Why Africa?

I get this question a lot lately: Why Africa?

When Americans express and interest in Africa the assumption is that they’re either going on a mission, some type of charitable work. Noble causes, but not the whole story.

Many people in business assume they’re going to Africa to extract natural resources or raw materials at a bargain basement price or to export handcrafts ripe for a huge mark-up.

If those are your assumptions, you’re missing out on what today’s Africa has to offer––and we’re not taking THE SENSEI LEADER MOVEMENT to Africa for any of those reasons.

Africa today is, as a continent, the fastest growing economic power in the world.

Nations like Kenya and Nigeria continue to flourish while Ghana is now reported as the fastest growing economy in Africa. Formerly troubled areas like Rwanda and Ethiopia are seeing record growth and smaller nations like Tanzania are producing at record pace. I don’t want to offend by leaving nations of this list, but there are too many to cover here! While there are still trouble spots in Africa, most of the continents nations are producing record growth and forecasters predict a bright future.

We’re going to Africa because we see this as an opportunity to support, develop, learn from and network with tremendous human-centric leaders. We see Africa as a bright spot in human-centric leadership and we see African leaders as partners to help us expand our MOVEMENT around the world.

Of course you know some of the stars: Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan are well known to the West.

Have you heard of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf?

She was the first woman elected as a head of state in Africa when she was chosen president of Liberia––that after already receiving a Nobel Peace Prize.

One of her most notable quotes is: “If your dreams don’t scare you, you aren’t dreaming big enough.” That has become one of my favorites.