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LOS ANGELES—The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Tech Retreat has announced details for the 2023 Supersession, which will present an original, immersive look at the remarkable creative and technical accomplishments of “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

Highlighting the people, companies and workflows that helped create and deliver James Cameron’s brilliant vision to the many screens optimized for this next-generation cinematic experience, the Supersession will take place over a full day on Tuesday, February 21, and will be presented in a theater specifically designed for the event. 

The HPA Tech Retreat is set for February 20-23 at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, CA. 

The Supersession is designed to deliver an immersive experience, with incredible visuals and unparalleled insights, in a purpose-built theater, featuring 4K, 3D, high frame rate, RGB laser projectors as well as conventional Xenon projectors, designed to meet the filmmakers’ rigorous standards.

The day’s program will include the following: 

Introducing Avatar: The Way of Water. The audience will experience filmmaker-selected scenes from the film in 3D that will provide context for the discussions that follow.

Welcome: HPA Supersession Chair Loren Nielsen will set the stage for the day.

Making Avatar: The Way of Water: Attendees will get a look at the breakthrough live-action cinematographic process used for the film, including 48 and 24 fps, 3D capture and astounding underwater cinematography. Panelists include:

• Russell Carpenter, ASC, Director of Photography (via live remote) 
• Robin Charters, 3D Camera Systems Workflow Engineer
• Simon Marsh, Sony Venice Product Director 
• Tashi Trieu, Colorist
• Moderator: Joachim Zell, HPA Board Member and HPA Engineering Awards Committee Chair

Planning and Supporting the Vision:  The Studio Perspective. Studios are accustomed to delivering tentpole films, but Avatar: The Way of Water is no ordinary tentpole. This session will explore how the studio teams worked with filmmakers to understand the timeframes, logistics and planning process that delivered one of the most complex films ever made. The conversation will include: 

• Kim Beresford, Vice President, Integrated Planning & Motion Pictures Operations, The Walt Disney Studios
• Leon Silverman, HPA Board Member and Past President

 “From the very outset of planning the Supersession, there was no film or syllabu as compelling as the creative technology and innovation behind Avatar: The Way of Water,"  said Nielsen, who leads the 2023 Supersession committee. "Understanding how this gargantuan project was planned, managed and executed its creative vision is the sort of syllabu we love to get our heads around at the HPA Tech Retreat. It’s complex, beautiful, challenging and revolutionary. It’s an absolute honor to work with the team behind the scenes of delivering this movie.”

The HPA Tech Retreat benefits from the generous support of diamond title sponsor Adobe; platinum sponsors AMD, AWS, and NetApp Berkeley Communications; after party sponsor Ateliere; connectivity sponsor Sohonet; gold sponsor Blackmagic Design; silver sponsors 6P Color, Unreal Engine, NTC, HammerSpace, Keycode Media, and Puget Systems; event sponsors ARRI, Dell Technologies, Like Minded Media Ventures, Panavision, and Signiant; bronze sponsor ZEISS; and star sponsor Avid. Sponsors of the Supersession are Barco, Christie, GDC, and RealD 3D. 

More information about the event can be found here. 

Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber sent his annual State of the University letter to faculty, students and staff on Tuesday, Jan. 31, celebrating Princeton’s full return to in-person teaching and research following COVID-19 and addressing how the University and other liberal arts institutions might adapt to the forthcoming challenges presented by rapidly developing technology.

Eisgruber wrote: “Computer science, data science, online media, and machine learning are rapidly changing how we read, write, learn, think, communicate, and socialize.  They are affecting what students want to study, how research is conducted, and what subjects scholars can explore.  They are altering the world’s capacities and problems, and, with those, the issues that universities must address to prepare students for the future and deliver the research that our society needs.”

The letter reflects on what these changes mean for Princeton as a university committed to the ideals of liberal arts education, curiosity-driven research, and finding and supporting the best talent from all backgrounds.

To provide opportunities for community discussion of the subjects in the letter, Eisgruber will discuss the letter and invite questions at two upcoming open meetings.

• All students, faculty and members of the broader University community are invited to join the upcoming meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), which will take place 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 20, in the Frist Multipurpose Room. In the question and answer period for this meeting, priority will be given to council members and to student questioners.

• A Town Hall for University staff members will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 22, in Richardson Auditorium. The University will provide employees with paid release time so they can attend this meeting during normal work hours, subject to supervisory approval in order to maintain normal operations.

The State of the University letter is available as a pdf and is printed in its entirety below.

Three years after the novel coronavirus appeared on the scene, Princeton’s residential, scholarly community is nearly, if not fully, restored to its pre-pandemic state.  Our campus again pulses with vital energy, personal interaction, and creative inspiration.

Classes are meeting without the restrictions needed last year.  Workshops, lectures, and colloquia are well attended.  Crowds are welcome at performances, sporting events, and other gatherings.

Celebrations again take place in person rather than on virtual platforms, which is a good thing, because over the past 18 months Princeton has had a lot to celebrate.  For example:

• Faculty and alumni have collected honors at a pace impressive even by Princeton’s high standards.  In the 2021-22 academic year, for example, five Nobel laureates in the fall were later joined by a Fields medalist, an Abacus medalist, a Kyoto Prize winner, and a Schmidt Science Polymath, to name just a few.  This fall, Ben Bernanke, a former faculty member and chair of the Department of Economics, received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
• Last year, Princeton made historic improvements to both its graduate fellowship program and its undergraduate financial aid program.  In January 2022, Princeton increased graduate stipends for the 2022-23 academic year by an average of 25 percent, the largest such increment in the University’s history.  In September, Princeton announced enhancements to its already best-in-class undergraduate financial aid program.  Beginning next year, most students from households earning up to $100,000 will attend Princeton for free, and aid packages will Boost across the income spectrum.
• Thanks to the outstanding work of our Advancement team and alumni volunteers, and to the generosity of our alumni and friends, Princeton opened the public phase of its Venture Forward campaign with one of the most successful years in history for fundraising and alumni engagement.  Annual Giving set a new all-time dollar record ($81.8 million), and the University recorded the highest one-year fundraising total in Princeton’s history ($551.9 million).  Venture Forward also ushered in a new digital tradition — Orange & Black Day, created by our spirited alumni — and in-person all-alumni gatherings in New York City, San Francisco, and London.
• In December, the Princeton University Art Museum announced a historic gift from Preston Haskell III ’60 that includes eight abstract masterpieces from his private collection.  These stunning paintings will take the Museum’s collection of modern art to a new level of excellence.
• Our students distinguished themselves both academically and in extracurricular pursuits.  Already this academic year they have been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, a Marshall Scholarship, and five Schwarzman Scholarships, and our athletic teams have captured another four league titles after winning sixteen last year.
• Reunions, held in person for the first time in three years, were a joyous affair.  They were among the highlights of a festive week that included two Commencement ceremonies (for the Classes of 2020 and 2022), three 50th Reunion dinners, three 25th Reunion dinners, and more than 25,000 people.  Our staff did a fabulous job hosting the many people and events despite the lingering effects of the pandemic and unseasonably high temperatures.
• Our Facilities team and their partners in numerous campus departments and offices pushed ahead with the most ambitious building program in the University’s history despite the pandemic’s disruption to work schedules, labor markets, and the supply chain.  Their outstanding work enabled Yeh College and New College West to open this fall as anticipated.

The pandemic, to be sure, persists; as I write this letter, COVID-related deaths in the United States still average more than 500 per day.  We cannot know what variants might lie ahead.  We will need to be ready to adapt if necessary.

Still, as we enter 2023, we can enjoy more of the activities that we cherish and that define the mission of this University.  And, because our planning capacity is no longer so occupied by short-term questions about the public health crisis, we can once again devote more time and attention to fundamental questions about the University’s values and future.

Among the most profound of those questions is how Princeton and other liberal arts research universities should adapt to the challenges of rapidly evolving technology, including information technology and artificial intelligence.

Computer science, data science, online media, and machine learning are rapidly changing how we read, write, learn, think, communicate, and socialize.  They are affecting what students want to study, how research is conducted, and what subjects scholars can explore.  They are altering the world’s capacities and problems, and, with those, the issues that universities must address to prepare students for the future and deliver the research that our society needs.

I will devote most of this year’s letter to some reflections on what these changes mean for Princeton as a university steadfastly committed to the ideals of liberal arts education and curiosity-driven research.  I will connect those reflections to the University’s strategic framework and to the set of initiatives underway on campus.  I will conclude with some added thoughts about our continuing efforts to ensure that talent from all backgrounds and sectors of society can flourish at this University and benefit from its teaching and research.

The Strategic Framework’s Key Judgments

Questions about technology’s implications for Princeton’s mission may be increasingly vivid and urgent, but they are not new.  They were crucial to the University’s multi-year, campus-wide planning process that produced its strategic framework in 2016.

The strategic framework was created with the hope that its principles would guide the University over many years and the expectation that it would be updated or revised regularly to address changing needs and opportunities.

The framework has served its purpose well.  The University’s trustees enthusiastically reaffirmed and updated the framework in 2019.  They will review it again this year as part of the periodic planning cycle envisioned by the 2016 report.

The priorities identified in the strategic framework rest on four key judgments:

• Princeton University’s distinctive and long-standing mission — as a residential research university committed to an expansive vision of the liberal arts that encompasses engineering — is robust, valuable, and important to the world.
• Princeton’s exceptional capacity for teaching and research carries with it special responsibilities to expand the range of people who benefit from that opportunity, to strive for the highest levels of quality in research and education, and to address the challenges of the 21st century.
• Technology is rapidly reshaping research, pedagogy, and society, with substantial consequences for the University’s mission.
• The University can and should raise its endowment spend rate so that it can co-invest with alumni and friends to support initiatives that will enhance Princeton’s impact on the world today and for generations to come.

The framework offers multiple justifications for embracing Princeton’s model of residential, liberal arts education.  It emphasizes that a Princeton degree fares exceptionally well even if judged only the basis of its economic value or other utilitarian metrics.

The framework then recognizes that a Princeton education must also serve loftier goals.  A Princeton education “should shape the whole person,” and “the University’s research should enhance not only the productivity but also the quality and humanity of our nation and our world.”

The framework adds these observations:

“At a time when the world often focuses on short-term issues and seeks immediate solutions, Princeton enables scholars and students to pursue long-term goals.  It brings talented individuals together for interactions both deliberate and serendipitous, and it gives those individuals the freedom and the support they need to pursue a dazzling range of questions and projects.  Princeton thereby catalyzes learning, creativity, innovation, and collaboration.  The benefits of this activity may take years or even decades to blossom fully; they can help society to address not only the problems we know today, but also future concerns that we cannot yet identify or even imagine.”

