Johannesburg — With eleven former African heads of state gathered at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa (Wits) for the fourth African Presidential Roundtable, questions are being asked as to what they can achieve after leaving office.

The two-day forum, which kicked off Thursday, is being organised by the African Presidential Archives and Research Centre at Boston University -- based in the U.S. city of the same name -- in association with other American, and African, universities.

Former Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and Ketumile Masire, erstwhile president of Botswana, are amongst those participating in the roundtable, in the South African commercial hub of Johannesburg.

Themes under discussion at this year's gathering, which began Thursday, include Africa's image in the American media, engaging the diaspora in Africa's development -- and facilitating private capital flows to Africa.

While certain observers see the discussions as an initiative that could put the experience of the former leaders to good use, others have dismissed the forum as yet another gathering of questionable benefit.

David Monyae, a lecturer in the international relations department at Wits, said the leaders were coming to "share their experiences with academics, students and other members of the public in an open space where ideas are exchanged."

"Sometimes we want to forget and move on because of the legacies of some of these leaders," he added. "But for important historical purposes, we need to engage them on these and other current issues and record them for prosperity."

Christopher Fomunyoh, a senior associate for Africa at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), has similar views. He was involved in the African Statesman Initiative, which held a symposium in the Malian capital of Bamako in 2005 to utilise the experiences of former leaders. (The NDI is a non-profit based in Washington that assists leaders across the spectrum in promoting democracy.)

"A lot can come out of getting people to speak about their presidential leadership in practical terms," he said.

According to Fomunyoh, the Wits gathering provides a "bank of knowledge that is not readily available."

"Because most of them don't write," he added, "engaging with them in this kind of forum could be beneficial. And also, they could be used in leadership roles on some of the pressing issues and challenges that the continent is facing, drawing from their past experiences."

Most importantly, "it would make them realise that they can still play a positive role, that there's life after State House."

If former heads of state in certain countries continue to play an active role in public life, the same cannot be said for many African leaders, who either cling to power until death -- or are forced into oblivion once out of office.

But Ross Herbert, project head at the NEPAD and governance programme at the South African Institute for International Affairs, also based at Wits, has doubts about the forum's possibilities for success.

"In theory, the gathering has the potential to accomplish a lot. But my concern is that the big issues are not on the table," he said, such as "how to explain the weak and self-serving leaderships in most African countries."

In addition, there were questions about corruption and other ills that had marred the periods for which the former heads of state were in office -- and which were still part of their legacies.

NEPAD -- the New Partnership for Africa's Development -- is an initiative aimed at attracting investment to the continent in exchange for improved governance. It got underway in 2001, spearheaded by South African President Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Last year's forum had featured discussions that were not "punchy enough, bordering on waffling on the part of the former leaders," said Herbert.

"The other participants seemed too polite to push the former leaders to talk about real and concrete issues."

But, while some of the leaders had dubious records from their time of office, this did not mean that whatever they said should be cast away, observed Prince Mashele, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in the South African capital, Pretoria.

"If there's an element of good that we can learn from them, so should it be," he said, noting that the forum offered "a space for debate, and creating a bridge between these leaders and academic communities."

Charles Stith, director of the African Presidential Archives and Research Centre, noted that the roundtable was a key initiative undertaken by the institution -- established to complement Boston University's African studies programme.

The aim of the centre, he added, was to study trends of democratisation and free market reform in Africa, and to provide a forum for the exchange of insights about political and economic developments in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the United States and elsewhere, life after the presidency includes the establishment of presidential libraries and other knowledge centres to honour the legacies of former leaders -- something for which there are few parallels in Africa.

It is with this in mind that the African Presidents in Residence Programme was set up at the African Presidential Archives and Research Centre; it offers the opportunity to former democratically-elected African leaders to spend up to two years in residence at Boston University.

Masire, Kaunda, Karl Auguste Offmann of Mauritius and Ruth Perry of Liberia have already spent time at the centre, and it is expected that the programme will be extended to African Universities.