The Africa Leadership Initiative/East Africa Inaugural ... · The final seminar for the East African Leadership Fellows, The Promise of Leadership, opened on a cool evening outside

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The Africa Leadership Initiative/East Africa Inaugural Class Final Seminar

The Promise of Leadership June 15 – 19, 2005

The final seminar for the East African Leadership Fellows, The Promise of Leadership, opened on a cool evening outside Arusha, Tanzania, but in spite of the weather, a spirit of warmth and reunion pervaded the group of Fellows that gathered on the veranda of the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge. While a few faces were missing, those that committed to the ALI program and were present at this graduation seminar, exhibited great confidence, both in each other, and in the ability of the Africa Leadership Initiative to positively impact their region. The agenda of The Promise of Leadership Seminar is almost entirely borrowed from the curriculum of the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellowship Program, and the readings for this final seminar center on self-reflection, with the goal of inspiring the Fellows to continue on their leadership journey, even if the road becomes difficult at times. The Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI) seeks to develop a new generation of values-driven, community-spirited business leaders from six African countries. In East Africa, which includes Fellows from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, the Initiative is a joint venture between the Aspen Institute, TechnoServe, and Infotech Investment Group, Ltd., led by local ALI partner and supporter, Ali Mufuruki. After enjoying cocktails and good conversation on the hotel’s veranda, the Fellows moved inside for dinner and some thrilling entertainment by a local band that doubled as an acrobatic troupe. The group performed some impressive balancing stunts, and Ben Dunlap, ALI Moderator and President of Wofford College in South Carolina, remarked later that if one of these performers could balance on top of two boards, eight glasses of Fanta and a paint can with two other performers on his shoulders, then it stood to reason that the ALI Fellows could accomplish anything they set their minds to! After dinner, the group settled down to watch the first of a three part DVD presentation entitled The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World’s Economy, a PBS production based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book of the same title. The six hour long program covers the ideological battle between John Maynard Keynes and government controlled markets, and Friedrich von Hayek and unencumbered free market capitalism. Commanding Heights features interviews with Milton Friedman, Lee Kuan Yew, Jeffery Sachs and other leaders whose writings and ideas were featured throughout the curriculum of the Africa Leadership Initiative. While the Fellows

Zuhura Muro, Bart Kakooza and Mariam Luyombo catch up on the events of the past year.

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enjoyed the videos and found their ideas inspiring and provocative, it was a little hard for them to focus that first evening, as some of them had been traveling since 5:00 AM! The seminar began in earnest the following morning, with a personal check-in from each of the Fellows. The personal check-in is a chance for everyone to update the class on his or her accomplishments and challenges over the past year, and share what specific actions he or she has undertaken as a result of previous seminars. The following are some examples of the Fellows’ “check-in” reports:

• My family business is still doing well. I have recently launched a property development facet to my business interests, and the Zambian textile facility I manage is doing quite well, much to my surprise! I really believe that we could give India and China’s textile industries a run for their money here in East Africa, if we only had the infrastructure and the government support we need to compete!

• This year, my husband and I sent two Kenyan engineering students to study the health

sector and the environment in France, but from now on, we are going to focus on projects that benefit many people as opposed to only a few.

• You know how they say, ‘no army can stop an idea whose time has come’? Well, that is

how I feel about franchising in East Africa. I have been doing a lot of franchising consultancy, as well as promoting our own brands, and creating a platform for successful franchising across Kenya. However, I have found myself discouraged by a general lack of understanding of franchising in East Africa.

• All in all, everything is going quite well for me and my schools at the moment. I used to

be a good worrier, but I feel I have learned to how to handle crises much better, and that gives me more confidence. For instance, four weeks ago, one of our dormitories caught fire. Luckily, we had just done training on how to manage a fire, and we battled the fire successfully. This same tragedy occurred many years ago at my school, but this time we knew what to do, and we had insurance, and we were able to go on almost as normal.

• I have to say that ALI has made me strong enough to deal with many different trials and

tribulations. This year, I made an effort to discover my own authenticity, and I was able to focus more on my spiritual side. I also managed to buy a good piece of land, about 80 acres, on which to build my school for peace and conflict resolution. I believe the ALI seminars gave me the courage to approach people and to raise the funds I need to do this.

• My wife’s business has run into trouble this year. It is just a small coffee shop and book

store, but I have been frustrated in my attempts to help her find the financing she needs. It seems to me that it is the small to medium sized businesses that fall through the cracks in our region. They are the “missing middle” – too large for microfinance, too small for large business loans.

• CNN has asked me to work on Inside Africa, but that means moving to the US, and I am

not sure I want to leave Uganda.

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• I won an award from SIDA, the Swedish development agency, Johns Hopkins University

in the US, and the Prime Minister’s Office to develop a disaster management system that would be sustainable in Tanzania. I convinced them that western systems won’t work for us long term, and I focused my program around high frequency radio transmission. One of the Johns Hopkins Professors has great faith in my idea, and he plans to spearhead similar systems in Somalia and Ethiopia. I am certain that it was my experience as an ALI Fellow that allowed me to stand up for what I knew would work best.

This discussion of the events of the past year transitioned nicely into the first discussion session of the seminar, The Time of Our Lives, a title inspired by the first reading in this session, Mortimer Adler’s The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense. This reading reflected the focus of the Executive Seminar: the path to a “good life.” The Fellows spent most of the conversation debating how one can determine what is excessive. Many seemed to feel that excess is a matter of perception, for as one Fellow explained, “People’s definitions of minimum necessary freedoms, not just minimum necessary wealth, will differ greatly from Moshi to Washington, DC.” Another pointed out that excessive wealth might not be totally destructive to a society if it is spread widely and used appropriately. The Fellows seemed to agree with John Gardner’s assertion in “Individuality and Its Limits,” from Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society, that freedom can be hard for the individual to maintain, no matter how much he or she may desire it. The Fellows pointed out that in their own countries, their independence from the colonial powers in the 1960s “was an empty freedom. We could not make society work, and the standard of living plummeted. We lacked knowledge and we couldn’t see any other way out of our situation than the centralized, socialist economy.” The Fellows also agreed that the community was more central to traditional East African societies than the individual: “You were only noticed if you broke the norms. Otherwise, you were just part of the group.” However, as one Fellow explained, “individuality is part of human creation and needs to be accepted. The prophets were all individuals. Sometimes I believe we need individuals to pull us out of our rut and to light the way forward.” The Fellows delved deeply into David Whyte’s parable The Heart Aroused: Taking the Homeward Road, examining it from every possible angle. One Fellow stated early in the discussion, “This is absolutely true. This piece is about being satisfied with yourself and everything connected to you. I see people much older than 50 who are still dissatisfied with their lives, who hunger for something more. I know that I do not want to be one of them.” Another Fellow commented, “When my wife read this story, she brought up a gender dimension that is easy to miss. This man goes away from his family for 30 years and just expects to be accepted back once he has decided to take the homeward road. Many men do this to their wives and children today, even if they never physically leave the home. They are too wrapped up in their careers to be really present.” Another Fellow pointed out, “In East Africa, as a woman, if you are married and have children, that is all you have a right to ask for. Women are not expected to have aspirations, or to reinvent themselves when they are unfulfilled.” Ben Dunlap was pleasantly surprised to hear the issue of gender as portrayed in The Heart Aroused raised at an ALI session, as he had never heard this discussed at any session he had moderated, including those he had done for the Henry Crown Fellowship Program. “I feel you can all be each other’s

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Solomons,” Ben added, “This table has fostered some wonderful discussions about some very deep issues, and I think as you go forward with your journey as ALI Fellows, you should look for guidance within this group.” After lunch, the Fellows came back to the conference room to discuss their Leadership Projects, and each of them took a few minutes to inform the group of what they had accomplished over the past four years. The Leadership Project is an integral part of the Africa Leadership Initiative. Each Fellow, in the Aspen tradition, is expected to

“give back” by carrying out a project designed to put into practice the principles of values-based leadership. These projects are expected to take place during the last 18 months of the Fellowship. Ideally, these projects have a substantial impact on local communities, and will be one of the key legacies of the Africa Leadership Initiative. Excerpts from their reports have been included below:

• “I have capitalized on my networks at CNN to put together some pieces that highlight issues important to Ugandans. Another Fellow assisted me in targeting donors, and we raised $350/story. I managed to cover a wide range of topics including Uganda’s petroleum industry, tourism (chimpanzee island, gorillas), and mining. I also partnered with the army in Northern Uganda to highlight their efforts in granting amnesty to LRA fighters and rescuing kidnapped children. In addition, I partnered with TechnoServe to produce a story on cashew processing in Mozambique. I was recognized for my work on bringing attention to Ugandan’s successful fight against HIV. I plan to tackle many other stories in the near future.”

