Africa at the Centre: Reimagining Development, Redistributing Power and Reclaiming Agency

This blog by Charles Kojo Vandy­ck (WACSI / RINGO) was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in Devel­op­ment Report Online

For three days in Accra, from 1–3 Sep­tem­ber 2026, we gath­ered around an idea that is decep­tive­ly sim­ple but deeply con­se­quen­tial: Africa must be at the cen­tre of shap­ing its own devel­op­ment.

As mem­bers of the organ­is­ing team, we entered the con­ven­ing know­ing that the theme, Africa at the Cen­tre: Lead­ing Change, Shift­ing Pow­er, would require more than anoth­er con­fer­ence filled with speech­es, pan­els and rec­om­men­da­tions. We want­ed to cre­ate a space where peo­ple could pause, ques­tion the sys­tems in which we work, lis­ten dif­fer­ent­ly, imag­ine alter­na­tives and, impor­tant­ly, begin to think about what col­lec­tive action might look like beyond the con­ven­ing.

Yet, as the three days unfold­ed, the propo­si­tion became more com­pli­cat­ed. Being ‘at the cen­tre’ is not sim­ply about hav­ing a seat at the table. It is about who designs the table, who sets the agen­da, who con­trols the resources, whose knowl­edge counts, who defines suc­cess and who ulti­mate­ly has the pow­er to decide.

That ques­tion stayed with me through­out the con­ven­ing. As an organ­is­ing team, we were not out­side the con­ver­sa­tion. We were part of it. We were also con­front­ed by the same ques­tions we were invit­ing oth­ers to con­sid­er.

Are we real­ly shift­ing pow­er, or have we sim­ply become bet­ter at talk­ing about it? That became one of the ques­tions beneath the ques­tions.

Designing a journey, not simply an event

We delib­er­ate­ly designed the three days as a jour­ney:

• Remem­ber and Locate.
• Dis­rupt and Reimag­ine.
• Build and Stew­ard.

The sequence mat­tered.

Before imag­in­ing a dif­fer­ent future, we need to under­stand the forces that brought us here. Before dis­rupt­ing exist­ing sys­tems, we need the courage to imag­ine beyond them. And before we claim trans­for­ma­tion, we need to think seri­ous­ly about the insti­tu­tions, rela­tion­ships, resources and prac­tices required to sus­tain it.

Look­ing back, the jour­ney also remind­ed us that sys­tems change is rarely lin­ear. We move back­wards and for­wards between mem­o­ry and imag­i­na­tion, dis­rup­tion and con­struc­tion, ques­tion­ing and action.

The con­ven­ing was there­fore not intend­ed to pro­duce a sin­gle answer. It was intend­ed to cre­ate the con­di­tions for bet­ter ques­tions, deep­er rela­tion­ships and new pos­si­bil­i­ties. And in many ways, the peo­ple in the room did exact­ly that.

Day One: Remember and Locate

We began with art. The open­ing artis­tic inter­ven­tion fea­tur­ing the Nation­al Dance Com­pa­ny, imme­di­ate­ly sig­nalled some­thing impor­tant, cul­ture, mem­o­ry, iden­ti­ty and lived expe­ri­ence has a place along­side pol­i­cy, financ­ing, insti­tu­tions and sys­tems. For us as organ­is­ers, this was inten­tion­al.

Devel­op­ment con­ver­sa­tions can become dom­i­nat­ed by the lan­guage of frame­works, indi­ca­tors, fund­ing mech­a­nisms, poli­cies and insti­tu­tion­al strate­gies. These tools mat­ter, but they do not always cap­ture the emo­tion­al and human dimen­sions of devel­op­ment. Art can reach places that pol­i­cy lan­guage can­not.

It car­ries mem­o­ry.

It pro­vokes emo­tion.

It chal­lenges assump­tions.

It cre­ates room for imag­i­na­tion.

