by the We Will Lead Africa Founders
We did it! On 24 May 2025, a day before Africa Day 2025, our We Will Lead Africa (WWLA) team hosted our Annual Gathering and launched our fifth volume, titled Technology, Science, Innovation (TSI). This volume, a curated collection of stories and thought pieces from across the continent and its diaspora, is more than a book. It is a declaration. A reclaiming. A vision of an Africa not sidelined in global innovation, but leading boldly from the front—on its own terms.
This is what contributor and attendee Oreoluwa Lesi shared about her experience writing a piece for the volume:
It was a good friend of mine who shared the call for submissions with me, and I thought, ‘It’s so important for us to tell our stories.’ We are always hearing about the narratives that get pushed on us, mainly from the West. But we have so many rich stories here within our various communities across the continent. Sometimes I think when you’re in the trenches, you don’t appreciate what you’re really doing. You don’t appreciate that you’re fighting through so many challenges. I’m working with girls, and sometimes it feels like it’s not enough. You know, sometimes you speak to funders, and they’re like, ‘How are you going to scale up? We need it to [reach] millions of people. Millions of girls.’ Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of everything, it can feel [like] a lot, and you end up focusing on what you haven’t done. So, it’s nice to be able to step back and reflect on what you have done and also learn about what other people are doing. I just thank you all for putting this together and giving people the opportunity to share. Whether it’s from a policy level or from the implementation level, our stories are varied and rich, and it’s important for us to share them.
… these are the reasons we do what we do and why we remain inspired by all everyday African leaders out there in the trenches!
Thank you to all of you everyday African leaders for sharing your stories with us and with the world and for inspiring us!
Here’s a summary of our conversation at the gathering.
Reflecting on technology, science, and innovation in Africa: A realist perspective
The gathering began by inviting everyone to answer two simple questions: ‘What do you associate with Africa?’ and ‘What do you associate with technology, science, and innovation?’ The answers flowed freely: home, warmth, vibrance, good food, resilience, ingenuity, ancestry, rootedness, people, culture, connection, transformation.
But this was not a romanticised Africa. Alongside these affirmations came the shadows: colonial exploitation, stagnation, systemic corruption, crises, heat, inequality, exclusion, and disconnection.
This duality—of immense potential constrained by deep systemic obstacles—became the emotional and intellectual spine of the entire session. Participants reflected on Africa’s vast land and youthful, tech-savvy population, calling it a ‘continent in constant struggle in the midst of abundance. A place of vast and vibrant land, space, people…’ The conversation acknowledged that while Africa remains a wellspring of creativity, talent, and natural resources, its people too often remain consumers of innovation rather than its architects.
The challenges: Systemic, structural, and colonial
Participants did not shy away from the challenges facing African innovation, naming them plainly:
- Economic hardship: Widespread unemployment and inflation, particularly in countries like Nigeria, were described as creating fertile ground for political manipulation and disempowerment.
- Colonial legacies: From land ownership in Southern Africa to enduring dependence on Western institutions and narratives, colonialism continues to shape power structures.
- Knowledge erasure: Indigenous systems of knowledge and technological heritage have been sidelined or repackaged as Western innovations.
- Policy gaps and fragmentation: Lack of coordination across African states prevents unified responses to global tech challenges, such as the monopolisation of digital infrastructure by foreign corporations, creating a familiar exploitation reality as in the past.
- Narrative dominance: The persistent framing of Africa as a site of deficiency rather than potential undermines African confidence and global investment.
One contributor asked, ‘How do we respond—not just react—in the face of aggressively dominant narratives and external control?’ Another pondered, ‘Is there light at the end of the tunnel, or are we spiralling into deeper dependency unless something fundamentally shifts?’
The possibilities: Rediscovery, connection, and collective power
Despite these daunting challenges, hope emerged as it always does in WWLA conversations. But it was not passive hope—it was active, grounded, and purposeful. Several powerful themes emerged as beacons of possibility:
- Rediscovery of indigenous knowledge: Participants emphasised that Africa has long practised science and technology—just not in ways that were labelled as such. ‘Our ancestors were engineers, astronomers, and healers. We must reclaim and reframe these truths,’ one speaker urged.
- Community-centred innovation: Stories from the TSI volume spotlight technologies that emerge from lived realities—pothole mapping apps, solar-powered classrooms, AI used for community decision-making.
- Localised entrepreneurship: Examples such as the fashion entrepreneur creating clothes designed for African bodies, rejecting the second-hand imports flooding the market, remind us of Africa’s power to produce rather than merely consume. Inclusive and locally relevant solutions are key to changing and leading Africa’s innovation future. As one participant reminded us during the gathering, the poorest 90% of the world who need innovation are often denied it, but there is, therefore, unlimited potential from localised innovation in the most constrained environments.
- Pan-African interdependence: The call for African nations to collaborate—economically, politically, and technologically—was strong. Participants spoke about the necessity of moving from independence to interdependence, emphasising coordination as the key to resisting exploitation and scaling impact. It was a call to truly live by African collectivist and community values currently popularised in the southern Ubuntu philosophy (I am because you are); and to embody the wisdom of the symbolic Ghanian sankofa bird, looking back to learn from the past so we can lead the future.
- Narrative ownership: The act of telling these stories—of insisting on complexity, richness, and resistance—is itself a form of innovation. As one attendee declared, ‘We need to speak up, not push back. To speak truth to power. That’s leadership.’
Launching Volume Five: Stories of real impact
WWLA: TSI showcases 27 stories and 3 thought pieces that span sectors, geographies, and generations. These are not stories of elite innovation confined to labs or boardrooms—they are grounded, grassroots narratives of ingenuity in action. These aren’t stories about technology as shiny metal objects. They are about people-centred, locally rooted, socially responsive innovation. Moreover, they highlight a critical theme: solutions must be locally relevant.
This collection is made even more powerful with a foreword by Professor Christian Happi, a Nigerian genomics professor and global leader in public health, recently named to the Time 100. His presence reinforces the book’s core assertion: Africa is already shaping global scientific discourse—it just isn’t always recognised.
‘What will you do?’: A call to everyday African leadership
We closed the volume with a dedication that echoed throughout the launch event: To you. The future is yours to create. What will you do?
This is not rhetorical. Every contributor, speaker, and participant emphasised that while systemic change is crucial, so is everyday leadership. As co-founder Judith, who was also the lead editor for the TSI volume, remarked, ‘Take your leadership seriously. Lead from where you are. It really matters.’
This is where transformation begins: in communities, in classrooms, in policy rooms, in design studios, in hearts, and as we were reminded from one of the readings in the closing perspectives of the volume, by attending to the potholes right in front of you. We want: ‘A future that we are comfortable passing to generations that will succeed ours. When I feel tired, lose hope, or get cynical about things around me, this is what I remember. I hope this encourages you to fix the potholes in your community; we each have a role to play.’
A movement in motion
As music played and digital art by story contributor and cover artist Ade Adekola concluded the event, the sense was clear: this isn’t the end. It’s a beginning.
WWLA is not just a book series. It is a movement—an evolving, growing collective of thinkers, doers, builders, and storytellers committed to redefining what African leadership looks like. With each volume, each story, and each conversation, it creates spaces of belonging, reflection, and vision.
And if the future is truly ours to create, then it starts with what we do next—together.