• “I established the Tiber Young Entrepreneurship Program (TYEP). I am very passionate

about the role of private enterprise in international development. Right now, we have no jobs for the youth of Uganda, so they need to be able to create their own jobs. This year, I created a ten hour course, taught 540 children, trained two teachers, and developed a manual so teachers can take over the curriculum themselves. In ten years, I hope to have put 1800 students through the program, and if 10% of them (180) start their own businesses, with approx. 50 jobs in each business, in the end we could see 10,000 jobs created!”

• “I have been working on crop diversification in my homeland, and I decided to focus on

vanilla. My aim is to get the initiative organized, and to assist in the education of those involved. I may bring in a consultant from Uganda who has some experience in vanilla farming. I have also employed someone to translate some technical manuals developed by successful Zimbabwean vanilla farmers into Swahili. Vanilla has also been targeted as a focus crop by the Kilimanjaro Foundation, and I think that focus will benefit my project.”

Moderator Ben Dunlap particularly enjoyed the Fellows take on David Whyte’s The Heart Aroused

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• “I decided to focus on the primary school in my own village: Dendyo Primary School. At the outset, the school building consisted of temporary walls, some of the classrooms only had half as many desks as they needed, there were few school books, and a high teacher turn over rate. I provided the materials for the desks, and the children and teachers built them themselves. I sourced supplemental books, and raised funds for a library, which the community is working to build. I also instituted a “Teacher of the Year” award program to motivate the staff, and this reduced our teacher turnover rate from 4 out of 9 in 2003 to 2 out of 13 in 2004. I am currently working to complete construction of two more classrooms, but we have already increased the number of permanent classrooms from 5 to 8. Finally, our average attendance for girls in Class 7 – and important indicator of educational effectiveness – increased from 65% in 2003 to 85% in 2004.”

• “I have been using my position at the Uganda

Investment Authority (UIA) to hold seminars on good business practices among Uganda’s small business owners, with a special focus on women, youth, and the rural poor. I focused on Kampala, but I hope to expand the program country wide eventually. I received funding from the government, the UIA, and Enterprise Uganda (EU), as well as from Barclay’s, Stanbic, SIDA, IFC, and the Commonwealth Business Council. So far we have held 15 seminars, which were attended by 200 to 500 participants.”

• “My project focused on developing the culinary

side of the hospitality industry, and to that end, I held a competition, which was sponsored by Dasani Water, and featured chefs from various high end hotels across Kenya. Each hotel contributed 500,000 Kshs. The winner was sent to an international cooking competition in the Bahamas and a two week training program at the Dubai Hilton. We hope to have 6 winners in two years, and 18 winners after three years. I believe these competitions help train disadvantaged Kenyans who would never get opportunities like this normally.”

• “I set up the Tanzanian Asset Management Company Ltd. (TAMCL), which will allow

ordinary Tanzanians to collectively acquire ownership of privatized enterprises through the Tanzanian Women Unit Trust (TAWUT). While I opened up the unit trust to both men and women, I am giving women a chance to buy the units at a slightly better price (130 Tzs vs. 136 Tzs). TAMCL is hoping to launch a major publicity campaign in Sept./Oct. 2005.”

• “The aim of my project was to set up a secondary school for children from Africa’s Great

Lakes Region that would focus on peace initiatives and leadership training. I also want to include a vocational program for older students. I have pledged $24,000 of my own

Mariam Luyombo reports on her Leadership Project to the other ALI/East Africa Fellows

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funds to the project so far, and I also raised $10,000 from another donor. At this point, I have identified and surveyed the site.”

• “I wanted my project to address the lack of affordable health care for Kenya’s rural poor.

I decided to hold three medical clinic events in the Manyatta Constituency of Embu District. Two were general in focus and one addressed diseases of the eye. I established a ten member committee to oversee the project, and we raised approximately 300,000 Kshs, and solicited in kind donations from drug companies. 40 doctors, 7 eye specialists, and 100 medical students offered their services. So far, our medical camp saw 4,227 patients, and our eye camp saw 2,671 patients. I hope the final upcoming clinic will push our total number of patients over 10,000, my original goal for the project.”

• “I established CIDAC (Cancer Information, Diagnostics, & Advice Center) to draw

attention to breast cancer in Tanzania, a disease that kills mostly because there is little awareness of it, and diagnosis comes too late. I wanted to disseminate information on the disease, set up support groups for patients and survivors, and establish a diagnostic center and mammogram unit. We have used radio, flyers and the internet to publicize information on CIDAC and the disease. CIDAC has been recognized by the Ministry of Health, and we have a full time Executive Director and nurse.”

• “I have always been passionate about trees and the environment, so I started the ALI-

Fontana Tree Project – an initiative to restore the Mau Forest Water Catchment Area, the largest water catchment area in Eastern Africa. I decided to set up tree nurseries at the Fontana Flower Farm in Rongai, and at the Maria Gorreti Secondary School. At the Fontana Flower Farm, out nursery will benefit from the expertise of the farm staff, their equipment, water resources, and the propogation greenhouse. In addition, 160 out of 430 students at the Maria Gorreti School have been trained to care for the seedlings, and an incentive scheme has been set up to motivate the students to care for their trees. So far, in cooperation with the Millennium Tree Project, we have planted 1000 Acacia trees in Nairobi National Park. We plan to plant 16,000 Casuarina and 20 Giant Bamboo by the end of June 2005, 16,000 Grevilea Robusta by the end of July, and 3,000 Eucalyptus Salinga by September 2005.”

At the end of the presentations, one Fellow summed up the sentiments of the class when he said, “I am humbled by the projects that everyone here has chosen to take on, and I think it is incredible how the ALI program has forced all of us to focus on how we can give back to our communities.” The Fellows reconvened the following day to explore Session III of the seminar, entitled Self and the World. The Fellows agreed that Arthur Hugh Clough’s The Latest Decalogue could be read as a satirical commentary on the Ten Commandments, “but it actually shows how the Ten Commandments can be relevant to modern society. It is a reflection on their place in today’s world.” Some Fellows did feel that the poem points out the hypocrisy of how some “good Christian people” behave. As one Fellow commented, “The poem reminds me of the Kenyan 11th Commandment, ‘Thou Shalt Not be Caught!’ In fact, our first President even said, ‘If you are caught, you are not mine.’ They even made it into a popular song!”

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The next piece, Mark Twain’s Letter to the Earth, also had a humorous, tongue-in-cheek tone. The overall message of the poem seems to be “that in most people, there are two sides, the public and the private self, and they do not always agree.” Many of the Fellows saw the hypocritical character, Abner, reflected in public figures in their own societies: “In Tanzania, we are approaching our general election, and we have a ruling party that is really corrupt, but they make themselves look so just and pious. Really, they are all looking for quick access to wealth.” However, one Fellow interrupted to point out, “But don’t you feel that this letter is really being sent to all of us? We could all do more for those around us. It is a call to action for each and every one of us.” Despite all the evil and sadness in the modern world, one Fellow encouraged her classmates to remember, “I feel that today you hear of more people talking of altruism and

goodness. People are becoming aware of how much better the world could be if we want it. It doesn’t matter if it is just a small group – it is not about percentages. The best chance is always in the next generation. If we raise them to be good people, to live justly, then there is hope for the world.” Upon first examination of Oscar Wilde’s poem, The Doer of Good, the Fellows read it as a warning to those with a charitable nature: just because you do something good, doesn’t mean more good will come

of it. However, one Fellow explained, “I think that the Doer of Good has not given those he blessed direction. It shows how people tend to drift back into sin if they are not shown the way to a better path.” Another Fellow saw the poem as a rebuke of Africa’s corrupt leaders, “It reminds me of how when people are striving to get into high office, they aspire to great feats and good deeds. But when they gain power, they live in such excess, and they forget about all those who are suffering as they once were. In Africa, our leaders build palaces, while those living around them do not even have electricity. This poem should remind them of how blessed they are, and what they should be doing with their privileged status.” The Fellows used John Donne’s piece, At the Earth’s Imagined Corners, as a launch pad for a discussion on the relationship between science and religion. One Fellow argued, “There is no humility in science – it is about proving. They are trying to challenge religious belief simply because it is there to be challenged. Humility is almost a bad word in the scientific world.” However, another Fellow countered, “I don’t think the scientists are expressly challenging faith. That is not their goal. They just happen to challenge it as they go along with their processes.” One Fellow offered a middle ground: “If you trust the moral decisions to scientists, they will go to the very end, but if you trust them to religion, no progress will be made. So a third body should set the limits. Perhaps that is the contemporary consciousness.” Ben Dunlap and Bart Kakooza then lead the group in a lively reading from Jean Anouilh’s play Antigone. The Fellows expounded on the differences between this version of Antigone, written

Gavin Bell and Zuhura Muro discuss ways to make sure one’s good works have a measurable impact on society.

