Fred Swaniker is the chairman and founder of The African Leadership Academy. A successful personal leadership development expert, he is the brain behind five different organisations aimed at developing successful leaders. His leadership academy in Johannesburg, South Africa, has a target of developing 6,000 transformative leaders from Africa over a 50-year period.
In his inspiring 15-minute presentation at the Ted Talks, Swaniker noted that African countries often needed just one good leader to create a long-lasting positive impact in the affairs of their country. He shed some light on what he called three generations of African leaders since independence. Generation 1, he congratulated for sending the European colonialists away. Generation 2, which came after them, he largely condemned for squandering away Africa’s potentials. He was however mostly upbeat about generation 3: the prospects of the present crop of African leaders.
He then challenged the young people of Africa and future leaders to rise up to the occasion using the words of the great Nelson Mandela, who once said, “Every now and then a generation is called upon to be great. You can be that generation.”