The University’s trustees issued this endorsement of residential learning in 2016, at a time of growing interest in online education.  The power of the residential, in-person model seems even more compelling in the wake of the pandemic, which required Princeton and other universities to use online teaching in unprecedented ways.

When colleges initially moved their courses online in March 2020, some people predicted that this forced experiment with remote learning would demonstrate the inefficiency of residential teaching models.  It instead highlighted how difficult it is to teach online effectively, especially at undergraduate and pre-collegiate levels.  There is now widespread concern about “learning loss” from the deficiencies of online education, a problem that affects even the exceptionally talented students who apply to and attend Princeton.

To be sure, the experience of online teaching during the pandemic broadened familiarity with what could be done online.  The knowledge may enable Princeton to leverage technology to Boost the residential education it offers or to expand the impact of its teaching to new audiences.  If so, however, we will have to do so in a way that respects the power of residential engagement and the limits of online teaching, which is one reason why Princeton required beginning in fall 2021 that all classes once again meet in person.

Yet, even while in-person engagement remains essential to education, the success of Zoom and other platforms demonstrated yet again how quickly and pervasively technology can change our lives.  In latest weeks, ChatGPT has provided another window into how powerful — and how disruptive — artificial intelligence can be.

That is why any great liberal arts university in the 21st century must wholeheartedly embrace the study of technology.  Critical thinking skills are at the heart of a liberal arts education, and in today’s world those skills must encompass the ability to understand, develop, and use technology both effectively and ethically.

Strengthening Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science

While the challenges of technology will demand attention from scholars throughout the University, the strategic framework recognized that the School of Engineering and Applied Science will be pivotal to Princeton’s response:

“Princeton’s outstanding School of Engineering and Applied Science, which uniquely blends the qualities of a great engineering school and Princeton’s commitment to the liberal arts, gives the University a special advantage in addressing technological change and its consequences for society. Princeton embraced engineering during a period when some Ivy League universities ignored the field.  Princeton thereby made a wise choice:  it has become clear that in the 21st century, a great liberal arts university requires a great engineering school.”

Interest in engineering at Princeton has exploded over the past decade.  Engineering majors now account for 28 percent of the University's undergraduate students, up from around 19 percent in 2012-13.

The computer science department teaches more students and attracts more majors than any other department in the University.  Its growth over the past two decades has been astonishing.  For example, concentrators have grown from around 36 students in the class of 2011 to more than 200 in this year’s junior class; total course enrollments during that period have more than doubled, from 1,738 in 2010-11 to 4,152 this year.

Part of the appeal of these disciplines undoubtedly comes from the market value of their degrees, but they also offer intellectual depth and societal benefit.  Technical and scientific advances have, for example, given engineers the capacity to model and control microscopic biological processes, manipulate exotic quantum phenomena, and design therapeutic interventions to address healthcare problems and environmental harms.

And, conversely, computational advances and new technologies are empowering scholars across the disciplines to ask and answer novel questions about the human brain, economic behavior, ecological systems, the evolution of literary practices, and galactic structures, to name only a few.  We are already seeing a new generation of researchers who combine disciplinary expertise in departments across the University with fluency in computational and statistical techniques.

Because our School of Engineering and Applied Science is integrated into the liberal arts ethos of the University, we can educate engineers who create and apply technology deeply informed by the insights and values drawn from the arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences.  And because all of our students are encouraged to take courses in the engineering school, we can educate leaders in other fields who are competent and comfortable with technological issues.

To continue this momentum, seize the opportunity to innovate, and respond to the challenges of technological change, Princeton is investing boldly in its School of Engineering and Applied Science.  People are the heart of that initiative, but to attract and retain outstanding faculty, students, and staff, we need facilities that enable them to thrive and achieve the highest levels of excellence.

The strategic framework recognized that while “Princeton is fortunate to have a superb engineering faculty,” its professors and students do much of their work in outdated “facilities constructed to a utilitarian standard more than a half-century ago.”  That is why we have undertaken the massive building project that begins at the current Guyot Hall and runs most of the length of Western Way.

After renovation, Guyot Hall will become Eric and Wendy Schmidt Hall, the new home for the Department of Computer Science.  A connected series of buildings on the north side of Western Way will house the environmental sciences, Princeton’s new bioengineering institute, the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and an engineering commons.

In the years ahead, the new ES + SEAS neighborhood will also become the home for other departments now located in the old EQuad.  The new location will bring SEAS from the periphery into the core of the University, thereby facilitating stronger links between its departments and those in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.

Online Media, Civic Culture, and the University

Such interdisciplinary connections will be essential if the University is to meet the challenges of this moment.  Many of the most urgent and profound questions arising out of technological change are not themselves technical but cultural, psychological, ethical, and political.

The University’s 2016 strategic framework mentioned in passing that technology was changing not only teaching, research, innovation, and professional opportunities, but also the “organization of human society” and how people “connect with one another.”  That sentence is probably the most striking understatement in the document.

Even as recently as 2016, when Princeton issued its strategic framework, it was hard to grasp the profound and pervasive effects that online media were already having on individuals and communities.

In 2016, the iPhone was not yet 10 years old.  Princeton had yet to graduate a class of students who had used or seen a smartphone while in grade school.  Now few of us can imagine a world without them.  Indeed, most of our students have never known such a world.

We are only just beginning to understand the nature and magnitude of the changes being wrought to our minds and our societies.  Some of those changes are positive.  I do not know how we would have persevered during the pandemic, for example, without the means to teach and work online.  Information that might in the past have required trips to faraway archives or libraries is now at our fingertips.  We can stay in touch with distant friends, find new ones, and renew lost acquaintanceships.  The list goes on.

There are also, however, dark sides to this new world.  Nearly everyone now spends large amounts of time online.  In general, the apps and media in this virtual world become more profitable if users spend more time on them.  For that reason, they are typically designed to attract and keep our attention.

The new communications environment privileges information not because it is true or edifying but because it is attention-getting.  For most if not all human beings, what rivets attention is the provocative, the extreme, the diverting, the divisive, or the visually arresting.

These distractions are not only powerful but omnipresent.  We carry the world, and our worries, in our pockets.  We are tempted by our phones, and the tantalizing array of stimuli they hold, everywhere, including in spaces — such as libraries, theaters, parks, and restaurants — that once provided havens for study, reflection, and human camaraderie.

Like New York University’s Dr. Jonathan Haidt and Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa ’86,[1] I believe that this communications environment poses a fundamental challenge to our civic life and to truth-seeking institutions, including colleges and universities.

The challenges include but go beyond concerns about “disinformation” or other specific content on the internet.  Even when the information they provide is fully accurate, online media facilitate distraction, remoteness, and provocation.

Education and research, by contrast, depend upon concentration, engagement, and civil exchange.  The tension between the online world and the scholarly world is thus real and deep: we live in a world flooded with the intellectual equivalent of irresistible junk food, and getting people to “think healthy” is harder than ever.

Scholars are beginning to produce the insights and recommendations that we need to comprehend and address these changes.  Some of them have argued that online activity is a major contributor to the epidemic of mental illness confronting our nation and its young people.[2]

These claims are controversial,[3] but it seems undeniable that the students who arrive at Princeton today have grown up very differently from even their quite latest predecessors.  The relevant question is not whether those differences have changed the way that students learn and live, but rather how they have done so.

Answering that question, and others about how technology is changing individuals and society, will be a major challenge for Princeton and other colleges and universities in the years ahead.  I hope and expect that our faculty, students, and staff will bring forward new initiatives so that this University can address these issues through its research and in its own campus community and pedagogical culture.

Building a Liberal Arts University for the 21st Century

The magnitude and character of these challenges reinforce the 2016 strategic framework’s conclusion that despite — and, indeed, because of — the many changes wrought by technology and other social forces, this University’s “distinctive model and mission are today more vibrant, valuable, and relevant to the world’s problems than ever.”

The framework called for a collection of initiatives by which Princeton University would both “address technology’s impact” and extend “the principles that define it as a liberal arts university into the 21st century.”

The priorities that emerged from the framework, and the larger strategic planning process that accompanied it, are manifest in our investments in the School of Engineering and Applied Science along with numerous other projects and initiatives that touch every sector of the campus. 

Their goal is to reinforce the excellence of the University’s core teaching and research enterprise across multiple fields; reach more students from more backgrounds; add to the University’s capacity in engineering, computer science, and related fields; open the University up to a wider range of collaborations with both academic and non-academic partners; and enhance Princeton’s commitment to service.

Here are a few examples:

• To reach more students, we have not only added two residential colleges but also are creating a new health center and new recreational facilities to support the increase in the undergraduate population.
• To reach and support students from more backgrounds, we increased the socioeconomic diversity of our undergraduate and graduate student bodies.  We also created a new transfer program focused on military veterans and community college students, and over the last year we announced historic increases to both undergraduate scholarships and graduate stipends.  Our efforts have attracted favorable attention from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and 60 Minutes.
• To ensure that talented individuals from all backgrounds flourish on our campus, we have reaffirmed and expanded upon our commitment to racial equity.  Though we have much more work to do, progress is manifest in, among other things, improvements to the diversity of our graduate student body, faculty, administrative leadership, and roster of professional consultants, contractors, and vendors.
• To invest in academic excellence more broadly and to ensure that the University’s teaching and research address urgent national and global issues, we have built or strengthened initiatives in environmental science and policy, American studies, regional studies, and plasma physics, among other fields.
• To reinforce the University’s strengths in multiple liberal arts disciplines, we are constructing a new Art Museum that will enhance the power and accessibility of the University’s collection and serve as a central gathering point for humanists on campus.
• To add new graduate housing, state-of-the-art athletics facilities, and new sites for future research laboratories and collaborative ventures, we are creating the Lake Campus development on the south side of Lake Carnegie.
• To promote the well-being of our community, leaders from the University’s campus life team, health services, the undergraduate and graduate student governments, and other units are cooperating to enhance mental health resources and support available to students, staff, and faculty.
• To catalyze innovation and open the University to a broader range of partnerships with non-academic partners, we have expanded programs on entrepreneurship, revised University policies, and established the Office of the Vice Dean for Innovation.  Early successes include the launch of a joint Google-Princeton AI lab across Nassau Street and the formation of a Princeton-led Innovation Corps Northeast Hub sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
• To encourage students to incorporate service into their lives at Princeton and after graduation, we have increased both the number of service opportunities and their connection to the academic curriculum.  In October, we announced a new program, LENS (Learning and Education through Service), that promises at least one funded service opportunity for every Princeton undergraduate.

These initiatives have required what is perhaps the most ambitious capital construction program in Princeton’s history.  Mindful of the University’s environmental responsibility, we have designed and supplemented those projects to make the campus carbon-neutral on or before the University’s tricentennial in 2046.