The open­ing wel­come from Dr. Nana Asan­te­wa Afadz­inu, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of WACSI, along­side Stel­la Opoku-Owusu of AFFORD and Rose Maru­ru, Co-founder and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of EPIC Africa, estab­lished the tone for the days ahead.

This was not sim­ply a con­ver­sa­tion about improv­ing pro­grammes. It was about ques­tion­ing the rela­tion­ships, struc­tures and assump­tions that deter­mine how devel­op­ment is imag­ined and deliv­ered.

Ms. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Clapham and Brix­ton Hill, brought the African dias­po­ra into the con­ver­sa­tion and con­nect­ed the dis­cus­sion to the wider polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment in which Africa’s devel­op­ment con­tin­ues to be debat­ed.

The open­ing address by Ghana’s Pres­i­den­tial Spe­cial Envoy for Repa­ra­tions, Ambas­sador Ekow Spio-Gar­brah, togeth­er with Kiz­ito Bal­lans, brought his­tor­i­cal and polit­i­cal depth to the ques­tion of agency. The mes­sage was dif­fi­cult to ignore. Today’s devel­op­ment sys­tem did not emerge in a vac­u­um. Colo­nial­ism, extrac­tion, unequal eco­nom­ic rela­tion­ships and glob­al gov­er­nance struc­tures have shaped and con­tin­ue to shape who con­trols resources, whose knowl­edge is val­ued and who gets to deter­mine pri­or­i­ties.

We there­fore can­not have a seri­ous con­ver­sa­tion about devel­op­ment with­out hav­ing a seri­ous con­ver­sa­tion about pow­er.

From receiving development to setting the terms

The morn­ing fire­side dia­logue, mod­er­at­ed by Omo­lara Balo­gun of WACSI, brought togeth­er Arthur Larok of Action­Aid Inter­na­tion­al, Nafis­satou Sene of African Col­lab­o­ra­tive, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mak­mid Kama­ra of Reform Ini­tia­tives.

The cen­tral ques­tion was direct: What is lim­it­ing African-led devel­op­ment from thriv­ing?

The dis­cus­sion exposed a ten­sion that many of us work­ing in devel­op­ment have expe­ri­enced.

The lan­guage has changed. We now speak about local­i­sa­tion, part­ner­ship, par­tic­i­pa­tion, own­er­ship and local­ly led devel­op­ment. But the struc­tures under­neath those words have not always changed at the same pace. An African organ­i­sa­tion can be called a part­ner while anoth­er organ­i­sa­tion con­trols the resources. A com­mu­ni­ty can be con­sult­ed with­out hav­ing mean­ing­ful influ­ence over the solu­tion. African researchers can gen­er­ate knowl­edge with­out deter­min­ing how that knowl­edge is inter­pret­ed or used.

A local organ­i­sa­tion can lead imple­men­ta­tion while strate­gic deci­sions are made else­where.

This is why local­i­sa­tion can­not sim­ply mean mov­ing imple­men­ta­tion clos­er to the peo­ple. It must also mean shift­ing deci­sion-mak­ing pow­er, resources, own­er­ship and account­abil­i­ty. The after­noon the­mat­ic dia­logues helped deep­en this think­ing across four inter­con­nect­ed areas: pow­er, part­ner­ships and glob­al gov­er­nance; financ­ing Africa’s future; future-ready African insti­tu­tions; and devel­op­ment, mind­sets and nar­ra­tives.

The ses­sions, led by col­leagues includ­ing Har­ri­son Owusu and Elv­ina Quai­son; John Frin­juah and Anab Mohammed; Nan­cy Kankam Kusi and Melis­sa Juisi Simo; and Farouk Alhas­san and Mabel Shu Lum, cre­at­ed spaces for par­tic­i­pants to inter­ro­gate dif­fer­ent dimen­sions of the same chal­lenge.

Pow­er must shift in part­ner­ships.

Resources must shift in financ­ing.

