Twenty-five dynamic youths from nineteen African countries walking the leadership journey together, ready to learn, re-learn, and unlearn with an open mind whilst building on each other’s abilities. President Obama has provided this priceless opportunity to us. This is only our third week of stay at the University of Delaware, and yet there has so far been overwhelming interaction over civic leadership, aimed at spurring growth and prosperity, strengthening democratic governance, and enhancing peace and security across Africa. The knowledge and information we have gathered might be a privilege to many, so we are obliged to pay it forward upon our return to Africa. Only through enriching others can we claim that the program is beneficial.
Today is our fourteenth day of class and we learned about organizational capacity building for non-profits and community-based organizations in the U.S.A, making comparisons to our different contexts and realities in Africa. Professor Jabbar-Bey engaged the class in a rigorous critical thinking exercise that involved pondering on the definition of civil society, non-profit organizations, and community-based organizations in the different countries we hail from. We discerned variances and similarities in the setup of all these organizations with emphasis on their accountability structures. What wasn’t arguable in our dialogue was the fact that civil society and not-for-profit and community-based organizations are cause-driven and people-centered; we are trying to hold government and the corporate market accountable.
We also learned that there is a difference between being involved and being effective in an organization. Exercising civic leadership is not a walk in the park; otherwise, everyone would be walking this journey. From an article we read, authored by the Kansas Leadership Centre, it is apparent that there is a difference between leadership in civic life versus business or organizational life. It’s argued that the ideal competences in civic leadership include the following: diagnosing a situation, managing oneself, intervening skillfully, and energizing others. Therefore, problem identification is key! If you don’t identify the right problems, then you are working on the wrong issue. This is a lesson that our civil society should reflect upon. Identify the root causes and desist from fighting the symptoms. It may take a while, but again, leadership is risky business and requires tremendous courage because we have to risk our personal stakes for the common good.
I earlier mentioned that the University of Delaware is exceptional, and indeed, this fact manifested itself again today. We had our morning session on campus, and in the afternoon, we drove to New Jersey for the afternoon session held at Rutgers University with TeenSHARP, a leadership program for youth development. Here, we discussed the American education system. We were exposed to the reality that as much as America is full of roses, it is not devoid of challenges, and to be successful, your mind must be in the right place. TeenSHARP, founded in 2009, builds a community of givers, strivers, connectors, starters, and appliers through providing opportunities to less privileged but talented young students to obtain higher education. We experienced some of the hurdles students face in getting college education through participating in a game designed by the organization. This exposed us to similar challenges in our own African education system, but also gave us hope that, no matter how many times you fall, if you are determined, you will excel. 