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during the Nazi occupation of France, and the Sophocles version, and they related some of the themes of the play to the modern world. “They believe that Antigone is an irrational female simply because she is female. They see the person and not the issues. It’s like in Kenya, when people fled to Zambia and Tanzania simply because they could not sit by and accept the Presidency. All they had to do was agree, some of them even had good positions in government, but they gave them up because they could not be silent.” Another Fellow stated, “In the run up to the war in Iraq, there were many Antigones who did not support the war, and they were made to look really cute and naive. The Bush administration went ahead with the war, because like Creon, they simply said the war was necessary, and as leaders, they had to act, but they never gave an explanation, or a justification.” The Fellows had the afternoon free, but they did meet again that evening to watch the third installment of the Commanding Heights presentation. The next morning, the Fellows reconvened to discuss The Possibility of Heroism. Excerpts from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, caused many of the Fellows to comment on how open minded children naturally are: “I think the author used a child because of the simple way that children see things. They have not yet been corrupted by our unjust laws – slavery in this case.” Children are often the first to see injustice in the world, and the next piece, Josiah Royce’s the Problem of Job, is a detailed examination of how evil can exist in a world with a just God. “During the Rwandan genocide, my son asked why God would allow so many innocent children to be slaughtered, and when I couldn’t give him an answer, he went to our church to find out.” Unfortunately, the Fellows found Royce’s explanation of evil’s existence wanting as well. The argument presented by Ivan Karamazov in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Rebellion, really resonated with some of the Fellows, with one stating “I feel I could have written these words myself. I often ask why God does not put an end to human suffering if he in fact has the ability to.” Many of the Fellows couldn’t help but feel that “there is more suffering in the world today than at any other time in history.” But one Fellow dissented, saying, “I don’t think there is more suffering these days – we are simply better informed of tragic events in the wider world. Still, it seems we are always inventing new forms of ‘artistic cruelty’. It is our capacity to torture our fellow man that is the really disturbing part.” The conversation reminded Ben Dunlap of a story he had read about a Nazi soldier who, on his death bed, had sought absolution from a Jewish prisoner being forced to work at the German hospital where he was dying. The Fellows could not agree on whether or not the Jewish prisoner should forgive this soldier for his cruel murders. One Fellow exclaimed, “This is mind-boggling to me! Where is the mandate for forgiveness coming from? He is not the one who was wronged, so he cannot be the one to forgive.” However, another Fellow saw the soldier’s request as something more universal: “I would have

Elkanah Odembo describes his conception of a true hero.

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forgiven him, because we are all looking for forgiveness in the end. They are both souls, and they should not deny that to each other. The atrocities happened, and you cannot change them, but do you want to live in the past, or go on with your life?” This idea of forgiveness and reconciliation is something that people in today’s Rwanda, the subject of Philip Gourevitch’s, We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families, must grapple with everyday. The Fellows had already touched on the impact that the Rwandan genocide had on their own lives, and many of them shared stories about how they themselves had witnessed people being cut down at road blocks, or had friends and family who were forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. However, they put aside these personal memories to discuss the heroic acts of Paul Rusesabagina at the Hotel Mille Colines. “He found himself in a situation where he could save some people from certain death, and he acted. He really thought he was just doing what any other decent person would do in his situation. It is that humility that makes him a true hero.” When asked how to prevent another Rwanda from occurring, one Fellow had an interesting solution: “The answer is to end poverty. It is the poor, the desperate, that resort to such evils. They are easier to influence, they are less educated, and they are hungry. To fight evil, we need to fight poverty.” After tackling such tragic and difficult subject matter, the Fellows were glad to break for lunch. Unfortunately, they returned to find themselves confronted with perhaps the oldest puzzle of mankind: The Meaning of Life. Session V began with two biblical passages, Genesis 3 and Mathew 6:19-34. The Fellows agreed that while toil and death could be seen as a punishment for eternal sin, as described in Genesis 3, “Animals work as well. They find food, they build nests, they take care of their young. And even the plants grow and die, so death is not really a punishment. It is simply the natural order.” They also agreed that while one should not be materialistic and focus on work and wealth above spiritual growth, “Life is like a boat with two paddles – prayer and work. If you use only one, you will go in circles. But if you use them both, you will move forward. It is all about balance.” The next piece the Fellows discussed tells the story of a man who obviously has no sense of balance. In Leo Tolstoy’s How Much Land Does A Man Need, the protagonist’s greed leads him to make a deal wherein he must walk the circumference of his desired acreage before sun down. Sadly, he dies in the attempt. “For me it was like the story of me and my washing machine,” explained one Fellow. “I got a simple one, and I was so happy. Two years later, I got a new smaller, sleeker, and quieter one. I used it for two years. Then I found another that was smaller, and the cycle just kept going!” While the Fellows agreed that greed can lead to destruction, they also felt that wealth can be used for good: “Look at the foundation Bill Gates has created.

Francis Kwimbere and Palkesh Shah prepare to discuss “the meaning of life.”

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Overnight, he established a huge charity that is very successful. And people who know him best say he is a much happier man now. He is using his excessive wealth for good.” The Fellows closed their session on The Meaning of Life with a few poems: Robert Hayden’s Frederick Douglas, Robert Frost’s Provide, Provide, and Wendell Barry’s Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. The Fellows felt all three poems spoke of the importance of leaving a legacy for future generations, and of living your life in a way that you can be proud of. As one

Fellow explained, “We are not valued for the monuments we build, or the wealth we accumulate, but rather for what we leave behind for our children and our children’s children. For instance, a wealthy father would be better off to give his children a good education throughout their lives, rather than leaving them with a house or an estate at his death. The legacy of material wealth could feed them for a few years, but the legacy of an education can feed them for a lifetime.” Later that evening, the Fellows returned to the Ngurdoto’s Victoria Hall for a graduation ceremony that was attended by special guest Hon. Amanya Mushega, Secretary General of the East African Community. The Fellows were asked to

plan the evening as they saw fit, and they chose to incorporate a certain amount of formality into the event. The Fellows showed their thanks to ALI Moderators Ben Dunlap and Peter Reiling and ALI/East Africa Sponsor Ali Mufuruki, by seating them at the high table with Hon. Mushega. Peter Reiling, Ben Dunlap, Ali Mufuruki and Hon. Mushega all gave brief speeches. Then the Fellows read an open letter to the East African Secretariat, calling on more to be done to combat poverty in the region. Afterwards, the Fellows each read a short description of another person in their class, leaving the persons identity to the end. Then Peter, Ben and Ali then presented each Fellow with a certificate that showed they had completed the requirements of the ALI Fellowship. In exchange, each group of Fellows then gave Peter, Ben and Ali some small tokens of appreciation for their wisdom and leadership over the past three years. With all the formalities aside, the Fellows and their guests turned up the music and enjoyed drinks and dancing late into the evening. The actual seminar did not wrap up until the following morning, when the Fellows gathered in the conference room one last time

Mariam Luyombo and Zuhura Muro wore traditional Ugandan dresses to the graduation ceremony.

The Fellows thanked Ali Mufuruki for all his hard work to make the ALI/East Africa Fellowship a reality.

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to discuss their alumni plans, their personal goals as ALI graduates, and their hopes for the future of ALI/East Africa. Peter Reiling surprised them all with an additional gift, Jim O’Toole’s latest book Creating The Good Life: Applying Aristotle’s Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness. The Fellows were delighted to have this final token of the program. In closing, the sentiments of the ALI/East Africa Fellows are presented in their own words, as there is no better way to show the impact the Africa Leadership Initiative can have on Africa’s business leaders. Therefore, here are the voices of the Africa Leadership Initiative’s Inaugural Class of East African Fellows, whose commitment and creativity will certainly lead to a brighter future for the Great Lakes Region as a whole:

• As East Africans, we are still looking for aid and donor money, but India is looking for wealth creation, and I think that is what we need to do.

• I go to a lot of workshops and conferences, but I know that these last three years with

ALI have meant so much more to me than any of those others. I also know that the leadership challenge that we face is a big one, but when I look around this table and see these faces, I feel confident that we can make a difference.

• We are really only at the beginning of our projects and if we don’t push each other, there

is a very good likelihood that we will slip from our goals. Let’s meet sooner rather than later. Let’s not even wait for a whole year. Let’s take advantage of our infrastructure, and our networks, and make this happen. We should expect a lot from each other. I know I will expect a lot from all of you.

• In my business, we make money, we lose money, and I thought that was all there was to

life. But ALI brought me out of that, and now even my wife says I talk differently. So, I thank Ali for choosing me to be part of this wonderful initiative.

• ALI has ignited that spark in me. If it wasn’t for ALI, I never would have acted on my

passion for trees. And for that I am forever thankful.