Deci­sion-mak­ing must shift with­in insti­tu­tions.

And nar­ra­tives must shift in how Africa under­stands and rep­re­sents itself.

Remembering through voice

One of the deci­sions we made as an organ­is­ing team was to cre­ate space for cre­ativ­i­ty through­out the convening.That choice became increas­ing­ly sig­nif­i­cant as the days pro­gressed.

On Day One, Scribes Glob­al brought poet­ry into the pro­gramme.

Their per­for­mance gave anoth­er dimen­sion to the invi­ta­tion to Remem­ber and Locate. Mem­o­ry is not held only in archives, reports and his­tor­i­cal records.

It lives in lan­guage.

It lives in oral tra­di­tions.

It lives in sto­ries.

It lives in music and poet­ry.

And it lives in the mem­o­ries car­ried from one gen­er­a­tion to anoth­er. Scribes Glob­al remind­ed us that the strug­gle for African agency is also a strug­gle over nar­ra­tive.

Who tells Africa’s story matters

The per­for­mance helped us move from sim­ply remem­ber­ing Africa’s past to ask­ing what those mem­o­ries mean for the devel­op­ment choic­es we make today. By the end of the first day, the ques­tion had begun to shift. It was no longer sim­ply:

What is wrong with the devel­op­ment sys­tem? It was becom­ing:

What would it take for African agency to become the organ­is­ing prin­ci­ple of devel­op­ment?

Michel Kodjovi and the power of young creative voices

The cre­ative thread con­tin­ued dur­ing the group din­ner through Michel Kod­jovi, a WACSI intern. Michel’s con­tri­bu­tion was sig­nif­i­cant not sim­ply because he is young, but because it demon­strat­ed what becomes pos­si­ble when young peo­ple are giv­en space to bring their full selves into a com­mu­ni­ty. There was some­thing par­tic­u­lar­ly pow­er­ful about this hap­pen­ing out­side the for­mal con­fer­ence set­ting.

Devel­op­ment spaces often place enor­mous empha­sis on pan­els, pre­sen­ta­tions and struc­tured dia­logue. But some of the most mean­ing­ful exchanges hap­pen around tables. At din­ner. In cor­ri­dors. Dur­ing infor­mal con­ver­sa­tions. These are spaces where rela­tion­ships are built. And rela­tion­ships are often where pow­er begins to shift. Michel remind­ed us that young peo­ple should not be treat­ed sim­ply as ben­e­fi­cia­ries, audi­ences or rep­re­sen­ta­tives of ‘the next gen­er­a­tion’. They are already cre­ators of knowl­edge, cul­ture, move­ments and solu­tions. Youth par­tic­i­pa­tion there­fore has to become more than atten­dance. It must become agency.

Day Two: Disrupt and Reimagine

If Day One asked us to under­stand where we are, Day Two asked us to imag­ine where we could go. The provo­ca­tion was delib­er­ate­ly bold:

What if Africa dictated the rules?

This was per­haps the most uncom­fort­able ques­tion of the three days because imag­i­na­tion requires us to tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend the lim­i­ta­tions of the present. I had the priv­i­lege of serv­ing as lead facil­i­ta­tor for the Dis­rupt and Reimag­ine lab­o­ra­to­ries. Togeth­er with the organ­is­ing team, we chal­lenged par­tic­i­pants to move beyond diag­nos­ing prob­lems and to explore prac­ti­cal alter­na­tives. The lab­o­ra­to­ries brought togeth­er provo­ca­tions around pow­er, part­ner­ships and glob­al gov­er­nance; financ­ing Africa’s future; future-ready African insti­tu­tions; and devel­op­ment, mind­sets and nar­ra­tives.

