The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
Hayal Alemayehu
24 November 2007
The South — Africa-based African Leadership Academy (ALA), which is scheduled to open in 2008 to offer a two-year "innovative" leadership program, is recruiting students from African nations, including Ethiopia.
The academy, which aims at developing the next generation of African leaders, is co-founded by Fred Swaniker and Chris Bradford, who were described as two of the 15 best emerging social entrepreneurs in the world, according to information published on ALA's web site.
Students will be selected to attend the Academy based on merit and academic excellence, where only 250 of the most promising 15-18-year-olds among those in the 54 African nations will have a chance to join in.
The major discipline areas the Academy will offer are leadership, entrepreneurship and African study, according to Ivy Mwai, ALA's Associate Director of Admissions for East Africa.
Mwai was here recently on an assignment to recruit "most fitting" students from Ethiopia, where she, for the time being, were able to meet and discuss only with principals and instructors of private schools. "I have been only in a few places to undertake my assignment but the representative of the Ministry of Education said they will help me," she said.
According to Mwai, about four to six students may have the chance to attend the promising Academy.
Graduating from the academy will automatically entitle the would-be graduates to join renowned international universities, including Cambridge University, according to Mwai.
"ALA graduates will attend the world's finest universities and return to lead Africa toward a peaceful and prosperous future," according to ALA prospectus.
ALA is a non-profit institution located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Dear Sir/Madam,
I salute the idea of training African Youths for future leadership. But I am afraid the so called merit in African context doen't go beyond the tribal fevouratism. If this initiative is genuinely for prepairing African Leaders of the future, It has to look into the demographic combinations of each countries. Tribal dominations will affect the true mission of the program. Africa had and still has very dynamic leaders who were graduated from prominent American and European Universities, but they couldn't do anything because they are tribalists or influenced by tribalist elements. Just to give one example, There… [Read Full Text]