• I don’t know how you ever heard of me, Ali, but I feel very privileged to be part of this group. The one thing I always remember is that the more knowledge you get, the more frustrated you become, because your eyes are open, and that is how I feel about ALI. ALI has made me believe that one single person can make a difference, so all I have to say is “watch this space!”

The Fellows asked Peter Reiling, Ben Dunlap, and Ali Mufuruki to sign their copies of Jim O’Toole’s Creating the

Good Life.

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• I know I am going to start reading this book on “the good life” as soon as I get back. I have learned that leadership is a moral issue, and choice is always involved, and I know that when I face difficult decisions in the future, I will hear your voices in my head, keeping me on the right track.

• I want to point out that when I started this, I know I was that faded figure at the back of

the ALI logo, and I have you all to thank for helping me break out of my box. I have learned about the good life, globalization, and how to enact change. I know I can be larger than myself.

• The last three years has been a journey. I started ALI with what I thought were many

black and white answers. Now I am going home with more questions than before, and I know that is the way it should be. I look forward to answering all these questions with the rest of you, and to creating a movement of people who want to make a difference. It is not our color, it is not our ethnicity, and it is not our religion that makes us who we are, but what we believe, and that means we are all the same.

The Africa Leadership Initiative/East Africa Inaugural Class – June 2005 Submitted by Abigail Brazee – TechnoServe

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Appendix A – Summary of the African Leadership Initiative

THE AFRICA LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE There is a crisis of leadership in Africa. The result is continued poverty for millions of men, women, and children. The causes of this crisis are numerous, but high among them is the fact that many African countries lack a broadly shared vision of the future that effectively melds the demands of globalization with local values. After decades of centralized “command and control,” government leaders espouse market-led economic growth and community empowerment without a clear understanding of the changes this likely requires in their roles and behavior. After years of operating as what many in their own lands considered “pariahs” and “profiteers,” business leaders are unfamiliar with emerging norms of public-private cooperation and corporate social responsibility. And, eternal advocates for change, civil society leaders often lack a clear understanding of the need for business and government alike to satisfy multiple stakeholders in order to create truly sustainable prosperity and peace. For there to be progress, the next generation of leaders in all three sectors must come together: • to identify and address their personal strengths and weaknesses as leaders, • to understand the challenges they face as participants in a rapidly globalizing society, • to share and refine their respective visions of the society they would like to live in, and • to lead by example in building this society. It is for these reasons that The Africa Leadership Initiative has been conceived. Background The Aspen Institute, established in 1950, is a global forum for leveraging the power of leaders to improve the human condition. The Henry Crown Fellowship program, established by the Institute in 1997, seeks to establish the next generation of community-spirited leaders, providing them with the tools necessary to meet the challenges of corporate and civic leadership in the 21st century. In 1998, Peter Reiling, who was at the time President and CEO of TechnoServe, an international organization promoting market-led economic growth in Africa and Latin America since 1968, was named to the Millennium Class of Henry Crown Fellows. Like his classmates, he was asked to carry out a community project – designed to put into practice the principles of values-based leadership. Mr. Reiling decided that his project would be to bring the message of the Aspen Institute to Africa, a continent where he has lived and worked for the past 22 years. In 2000 and 2001, with the assistance of Keith Berwick, Executive Director of the Henry Crown Fellowship Program, and Beth Brooke, Inaugural Henry Crown Fellow and Vice Chairman of Ernst & Young, TechnoServe sponsored Executive Seminars for business, government, and civil society leaders in Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique. The Executive Seminar, the flagship of the Aspen Institute seminar series, uses the writings of some of the world’s greatest minds to prompt a dialogue on each participant’s vision of “the good society.” By all accounts, these seminars were a success – proving that the Aspen methodology is transferable to Africa and spurring serious discussion on the respective roles of business, government, and civil society in economic and social development. Notably, two new Henry Crown Fellows emerged from these

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seminars – Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Chairman of Databank Financial Services (Ghana) and Ali Mufuruki, Chairman and CEO of Infotech Investment Group (Tanzania). In late 2001, Peter Reiling, Keith Berwick, Ali Mufuruki, and Ken Ofori-Atta decided to launch the Africa Leadership Initiative. Isaac Shongwe, Chairman of Letsema Holdings in South Africa, agreed to join this effort in April 2002. He has subsequently been named a Henry Crown Fellow as well. Romeu Rodrigues, Chairman and CEO of CETA, one of the largest construction companies in Mozambique, and a participant in the December 2001 Executive Seminar held in Mozambique, also agreed to join the effort in April 2002. Modeled after the highly successful Henry Crown Fellowship Program of The Aspen Institute (http://aspeninstitute.org/crown), The Africa Leadership Initiative seeks to develop the next generation of community-spirited leaders of Africa, beginning in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, and South Africa. An initial class of twenty Fellows between the ages of 25 and 50 has been chosen in each of four countries/regions: Ghana, East Africa, Mozambique, and South Africa. These Fellows, nominated by recognized local business and community leaders, are men and women who:

have achieved significant success in their fields of endeavor; have demonstrated their potential for leadership at the highest levels of corporate, government, or

civic responsibility; possess a breadth of experience and level of maturity that will enable them to contribute effectively to

the fellowship experience; and come from diverse backgrounds in terms of occupation, ethnicity, and gender.

Each class participates in a program comprising seminars and leadership development activities under the guidance of skilled Aspen Institute moderators. The program requires a commitment of 19 days spread over 36 months for seminar meetings plus the time allocated for individual leadership projects and periodic informal gatherings. The Challenge of Leadership, a four-day seminar focusing on the qualities of leadership necessary to master the forces of change. The Executive Seminar, a five-day seminar focused on refining each Fellow’s definition of “the good society” – including the roles of government and business in molding that society and the societal challenges of economic growth. Leadership in an Era of Globalization, a five-day seminar exploring the political, economic, cultural and ethical challenges of global capitalism and the skills necessary to meet them. Fellows will present prospectuses for their Community Leadership Projects. Leadership Projects. Each Fellow will carry out a project designed to put into practice the principles of values-based leadership in the context of global capitalism. The Promise of Leadership, a five-day seminar to review the Fellows’ leadership projects and lay the groundwork for continuing interaction after the formal program is concluded. Seminars are held each March in Ghana, June in East Africa, September in South Africa, and December in Mozambique from 2002 through 2005.

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The Vision The aim of The Africa Leadership Initiative is to develop motivated, effective, and responsible young leaders across Africa who are capable of guiding their countries as they struggle to align the demands of globalization with local visions of “a good society.” To do so, the Initiative hopes to institutionalize the Fellowship in multiple countries, with successive classes generating an ever-growing cadre of values-based, community-spirited young leaders.

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Appendix B – ALI/East Africa Promise of Leadership Seminar Agenda

The Promise of Leadership The Africa Leadership Initiative

Arusha, Tanzania

June 15-19, 2005 Moderators: Ben Dunlap Peter Reiling

Wednesday, June 15 600-7:00 pm Opening Reception and Welcome 7:00-8:00 pm Dinner 8:15-10:15 pm Video: “The Commanding Heights, Part I”

Thursday, June 16 8:30-12:30 SESSION 1—The Time of Our Lives

Personal Check-In • Mortimer Adler, The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense,

selection

10:15-10:30 am Tea break

• John Gardner, Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society Chapter 9, “Individuality and Its Limits”

• David Whyte, The Heart Aroused, “Taking the Homeward Road” 12:30-1:15 pm Lunch 1:30-5:00 pm SESSION II—Project Reports and Feedback

Fellows will undertake a critical evaluation of their community leadership projects with particular emphasis on progress to-date, successes, challenges, lessons learned, and next steps

3:15 – 3:30 pm Tea break

7:00 pm Dinner

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8:15-10:15 pm Video: “The Commanding Heights, Part II”

Friday, June 17 8:30-12:30 pm SESSION III—Self and the World

• Arthur Hugh Clough, “The Latest Decalogue” • Mark Twain, “Letters from the Earth,” Letter to the Earth” • Oscar Wilde, “The Doer of Good”

10:15-10:30 am Tea break

• John Donne, “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners • Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias” • Jean Anouilh, Antigone, Random House, 1946

12:30-1:15 pm Lunch 1:15-5:00 pm Afternoon free 7:00 pm Dinner 8:15-10:15 pm Video: “The Commanding Heights, Part III”

Saturday, June 18 8:30am-12:30 pm SESSION IV—The Possibility of Heroism

• Mark Twain, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” selection • Josiah Royce, “The Problem of Job” from Studies in Good and Evil in

The Philosophy of Josiah Royce 10:15-10:30 am Tea break

• Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Gospel in Dostoyevsky, “Rebellion” • Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be

Killed with our Families, chapters 9 & 10 12:30-1:15 pm Lunch 1:30-5:00 pm SESSION V—The Meaning of Life

• The Bible: Genesis 3 • The Bible: Matthew 6:19-34 • Leo Tolstoy, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?