I recognize that the number and scale of these projects make them disruptive for all of us.  Living amidst construction is not easy, and I appreciate the changes people have made to adapt to it.

The short-term impositions will eventually supply way to long-term enhancements.  Like the past projects that benefit us today, those underway now will help Princeton to respond to the challenges of this century, create opportunity for new generations of students and faculty, deepen our commitment to teaching and scholarship of the highest caliber, and add to the beautiful and inspiring spaces that make this campus so special.

Reaching More Students from More Backgrounds

One of my highest priorities since taking office has been to make a Princeton education accessible to more students from more backgrounds.  As the strategic framework rightly emphasizes, the education that we offer is more important today than it has ever been; if we can share it more widely, we should.

I am therefore delighted that one of our largest construction projects is now complete and benefiting the campus community.  The opening of Yeh College and New College West has enabled us to share Princeton’s unique liberal arts model with the largest entering class of students in the University’s history.

The new residential colleges are important for many reasons.  Most fundamentally, the new colleges permit Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Karen Richardson to say “yes” to more of the spectacularly talented young people who apply to the University each year.  Dean Richardson tells me that roughly 18,000 applicants each year are as well qualified as the students whom we admit.

If we can take more of those students without diminishing the essential qualities of a Princeton education, we should:  A Princeton education is transformative for the students who receive it, and the additional students whom we accept will contribute positively both to our campus and the world beyond it.

The new colleges enhance the residential life of our campus in numerous ways, including through amenities such as a demonstration kitchen, a ceramics studio, and an indoor/outdoor performance space.  The colleges' architecture embodies a commitment to transparency and inviting common spaces designed to make it easier for students to enjoy one another’s camaraderie and company.

Gender-neutral restroom facilities in the new colleges reflect the University’s commitment to enable students of all gender identities to thrive on this campus.  That commitment is especially important at a time when LGBTQIA+ individuals face increasing levels of discrimination and hostility in many sectors of society.

By creating new admission slots, the colleges also help Princeton to continue its efforts to attract and support students from all backgrounds.  I have made it a priority throughout my presidency to increase the socioeconomic diversity of Princeton’s student body, and I have described our progress in past letters.

That work continues.  Our transfer program, which focuses on military veterans and community college students, doubled in size with this year’s entering class.  Though the program remains small — the enlarged transfer class consists of 25 students — I expect that it will continue to grow in the years ahead.

As noted already, over the past year we made historic improvements to our already best-in-class undergraduate financial aid program and to graduate fellowship stipends.  We expect that these changes to undergraduate and graduate aid will enable more low-income and middle-income students to thrive at Princeton, and that their magnitude and impact will surpass even the unprecedented 2001 reforms that replaced loans with scholarships and thereby eliminated the need for Princeton students to take on debt. 

Princeton’s commitment to socioeconomic diversity extends beyond its own campus.  Through the work of the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity and Princeton’s leadership role in the American Talent Initiative, we seek to help students from low-income and middle-income families thrive not only here at Princeton but also at other colleges and universities throughout the country.

We are also continuing to explore new ways that Princeton might reach additional students.  In my September 2020 letter to the community about the University’s efforts to promote racial equity, I said that we would examine whether Princeton might develop some form of “continuing education, general education, or related outreach programs” that might simultaneously “extend [our] educational mission to reach underserved populations" and "help to address the effects of systemic racism, and expand the horizons of our scholarly and educational community.”

We have created a new position, the vice provost for academic affairs, partly to oversee this work.  Current efforts are focusing on how Princeton might help community colleges prepare their students for successful transitions to four-year institutions.  We expect that we will have news to share about pilot projects later this spring.

The Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case

Social trends, as well as technological ones, create challenges that we will need to confront in coming months and years.  As we seek new ways to reach more students, we are also preparing for a decision in the affirmative action case now pending before the Supreme Court.

Racial diversity is essential to Princeton’s academic and scholarly excellence, both because we need the outstanding talent that exists in every sector of society and because we value the learning that occurs when people with different experiences and backgrounds interact with one another.  To fulfill our mission, we need to ensure that we are embracing and cultivating talent from all backgrounds.

Affirmative action — more specifically, the ability to use race as one factor among others in a holistic admission process — has been an important tool in the effort to achieve the diversity that our educational and research missions require.  When California and Michigan prohibited their public colleges from considering race as one factor among many when evaluating applicants for admission, the diversity of student populations diminished as a result.

For more than a half-century, the Supreme Court has recognized the compelling value of diversity to education, and it has allowed legislators and college leaders some discretion about how best to achieve it.  That line of precedent is both sound and well-established, and I hope that the court preserves it.

The Supreme Court is likely to issue its decision sometime between April and the beginning of July.  Until then, we will not know how the law might change, or what options we might have available in coming years.

If the court imposes new restrictions upon us, we must of course comply with them — but we will also be creative and persistent in our efforts to preserve and build upon the diversity of our scholarly and educational community.  That diversity is a source of great strength to this University, and it will be essential to our future and the future of this country.

I am confident that we will be up to this challenge and to the others that confront us in this turbulent period. We have, after all, been through a lot together, especially during the three years of this pandemic.

Our community has come through it with orange colors brightly flying:  As I said at the beginning of this letter, we have much to celebrate, and we are strongly positioned to do even more.

I am grateful to all of Princeton’s faculty, students, staff, and alumni for the love, engagement, and support that you supply to this University.  I look forward to working with you to extend Princeton’s distinctive liberal arts model to confront the challenges and seize the opportunities of a technological era that is reshaping our world.

Location: This is a statewide recruitment. The incumbent will be headquartered in the region nearest to the residence of the selected candidate. We have regional offices in Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno, Los Angeles, North State/Tahoe, and San…

A forward-thinking research initiative at the University of California, Riverside, is combining sustainable technologies, workforce diversity and entrepreneurship, the city of Riverside announced.

Officials noted that while economic development and outreach are usually not associated with projects based at top-level research universities, UCR’s Opportunities to Advance Sustainability, Innovation, and Social Inclusion, or OASIS, aims to change that. 

OASIS is an alliance among public and private investors and stakeholders that hopes to propel regional economic development “through applied research, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce development around sustainability, clean technology, and social inclusion,” according to the city.

“We are moving beyond traditional research and scholarly work to engage with the community and contribute to economic development as one of only 20 R1 Hispanic-serving universities in the country,” Rodolfo Torres, UC Riverside vice chancellor of research and economic development, said in a statement.

“The combination of UCR’s impressive student success and diversity, the great research already taking place on campus, and opportunities for economic growth in the region puts us in a unique position to have a more prominent and clear impact on the Inland Empire and beyond,” Torres said.

OASIS consists of “physical infrastructure and programmatic activities,” according to the city’s announcement. The program’s first phase is to set up a clean technology park providing a base for a wide range of stakeholders who are interested in clean energy, sustainable transportation, agriculture, community health and natural resources. 

The initiative received state and federal funding for an 8-acre site on University Avenue that builds upon the city of Riverside’s planned “innovation corridor” that will stretch between downtown and the UCR campus, according to the city.  

Torres said the clean technology park is not a typical UCR development project. 

“The park will anchor research laboratories, professional educational training, offices, and community spaces,” he said.

The OASIS site “leverages the synergy and presence of the new California Air Resources Board laboratory by co-locating the Center for Environment Research & Technology (CE-CERT), UCR Extension, a startup incubator, accelerator space, and facilities for partner companies,” officials said. By attracting the presence of private-sector businesses, the park will serve as a hub for internships as well as high-paying jobs that is likely to draw a wide array of research and business talent.

“OASIS partners will create a skilled workforce to fulfill the constantly changing industry needs caused by technological and regulatory changes prioritizing underserved populations,” Torres said.

Regarding programs, OASIS is organized into six “pillars” — “agriculture technology and food security, community health and health disparity, human development, natural resource management, renewable energy and fuels, and sustainable transportation & infrastructure,” according to the city’s announcement. The pillars share common project objectives that include “sustainability, innovation, and social inclusion, coupled with UCR’s mission in education and workforce development.” 

To support these aspirations centered around the concept of innovation, the university is invessting $1.7 million in seed money available to all UCR faculty and researchers, officials said. Each OASIS pillar gets $200,000, and 20 grants of $25,000 will be distributed across all six pillars. 

“The goal is to help UCR faculty expand upon areas under the OASIS umbrella and increase their competitiveness for external funding,” according to the city’s announcement.

“This level of economic development can only happen when everybody is on board,” Torres said. “We’re very fortunate to have a shared vision and support from the City in both the planning and execution phases of OASIS.”  

Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson expressed her support for the initiative. 

“OASIS offers the opportunity to dramatically Boost the quality of life for thousands of people,” Lock Dawson said in a statement. “The OASIS ecosystem of industry, government, community and academic partners will be an unstoppable force to drive change in our region’s areas of greatest need.”

More information about OASIS is available at oasis.ucr.edu.

The post UC Riverside’s OASIS aims to turn research into economic action appeared first on Hey SoCal. Change is our intention..

Today, consumers expect and often receive a personalized experience when they shop online. As a result, elegant, user-focused design, interfaces and experiences calculated to anticipate specific and personal needs have quietly become the norm. So why doesn’t the same level of personalization and ease of use extend to interactions with state and local government?

The truth is, it can and should. Excellent customer service, digital and offline alike, can happen in government, and it will start to happen more often. By providing secure and consumer-focused interactions across state government, agencies can benefit themselves and the citizens they serve.

By putting the consumers’ expected outcomes at the core of their government interactions, state agencies can deliver a focused all-of-government experience that achieves greater efficiencies for employees and contributes to deeper trust and a more positive perception of state government among residents.

All-of-government view

For a moment, consider some of the largest, most well-known online storefronts and the goods and services they provide. Think about the personalized experience and how these sites and apps serve up relevant, personalized and practical information and recommendations. Etsy. Chewy. Apple. Amazon. The private sector has spent two decades inventing and refining processes and cues that guide consumers to navigate their options and complete their transactions quickly. Modern digital CX is remarkable—and it all starts with data.

Now, consider the data that state governments and agencies collect—from driver’s licenses to vehicle and business registrations, recreation and professional certifications as well as eligibility/enrollment records. In most states, that information is siloed within the agencies that collect it. As the video streaming, music and retail storefronts have shown, connecting those various data points can create opportunities for better, more personalized experiences—and better outcomes for people seeking services. Data is the currency of government services, and it must be secured and allowed to flow across agency services. Ultimately, creating and leveraging a complete view of the people they serve can enable state agencies to digitally deliver the correct information and services to consumers where and how they choose. 

Until recently, creating that holistic view of a resident would mean a significant investment in complex technology, carrying high costs in time and money. However, as technology has evolved, connecting and using disparate data sources has become more manageable and achievable, allowing agencies to maintain ownership of their data and protect those records with robust tools.