Ms. Eng­wase Ban­da Mwale chal­lenged par­tic­i­pants to think dif­fer­ent­ly about pow­er and glob­al gov­er­nance. Ms. Wan­jiru Kany­i­ha opened ques­tions around financ­ing Africa’s future. Moulaye Cama­ra pro­voked think­ing around future-ready African insti­tu­tions. Ms. Ese Emer­hi invit­ed par­tic­i­pants to recon­sid­er devel­op­ment through an African world­view.

The inten­tion was not to pro­duce anoth­er list of rec­om­men­da­tions that would be filed away after the con­fer­ence. We want­ed par­tic­i­pants to ask:

What is already hap­pen­ing dif­fer­ent­ly?

Who is already doing it?

What can we learn from those exper­i­ments?

And what would it take to help them thrive?

Africa is not short of ideas

One of the strongest lessons from the lab­o­ra­to­ries was that Africa is not short of ideas. Across the con­ti­nent, com­mu­ni­ties, civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions, move­ments, researchers, entre­pre­neurs, phil­an­thropists and insti­tu­tions are already devel­op­ing alter­na­tives. The chal­lenge is that these ideas are often frag­ment­ed, under-resourced or insuf­fi­cient­ly con­nect­ed. Too often, the devel­op­ment sys­tem begins with a deficit ques­tion: What does Africa need? Per­haps we need to ask a dif­fer­ent ques­tion: What does Africa already know, already have and already do and what would help those solu­tions flour­ish?

That shift is pro­found.

It changes the rela­tion­ship between fun­der and grantee.

It changes the rela­tion­ship between inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tion and African part­ner.

It changes the rela­tion­ship between devel­op­ment prac­ti­tion­er and com­mu­ni­ty.

Instead of ask­ing, What solu­tion can we bring?, we begin by ask­ing:

What is already work­ing, who is doing it, and what can we do to sup­port it? That is a dif­fer­ent devel­op­ment pos­ture. It begins with recog­ni­tion rather than deficit.

Disrupting through words

On Day Two, Jhon­nel brought spo­ken word into the con­ver­sa­tion. His per­for­mance was fit­ting for a day ded­i­cat­ed to dis­rup­tion and reimag­i­na­tion. Spo­ken word can chal­lenge us in ways that con­ven­tion­al pre­sen­ta­tions some­times can­not.

It unset­tles.

It pro­vokes.

It ques­tions.

It refus­es easy answers.

Jhon­nel remind­ed us that dis­rup­tion does not always begin with a new pol­i­cy, insti­tu­tion or fund­ing mod­el. Some­times it begins with a dif­fer­ent sto­ry. A dif­fer­ent ques­tion. A dif­fer­ent way of see­ing. Or sim­ply the courage to chal­lenge an assump­tion that has become so famil­iar that we have stopped ques­tion­ing it.

The per­for­mance rein­forced some­thing we increas­ing­ly felt dur­ing the con­ven­ing: imag­i­na­tion is itself a form of agency. Before we can build some­thing dif­fer­ent, we must first be able to imag­ine that some­thing dif­fer­ent is pos­si­ble.

From solutions brought to Africa to solutions emerging from Africa

The gallery walk that fol­lowed gave par­tic­i­pants an oppor­tu­ni­ty to encounter ideas from lab­o­ra­to­ries they had not per­son­al­ly joined. Elv­ina Quai­son facil­i­tat­ed the process of weav­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties, help­ing par­tic­i­pants iden­ti­fy con­nec­tions across the dif­fer­ent con­ver­sa­tions. The exer­cise reflect­ed anoth­er impor­tant prin­ci­ple of the con­ven­ing. No sin­gle con­ver­sa­tion holds the answer.

The future will be built through con­nec­tions between ideas, insti­tu­tions, gen­er­a­tions, sec­tors and geo­gra­phies. The day con­clud­ed with the EPIC Africa Civ­il Soci­ety Awards, with Rose Maru­ru recog­nis­ing organ­i­sa­tions already demon­strat­ing courage, cre­ativ­i­ty and alter­na­tive approach­es to devel­op­ment. This was impor­tant because it remind­ed us that African civ­il soci­ety is not wait­ing for per­mis­sion to inno­vate. It is already inno­vat­ing. The ques­tion is whether the wider sys­tem is pre­pared to recog­nise, resource and learn from that inno­va­tion.