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3:15 – 3:30 pm Tea break

• Simone Weil, Oppression and Liberty, selections • Robert Hayden, Angle of Ascent, “Frederick Douglass” • Robert Frost, “Provide, Provide” • Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”

7:00-9:00 pm Graduation Dinner and Ceremony

Sunday, June 19 9:00 am-12:00 pm SESSION VI—An End and a Beginning

• Alumni Plans • Personal Statements

10:15-10:30 am Tea break

• Conclusion 12:00-1:00 pm Lunch

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Appendix C – Pre and Post Seminar Questionnaire Results

Leadership Project Questionnaire Results The Fellows were asked to answer some questions on the progress they have made with their leadership projects. Some excerpts from their responses have been included below: Examples of project needs/justifications:

• Ugandans are very entrepreneurial, but their businesses fail within three years on average because they have poor record keeping skills, do not audit their accounts, and evade taxes. Therefore, a small business training program is sorely needed.

• The Kenyan forest cover has been reduced from 10% to below 2% over the last 30-40 years. If this situation continues, Kenya will suffer socially and economically from rapid deforestation.

• There is a general lack of affordable healthcare for Kenya’s rural poor. • Peace initiatives and leadership training for youth in the Great Lake Region is largely neglected,

and many of our children are not even in regular school. • There is a demand for more experience and international exposure throughout the culinary

industry, and by providing underprivileged men and women with a chance to get this training, we can endow them with a valuable life skill.

• Uganda needs to project a positive image of itself internationally, and I believe I can use my connections with the broadcast industry to do that.

What were your objectives, and what specific activities did you carry out to achieve your objectives:

• My major goal was to increase the income of small holder farmers through crop diversification (vanilla and horticulture). I believe my project can also reverse soil degradation, reduce water use through conservation farming, and gradually eliminate chemical inputs through integrated past management techniques.

• I wanted my project to expose 180 18 year old students to 10 hours of basic business training, which would include the creation of a simple business plan. Then, they are expected to run a business during their 8 month vacation.

• I want to ensure that primary school children in my former village have a learning environment that facilitates education. I mobilized teachers and parents, financial resources, the local government, and also supplied text books and building materials.

• I wanted to enable low income individuals, especially women, to pool their financial resources into a viable investment with critical mass, so I established the Tanzania Women Unit Trust, to capitalize on the privatization of state owned businesses. These units will allow them to access bank loans and acquire assets.

• My objective is to provide education that will stimulate critical thinking in order to create enlightened business and political leaders. In the process, I hope to reorient the energies of unemployed youth in the Great lakes region, and teach them the way of peace rather than violence.

• My goal is to provide three health fare services (diagnosis and treatment) on a short term basis for 10,000 people. We plan to run both multiple medical camps and an eye clinic.

What was the target group for your project?

• Yes, the project focuses women and women survivors of breast cancer.

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• The target group is the local community around the Mau forest, and specifically the school children.

• I am especially interested in helping women and youth who want to run better small businesses. • My primary target is the school children at the Dendyo Village primary school, with their parents

being a secondary target. Did your project focus on specific regions/cities in your countries?

• Taibah schools in Kampala, Uganda • My clinics are targeting the poor in the Manyatta constituency in Embu district of Kenya. The

medical camps will be/have been run in Kibungu and Karurina, and the eye camp will take place in Kirian market.

• We started in two major cities in Tanzania, but we are now focusing throughout Tanzania. • The focus is the Mau Forest water catchments area, the largest water catchments area in Eastern

Africa. • The focus is Kilema South Ward (population about 200,000) in Moshi Rural District of the

Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania. How did you fund the project? Did you do any fundraising? What as your final funding status?

• Funding for the unit trust is expected from the government. We have asked the government to provide TAMCL with about 6,000,000 shares from privatized companies, and these will be sold to unit holders through TAWUT.

• So far, I have contributed $24,000 towards the institute for peace studies, but I am also going to approach the East Africa Development Bank and the Social Action Trust Fund for financing.

• I approached professionals from Manyatta who now live in Nairobi, and I was able to reach 200,000 Kenyan shillings (Kshs) for the medical camp, and 100,000 Kshs for eye camp.

• I started with a personal contribution of $4000, and then I approached families that have been affected by breast cancer for donations. We have also held fundraising events such as a “dinner dance” and sold t-shirts with CIDAC’s logo.

• I approached government agencies (Uganda Investment Authority, Enterprise Uganda), banks (Barclays, Stanbic) and donors (SIDA, IFC) to support my small business training program.

Did you partner with any other organizations or individuals to execute the project?

• So far my partners have been stake holders in the project area, such as ward leaders, village

chairmen, and the farmers who are ready to diversify their crops. • I partnered with parents, school administration, and the Legacy Bookshop in my attempts to

improve the Dendyo Village primary school. • I partnered with Chaines de Rotisseurs, an international culinary organization, and they helped

me develop the chef competition. • I formed a mentors committee and they raised cash and helped plan the clinics. In addition, nine

companies donated drugs, and the University Medical School, the Diabetes Institute, and the Lions Eyesight Hospital all contributed staff.

• Yes, I partnered with 8 other individuals who had expertise in fundraising and breast cancer prevention/treatment.

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What was your personal role in the project? • We initiated and steered the conceptualization of the project, organized the various partners, and

personally conducted the lectures and participated in some of the clean up exercises. • I advised TAMCL on financial matters and taxation, and produced their 2003/2004 financial

books. • I produced television pieces that were featured in CNN. This involved filming, editing, and

presentation the pieces. • I was personally involved in every facet of the Taibah Entrepreneurship Program, from the

planning and training of teachers, to writing the manual, to marketing business plans, and monitoring the business projects the students have created.

• I identified the need, and formulated the project. I solicited donor funding, and acted as a catalyst and built networks using my position as Executive Director of UIA.

• While the initial idea for CIDAC was mine, I have to give my wife a good deal of credit for encouraging me and taking a lead role in directing the program. I also contributed start up funds and seed money ($4000).

State the deliverables you’ve seen up to this point (June 2005)?

• At this point, we have set up two tree seedling nurseries and trained the students on seedling

preparation and planting and nurturing the trees. We have also planted 1000 trees in Nairobi National Park in cooperation with The Millennium Tree project.

• I have held one medical camp in Dec. 2004 that saw 4,227 patients, and one eye camp that saw 2,671 patients. I want to hold the second medical camp this year, and that should allow us to attain my goal of reaching 10,000 patients.

• I have acquired a suitable piece of land for the institute, and registered it as a business with the government.

• We presented our offering document for the unit trust to CMSA in May 2005. We have also approached the government to encourage them to release the warehoused shares of privatized companies, and we plan to run our mass marketing campaign of the TAWUT from August to October 2005.

• So far, my pieces have covered the growth of the communication industry in Uganda, Uganda’s fishing industry, the modernization of Uganda’s banking industry, and the revival of cashew nut processing in Mozambique, in cooperation with TechnoServe.

• The Taibah Entrepreneurship Program has trained 540 students, who have developed 270 business plans, 27 student run businesses started (with 18 more expected by Jan. 2006). We have also trained 2 teachers, and incorporated 6 role models into the program.

• The chef competition has allowed us to sponsor four individuals to go on to international training program, and we will have two more enrolled in that program by the end of June 2005.

• The Dendyo Village primary school has 4 new permanent classrooms, 90 new desks, has held an award ceremony to acknowledge excellent teachers, and has seen a higher rate of attendance by girls.

Final Post Seminar Questionnaire Results When asked how much they valued their participation in the Africa Leadership Initiative, the Fellows overwhelmingly agreed that the experience was an exceptional and influential one. Some examples of their comments follow:

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• ALI had an exceptional impact on my personal growth in terms of confidence, better self-understanding and awareness, and receptivity to the opinions of others.

• ALI has introduced me to a network of East Africans with a great conscience, whose

influence will help me to make a difference in my region.

• ALI was a very valuable experience for me. Simply put, I take myself to be a better person. My value system has improved.

• ALI helped me to see the light in the darkness. I realize that changes can be made to

steer us towards a better society. It also enabled me to see globalization in a more positive way, and I believe we can adapt it to agree with our morals and goals.

The Fellows decidedly concluded that the ALI program will undoubtedly have a broad impact on their communities and countries:

• Yes, ALI will have an impact on my community and my country at large, as I am now moved to fight against injustices, I will no longer be selfish with my education and skills, and I will speak my mind in all the halls of power in East Africa!

• ALI has allowed a growth of East African leadership to take place that is based on communal

development, strong values, and global acknowledgement.

• Yes. We have a leadership crisis in Africa. ALI has come at the right time. We can create a movement of conscious individuals who will do the right things and collectively create goodness in our communities.