The all-of-government view is more than a snapshot of a single individual or agency. It’s a new, unified way of thinking across groups of residents and state agencies. It opens new possibilities for self-service delivery, content and messaging and higher rates of online customer satisfaction.

By harnessing the data that already exists and using it in a more powerful way, state agencies can begin to deliver some of what consumers expect from the private sector: best-in-class experiences that enable residents to get the most out of their government interactions.  

Technological flexibility is the foundation

Technology is a powerful enabler and conduit, connecting residents to the significant resources, information and services available from states and state agencies. Delivering an all-of-government view requires technology that is, above everything else, flexible. Technology can vary widely, even within and among state agencies. Being able to focus on the customer—identifying the customer-driven need and integrating disparate systems to deliver a seamless, powerful digital experience—is no small feat. Accomplishing this goal depends on three critical elements.

First, it’s essential to use the right tools for the job. Just as a giant hammer would not be used to drive a delicate finishing nail, deploying a technology solution that fits the challenge is crucial. The ideal platform for delivering an all-of-government experience will be modular, cloud-hosted and able to be sized and scaled as requirements and expectations grow. It must also handle a wide range of integrations without getting bogged down with custom development and complexity. And, because the all-of-government view is primarily about using data from various places, technology should be architected to readily ingest that information and output the right experience to residents—where and how they choose. 

Second, having a partner with the right mix of digital expertise can make or break a complex all-of-government project. Experience with platform development, integration and installation is critical. However, so too are capabilities in digital experience design, process design, usability and accessibility as well as content creation and messaging. Successfully delivering an all-of-government view means getting the most out of the technology in ways that are meaningful and useful to residents—because that’s how agencies support their mission. That level of intentional focus on the experience will ultimately determine the project’s success.  

Lastly, security must be at the forefront of everything agencies do in the digital world, from securing data against bad actors to providing individuals with control over how their data is used. By enabling residents to set and monitor their privacy controls, states can foster trust, and people can remain confident that the state is safeguarding their personal information.

Reimagining the government experience

Fulfilling the mission to serve the public requires creatively reimagining how government can be delivered to people. Infrastructure, systems of record and middleware layers are all critical to success, but the impact is truly felt when the entire citizen journey meets—or even exceeds—expectations. 

Whether through mobile-responsive websites, apps, human-like chatbots or other digital touchpoints, the experience should be personalized and curated to the individual. The result is a unique approach designed to help governments and agencies deliver effortless, productive interactions. 

Ultimately, it’s those seamless interactions that will drive satisfaction and trust and create an environment where all-of-government ambitions can be realized.

Robert Knapp is senior vice president, Digital Government Solutions, U.S. Services, Maximus.

Costa Mesa, CA, Feb. 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Costa Mesa, CA – Hexagon Agility, a world-leading provider of renewable and compressed natural gas (RNG/CNG) transportation solutions, announced today that Trayecto, the largest cargo trucking company in Mexico, has ordered additional KenMex compressed natural gas (CNG) powered trucks with Hexagon Agility’s best-in-class ProCab^® 175 diesel gallon equivalent (DGE) and ProRail^® 30 DGE fuel systems.

Transportation is responsible for almost 20% of annual CO2 emissions globally.  Reduction in fleet emissions is urgent. Hexagon Agility’s best-in-class ProCab 175 and ProRail 30 CNG fuel systems with integrated Blue iQ^® provide a driving range on par with counterpart diesel trucks, enabling Trayecto to utilize CNG, and obtain its environmental benefits, without sacrificing performance. With more than 70,000 vehicles on the road globally and over 30 years of experience, our priority has always been and remains to develop and deliver world class solutions that meet today’s day and sleeper cab operational needs.

“We are dedicated to helping our customers make the transition to clean fuels, ensuring reliability and cost savings in mission-critical fleet operations,” said Eric Bippus, Hexagon Agility’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. “Grupo Transportes Monterrey is a long-time customer of ours and we are excited to continue our partnership with Trayecto as they leverage the benefits of CNG to Boost the sustainability of their fleet operations.”

Prior to this order, Trayecto had been operating over 300 CNG tractors in its fleet of 4,000 trucks throughout Latin America. Trayecto was recently formed when Alianza Trayecto, Grupo Larmex and Grupo Transportes Monterrey merged to further strategic collaboration in the transport sector. Today, ten percent of its fleet runs on CNG with commitment to further replace diesel tractors with new CNG tractors equipped with Hexagon Agility’s fuel systems.

“Our goal is to address the challenge of decarbonization and implement technologies like natural gas where it makes sense,” said Jorge Casares, CEO of Trayecto. “Hexagon Agility has been instrumental over the last decade helping Grupo Transportes Monterrey transition diesel trucks to reduce our carbon footprint with natural gas. We value our partnership and look forward to many years of delivering safe and reliable transportation throughout Latin America.”

About Trayecto

Trayecto is the biggest freight transportation company in Mexico. With more than 4,000 trucks, more than 10,000 trailers and more than 4,000 professional drivers, is a company with a high sense of safety, security and environmental care. Trayecto provides the most complete portfolio of transportation services in Mexico, including regular and specialized cargo in Mexico, USA and Canada, transporting different types of cargo, as: domestic, food grade, hazmat, gases, chemicals, beverages, intermodal (last mile and ports), controlled temperature and vehicles.

About Hexagon Agility

Hexagon Agility, a business of Hexagon Composites, is a leading global provider of clean fuel solutions for commercial vehicles and gas transportation solutions. Its product offerings include (renewable) natural gas storage and distribution systems, Type 4 composite natural gas cylinders, propane, and (renewable) natural gas fuel systems. These products transport clean gaseous fuels and enable vehicles to reduce emissions while saving operating costs. Learn more at hexagonagility.com and follow @HexagonAgility on Twitter and LinkedIn.

For more information:

Jelena Rowe, Senior Manager, Marketing and Communications

Telephone: +1 310 872 0535 │ jelena.rowe@hexagonagility.com

CONTACT: Jelena Rowe Hexagon Agility 3108720535 jelena.rowe@hexagonagility.com

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Minew and InPlay Partner to Launch Game-Changing $1 Bluetooth® LE Tag Products, Revolutionizing IoT Industry

Feb 01, 2023 (PRNewswire via COMTEX) -- PR Newswire

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 1, 2023

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Leaders

NIGERIA PRESIDENT, AFREXIMBANK Prof. Benedict Okey Oramah

Missionary zeal for African prosperity

If there’s one person who’s literally changing the African narrative it’s Professor Benedict Okey Oramah. The President and Chairman of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) brings a missionary zeal to his job. After spending almost his entire career at the trade development bank, he took over in 2015 as the head honcho, having been number two since 2008.

Almost immediately, he set out to revitalise the bank, re-committing to its founding mission and asserting itself more muscularly in the continent and beyond.

It is said that in private he admitted that he could understand why, at the time, Trump had called Haiti and Africa ‘those s***hole countries’ and that he was resolute to make him eat his words.

Convinced that the low levels of trade between African countries is at the root of the continent’s perennial underdevelopment, Professor Oramah has thrown himself at the challenge, backing the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement Systems (PAPSS), two interventions that are aimed squarely at this objective. More so, the bank is now the de-facto go-to institution for a wide range of issues when it comes to Africa, and on more than just banking.

The bank itself is growing, it’s proactive in tackling market failures and it’s increasingly taking on the role as Africa’s voice in the global arena.

More recently, readers will have noted its relentless advocacy for a fairer system. Oramah’s support of African initiatives should not be understated. He was instrumental in the launch of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility of a home-grown repo market to the continent.

And he’s not done. The bank has also committed itself to supporting an African Central Bank, a continental stock exchange and an African Monetary Bank. He may have already made his mark but he is clearly not on course for true transformation.

These are some of the reasons his country awarded him, in October, the title of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). If there had to be one, he’d be Africa’s Person of the Year.

Oramah may have already made his mark revitalising Afreximbank, but he is clearly not finished re-defining the African financial system.

SENEGAL MINISTER OF ECONOMY

Oulimata Sarr

Juggling growth with equality

Oulimata Sarr, Senegal’s Minister of the Economy, Planning and Cooperation, is and a staunch advocate for women. Dogged, determined and devoted; caring, charismatic and thoughtful (or courageous, if you want the three c’s). Sarr embraces the best of Africa, an ubuntu spirit coupled with a strategic mindset and a focus on execution and results. Her career began at Ernst and Young in Senegal before she joined the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and later the United Nations, where she was appointed the Women Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

While Senegal is among the fastest- growing African economies, it still faces those headwinds that other countries in its class are confronting. Growth is predicted to slow this year, although it

May pick up next year and inflation could rise to 3.2%.

Her appointment itself came in the wake of some turmoil. President Macky Sall’s party had lost its parliamentary majority and her predecessor had been appointed Prime Minister, opening a path for her to the job.

Sarr will have to signal confidence that the government has a plan to keep growth going, while balancing that with her long-held ambition to chart a path for women in business. As Minister of the Economy, she now has of equal opportunities and sustainable growth that centres women and girls’ roles in the economy, which will be another parameter on which her tenure will be judged.

SENEGAL PRESIDENT

Macky Sall

Preaching reform from AU chair

President Macky Sall has been in the political establishment for decades, serving variously as mayor of Fatick, Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly before his election to the Presidency in 2012. In spite of this, he still manages to evince an aura of freshness that has endeared him to his people and earned him the respect of his peers.

It may have something to do with the fact that to win in 2012, he had to forge a new alliance that allowed him to overcome a tough incumbent in a two- round contest. His governing approach has been anchored on the reform of political institutions, including the Presidency itself, culminating in the referendum of 2016, which procured a resounding approval of his proposals.

the African Union, giving him another pulpit from which to preach reform, and political system. His tenure has also coincided with a time of intense geopolitical and economic tensions, which he has not been shy to engage with.

Whether it’s a just energy transition, taking on the credit ratings agencies or calling for a reset of the global architecture, he has been Africa’s Advocate-in-Chief on the global stage and within the continent.

Back home, he faces gathering disquiet over his ambivalence about seeking a third term in direct contravention of his own reforms, which could be what brings him down to earth and endangers his legacy.

KENYA PRESIDENT

William Arap Ruto

The hustler statesman

President William Ruto’s victory in the August 2022 elections was significant in more ways than one – and not just for Kenya. He had been Vice-President for two terms when Uhuru Kenyatta was the national leader but during the second term, Kenyatta sidelined Ruto in favour of the veteran Raila Odinga, signalling an end to the decades-old rivalry between two of the country’s most powerful clans.