Another centre of gravity

The evening youth dia­logue, host­ed by Deb­o­rah Abbey and fea­tur­ing Diana Akok­pari, Dial­lo Mamadou and Rachael Mwikali, brought anoth­er impor­tant dimen­sion into the con­ver­sa­tion.

As an organ­is­ing team, we were par­tic­u­lar­ly con­scious that youth par­tic­i­pa­tion could not sim­ply mean invit­ing young peo­ple into a room and giv­ing them a speak­ing slot. The deep­er ques­tion was about pow­er.

Are young Africans being trust­ed with real respon­si­bil­i­ty?

Are they shap­ing insti­tu­tion­al pri­or­i­ties?

Are they influ­enc­ing resource deci­sions?

Are their ideas being fund­ed?

Are they being giv­en room to exper­i­ment?

Are old­er gen­er­a­tions pre­pared to make space for new forms of lead­er­ship?

For too long, young peo­ple have been described as ‘the future’. But young Africans are already shap­ing the present. They are build­ing organ­i­sa­tions, lead­ing move­ments, pro­duc­ing knowl­edge, cre­at­ing busi­ness­es, devel­op­ing tech­nolo­gies, mak­ing art and organ­is­ing com­mu­ni­ties. The chal­lenge is there­fore not sim­ply to pre­pare young peo­ple for lead­er­ship. It is to cre­ate the con­di­tions for them to exer­cise lead­er­ship now.

Day Three: Build and Steward

The third day brought us to per­haps the hard­est ques­tion:What hap­pens next?

It is rel­a­tive­ly easy to gath­er peo­ple around a pow­er­ful idea. It is much hard­er to build the sys­tems, rela­tion­ships, resources and insti­tu­tions capa­ble of sus­tain­ing that idea. Day Three there­fore moved towards Build and Stew­ard.

The morn­ing dias­po­ra engage­ment dia­logue host­ed by AFFORD UK recog­nised the dias­po­ra as much more than a source of remit­tances. The African dias­po­ra also holds knowl­edge, cap­i­tal, pro­fes­sion­al net­works, phil­an­thropy, polit­i­cal influ­ence and social cap­i­tal. The ques­tion is how these assets can be con­nect­ed more inten­tion­al­ly to African-led devel­op­ment.

Building future-ready African institutions

The con­ver­sa­tion on edu­ca­tion, civ­il soci­ety, pol­i­cy and indus­try, mod­er­at­ed by John Frin­juah of WACSI, brought togeth­er Dr. Ani­ta Djoble‑D’Almeida of GIMPA, Dr. Moses Isoo­ba of the Ugan­da Nation­al NGO Forum, Dr. Ebri­ma Sall of TrustAfrica and Dayo Olaide of IdeaPlus. The dis­cus­sion rein­forced an impor­tant real­i­ty, African devel­op­ment can­not be trans­formed by civ­il soci­ety alone. Uni­ver­si­ties, gov­ern­ments, pri­vate sec­tor actors, phil­an­thropy, civ­il soci­ety and com­mu­ni­ties need stronger con­nec­tions. Knowl­edge must con­nect to pol­i­cy. Pol­i­cy must con­nect to prac­tice. Cap­i­tal must con­nect to inno­va­tion. And insti­tu­tions must con­nect to the peo­ple they exist to serve.

Ideas in Motion

The Ideas in Motion pitch­ing ses­sion cre­at­ed anoth­er bridge between con­ver­sa­tion and action.