• Yes, and I want to start up a smaller version of the ALI program that is based out of Uganda!

• ALI will have a broad impact on our communities through the ALI projects. There will be some

limited impact on the country. However, we need a larger network of ALI Fellows continent wide to have a truly great impact. I now believe that even one person, if persistent, can make a difference.

When asked what their plans, both personally and professionally, are after graduation, and how they might expand on their ALI experience, the Fellows had this to say:

• I am planning to cultivate the same awareness of the less privileged in society that ALI has engendered in me in those around me. I am also planning to participate more in HIV programs in my the work place and in my immediate community.

• I want to try ask much as possible to practice the values I have learnt from the seminar.

• I will strive to implement my leadership project and see it to its conclusive completion, and to

ensure its sustainability. I will continue to improve on what I have started to learn during ALI. I have presently enrolled myself in the Leadership Management Inc. (LMI) of Denmark. I am planning to write short stories and articles on good leadership for secondary schools and colleges.

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• Personally, I need to decide if I should sign another three year contract in my exciting position where I can make a real difference for my country. I have another offer on the table which would give me more personal time, but would not have the same influence.

When asked which of the four seminars in the ALI series influenced them the most, the majority of the Fellows indicated the The Promise of Leadership (Seminar 4), but many qualified their choice by saying that it was really hard to chose one of the four, as it was the curriculum as a whole that had most deeply impacted them: Promise influenced me the most as it is acutely relevant to this phase of my life.

• Promise – The readings and discussions that were pursued during this seminar penetrated the “individual” in me! I got answers to most of the questions hidden in my subconscience. Also, the readings and discussions inspired many new important questions.

• This seminar answered a lot of my leadership questions. I have reread the readings many times

already.

• All four seminars each had their own key message that expanded my knowledge of what makes a good society, leadership skills, moral values and ethics. It is very difficult to point out one seminar that was the most influential, but the final seminar has certainly left me with a lot of work to do post-ALI!

• All the seminars have influenced me. It has been a snowball effect where the influence has

grown with time. The three years of the Fellowship have created very strong bonds that I believe will last forever.

In conclusion, the Fellows suggested the following improvements to make the ALI program more effective:

• We need to interact with the other ALI Fellows from Ghana, Mozambique, RSA, and eventually China, India and Latin America. A forum for doing this should be established, perhaps using the ALI website.

• I think ALI is perfect the way it is! Perhaps we could take more “field trips” that would

compliment the readings.

• I would like to see the readings distributed by e-mail. Also, participants should meet more often in-country.

• You could increase accessibility and cut costs by running the programs in individual

countries over a period of time, using two to three hours per month.

• I think that there could be more practical analysis of how each reading/seminar relates to our own region.

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Appendix D – Select Quotes from the Fellows

Arthur Hugh Clough, “The Latest Decalogue” I think its expressing how people interpret the Ten Commandments. It’s not a mockery, so much as a reflection. It’s endorsing the Ten Commandments for a modern world – it is showing how they can be relevant to modern society. It’s asking us to come back to the basics – to stop and think. It’s giving us a reminder – the world is not what it should be, and this is what we should not be doing. This is a satire of our lives and what we venerate. For instance, people now lie without any remorse. We attend Church today mostly to be seen by others, not for ourselves. It reflects the Kenyan 11th Commandment, “Thou Shalt Not be Caught!” In fact, our first President even said, “If you are caught, you are not mine.” They even made it into a song. The author is also saying that there are Ten Commandments and they are not so bad. I think that if anyone of us looks at this, we find that we are doing at least one of these infractions. Mark Twain, “Letters from the Earth,” Letter to the Earth” The classifications are very interesting, because, for instance, you can be a professing Christian, and be worth less than a professional Christian later. This reminds me of the a prayer that is being offered in Nigeria, and one penitent was praying for a visa to America, and I wonder if he gets that visa, if he will still be a born again Christian. In most people, there are two sides, the public and the private self, and they do not always agree. It reflects the hypocrisy of our times, even if it was written in the 1800s, we still live like this. In our society, we look at politicians as the guilty ones, but really religious leaders, and business leaders, we are all involved in the same hypocrisy. In Tanzania, we are approaching our general election, and we have a ruling party that is really corrupt, but they make themselves look so just and pious, but they have an ulterior agenda. They are looking for a quick access to wealth.

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I think it is true of religious leaders in Kenya – it is more a business than a faith at this point. They market themselves as if they are applying for any other job, but they do not really believe in their faith. Everyone today is trying to live at a socially acceptable level. But don’t you feel that this letter is really being sent to all of us? We could all do more for those around us. It is a call to action for each and every one of us. I don’t think religion in Africa today is not doing what it is meant to do anymore. I think it needs to be re-examined. Maybe we should shoot everybody dead and start again. First of all, I had this crazy idea when I was reading this. It seemed that even God is supporting the bad guys, and this recording angel is rewarding Abner’s bad desires. But also, it reminds me that we are 95% desires and temptations, and only 5% good, but we need to focus on our better selves, and allow that to lead us. So many people present a public face to cover their evil intentions. They even say that in the Bible, God says, “Those who have, will receive more and more, and those without, will be left with nothing,” and in Kenya, people are using this as an excuse to forgo charity, and justify leaving the poor to their plight. How about the giving culture? This Abner, he was a rich person, but he was still asking God for more and more. But whenever he was asked for something, it was so hard for him. So whenever a poor child asks me for money, at first I am irritated, but then I think how much I can make people in heaven cry if I just give a dollar. If you look at history, there has always been evil amongst men. It is not a new development. We have always had to live with injustice and crime. I think the only way out would be an act of divine providence. I feel that today you hear of more people talking of altruism and goodness. People are becoming more aware of how much better the world could be if we want it. It doesn’t matter if it is just a small group – it is not about percentages. And I think the chance is always in the next generation – if we raise them to be good people, to live justly, then there is hope in the world. And if we are a group are able to propagate good, and organize well planned programs in our schools, then there is a way out of where we are now. I don’t think we will ever have total peace in this world. Therefore, it is a constant struggle to achieve any goodness. So I don’t think we should throw in the towel, because any chance for hope is dependent on us. I think that when something is negative, it is very loud. I am sure there are many priests who do not abuse little boys, but you only hear about the bad ones, and then we think the sky is falling.

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We need to focus on the positive actions around us, and all of us as individuals should start with ourselves – we all have a small sphere of influence that we can control. The solution will come from self realization. That may come when things are at their worse. I think part of the problem is that one is never satisfied with material things – the person with a thousand acres wants more just as the person with a small plot wants more. And you cannot pull yourself out of that cycle of desire until you realize that you are part of it. It is like the G8 group realizing that they need to cancel the debt in much of the poor world. The world is not all blessed and similar to them – there are others who are in a much worse position. Oscar Wilde, “The Doer of Good” Whenever good is done, people will make something bad of it. It is very impactful – for instance, it reminds me of when people are striving to get into high office, and they go over board, and live in such excess, and they forget about all those who are suffering as they once were. In Africa, our leaders build palaces, while those living around them do not even have electricity. We are never perfect as humans. We are always weak, and it is possible that we will fall into sin. I think this is a justification for free will. Every aspect of the way we lead our lives, we can find an excuse to do it. I think all these readings force us to question what we think of as good. It is not as easy as it seems. I just want to look at it from the religious side. This is referring to the actions of Christ. It shows us about mankind’s nature of always wanting more and asking for forgiveness, but it shows how we remain extravagant, even after we have been forgiven. It is like the deathbed confession – no matter what you do in life, you can always be forgiven. It shows how people can be granted all that they want, but do not truly appreciate what we have been granted. Many of us, when we do a good thing, we expect appreciation, or permanent change in the world, but that does not always happen. Instead, you should be satisfied with the giving in and of itself. I think that the Doer of Good has not given those he blessed direction. It shows how people tend to drift back into sin if they are not shown the better path.

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In the terms of aid, it has to be acknowledged that we have squandered our resources as nations. Jeffrey Sachs, who I had the privilege to meet, is working for Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, and he believe that if you put a certain amount of resources in a community, than it is possible to reduce poverty in a certain amount of time. It is not that we need to give up aid in favor of trade, it is just that we need to use aid in an appropriate way. John Donne, “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners” There is no issue of humility in science – it is about proving. They are trying to challenge religious belief simply because it is there to be challenged. Humility is almost a bad word in that scientific world. I don’t think the scientists are expressly challenging faith – that is not their goal. They just happen to challenge it as they go along with their processes. They do not take the Bible literally. What amazes me is that human beings are made in with a curious mind. There is so much left to discover. The most important question is how do we use those discoveries. If you trust the moral decisions to scientists, they will go to the very end, but if you trust them to religion, no progress will be made. So, a third body should set the limits. Perhaps that is the contemporary consciousness. It is also the role of the state, and the role of the market. I am sorry to be pessimistic, but I think that the continued advancement of science and technology will be the end of us, especially if it is not addressed. This is not a question of technology, it is a question of human nature. We are the ones who will use the technology for evil as opposed to good. How can we see that people are not tempted to create evil with the new technologies. It is not the world that will end, it is us that will end. The world is much bigger than us. While we are deteriorating the world, it will in the end go on without us. Even if science does not advance beyond today, we still have the capacity to eliminate each other. That proves that it is us, human beings, not the science, that is at fault. A frightening development is that in Japan now, is that when you walk into a supermarket, an LCD screen can read your mobile phone, and market an item to you specifically. Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias” – Ramses II Culture lasts longer than the statues. It is a life long thing that follow after. We should be open to knew ideas and the evolution of ideas and not tick with them.

