Heroes are raised in Africa

Ghana`s President: “Yes, Mr Karl, you are absolutely right. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said he could not rely on enough qualified people in his party to rule our country. The number of qualified academics was minimal indeed. Therefore, he wanted a one-party state to bundle together all qualified Ghanians to rule the nation. This, however, led to his overthrow.“

I: “Countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger...where leaders have their people at heart work hard to create jobs and true independence. In a way, they try nation-building on top of it, which takes a long time to complete. But I noticed something significant, and if not addressed worrying.“

Ghana`s President: “Tell me, I love to hear your thoughts.“

I: “The University of Ghana declared 2025 as the year to go international. Somehow, I wonder what took them so long. Anyway, fast forward. African countries still send their upcoming elite abroad for their education. They study at Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Moscow, or Peking. These are sons and daughters of Africa, not of foreign lands.“

Ghana`s President: “They go to the countries where they can find answers to their questions and needs. Here in Africa, we do not have enough or at all qualified Professors and Lecturers who can teach our future leaders what they need to know. And, by the way, they get exposed to the world of you out there and learn to understand your mentality better, very useful for future negotiations.“

I: “With all due respect, Mr. President, I think I know where you are coming from. It all takes time and is a very, very long process...education at the highest level that is. But please, there is a difference in the subjects. While attending classes in medicine, chemistry, physics, languages, and like outside Africa, I see no problems with that. These are rather technical subjects. What I am talking about is the African elite that one day will return to Africa to rule nations. They get their training abroad and not on African soil...that is confusing and worrying, Mr. President.“

Ghana`s President: “What do you mean exactly, Mr Karl? Please elaborate further on your idea.“

I: “Seeing what the University of Ghana and other Universities in Ghana and around Africa have to offer in the subjects of Human Sciences, especially Political Sciences, with a sideline to history, economics, and law, is of a low standard compared to what it should be. No university on the African continent lectures massively about aspects of the future of the world, how Africa thinks the world of tomorrow in one, two, and three hundred years to come could possibly look like, and what the African contribution to it could and should be. Karl Marx, with his Communist Manifesto, and Adolf Hitler, with his My Fight, described their ideas for up to one thousand years to come. Nothing of that nature is taught at any African University. When a continent lives anyhow, it reaches a place called ANYHOW. But when Africa, in clear words written preciously in black and white, communicates well on all channels, including social media, it can set the right agenda and make its mark in history.“

Ghana`s President: “But this is what Captain Ibrahim Traoré is exactly doing.“

I: “As a military officer, he is not a politician and not an Academic. He is a defender, a great one actually, of the interests of Burkina Faso and spreading the news across the globe, no doubt about that. He is too busy to turn around his country and make Burkina Faso a better place for his people. He has no time to sit down and come up with a detailed plan, a detailed vision of Africa in generations to come. He needs to ensure his initiatives are great and secured from falling back into darkness. And, he and others have no time to educate and raise the next generation of African heroes. For this, these countries still send their children abroad to be the best educated. But that is wrong, Mr. President.“

Ghana`s President: “What do you mean by that?“

I: “The real heroes of Africa must be bread and raised here in Africa by your African people, not by foreigners that follow their own agenda and impose their thinking onto you, onto your future leaders. African Universities for African Leaders must come up with not the normal, less educational Leadership Programs that are not only boring but not helpful to raise African Heroes. What Africa lacks is an Elite University as a single body or included in any University of Africa with true and massive programs to lecturer African elite sons and daughters, including talented students from other walks of life, what it takes to be future African Heroes. This, Mr. President, is the responsibility of Africa, not of us Europeans, the Chinese, Russians, Indians, or Americans.“

Ghana`s President: “I guess I get more of what you are trying to tell us here in Africa.“

I: “An African Elite University.“

Ghana`s President: “And we don`t have it here?“

I: “In no African country, Mr President.“

Ghana`s President: “That is very revealing, very interesting. I guess...somehow what you say makes sense. This means, if in these vital subjects mentioned especially in Political Sciences, instead of sending our future political elite abroad in case we need academic help from outside for the meantime, we would better ask help from outside to come to us and help us here on the ground.“

I: “I can say it more simply, Mr. President. The spirit of Africa is not abroad; the spirit of Africa is in Africa. Here, these future leaders must breathe it into their hearts and minds, their souls and feelings. After graduation, to practise, they can and should be exposed to the world of the white man for a few years to complete their education and capacity for thinking before taking up leadership roles in Africa. But the fundamental training to become future African heroes must under any circumstances take place at the new African Elite University on African soil. Anything else means playing with the future of the African continent, Mr President.“

Ghana`s President: “You mean, Mr Karl, when we African countries join hands and build in one of our nations such an African Elite University, it could subsequently lead to the much desired and spoken about true African Unity, the New African Union?“

I: “Like in Achimota School or Cambridge and Oxford Universities, people study together and friendships for life are formed. Young people discuss outside the box and outside classrooms with a free mind. Such discussions will bring the future African leaders closer and closer together, as you indicate. It is in your hands, African leaders, to create one place where African heroes can meet and create their future Africa, a united Africa. Don`t allow the white man to do this in his territory. I think it is time now for you, African countries, to take control of your future and help your future African heroes to have everything they need to know how to achieve this wonderful future and make them define it.“

Ghana`s President: “An African Elite University...I guess...let me think...why not here in Ghana? Why not be part of the University of Ghana? Dr. Kwame Nkrumah would have loved it.“

I: “Make him proud and yourself a legacy in African history.“