Immediate Release

Nairobi, Kenya

June 4, 2026

EMERGING LEADERS AND CREATIVES GATHER IN NAIROBI TO ADVANCE AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY

The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), in partnership with Yiaga Africa and with support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), today convened the Emerging Leaders and Creatives Roundtable on African Leadership Philosophy in Nairobi, Kenya. The two-day gathering brings together emerging leaders, creatives, artists, storytellers, civil society actors, and development practitioners from across Africa to explore how indigenous African values and philosophies can contribute to addressing contemporary leadership challenges and shaping a new generation of ethical, accountable, and transformative leaders. A statement by Monday Osasah, Executive Director of Centre LSD, emphasized the importance of drawing on Africa's rich cultural heritage and philosophical traditions to strengthen leadership and governance across the continent. According to him, Africa possesses a wealth of values and traditions that have guided communities for generations, including service, communal responsibility, integrity, solidarity, justice, respect for human dignity, and commitment to the common good. He noted that despite this rich heritage, many African societies continue to grapple with leadership deficits, weak institutions, corruption, social fragmentation, and declining trust in public institutions. Mr. Osasah stated that the roundtable was conceived as part of a broader initiative to explore, document, and promote African leadership philosophies as a framework for addressing these challenges. He stressed that emerging leaders and creatives have a crucial role to play in shaping the future of leadership on the continent through their influence on culture, narratives, public discourse, and social change. The roundtable will examine critical questions around the relevance of indigenous African values to contemporary governance, the role of decolonized leadership in addressing Africa's development challenges, and strategies for transmitting leadership values to younger generations. Participants will engage in presentations, facilitated discussions, breakout sessions, and creative workshops aimed at identifying where African leadership values are already being expressed in communities, cultural products, social movements, and civic spaces. They will also explore practical ways of communicating these values through music, visual arts, digital media, storytelling, performance, and other creative platforms. A key feature of the gathering is its emphasis on participation and co-creation. Rather than serving as a traditional conference, the roundtable has been designed as an interactive space where participants contribute their experiences, ideas, and perspectives to help shape an emerging African leadership philosophy framework. The convening will also provide an opportunity for participants to examine the barriers that make values-based leadership difficult to sustain and to identify practical pathways for promoting integrity, accountability, and public service across African societies. At the conclusion of the roundtable, participants are expected to develop recommendations, creative concepts, and collaborative strategies for advancing African leadership values and strengthening youth engagement in leadership transformation efforts across the continent. The organizers expressed confidence that the discussions and partnerships emerging from the roundtable will contribute significantly to ongoing efforts to articulate and promote an authentic African philosophy of leadership rooted in the continent's values, cultures, and aspirations

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