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We shouldn’t think we can’t make a difference. We can influence the next generation. The importance of the ideas of an individual. The statue asks the world to look at you and think how great you were. But the ideas you leave behind are much more important. We are not valued by the monuments we build, but rather than what we leave behind. For instance, a wealthy father would be better off to give his children a good education through out their lives, rather than leaving them with a house or an estate at his death. The education is much more wealthy. It’s like how in the Commanding Heights movie, in Russia, Goddard was not appreciated in his own time, but now, I think his ideas would be much more appreciated in Russia. Jean Anouilh, Antigone, Random House, 1946 Antigone is looking for peace for her brother. She feels it is an unfair law, and she will go to great lengths to ensure her brothers funeral, no matter what the law. But where was the law when the brothers agreed to alternate the leadership of Thebes? In fact, I have a problem with the King – what right does he have to decide what is right and wrong? Antigone looks to me as one who resists the ultimate authority of the king. This is a family matter for her. It is her brother, and there is no room for the king in this matter. MLK believed the laws in the Southern US were unfair, and so he defied them, out of principle. The Chorus is a bunch of sycophants. They would just let the Patriot Act go threw! He tells Antigone that her brothers didn’t even care for her. Lively reading of Antigone and Creon from Bart Kakooza and Ben Dunlap: See they said that Antigone was an irrational female simply because she is female. They see the person and not the issues. It’s like in Kenya, when people fled to Zambia and Tanzania simply because they could not sit by and accept the presidency. All they had to do was agree, some of them even had good positions in government, but they gave them up because they could not sit by and agree. In the run up to the war in Iraq, there were many Antigones who did not support the war, and they were made to look really cute and naive. They went ahead with the war, because like Creon, they simply said the war was necessary, and as leaders, they had to act, but he never gave

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an explanation, or a justification. So the lesson for me is, as Orwell said, you are told two plus two is five, and you fight, and are tortured, and persecuted, when everyone else is happy to accept that two plus two is five, and in the end you wonder, am I the one who is crazy? When a woman sees something happening, she thinks how everybody is somebody’s child. She cannot stand by and let them abuse that person. In Kenya, we have a saying, “No man is the mother of another.” The woman would look at compromise and say, what do you give up? That is how you must look at compromise. I was happy to leave it with all the questions Creon was asking. I thought he had a point. But then I dug a little deeper, and I started asking why is he doing what he is doing? And the same for Antigone – you have to like her, but you have to wonder what all her motivations are, why she is doing what she is doing? Mark Twain, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” selection He has a confused conscience. He doesn’t know what will make him feel better – reporting on Jim or taking him back. He is not sure what is right or wrong, and what the consequences will be with either option. In the end he says he will always go with “the handiest” option. Often people are in situations where they don’t know what is right and wrong, and Huck has acknowledged that, and set a hew guideline for himself – common sense. I think the author used a child because of the simple way that children see things. They have not yet been corrupted by our laws that are sometimes not right, slavery in this case. They are very clear, a clean slate. Their minds haven’t been corrupted by preconceptions – they minds are not influenced by previous experiences. They are bold with the truth. But he is not as innocent as we are saying – he pulls a fast one on the bounty hunters. There is also an element of what society does to children. I think he is commenting on the types of environments we put children in as adults. They are asking him to make a decision on what is write and wrong, but he sees so many contradicting influences.

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Josiah Royce, “The Problem of Job” from Studies in Good and Evil in The Philosophy of Josiah Royce If we have a God in us, then we have to take responsibility. We can’t just say, “It’s God’s will,” because that takes the responsibility off of the person. People are always trying to create God in THEIR own image, rather than the other way around. It is an escape from logic and from responsibility. If you look at the gospels, everything is created with an opposite. When you look at evil and good, and pain and joy, it makes sense that they would have an opposite. If you don’t experience the depths of pain, than you cannot know the heights of joy. There is a difference between natural and man made catastrophes, and you have to wonder if this too is part of testing. My son asked why the children would have been killed in Rwanda, and he wasn’t satisfied with the answer I gave him, so he went to the Church to find out. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Gospel in Dostoyevsky, “Rebellion” I think I could have written some of this myself. It’s so true that many times you tend to think of people far away because you don’t have to give anything to them, or take action. But you ignore your nearest neighbor or even the people in your own house. He is challenging his brother in such a basic way. He uses the example of children, and even his pious brother says he has to agree, because Ivan uses the example of children, and abuses against children. But he goes an extra step, and says that even if the mother who watches her son be torn apart by hounds forgives and forgets, that is even more wrong. She can forgive for her own sadness, but she cannot forgive on behalf of her son. He finds the idea that people will be forgiven at the end of time totally wrong. He is questioning the fairness of God himself. Then he is also pointing out how we call those acts bestial, but the beasts do not behave that way. This is, as he says, artistic cruelty. Personally, I really agree, that if God has the power to say, “Stop suffering!” why does he not do that? You would think that suffering would have ended when Jesus died, as his suffering was to redeem the initial sin of Adam. So why is there still so much suffering.

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In mine own contemplations I have come to realize that there is more suffering in the world today than at any time before, and it seems to be growing more and more. I think there is not more suffering now than before, but we just have more information now so we hear about the suffering more frequently. But I must admit that we are always inventing new ways of artistic cruelty. So when you look at our capacity of torture, that is the really disturbing part. Sunflower story: He is looking for absolution from a Jew, any Jew. It is really satisfying his vanity. There are two perspectives on it. One, the Jew could satisfy his own good spirit by forgiving him, but then again, it is not for him to forgive – it is those he has harmed. I think the Nazis were not necessarily all bad – they were soldiers and they did take orders. They needed better leaders, and that reflects on the importance of the ALI program. You never know if he is one of the truly evil ones. I would have forgiven him, because we are all looking for forgiveness, they are both souls, and they should not deny that to each other. The atrocities have happened, and you cannot change them, but do you want to live in the past, or go on with your life. This is mind-boggling to me. Where is the mandate for forgiveness coming from? He is not the one who was wronged, so he cannot be the one to forgive. If the generations go on saying this is what was done to us, then it will be an endless cycle of suffering and death. Sometimes people think more of themselves with forgiveness than the others. They are looking for closure, and they are really selfish. If he does not have the mandate for forgiveness, than who does? What about the example of Nelson Mandela, who relied on his own human conscience to forgive De Klerk and the other oppressors. Capitalism: What is going to make capitalists conscience of the poor? And I think the answer is, we should all have Ivan in us. We should take the responsibility to ask these questions, and to do something about it. I look at capitalism as water – it takes the path of least resistance. It’s easier to look for a relationship with someone who is experienced, has the skills, rather than those who need hand-

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holding. And that is not right, but it is realistic. I would say that is the place for legislation, to make business people work with the small holders. I think capitalism is often vilified, but my idea of capitalism is an entrepreneur who starts up a mine in Northern Tanzania and gives people jobs. That is good, right? But, to take your example, Northern Tanzania is still a mess – with a high AIDS rate, environmental costs, accidents, corruption, anger between ethnic groups, etc. So, where is the benefit? Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families, chapters 9 & 10 The scars of the past sparked the animosity. This is not something that happened over night. There was an effective and efficient method to reach the animal in these people. They radio broadcasts tapped into something. I think to understand this, you have to understand the ethnic tribe in Rwanda. The Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Pygmies or the Batwa, who are almost considered inhuman. The Hutu’s were originally were farmers, the Tutsi’s were pastoralists. The ruling king was to come from the Tutsi’s, and they had an even trade relationship – food for cattle. But the Belgians encouraged the Tutsis and the French supported the Hutus. There was actually a smaller genocide in the 1950s, and this created a Tutsi Diaspora in Uganda and Tanzania, and they even fought against Idi Amin. They also fought in the Mozambican War. So they were very experienced. Personal stories: When the genocide was taking place, my husband’s sister was in the government in Tanzania, and it is true that Tanzania was not being clear who they sided with in the conflict. Initially, Tanzania was sending people back. I know a Tanzanian woman who fled her home in Rwanda, and she left everything as it was, all the doors open, and everything else, but when she went back, everything was just as she left it. People were too tired and confused to even steal anything. There was reluctance on Tanzania’s behalf to intervene. Tanzanian’s had also identified with the Hutus, so at first they didn’t want to do anything. And the Tanzanian army could have taken over Rwanda in a few months, but we didn’t. And it was the UN that came to help clean up the bodies afterwards, not other Africans. The language the radio used was really the root of the problem. It incited them to such violence, and deceived them, brain washed them. There was a level of justification. The bishop stood by and did nothing. He was friendlier with the killers, and he was not remorseful.

