PRETORIA – Africa must confront not just what it lacks, but what it has and how it can wield that power on its own terms. That was the recurring theme in the final plenary session of Africa Week 2025, titled: ‘What about Africa?’. 

Africa Week is a biennial summit hosted at Future Africa, the University of Pretoria’s (UP) pan-African platform for collaborative research, which brings together African and global science leaders for high-level dialogue and collaboration. The summit aims to strengthen African research, enhance its global visibility, and amplify its influence, particularly through the role of higher education institutions. 

The final plenary session, which took place on Wednesday 28 May, was moderated by Elma Akob, a social entrepreneur and three-time UP graduate currently pursuing a PhD in corporate sustainability. The panellists were Dr Thokozile Lewanika, founder of DML45 Consulting and Executive Education faculty member at Henley Business School; and Professor Adam Habib, Vice-Chancellor of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. Both speakers challenged the audience to reframe Africa’s global position by interrogating the continent’s identity, strategic priorities and political will. 

Dr Lewanika opened the session by reflecting on the urgency and complexity of the themes explored during the week. “Everything is important,” she said, summarising the broad array of challenges raised, from climate and health security to food systems and infrastructure. However, she cautioned that while deeply engaging each issue was valuable, African decision-makers can’t afford to act in silos. 

“We’re not going to make transformational decisions based on one aspect at a time. The decision has to be made around the collective.” She questioned whether African leaders had “enough of a discussion around the collective” to take decisive, integrated action. In a context of limited resources, she added, it is critical to identify points of leverage.

Dr Lewanika also reminded delegates that “Africa is not homogenous”, saying that even within countries, differences in starting points and capacities vary significantly. She argued that for any Africa-wide agenda to succeed, it must be rooted in both “local relevance, as well as common relevance”, with collective interests taking precedence over self-interest. 

Reframing Africa’s identity and global posture

That duality – of speaking with one voice while remaining grounded in local contexts – was prominent throughout the session. Dr Lewanika called for a shift in mindset that would enable African nations to show up globally from a place of power, not deficiency. 

“For example, the 4IR [Fourth Industrial Revolution] technology metals that the world needs are in Africa, but we don’t show up that way,” she said. “And if newspaper articles are to be believed, we’re willing to trade those things for very simple, almost inconsequential benefits… So for me, we have to start with, ‘Who are we in this moment? What are our strengths, and how can we show up in a way that says, this is what Africa is bringing to the table, these are our strengths, and these are our competitive advantages.’”  

Prof Habib built on this, pointing to the need for urgency and a focus on how the continent approaches systemic change. Drawing on examples from earlier Africa Week panels, he urged African actors to identify a few pressing, solvable problems that could produce immediate gains and trigger broader momentum. 

“The way you change big things is to start by changing the immediate small things, and then it has a snowball effect,” he said. “We know that clinics are closing down all over the continent because of HIV/AIDS funding cuts. Who’s going to [address that]? On the other hand, Qatar is suddenly saying that they want a partner on the G20... These are the gaps. We can fill in these gaps over the next two or three years, until we figure out where to go from here.”

Prof Habib emphasised that the “singular challenge that is the African dilemma, is a dilemma of political agency. How do we get the will to act as a continent? That’s the fundamental challenge.”

He recalled the period between 1994 and 2008, when South Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia collaborated closely under Presidents Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo and Meles Zenawi to rebuild the African Union and reduce conflict on the continent. 

“The reason we were able to bring down African conflict by two-thirds, between 1994 and 2008, was because we had South Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia entering into a pact… They said we’re building Africa and restoring African institutions.” Without that kind of leadership pact, Prof Habib argued, Africa would continue to be divided and undermined. 

He also highlighted Africa’s leverage in global systems. “None of the AI revolution can happen without the minerals that are on the African continent. None of the climate change challenges get resolved without the absorptive capacity of carbon by the Congo Basin. And if the Congo Basin goes, the planet is toast.”

Universities as drivers of change

The session concluded with a call for new models and experiments, especially in higher education and human capital development. Dr Lewanika proposed that universities shift their mandate from producing graduates to producing “fit-for-purpose employees”, arguing that this would force institutions to engage more meaningfully with employers and end-users. 

In her closing remarks, Professor Wanda Markotter, Interim Director of Future Africa, acknowledged the significance of the week’s discussions but stressed the importance of maintaining momentum beyond the summit. She said Future Africa would establish mechanisms to ensure continued engagement on the issues raised, particularly through deeper dialogue with industry and government. 

“We will put a mechanism in place where we will facilitate this going forward and have these discussions – but then action, action, action… There are low fruits, and it’s not always about putting money into things or getting more money. Sometimes it’s just focusing on the right places and driving change and driving action.”