Jimm Chick Fomunjong mod­er­at­ed the ses­sion, with Cham­rid Kpado­nou of African Col­lab­o­ra­tive, Franck Som­bo of WACSI and Tendi­s­ai Chig­wedere of the Hewlett Foun­da­tion serv­ing as review­ers. The seed-fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty was par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant because ideas require more than applause. They require resources. Exper­i­ments require room. Inno­va­tors require trust. And sys­tems change requires patient stew­ard­ship. The ses­sion there­fore rep­re­sent­ed an impor­tant attempt to ensure that the ener­gy gen­er­at­ed in the room could move beyond the room.

From memory to stewardship

Scribes Glob­al returned on Day Three, cre­at­ing a beau­ti­ful cre­ative book­end to the con­ven­ing. On Day One, their poet­ry helped us remem­ber and locate. On Day Three, their return helped us think about what it means to build and steward.That pro­gres­sion felt deeply appro­pri­ate.

If the first ques­tion is Who are we? And the sec­ond is What might be pos­si­ble? Then the third becomes: What are we pre­pared to build and what are we pre­pared to sus­tain?

Their return remind­ed us that stew­ard­ship is not only about insti­tu­tions, financ­ing and gov­er­nance. It is also about mem­o­ry. It is about nur­tur­ing imag­i­na­tion. It is about ensur­ing that future gen­er­a­tions inher­it more pos­si­bil­i­ties than those we inher­it­ed.

The creatives were not an interruption to the conversation

Look­ing back, I am par­tic­u­lar­ly grate­ful that we cre­at­ed space for the cre­atives. Scribes Glob­al, Jhon­nel and Michel Kod­jovi remind­ed us that devel­op­ment is not only nego­ti­at­ed in board­rooms, pol­i­cy spaces and fund­ing dis­cus­sions. It is also expressed through poet­ry, spo­ken word, rhythm, cul­ture, sto­ry­telling and imag­i­na­tion. Their con­tri­bu­tions were not dec­o­ra­tive moments between the ‘seri­ous’ con­ver­sa­tions. They were part of the seri­ous con­ver­sa­tion. They helped us remem­ber. They helped us ques­tion. They helped us feel. They helped us imag­ine. And they remind­ed us that nar­ra­tive is itself a site of pow­er. Who­ev­er tells the sto­ry influ­ences how the prob­lem is under­stood. Who­ev­er defines the prob­lem often influ­ences the solu­tion. And who­ev­er con­trols the nar­ra­tive can influ­ence what peo­ple believe is pos­si­ble. This is why cre­ativ­i­ty belongs at the cen­tre of con­ver­sa­tions about devel­op­ment and sys­tems change.

From inclusion to ownership

One of the reflec­tions I take most strong­ly from the con­ven­ing is that inclu­sion is not enough.

For years, the devel­op­ment sec­tor has become increas­ing­ly com­fort­able with the lan­guage of inclu­sion. Include local organ­i­sa­tions. Include com­mu­ni­ties. Include women. Include young peo­ple. Include African voic­es. But some­one can be includ­ed in a con­ver­sa­tion with­out influ­enc­ing its out­come.

An organ­i­sa­tion can be includ­ed in a part­ner­ship with­out con­trol­ling the resources. A com­mu­ni­ty can be con­sult­ed with­out deter­min­ing the solu­tion. A young per­son can be invit­ed to speak with­out being giv­en deci­sion-mak­ing pow­er. Africa at the Cen­tre invites us towards some­thing deep­er, own­er­ship.

Own­er­ship means mean­ing­ful influ­ence over pri­or­i­ties. Own­er­ship means hav­ing a say in how resources are allo­cat­ed. Own­er­ship means defin­ing what suc­cess looks like. Own­er­ship means recog­nis­ing African knowl­edge as knowl­edge not sim­ply as local expe­ri­ence wait­ing for exter­nal val­i­da­tion. And it also means recog­nis­ing African cre­ativ­i­ty as knowl­edge. Poet­ry is knowl­edge. Music is knowl­edge. Sto­ry­telling is knowl­edge. Art is knowl­edge. Cul­ture is knowl­edge. These forms car­ry his­to­ries, val­ues, cri­tique and visions of the future. They belong in the cen­tre.

The responsibility is also ours

As an organ­is­ing team, we can­not ask oth­ers to shift pow­er with­out exam­in­ing the pow­er we our­selves hold. That is one of the uncom­fort­able lessons of this work. African insti­tu­tions must also strength­en account­abil­i­ty. Civ­il soci­ety must be pre­pared for greater respon­si­bil­i­ty as it demands greater auton­o­my. Fun­ders must rethink risk, while local organ­i­sa­tions must con­tin­ue strength­en­ing the sys­tems required to man­age resources respon­si­bly. Inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions must be will­ing to relin­quish con­trol, while African actors must be ready to exer­cise greater influ­ence with integri­ty. And all of us must recog­nise that shift­ing pow­er is not sim­ply about trans­fer­ring pow­er from one actor to anoth­er. The goal is to build health­i­er sys­tems of shared pow­er, account­abil­i­ty and agency.

Stewardship, not ownership

The final con­ver­sa­tion brought this ques­tion of stew­ard­ship into sharp­er focus. Dr. Nana Asan­te­wa Afadz­inu out­lined WACSI’s inten­tion to hold and stew­ard the post-con­ven­ing space, includ­ing sup­port­ing fol­low-up, coor­di­na­tion and the devel­op­ment of a plat­form through which the work can con­tin­ue. The dis­tinc­tion between stew­ard­ship and own­er­ship is impor­tant. Stew­ard­ship is not about con­trol­ling the agen­da. It is about cre­at­ing the con­di­tions for oth­ers to lead. It is about hold­ing rela­tion­ships with­out own­ing them. It is about con­nect­ing peo­ple and ideas with­out deter­min­ing all the out­comes. And it is about ensur­ing that a moment of col­lec­tive ener­gy can become some­thing more durable. That is the respon­si­bil­i­ty we car­ry from Accra.

What happens after Accra?

This is how Africa at the Cen­tre should ulti­mate­ly be judged. Not by atten­dance. Not by pho­tographs. Not even by how pow­er­ful the con­ver­sa­tions felt in the room. The real test is what hap­pens next. Will part­ner­ships change? Will fund­ing prac­tices change? Will African organ­i­sa­tions have greater con­trol over resources? Will com­mu­ni­ties have greater influ­ence over deci­sions affect­ing their lives? Will young Africans move from par­tic­i­pa­tion to lead­er­ship? Will African knowl­edge sys­tems be val­ued dif­fer­ent­ly? Will African cre­atives be recog­nised as con­trib­u­tors to devel­op­ment rather than sim­ply enter­tain­ers at devel­op­ment events? Will the ideas emerg­ing from the lab­o­ra­to­ries and the pitch­ing receive the sup­port need­ed to grow? And will the rela­tion­ships cre­at­ed in Accra con­tin­ue to gen­er­ate col­lec­tive action?

These ques­tions mat­ter because shift­ing pow­er is not an event. It is a prac­tice. It is a dis­ci­pline. It is a long-term com­mit­ment.

A journey that continues

The three days gave us a space to remem­ber, locate, dis­rupt, reimag­ine, build and stew­ard. The cre­atives helped us expe­ri­ence that jour­ney in anoth­er lan­guage, the lan­guage of voice, cul­ture and imag­i­na­tion. We remem­ber through sto­ries. We dis­rupt through voice. We reimag­ine through cre­ativ­i­ty. We build through col­lec­tive action. And we stew­ard by cre­at­ing space for oth­ers to lead. The ques­tion is no longer whether Africa should be at the cen­tre. The ques­tion is what each of us is pre­pared to change to make that cen­tre real. That is the work ahead. And that is the invi­ta­tion we car­ry with us from Accra.