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He was forced into a situation that he had to take charge of, and that is where his heroic acts came from. But he thought he was just doing what anyone would have done, and tried to save as many people as possible. He could have been killed at any point. Albert Camus says, it is not heroism, it is basic human decency, and it is what we are all expected to do. He says somewhere that I did what I had to do. For him it was a matter of fact. It had to be done, and he was the one to do it. First of all, he was a Hutu, so he could have done nothing and been saved, but he did it. I think also he was raised in a history of service. He was a hotel manger, and he was charged with looking after people, and he then transcended that to a new level of protecting people. He is really helpless to affect what is happening outside the hotel, but inside the hotel, he had control. Lot of discussion on doing good, but what about confronting evil? You need to have confidence in your own values. Put your life on the line. Confidence, consciousness. An innate desire for human life and dignity. I ask myself where to start. There was another issue in Tanzania two weeks ago where 18 people died. And I met a survivor who said that after the accident, two of the survivors were actually killed by people looting. The people who want to do good are becoming fewer and fewer, but evil is always growing. The solution is to end poverty. It is the poor, the desperate, that resort to such evils. They are easier to influence, they are less educated, and they are hungry. To fight evil, we need to fight poverty. As leaders, what I think that shocks us most is that we are no different from beasts or animals. And I have been watching these movies against capitol punishment, and they say, when you kill a killer, you reduce yourself to their level. And it is hard to think about, because you know that in this situation, you would kill someone who killed your child, but that is not right. It is like

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when the RPF swept through Rwanda after the genocide, and killed many Hutus. And we have been talking about lynch mobs for so long, but we have never passed a law against taking the law into your own hands. What is stopping us from that? They should be arrested, charged, and dealt with according to the law. People even call it “mob justice,” but that is not right – it is not justice. And in Kenya, there are even mercenaries who will kill people for you if you think you have been wronged. This is symptomatic of the lack of justice. Where there is no justice, there is death and crime. I agree with Ali, we can make a difference. We know some people, we can talk convincingly, we can take it into our hands. Everybody here has the capacity to do something in their area to make a change. For instance, the government decided these children could not sit for their A levels for some bureaucratic reason. And I wasn’t sure I could make a change, and I thought, do I even have the time? But the ALI in me compelled me to act, and I did, and after speaking to many people, most of those children were able to take the exam. We see many things in the papers, and I think we need to follow up with those atrocities we read about. We have the power to do that. Is it possible in this ALI group that we can call upon each other to make a difference, as we do this now to get business opportunities, with the same urgency? I think that would distinguish us from the rest of those who are not leaders, or do not have the networks we have.

The Bible: Genesis 3 The animals work – they find food, they build nests, the take care of their young. They work as well. Even the plans grow and die – it is not really a punishment. It is the natural order. I can take this as a narrative – someone trying to explain the mysteries of life. It is a symbolic story, but the world has changed a lot since then. The Bible: Matthew 6:19-34 Don’t be materialistic. Be more concerned about what awaits in heaven. Treasure is hard work, so you should decide where you want your sole to be. The goodness is coming from inside you.

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Yes, you can work for money, and still be godly. In fact, you can more godly if you have more wealth. It is upon us to better our lives to have a complete life. You cannot be pious to God if you are so distracted by your miseries. You must work as if you will live forever, and provide for yourself and your family, and you must be as humble as if you will die in three minutes. How do you become pious to God if you are so desperate? Jesus also said, “Give to Kaiser what belongs to Kaiser, and give to God what belongs to God.” Live you life when you need to. I don’t think this is good practical advice. It is more about priorities – if you totally focus on the earthly elements, then you cannot focus on the time you need to give to God. He should have more spoken about distribution and fairness. They came and preached these gospels to Africans, about accepting poverty, and putting off wealth until heaven, but at the same time, the Church grew wealthy in Africa, and the explorers stole ivory from our elephants. That does not seem fair, and that makes me questions the motives here. It is like a boat with two paddles – prayer and work. If you only use one, you will only go in circles. But if you use them both, you will move forward. It is all about balance. Leo Tolstoy, “How Much Land Does a Man Need? What are the important things in life? Is it just about acquiring more and more land. Do you see yourself in this story? The drive for success. All you need is a little more, but then when you get it, it is not enough. For me it was the washing machine. I got a simple one, and I was so happy. Two years later, I got a new one that smaller, sleeker, and quieter. I used it for two years. Then I found another that was smaller… Ted Turner was worth $11 billion before the AOL merger, and he lost $8 billion, and almost committed suicide, even though he still had $3 billion left. I don’t think there can ever be an agreement on what enough is. Even for one person. You yourself are constantly re-establishing what is enough. Besides, you should be sharing what you

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have with your community now, not later. You are always working to better yourself, and your community. I wonder if Bill Gates is now reaping diminishing returns? Because he is trying to manage his potential, and he is still working and making more money. He has not gone off to sleep in his boat. We can elevate this conversation to the national level, and ask what we want for our countries. What is enough for us? What is enough for the East African Community? I envy people who reach a point where they don’t want to make any more money. But look at the foundation Bill Gates has created. Overnight, he established a huge foundation that is very successful. And people who know him best say he is a much happier man now. I think enough will be when we distribute wealth and aid and people not only receive a temporary fix, but are lifted up from their positions. What about a country that has about $25,000 per person per year? I think it is enough to be able to take your child to a good doctor when they are sick, so I don’t have to take them to a witch doctor who will blame my neighbor for my suffering. Simone Weil, Oppression and Liberty, selection Basically, the Japanese talk of continual improvement at the workplace. You have to conduct self audits and than other people audit you, and that allows for continual improvement. Everyone has the idea that they all contribute. If you cannot contribute, than you are like the old bushman, who is put in the Baobab tree with some meager supplies, because he can no longer contribute to the tribe. The system is efficient, but also if brings joy to the work place. And people get satisfaction from coming, and actually meeting their targets. In the movie The Commanding Heights, the workers in Soviet Russia are not productive because they have have no incentives. This is the same case. Robert Hayden, Angle of Ascent, “Frederick Douglass” Legacy – life goes on in the lives of other people. A lasting legacy. Living a life that is larger than yourself.

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Freedom is a double aged sword. Because it can be misused. Mobutu, Former President and Dictator in the DRC, built a huge palace in the town where he was born. Outside of the palace he erected a statue of his mother holding him as a baby, and he had them make the penis of baby out of solid gold. After he was deposed, and the country thrown into chaos, all anyone wanted was to steal the penis. Discussion of The Commanding Heights As East Africans, we are still looking for aid and donor money, but India is looking for wealth creation, and I think that is what we need to do. We have had an easier time with privatization in Uganda, but I would advise that we should not let one problem in privatization sour us on the whole process. I just envied the amount of time and the intellectual power wielded by the economists in the Commanding Heights. I would love to see Africans devote that amount of time to our problems. Friedman – he was just one person, but he influenced so much. And he had such commitment to improving life – to making a change. One of the observations I made is – does Africa matter? They never really talked about our place in the story. For instance, they never discussed Congo and its involvement in the Cold War. It makes me want to say, if we don’t matter half a dime, then let us take advantage of our own destiny. It’s time we ignored them back, and just trade with each other, and support each other. I would say that the state has a big role to play in running our economies in Tanzania. If you look at the big sectors, which were recently privatized…In Kilimanjaro they allowed the coffee sector to be privatized. So I think the government has a role to play in investing in the economy. Whether you privatize or not, the World Bank will still win. They will loan you money if you privatize, or they will loan you money if you want to run your commanding heights yourself. And if you fail, either way, they will be there to loan more money. If you allow the private sector to take a lead role in terms of growth, the productivity will increase. The government still has a role to play – they regulate the economy and enforce the laws. But it is not their job to generate growth. Look at Kenya Airways – many Kenyans own stock in Kenya airways, and it is a source of pride. I think this could end the over politicization of everything in economy. We export commodities, like coffee and pyrethrum, but we do not consume any of them. Perhaps if we increased consumption of coffee, if would encourage us to develop processing capacity, and get our foot into a higher level of the commodities market. How long are we going to sit by and agree to remain on the bottom rung of the commodities market chain.