Raila, like his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, seemed to be in permanent opposition having failed to win the national election on five occasions and on each failure, had challenged the election results. This had led to mass violence in 2007 and to a lesser extent following the 2017 elections.

The handshake between Kenyatta and Odinga in 2018 indicated that the pattern of ethnic-based power struggles may have been coming to an end.

Given the endorsement from Kenyatta and strong support from his own region in Western Kenya and the Coast, it seemed likely that Raila would win over Ruto, who relied on the central provinces and his ‘hustler’ philosophy (he was a self-made millionaire, starting by selling a few chickens).

But Raila, it later transpired,had lost the confidence of the ordinary folk, who saw him favouring the wealthy and well-connected. His campaigning was full of rhetoric against Ruto’s limited but concrete policies.

Ruto promised to build the economy from the ground up, handing the advantage to the millions of Kenyans who make their living in the non-formal sector, and to facilitate an entrepreneurial boom to create enough jobs to absorb the bulk of the 800,000 Kenyans who enter the job market every year.

A challenging call in ordinary times but one that will stretch any government in the current challenging global environment. But Ruto has never lacked self- Overcoming his own humble beginnings to become one of the richest people in

The country reputedly ,might be an inspiring story It will now be seen if his magic touch can do it for a whole country

SOUTH AFRICA SG, AFCFTA

Wamkele Mene

Running the AfCFTA juggernaut

Few people get the once-in-a-lifetime sling-shot opportunity that H.E. Wamkele Mene has been handed. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), to observers of the continent, is possibly the greatest opportunity it has had to transform its economy through robust internal trade, value addition and increased investment.

Getting a trade deal of any size is usually a taxing affair getting one of such magnitude and complexity, upon which so much rests, would surely result in the odd sleepless night.

But if Mene is sweating, he’s certainly not showing it. A lawyer by training, he had been, variously, South Africa’s chief AfCFTA negotiator, chief director at the Department for Trade and the country’s representative to the World

Trade Organisation. Since his election at a session of Heads of State in February 2020, he has worked assiduously to get the continent ready and brokered the strategic alliances that will be crucial to its success.

Analysts believe that unlocking trade between Africa’s 1.2bn people could have a tremendous impact on lives and livelihoods on the continent. Should he succeed in getting that ball rolling, Mene would have earned his place among the continent’s historical greats.

NIGERIA

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

Peter Obi

Unsettling the balance of power

‘Peter Obi’s Presidential campaign has electrified young people especially, offering a different leadership focused on the problems of the people.’

Since the return to constitutional rule in 1999, power in Nigeria has alternated between the People’s Democratic

Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the two major parties in the country. The emergence of Peter Obi, candidate for the Labour Party (LP), as a strong contender in the next Presidential elections in 2023, threatens to upend this balance of power.

Obi, famous for carrying his own bags in a country where rank and deference to it place many of its elites above the simple mechanics of human life, was previously the governor of Anambra state where he left a budget surplus on his exit.

In 2019, he was invited by former President Atiku Abubakar to join him as Running Mate in his ultimately unsuccessful run for President. After the PDP, he resigned his membership and ran for the leadership of the Labour Party instead.

functional leadership focused on the problems of the people. Obi may yet fail to overcome the famously formidable Nigerian political establishment but his campaign has demonstrated what is possible and may feed the latent desire in Africa’s most populous nation for a different kind of leadership

ZAMBIA USAID

Monde Muyangwa

Recalibrating US- Africa relations

Dr Monde Muyangwa’s appointment as USAID’s Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Africa comes at a time when geopolitical shifts are triggering new alliances and partnerships around the world.

Her career, however, reads like a preparatory script for just this role. Between 2002 and 2013, she was the Academic Dean of the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. She then joined the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, where she served as Director of the Africa Program.

Clearly she has spent a lot of time thinking and researching the relationship between the US and Africa. Such insight will be critical in the new role, which will involve deciding and administering US programmes on the continent. She will have to grapple with the recalibration of American expectations of the relationship, while also ensuring that African interests and issues are not lost among the myriad issues that require the attention of the world’s remaining superpower, even as that superpower itself contemplates its own future global role.

ZAMBIA PRESIDENT

Hakainde Hichilema

Slaying the corruption dragon

Following his election in August 2021, President Hakainde Hichilema confronted a daunting to-do list.

The country had become the first to default on its debt in the pandemic era, corruption was rife and its public finance wewe in an unhealthy state.

A distress call was placed to the IMF and following months of negotiation,a staff- level agreement was reached in December last year. In August this year, Zambia received $1.3bn from the fund, shoring up its reserves and helping it along with its climb to macroeconomic stability.

President Hichilema, recognizing that it is only structural change that can sustain any momentum, has embarked on some reforms. Corruption, which has hobbled the country’s finance has been one of his key areas of focus.

In possibly a global first the government has chosen to apply a ‘jail as a last resort’ approach for some offenders, with no prosecution in exchange for the return of stolen funds to the state through asset forfeiture. Prosecution is still the state’s choice

of action in some cases. The policy has received mixed reviews and it remains to be seen how successful it will be. Also to be determined is the long term effect of his attempts to reorder public expenditure, which have led to some pain and

public dissatisfaction.

Dr Muyangwa’s insight will be crucial in her new role, which will involve deciding and administering US programmes in Africa.

NIGERIA PRESIDENT, AFDB Akinwumi Adesina Setting the record straight

Dr Akinwumi Adesina was the Minister of Agriculture in his native Nigeria before he became the head of the African Development Bank (AfDB),

Aside from steering the AfDB’s response on food security in the wake of the Ukraine war, Adesina has led the charge in terms of climate finance.

EGYPT CLIMATE CHANGE

Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin

Championed ‘loss and damage’ fund

Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin is the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt, as well as the UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. He was previously the World Bank Group’s Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda, UN Relations, and Partnerships.

This places him at the centre of the important conversations that are dominating the world and will determine the shape of the future. As climate change accelerates around the world, with extreme weather events already placing millions of lives at risk, his dual roles will come into even sharper focus.

COP27 was an opportunity to face some hard truths and make some most strategic thinkers and the most talented technocrat of his generation, Dr Mohieldin played an instrumental role leading up to COP27, not just for Egypt but across the world, helping structure the global climate agenda, and at the end of the conference, was able to tout some success on the agreement to set up a fund for the ‘loss and damage’ caused to poor countries due to climate change.

But enforcing the deal and making sure that the promises made are delivered on, will be the true test of success.

GHANA VICE PRESIDENT

Mahamudu Bawumia

Unleashing tech for development

CAMEROON ECONOMIST

Vera Songwe

Still focused on delivery

SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENT

Julius Maada Bio

Elevating education to top priority

NIGERIA AU SPECIAL ENVOY

Olusegun Obasanjo

Still on the front line

Entrepreneurs

MALI ENTREPRENEUR

Samba Bathily

Mr. Can Do

NIGERIA TECH ENTREPRENEUR

Olugbenga Agboola

Riding out the storms

NIGERIA

CEO, ACCESS CORPORATION

Herbert Wigwe

Colossus of African finance

GHANA

FOUNDER, MPHARMA

Gregory Rockson Dr Feelgood

In 2013, Ghanaian Gregory Rockson founded mPharma to provide a monitoring system that would connect patients, hospitals and pharmacies, assuring patients of reliable access to authentic drugs.

Less than a decade later, the company caters to more than 100,000 patients every month, and it looks like it’s only getting started. Supported by receptive investor sentiments – it raised $35m in January 2022 – the company has embarked on an ambitious expansion drive.

The latest acquisition of a majority stake in Nigeria’s HealthPlus mirrors similar forays into Uganda, where it bought 55% of Vine Pharmacy, and Kenya where it acquired Haltons Pharmacy. This to Rockson’s leadership and his missionary zeal to provide quality care to African patients where they are.

The company is now present in Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Gabon, Rwanda, Malawi and Ethiopia. Gregory’s stated intention of making Africa healthier might seem overly broad but his commitment is evident. And, as a partnership with the Gabonese Strategic Investment Fund which saved the government 30% in drug procurement costs shows,

he can be just as good for a country’s fiscal health

NIGERIA TECH ENTREPRENEUR

Tosin Eniolorunda

Ruling agency banking in Nigeria

In 2015, Tosin Eniolorunda, following a six-year stint as a product manager and software architect at Interswitch, set up TeamApt to provide Digital Banking, Digital Business solutions and Payments Infrastructure for users and businesses, taking advantage of a growing appetite for cashless transactions gripping the continent.

Less than a decade later, the company is said to be the largest provider of agency banking in Nigeria. Its services are used by more than 14m Nigerians every month and 400,000 businesses in the country rely on it to process transactions on a daily basis.

All told, $100bn worth of transactions are processed by the company every year over its two products – Moniepoint and Monnify – bringing in, according to the company, some $200m in revenue every year. And investors still see space for growth.

This year, TeamApt was the beneficiary of a $50m investment by QED, one of the largest venture capital funds in the world.

Investor confidence will be a welcome boon going forward, as Tosin continues to supply free rein to his ambition and continues to pursue audacious goals in a fast- developing market.

A decade since start- up, Tosin’s TeamApt is leading agency banking in Nigeria, processing $100bn of transactions per year.

COTE D’IVOIRE INVESTOR

Laureen Kouassi-Olsson

Scaling African luxury

ETHIOPIA IMF

Abebe Selassie

Keeping cool in the eye of a perfect storm

Selassie’s role involves leading interventions to literally save lives that are at risk from poverty, disease and climate risks.

NIGERIA ENTREPRENEUR

Femi Otedola

Business mogul with wide appeal

ZIMBABWE FOUNDER, CASSAVA TECH

Strive Masiyiwa

Rewiring African development

Strive Masiyiwa made his fortune providing access to mobile phone services to people in his native Zimbabwe. Born in a poor township, he moved to the UK where he obtained his education, before returning to Africa with an engineer’s training and an entrepreneur’s ambition and grit.

Strive would overcome the stumbling blocks placed in his way to launch his service, a stunning achievement in and of itself. His business grew to become one of the biggest in the region and cemented his place as one of the master spirits of the technology revolution, whose legacy is a continent that is steadily bridging the digital divide.

His investments have since catapulted him into the top echelon of global capitalists; he is credited with being include Liquid Intelligent Technologies – a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies

- which recently announced plans to invest $19.7m to deliver a Software attempt it.

Strive founded Cassava Technologies, headquartered in London, last year. It is Africa’s first integrated tech players of continental scale, with operations and activities in most African countries. Its product segments provide digital solutions to over 1m enterprises and enable access to the internet for over 500m people. Its Sasai Super App is services for over 75m customers across Africa by 2025.

At only 61 and on the board of Netflix and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , he clearly retains the drive to make a significant impact on Africa’s ICT growth trajectory and there is no reason to believe he won’t.

