling sounds of earth, animals and peoples communicating all at once; who know that the sky is broader and the sun bigger when viewed from African soil. Who bursts with joy and passion when you arrive in an African country, greeted with contradictions and cohabitations. 

This is an African town crier’s call to you – yes, YOU. 

You feel the groundswell of those that want to be part of the change. You know that transformation is happening, every day, in big and small ways. You are in action, working towards the prosperity of the continent.

You, the practitioners, business and community leaders, educators and entrepreneurs … everyday leaders, in every sector. 

This town crier’s call was how we put out the call for what would become We Will Lead Africa: Volume One. The bold lines above were also how we opened the preface to the book. This was important contextualisation and signalling of what we set out to do. Our platform is storytelling through an Afrocentric lens. For that, the traditional call and response is what we naturally evoke, and it has become the backbone of all our volumes. We put out a town crier’s call to leadership, sometimes about specific topics pertinent to the future of the African continent and her peoples. We wait for the response from continental Africans and peoples of African descent in the diaspora, working towards the prosperity of Africa. This opening of Volume One serves as a powerful reminder of the call to hold on to the roots and practices that have served Africa and Africans, even as we adapt to the world as it is now and look for pathways to a better future for all.

As our incipient book, Volume One helped us define what we mean by We Will Lead Africa. We have told the story of how this work was launched based on our shared disconnect with the portrayal of African leadership in mainstream literature and media. The framing of WWLA was proposed by one of our co-founders, Yabome, based on her conference paper and research that articulated principles that seem to underline case studies of African leaders and leadership that are having a positive impact. Our idea was to create a platform that featured such case studies and reflected on African leadership at its best – as joyful practice and not only sacrificial. Together, the team discussed the principles and quickly found collective alignment with them. We explored how we might articulate and bring them to life through the vision and framing of WWLA. Those powerful descriptors for each word of the WWLAname became both an anchor and our promise.

From the outset, Volume One insisted on showcasing the diversity and complexity of African experiences. In our preface, we evoked this complexity through the sights and sounds of contemporary Africa:

You, in who joy and passion bursts when you arrive at the airport of an African country and are greeted with a familiar yet always awe-inspiring scene of contradictions and cohabitations in swirls of bright colours: the Calvin Klein dresses and Dashiki tunics; a bucket on one’s head and a briefcase in another’s hand; iPhones, androids and tablets glittering in the sun while fax machines and typewriters reside on desks; children in back wraps, and suitcases in hands; local languages and imported languages; traditional greetings and hugs; a street preacher and hijabs; hip hop and soukous music; people walking into Mercedes-Benzes while a beggar child calls, and hawkers panhandle and push their wares.

Additionally, the volume set the practice we have maintained of foregrounding the multiplicity of Africa and Africans – urban and rural, traditional and contemporary, local and diasporic – reminding readers that African identities are layered, dynamic and uncontainable within narrow narratives.

In a similar vein, working on Volume One was also our opportunity to decide who the book was for and who should be included. We deliberated how to centre the ‘everyday African leader’, the meaning of ‘African’ itself, and connections to both the continent and the diaspora. We saw the decisions to hold an inclusive definition as a necessary and evolving effort to represent leadership as lived rather than merely titled. Furthermore, we confronted and took an honest view of the practical challenges. If we were looking for everyday African leaders, we were actively seeking doers who had often never seen themselves as leaders and had probably never thought of writing their stories. Our everyday leaders could also be traditional leaders who were not English speakers or writers. This meant taking the time to encourage and solicit leaders to write and making provisions that allowed someone’s story to be written and submitted, with permission, by another person. These are not challenges we have solved, but an enduring resolve that guides all our volumes and our intention to share stories that wouldn’t otherwise be told.

Volume One remains the blueprint that we are growing from. It yielded 30 leadership stories with a near-balance of 14 submissions from men and 16 submissions from women. (We saw this overrepresentation of female leadership as a positive signal of changes addressing the historical marginalisation of women in leadership in the patriarchal context of most of the continent.) Submitters represented all regions of the continent, many of whose work cuts across multiple countries on the continent from North, West, Central, East and South. There were eight submissions from leaders of Nigerian descent, which is appropriate for Africa’s most populous country.

Overall, the volume included: 

• Eight stories on Literacy and Education
• Eight on Social Entrepreneurship, Change and Policy
• Five on Arts and Culture
• Four on Healthcare and Wellness
• Four on Media and Communications
• One on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. (As we reflect now, it is no wonder that we have subsequently dedicated a full volume to Technology, Science and Innovation to capture more leadership narratives from this sector.)

Ultimately, Volume One left us with inspirations that continue to reverberate throughout the subsequent volumes and guide us in our own work at WWLA and elsewhere. We list all 30 key leadership quotes/wisdoms (one from each chapter) for you here: