Young African Leaders Initiative
Mandela Washington fellowship 2017, a program, launched in 2010 by US President Barack Obama, aims to forge an active network of young African leaders. It is a six-week training course in American universities offered to hundreds of young people from sub-Saharan Africa. Participants are in 20 American higher education institutions. YALI fellows will receive accelerated training in three main streams: Entrepreneurship and Business, Civic Leadership, The Public Management .
I had the honor of being selected among the happy fellows of the YALI program of Mali 2017. We are 10 young Malians to be selected for training in different courses.
According to Nelson Mandela: "Education is your most powerful weapon to change the world. " I hold a master's degree in English from the Faculty of Arts, Arts and Humanities. I spent most of my life after my university studies studying the cultural heritage of Timbuktu. I understood that the knowledge of the cultural heritage of Timbuktu leads to the knowledge of an inexhaustible treasure that can reach the soul of the world.
I drew inspiration from this quote to develop research with new information technologies. I had to read and reread to strengthen my knowledge, I studied hundreds of books in several fields. I applied for online training scholarships at international universities. Through E Learning I got an online course that is an MBA program in Leadership and sustainability from Robert Kennedy College in partnership with the University of Cumbria.
This leadership training has allowed me to be an active citizen in my community and above all to promote positive change everywhere because I am the change.
According to Nelson Mandela: "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances. "
This quote from Madiba, my idol, is the mother of my vision and my convictions of leadership.
For the record, in 2012, when the famous city of Timbuktu was occupied by Islamist militants and separatist rebels, I created in the fire of war the online newspaper: "Timbuktu Land of Peace and Culture “ it is an online newspaper that talks about my vision of leadership and my beliefs as a leader.
In analyzing the structural causes of the ethnic, political, and security conflict in northern Mali, my vision was to write the cultural heritage of Timbuktu as a catalyst for sustainable peace and development opportunities in the region.
After the liberation of Timbuktu, with the will of the young leaders of Timbuktu from all the communities, we created the Association "Timbuktu, land of peace and culture" of which I am the president.
This association aims to contribute to the social and cultural development and the promotion of the Timbuktu region through activities of human and sustainable development, to support and encourage peace, social cohesion, peaceful coexistence and to live together between the different communities in the Timbuktu region, to promote cultural heritage, environmental protection and sanitation, to promote the education of children, in particular the education of the girl children in nomadic villages. It is also to promote culture, crafts and tourism at local, national and international level through the organization of cultural events and cultural exchanges.
This opportunity to train citizen leadership will enable me to strengthen my capacities in terms of international leadership and to develop my relational network, by opening up new partnerships with the Americans in order to contribute to the positive change in my community.
To educate, inform and promote citizen leadership by young people in Mali, becomes an imperative for the economic and social development of Mali.
We are at a new chapter in our history where the culture of excellence is essential to face the new challenges of globalization.
I dream of a young leadership inspired by values worthy of its culture and civilization.
I dream of young leaders who care about the future of Mali and not the future of a political party or a lobbyist group.
I dream of seeing a new Mali, more prosperous, more confident with a youth that takes up the challenges of its time and its environment.
After the training of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, I plan to continue my work in order to build the capacity of the youth of Timbuktu in civic leadership, promote peace, education, fight against the narrative of violent extremism online, emphasizing the use of the cultural heritage of Timbuktu as a catalyst for sustainable peace and development opportunities.
On behalf of the Malian Fellows, I would like to thank and congratulate the Ambassador of the United States to Mali, Mr Paul A. Folmsbee, for his willingness to accompany the Malian youth through the strengthening of their capacity. Thank you for these opportunities that you offer us to develop our relational networks in the United States in order to contribute to the reconstruction of our beautiful country.
My dear fellow beneficiaries We have been chosen from among many others, we will be the ambassadors of our country at this session, sell a beautiful image of our country through a participation of quality.
It is a place to congratulate all of you. To my young comrades in Mali It urges for us: to train ourselves, to dialogue , to live together, to be united, Today our only way out is unity.
El Hadj Djitteye
Editor: John H. sime