MOROCCO CEO, OCP

Mostafa Terrab

Fertilizer baron to the rescue

The Ukraine war has brought into sharp focus the critical role fertilizers play and perhaps even more importantly, the need to diversify sources, which are overly concentrated in Russia and its neighbours. As sanctions from the war impacted fertilizer exports from the region, the supply shortages sent prices rocketing. In Morocco, the state-owned took note.

Long a global player, the phosphate fertilizer-maker had already seen an era of transformational growth under Mostafa Terrab, its CEO and Chairman. Following turns as an advisor to the Moroccan cabinet, SG of the Middle East/North Africa Economic Summit, and DG of the Moroccan Telecommunications Regulatory Agency, Terrab went to OCP with a zeal to transform, which was manifested in increased production and profits.

Under his leadership, OCP has ably taken advantage of the global supply chain issues, seeing exports for its fertilizers rise by 77% for Q2 in 2022 against the same period last year.

Yet amidst the market constraints, OCP has committed to helping African governments tackle food security challenges, through its OCP Africa subsidy. The company gave multiple fertilizer donations to African countries in 2022, including Rwanda and Kenya, providing farmers with free and discounted fertilizers.

And in its most recently announced measure, the company will supply a remarkable 4m tonnes of fertilizers for African farmers in 2023, more than double its supply to the continent in 2021. The new programme seeks to boost yields for 44m farmers across 35 African countries.

With the essential fertilizers in such short supply, Africa is grateful to Terrab for his decision to ensure that the continent’s food security is a high priority.

SOUTH AFRICA FUND MANAGER

Lindeka Dzedze

Leading drive for FemFunds

Lindeka Dzedze career in financial services has been about transformation as much as it has been about excellence. Her record can be mapped through her rapid rise across stints at JP Morgan Securities, Andisa Securities and Credit Suisse Standard Securities before she finally joined standard bank where she is now Global Markets Head of Institutional Clients.

Perhaps, however, it is her role as chairperson of the African Women Impact Fund Executive Committee, an initiative of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and Standard Bank itself that will enable her to make the most transformational impact.

The Fund is intended to generate a billion dollars of investment and direct it into women-led funds in Africa. This will help correct the gender imbalance in fund management, where less than 1.3% of the $69.1trn assets under management go to women’s or women-led management.

The Fund has already attracted support and in September this year, announced the achievement of its first $60m.

The vision is that these funds will be channelled into high- impact projects across the continent, especially those led by woman a significant attempt not only to alter the economic structure of the continent, but women’s role in it.

NIGERIA CEO, AFC

Samaila Zubairu

The solutions champion

Samaila Zubairu has emerged as one of the leading voices shaping the discourse on Africa’s economic future. From his position as President and CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), he also has considerable clout when it comes to making the decisions that will determine that future.

It is fortunate then that he has a record of delivery in some of the continent’s toughest berths. As CFO of Dangote, he oversaw the largest Africa and the company’s unbundling into separate listed entities on the Nigerian bourse.

On his way to AFC, he led the establishment of a joint venture between Old Mutual and Africapital Management Limited, where he was the CEO, to develop the Nigerian Infrastructure Fund 1 to back investments across the sub-region.

Since 2018 when he took over at the AFC, Samaila has refocused the entity the transformation of African industry.

Arguably Zubairu’s most important intervention is to show how Africa is the solution to the world’s problems, clearly laying out his thesis around climate change, energy and reliable supply chains. He has been one of the biggest proponents of a fair energy transition and has really created a momentum around that, aside from in his day-to-day job. It’s been instrumental in how others are behind this cause.

Under his leadership, AFC has played a key role in financing critical infrastructure and the transformation of African industry.

NIGERIA LAWYER

Chinelo Anohu

Rooting for women entrepreneurs

Chinelo Anohu is the right person in the right job at the right time. A lawyer by training, she earned her stripes when she led the transformation of the National Pensions Commission in Nigeria, and her current position at the Africa Investment Forum where she is the Senior Director places her in the eye of the tempest. The Africa Investment Forum is Africa’s investment marketplace, championed by the African Development Bank.

The global economic situation is a disincentive to investment in emerging markets and international capital is already deserting the continent. Nevertheless, Anohu has been focused on her task and has managed to eke out some important wins.

The Forum itself is attracting more interest, attention and partnerships.

It also means that she can support women entrepreneurs, about whom she is extremely passionate. Women-led investments are going to be extremely important to the recovery, especially in Africa and Anohu’s role and decisions will gain even greater significance

When the whole world has been retreating to their home markets, Anohu has often appeared as one of the sole flag bearers making the case for Africa to international investors. Her work is starting to yield results. She is raising the stakes, knowing that the platform she leads is critical to unlocking the problems, at government or other levels, that are holding back projects and investments.

She was recently invited onto the advisory committee of the US Exim Bank, an important player that supports investment from US corporates.

ZIMBABWE GOOGLE

James Manyika

Giving Google’s AI a human face

After nearly three decades at McKinsey, 20 years of which were spent at the McKinsey Global Institute, where he was appointed director in 2009, James Manyika joined Google in January this year as senior vice-president for technology and society.

A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe where he got a degree in electrical engineering, and the University of Oxford, where he got two masters and a PhD, he has long been known for his research work in innovation. In 2011, President Barack Obama appointed him to serve on the Digital Economy Board and the National Innovation Board.

In his new role, which straddles philanthropic and operational functions, James will have to grapple with the appointment comes at a critical time, when the acceleration of innovation is drawing some disquiet about the potential harms that could arise from it.

He will have to bring his wide breadth of experience to bear on this critical role, which could shape how humans interact with increasingly powerful machines and with one another.

Fortunately he has the ability – and Google the resources – to take on this task, as demonstrated by a $25m sustainable development, which he has already launched.

CÔTE D’IVOIRE BANKER, INVESTOR

Tidjane Thiam

Ready for the next spring forward?

Tidjane Thiam’s exit from Credit Suisse, where he was the first Black CEO, may have seemed like a career that had seemed almost magical up to that point having a fatal confrontation with reality. Before that moment, he had distinguished himself at Aviva where he held various positions, and at Black person to be named Group Chief Executive.

At Credit Suisse, he had launched a transformational drive that was well received by the markets. The term however came to a controversial end when he abruptly quit following a confrontation with a former colleague.

He fell on his feet, with many organisations across various sectors calling for his help. He sits on the board of some of the world’s biggest blue chip companies, such as Kering, the luxury goods group that owns Gucci. He also rubs shoulders with the world’s movers and shakers, from philanthropist Bill Gates to power brokers in Silicon Valley. It was natural, however, that he would eventually start his own investment company, Freedom Acquisition Corp.

He also advises several leaders, including Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, who named him Chairman of the board of Rwanda Finance Limited.

In latest times Thiam, who left Côte d’Ivoire after the 1999 military coup toppled the government of which he had been a member, has been teasing a return back to his homeland. While he has remained coy as to his intentions, observers will be watching closely to see where the next chapter takes him.

ETHIOPIA PRESIDENT, CEO, TD BANK

Admassu Tadesse

Changing the rules of investment

Admassu Tadesse’s stewardship of the Trade and Development Bank (TDB), formerly known as PTA bank, has seen it rise to become one of the top investment banks in the continent. The bank services Eastern and Southern Africa and is the the Common Market for Eastern and Southern

Africa (COMESA).

Steady ratings upgrades have allowed it to build its muscle and place it in a position where it can finance transformational infrastructure, which will be critical for the continent’s ability to build resilience to climate change. The bank’s membership now include 22 states, 19 of which are COMESA members.

Prior to joining the bank, Tadesse worked as an advisor, analyst and specialist with various international funds and organisations in New York, before becoming Executive Vice- President at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

His strategy has been to build partnership with other financial institutions, notably the African Development Bank, which has been a firm supporter

This year, the bank welcomed an $8m investment from Agaciro Development Fund (AgDF), Rwanda’s sovereign wealth fund, adding it to the list of its institutional investors, which include the People’s Bank of China, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and several pension funds around Africa. These small but important steps are changing the investment landscape. With this growing clout, Tadesse and the bank will continue to have a significant impact on the continental economy.

MADAGASCAR CEO, AXIAN GROUP

Hassanein Hiridjee

African CEO of the Year

Axian began life as the owner of a small oil mill in the 1920s. Three generations later, still controlled by the Hiridjee family that first built it, the company is a $1.6bn revenue- generating juggernaut with interests in real estate, telecommunications, financial services energy and fintech.

Hassanein Hiridjee, the French- Malagasy scion currently at the helm, has supercharged the company’s ambition and is determined to future- proof it in the face of current and impending disruptions.

Keenly focused on climate change and its impact, Hiridjee has boosted the company’s muscle in renewables. It is now the leader in solar in Madagascar, and through its involvement in the ‘WeLight’ programme, a joint venture with developmental partners Sagemcom and Norfund, is bringing energy to small, remote communities in the country.

Hiridjee’s leadership provides a model of how a company can remain rooted in its history and yet be well-prepared for an uncertain future. He was named CEO of the Year at the Africa CEO Forum in June this year.

TUNISIA TECH ENTREPRENEUR

Karim Beguir

The artificial intelligence czar

When Insta Deep raised $100m in a second record fundraising round of $100m in January 2022 on the back of a $1bn valuation, it was a vindication of Karim Beguir, a serial entrepreneur with an unrelenting spirit.

Beguir, educated at the most revered engineering school in France, left investment banking in London to start his career as an entrepreneur. After trying his hand at a number of ventures, he launched Insta Deep. He has all the attributes of an entrepreneur – the desire to solve problems, a can-do spirit and boundless energy.

He’ll admit that key to Insta Deep’s success is Zohra Slim, his chief Web officer and Co – founder.

Today they have offices in Tunis,London, Lagos, Dubai and more recently in the Bay area of California. Insta Deep has had a strong run since 2020 when it posted profits of nearly €42,000 from a turnover of €2m, but the numbers on the paper were probably just as compelling as the client roster for a company that is barely eight years old.

Insta Deep ‘s artificial intelligence solutions are used by Google and in the wake of the pandemic, the company partnered with BioNTech to develop an intelligent system capable of rapidly detecting the variants of the coronavirus that emerged in waves.

The governments of Luxembourg, Germany and the United Arab Emirates are also clients. All of this positions Insta Deep – twice named by CB Insights as one of the most promising start-ups in the world, Karim Beguir, well for a future in which AI will play an outsized role.

ALGERIA FOUNDER, YASSIR

Noureddine Tayebi

Transforming Africa’s tech scene with a Silicon Valley mindset

Tayebi is the founder of Yassir, a super-app offering on demand services based on transportation - including ride- hailing and last-mile delivery - which became the most valuable start-up in North Africa after raising $150m in Series B funding in November. In the last five years , Yassir has pulled in around $193m from funds based in Silicon Valley, a place which Tayebi is rather familiar with.

Born in the Mediterranean coastal city of Algiers, he started his professional career in California in the 2000s after graduating from Stanford. For several years, the computer whizz worked as a research engineer and team lead for the US multinational Intel.

Tayebi rapidly embraced California’s entrepreneurial scene and launched his first company , In Sense , based on two of the 23 patents he filed while working as a researcher. In 2017, driven by the desire to contribute to his home region’s economic and technological development, he founded Yassir – which translates as “making things easier”.

Today, Yassir is the market leader in the Maghreb, with 85% of market share, and has been downloaded 3m times. The company operates in six countries come from the continent, a stat which Tayebi is particularly proud of.

He is now on a mission to expand the business both regionally and in terms of services, opening up to e-commerce management for professionals (Yassir Business) and establishing relations between small traders and large-scale distribution chains to manage orders (Yassir Express). Arguably, Yassir’s story is only just beginning.

SOUTH AFRICA ENTREPRENEUR

Elon Musk

The gadfly

NIGERIA TECH ENTREPRENEUR

Dozy Mmobuosi

Tycoon with the common touch

Dozy Mmobuosi is a highly respected tech entrepreneur working for economic and social upliftment in Africa through the application of appropriate technology.

Mmobuosi co-founded Tingo Mobile as a ringtones supplier in 2001. Its parent company, Tingo Inc, a leading technology and device-as-a-service platform, now has revenues reported at around $1bn and has been considering launching an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

In December 2021, he launched the Dozy Mmobuosi Foundation to address healthcare challenges in Nigeria and quality education to poorer Nigerians.

In June the Foundation announced it was setting up a $10m initiative to provide free prostate cancer screening across Nigeria, with the pilot in Lagos. Mmobuosi revealed that he had nearly lost his own father to the disease.

Mmobuosi is also launching the Dozy Mmobuosi Super Cup, a competition with N100m ($225,377) in prize money, which will take place before the start of Nigeria’s regular football season and is aimed at boosting the professional game in the country. There is talk that he is looking to investing in a team in a European football league.

Mmobuosi, who holds a doctorate in rural advancement from the Universiti Putra Malaysia, is determined to nurture more African entrepreneurial talent and leadership skills through his foundation’s scholarship and sponsored programmes at leading African universities.

Changemakers

KENYA ENVIRONMENTALIST

Wanjira Mathai

Carrying the green torch

Wanjira Mathai has been following in the footsteps of her illustrious mother, Wangari Maathai, who, in 2004, became Nobel Peace Prize for her work in preventing deforestation.

Wanjira recalls that with her mother leading the Green Belt Movement, her family planted trees at any excuse – their house was recognisable because of the amount of trees in and around it.

But her mother’s opposition to the cutting down of forests pitted her against the political and business elite of the day in Kenya and she was constantly harassed and, on one occasion, badly beaten.

Wanjira wondered whether all that pain was worth it and was not eager to join the movement. She studied in the US and worked there before returning home. She was about to leave Kenya when her mother won the Nobel Prize and all those years of pain were forgotten. She joined her mother as they travelled and lectured all over the world and met kindred spirits like King (then Prince) Charles of the UK.

Since then, Wanjira has put her heart and soul into fighting climate change and preventing deforestation. She is currently Managing Director, Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resource Institute; a Leadership Council member of the Clean Europe Foundation.

But she says she feels frustrated at the slow pace with which the world’s leaders, especially in the rich North, are going a bout trying to fix the climate .

“The Congo forest is the only true carbon sink of all the tropical forests in the world. We have to move fast, because our lives depend on the forest,” she says.

Given the rate of deforestation, time is of the essence and Wanjira will not stop agitating as vigorously as her mother before her for people to do the right thing.

SOUTH AFRICA CLIMATE CHANGE

Daniel Mminele

Leading transition to clean energy

GHANA IMMUNOLOGIST

Yaw Bediako

Tailoring vaccines specifically for Africa

Ghanaian Dr Yaw Bediako investigates the immune functions in order to gain important insights on how vaccines can be created more optimally to work for African populations for infectious and non-infectious diseases.

He is a researcher at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens in Ghana and the Founder and CEO of Yemaachi Biotech. Bediako is a fellow of the Ghana Young Academy fellow for the Crick Africa Network, as African Academy of Sciences.

Although Africa has the highest number of infectious diseases, there is little capacity for vaccine development, so vaccines are tested on Caucasians in high-income countries, which may on Africans.

Bediako’s research and studies are devoted to building the capacity for vaccine development in Africa. His current work plans include using data, cellular and molecular analysis to investigate if the responses to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine populations.

He successfully created and launched the first national SARS-CoV-2 variant tracker in Africa. With Bediako’s help, hopefully the situation where Africa lagged behind the rest of the world in its access to vaccinations during the pandemic may become a thing of the past, once there is the capacity to develop vaccinations on the continent Africans.

KENYA AGRICULTURALIST

Amandla Ooko-Ombaka

Transforming African agriculture

Rather than choose between studying to serve the public or private sector, Amandla Ooko-Ombaka chose both. She graduated with a double degree from Harvard University – an MBA and an MPA in International Development.

With her ‘heart in the public sector and her mind in the private sector’, she is perfectly positioned as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company to work with private companies and governments across the continent to develop the agricultural sector in their countries.

Recognising that women play a large role in the chain of bringing food from farm to market, she believes that women should have access to funding and safety in the process.

Ooko-Ombaka is multifaceted – she co-authored McKinsey’s series on the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in Africa, has appeared in various media – such as Business Daily, Africa.com and the BBC – and regularly moderates at high- level continental events on agricultural development, including the Tana Forum and African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF).

Before investing the last seven years at McKinsey, she was an economics lecturer at Strathmore University and served as strategy adviser to several global companies, governments and start-ups, including: the Kerry Group, the Government of Rwanda, GenPact, and the African Leadership Network. Amandla is a member of the Leadership Council at Harvard University’s Center for African Studies.

DRC LAWYER AND RESEARCHER

Jean Pierre Okenda

Resources watchdog

KENYA SCIENTIST

Rose M. Mutiso

Restoring the equilibrium

Dr Rose M. Mutiso dreamed of the opportunity to study materials science and engineering, which she was able

taxpayer-funded research. She is currently the Research Director of the Energy for Growth Hub, as well as Co-founder and CEO of the Mawazo Institute in Nairobi, which helps support the next generation of female scholars and thought leaders in East Africa to research developmental solutions.

Mawazo seeks to reverse the underrepresentation of women in academia and research. Through it, Mutiso aims to see more African women involved in shaping decision-making and public discourse on issues such as energy poverty.

Prior to her current position, she was senior Fellow in the Office of International Climate and Clean Energy at the US Department of Energy (DOE). Here she led the DOE’s engagement on technology and energy access in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Previously, as an Energy and Innovation Policy Fellow in the Coons, she authored several pieces of legislation that were signed into law by President Barack Obama.

She has spoken on the energy Africa needs to develop and Adept at communications, Mutiso also co-hosts The high energy planet podcast, which addresses energy poverty.

Mutiso’s Mawazo Institute helps support female scholars and thought leaders. Through it, she hopes to see more African women involved in shaping decision- making and public discourse.

ZIMBABWE VIROLOGIST

Sikhulile Moyo

Discovered the Omicron Covid variant

Born in Zimababwe and based in Botswana, Dr Sikhulile Moyo is a virologist who, working with his team, existence of the coronavirus’ Omicron variant in November 2021.

Moyo is the Director of the Botswana Harvard Aids Institute Partnership (BHP), a lab and research associate at Harvard School of Public Health of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and a member of Botswana’s Presidential Covid-19 Task Force team.

In November 2021 he noticed an unusual pattern in the Covid-19 samples which he shared with South African colleagues, who observed the same sequence and helped to identify the variant. His other contributions include studies on mother-to- child HIV transmission prevention, HIV- exposed infants, monitoring HIV mutations associated with drug resistance, and studies on other infectious diseases, such as hepatitis, human papillomavirus (HPV), TB and norovirus.

Moyo has written over 150 published journal articles. This year he was included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most World.

‘I think our policymakers have realised the importance of science, of research. Covid has made us realise that we need to invest in our healthcare systems.’

UGANDA EDUCATOR

Odong Charles Kigundi

Top teacher

Odong Charles Kigundi’s school, Wakadogo Primary School in Northern Uganda, made international headlines in October this year and won global recognition by becoming one of the Top 10 winners of the World’s Best School prizes for Overcoming Adversity.

Wakadogo school will receive a cash prize of $50,000, which Kigundi plans to invest in computer literacy and technology. The school was established in 2005 to help vulnerable children in the aftermath of a long regional civil war.

What started as a place to provide quality education for traumatised children expanded to include free healthcare and daily meals. As Kigundi explains, it has become a second home for many children in the area.

As the leader of the school, Kigundi is credited for his creativity and innovation, determination and perseverance in spite of the odds, the scarce resources and the risks to his safety.

During lockdown, teachers adapted and walked door-to-door where they taught children in small groups. The school is a friendly learning environment and children are provided with a space where they are allowed to dream again. Head Girl, Martha Kukunda hopes to one day “become a doctor so she can save thousands of lives.”

SOUTH AFRICA ENGINEER

Tshilidzi Marwala

Marshalling AI in life sciences

Tshilidzi Marwala stands at the crossroads where technology meets education meets sustainable development. Currently the Vice- Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg, Marwala has been appointed Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo as of March 2023.

He is an artificial intelligence engineer, computer scientist and mechanical engineer. In today’s world where technology is the future, this knowledge is key. His appointment was partially based on his position as a thought leader and his multidisciplinary research interests, which include social science, computer science and medicine.

He has written several books, one of which was translated into Chinese, and appeared in international and local media such as The Economist, Time, CNN and the BBC, and given extensive talks.

This year in the Times Higher Education Impact rankings, under his leadership, the University of Africa and second in Africa. Prior to his current position he was Deputy Vice Chancellor, held various positions in academia and was a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

‘We in Africa should focus on uniting to contend with the 4IR in order to take strides that will Boost our socioeconomic conditions.’

CAMEROON LAWYER

Jacques Jonathan Nyemb

Franco-African relations

Following in his father’s footsteps, Jacques Jonathan Nyemb pursued a career in business law after earning his baccalaureate in France and at the London School of Economics.

After a short stint at Harvard and sharpening his skills in Europe and America, he joined the family law firm and was selected by French President Emmanuel Macron to head the council established to follow up the recommendations of the New Africa– France Summit (CSRN).

CSRN covers more than just Cameroon-France relations but also Africa and Europe. It includes 12 members from Cameroonian and French civil society and is a platform to create dialogue, raise awareness and provide advocacy and training.

Even though Nyemb is in a liaison role between France and Africa, his position is that the relationship should be collaborative rather than one of relationship between Africa and its former colonial powers and advises African youth to “chart their own course rather than relying on external actors”.

Giving back is also a Nyemb family trait. He supports youth entrepreneurship and in 2008, founded the Mackenzie Foundation, named after his grandmother, to empower women in Cameroon’s rural areas. During the pandemic, he created the Okwelians, a think-and-do tank, a community of approximately 450 Cameroonians at home and in the diaspora, seeking to bring about lasting social change.

Nyemb is in a liaison role between France and Africa at CSRN, but his stance is that the relationship should be collaborative rather than one of reliance.

MOZAMBIQUE ACTIVIST

Prof. Adriano Nuvunga

Indefatigable warrior against corruption

BOTSWANA TRAILBLAZER

Bogolo Joy Kenewendo

Leading climate change transformation

When Bogolo Joy Kenewendo was appointed as Minister for Investment, Trade and Industry of Botswana by President Mokgweetsi Masisi in 2018 at the age of 31, she became the youngest Cabinet Minister in Africa.

In June, she was appointed as the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions’ Special Advisor, Africa Director to lead the plan for delivering a transformative COP27, and help shape the Champions’ strategy for accelerating ambition and action in the region. It is a critically important position at a time when Africa, and the rest of the world, is facing climate-induced catastrophe.

Fighting climate change involves regional and local collaboration which African trade and investment strategy and increase continental innovation.

She aims to use her role as a platform to assist in elevating the voices of women and youth in the goal to halve emissions by 2030. The appointment is part of the Climate Champions Five-year Plan with the Marrakech Partnership to include voices of the most vulnerable and marginalised from across the globe.

Kenewendo is Managing Director of Kenewendo Advisory, and a Fellow with the Center for Global Development. She is also a member of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, a special envoy to the G7 and G20, and a member of the UN SG’s Common Agenda project on the Gender Architecture of the UN and the Group on Sustainable Financing.

She aims to use her position at the UN to assist in elevating the voices of women and youth in the goal to halve emissions by 2030.

Opinion Shapers

SIERRA LEONE CHEF

Fatmata Binta

Fulani foodie

Fulani chef Fatmata Binta made history this year when she became the first West African chef to be awarded the Basque Culinary World Prize. Created in 2016 by the namesake culinary centre in Spain, the award is given to a chef who is using their talent and creativity to transform society through food.

The judges said Binta was chosen out of 1,000 nominees for her “ability to showcase sustainable nomadic culinary culture and explore the diaspora of West African cuisine” through Dine on a Mat.

Now based in Ghana’s capital city of Accra, Binta launched Dine on a Mat in 2018 – a pop-up restaurant that has travelled to cities in Europe, the US and Africa, giving people around the world a chance to experience her home culture. She also started the Fulani Kitchen Foundation to empower and support women in rural communities across Ghana and West Africa.

The 37-year-old chef says every dish she serves pays homage to her Fulani heritage. Binta says their plant-based cuisine, which often includes sun-dried vegetables and ancient grains like fonio nomadic lifestyle.

She has described sharing meals with Fulani elders as a child, saying they would sit on mats and “bond over food”, discussing morals and values – a sense of community she’s seen change over the years.

KENYA TV ANCHOR

Larry Madowo

Africa’s anchorman

Larry Madowo, Kenya’s most famous TV anchor, has set the bar for aspiring African journalists by proving that no stage is too big. Starting out at the Kenya Television Network (KTN), he has since worked his way through almost all the big TV channels.

After several years with Kenya news channels he moved to CNBC Africa as one of the main anchors of market day shows Open Exchange, Power Lunch and Closing Bell.

In 2018, he joined BBC News Africa as its Business Editor and went on to become the North America Correspondent in 2020 during Covid-19. correspondent was reporting on a non- African country for a major news outlet.

Madowo took a break from journalism in 2019 for a fellowship at Columbia Journalism School. He graduated from Columbia with a Master of Arts in Business and Economics Journalism in 2020. His master’s thesis on African e-commerce pioneer Jumia’s tumultuous first on the New York Stock Exchange won the Philip Greer Scholarship

Award for Financial Writing. Madowo was selected as a young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in March 2020. He was nominated as a One young World Journalist of the year in June 2020. He is currently international correspondent for CNN after being promoted from Kenya correspondent in 2021.

TOGO MEDIA MOGUL

Claude Grunitzki

Avatar of African inventiveness

GHANA-UK EDITOR

Edward Enninful

Most influential figure in global fashion

Edward Enninful OBE is never too far away from the limelight. Regularly snapped next to today’s hottest stars on the red carpet in Milan, New York or Paris, he is a heavyweight in global fashion as the editor-in-chief of British Vogue and European editorial director at Condé Nast.

Enninful was born in Ghana but moved to London at an early age. His mother was a seamstress, which inspired him with the vividly patterned colours and fabrics she used while creating clothing for her British-Ghanaian friends.

At the age of 16, Enninful was spotted on a train by a stylist, who encouraged him to start modelling and helping out at an up-and-coming fashion magazine called i-D.

On his 18th birthday the director of the publication gave Enniful the position of fashion director, which made him the youngest-ever person to hold the position for an international magazine. Since that moment, Enninful has gone from strength to strength in the fashion world.

In 1998, he became contributing editor to Italian Vogue and then in 2006 he became contributing fashion editor for American Vogue. In 2011, he was cherry- picked to take over W, a struggling high- end Condé Nast publication.

Under Enninful’s direction, W generated considerable attention for its riskier editorial, including the March 2012 cover shot by Steven Klein featuring model Kate Moss depicted as a nun, as well as another cover featuring singer Nicki Minaj dolled up as an 18th- century French courtesan. Enninful was British Vogue on 10 April 2017, making magazine.

His hugely entertaining as well as moving memoir, A Visible Man was published in September 2022 and became an instant bestseller. It was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and drew record audiences.

‘Disruption is important, because that’s the only way the world can move forward. To the younger generation, I want to say, be as fearless as you can and disrupt in your own way.’

ZAMBIA ECONOMIST

Dambisa Moyo

Standing orthodoxy on its head

Dambisa Moyo’s is the voice in the room challenging comforting, long- held assumptions with incisive and uncomfortable alternative opinions. And that is exactly what makes her such a valuable presence in the boardrooms of major companies and in the Presidential world.

Her line of thinking is far from whatever is the orthodox view but it is this approach that makes her such an and to challenge the status quo.

In 2009, she grabbed the world’s attention when she published Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, in which she argued that the years and the billions spent on aid to Africa had achieved precisely the opposite of what was intended.

Subsequent books including How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – and the Stark Choices Ahead and Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World, as well as Edge of Chaos: Why Democracy Is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth – and How to Fix It and How Boards Work: And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World (published in 2021) presented similarly challenging views but also engaged in solid argument and companies can get far better results.

This year, she officially joined the ‘establishment’ when as part of the UK’s 2022 Special Honours, Moyo received a life peerage – and in November, she was created Baroness Moyo of Knightsbridge in the City of Westminster.

But whether sitting in the house of Lords, company boardrooms or touring the lecture circuit, you can bet that Dambiso Moyo will continue to challenge established opinions with even more vigour.

NIGERIA JOURNALIST, PUBLISHER

Moky Makura

Portraying Africa at its best

Nigeria-born Moky Makura is focused on telling the African story from the African perspective and changing the narrative template set by the Western media of consistently portraying the continent in a negative light.

Makura has a great deal of journalistic experience, which includes being a TV presenter, producer, author, publisher, entrepreneur and currently, Executive Director of the Africa No Filter website.

Through research, advocacy and grant-making, Africa No Filter, based in South Africa, supports contemporary stories of and from Africans.

From presenting on South Africa’s actuality show Carte Blanche, she co-produced and presented Living It, showcasing the lifestyles of Africa’s wealthy elites. She wrote Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, published by Penguin (with a foreword by Richard Branson). She even graced our screens as a lead character in the popular MNET series, Jacob’s Cross.

Moky compiled and published a number of books that showcased the continent under her imprint MME Media, including South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs.

She started a mass market fiction book series called Nollybooks aimed at getting young Africans to read and adapted the series for television, co- producing over 21 low-budget movies for the South African TV station etv.

The latest development, under her imprint MME, Women on Top, is a weekly podcast which highlights stories of African women who punch through the glass ceiling.

MOROCCO-FRANCE WRITER

Leila Slimani

The grand lady of letters

Born in Rabat, Morocco, Leila Slimani moved to Paris in 1999 to study political science, but later fell in love with journalism. She worked for Jeune Afrique until 2012, where she received critical including the Arab Spring.

However, after her son was born, she decided to supply up journalism as she had only recently been arrested while reporting in Tunisia. She published her In the garden with the ogre, with French publisher Gallimard in 2014. The novel fared well with French critics and won her the La Mamounia literary award in Morocco.

Two years later she followed up with the psychological thriller Chanson douce, which won the Prix Goncourt, turning her into a literary star in France and making her known to international audiences as well.

Slimani is a brilliant mind who loves a good argument. She’s at the centre of numerous intellectual debates around gender, the question of identity and today’s fractured world, not least in North Africa.

Her French grandmother met her Moroccan grandfather in World War to liberate France.

In 2017 Slimani was made an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. She is also a French diplomat in her capacity as the personal representative of the French President Emmanuel Macron to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and is a close adviser to the President who doesn’t shy away from making her thoughts known.

Her novel Chanson douce won the Prix Goncourt, turning her into a literary star in France as well as internationally.

NIGERIA STRATEGIST

Nkiru Balonwu

Mentoring business know-how

NIGERIA JOURNALIST

David Hundeyin

Fearless speaker of truth to power

If you are at the head of a tech company in Africa, chances are that you have heard of David Hundeyin but if you discover he is investigating your company, it will probably make you very nervous.

The Nigerian journalist broke one of Africa’s biggest business stories this year, exposing a toxic culture of fraud and harassment at the multi-billion- The story went viral after he posted it on his newsletter, West Africa Weekly. Recently, he has been taking aim at Nigeria’s Presidential candidate Bola Tinubu. His latest exposé claims that Tinubu has committed perjury due to identify theft and fraudulent documents.

He describes his job as “irritating powerful people for a living” and therefore must live in exile under asylum protection. He is the recipient of numerous awards including The People Journalism Prize for Africa 2020 for his work unravelling predatory legislation that was being rushed through Nigeria’s House of Representatives.

In December last year, he was named the GRC (Governance Risk Compliance) Nigeria’s GRC Awards.

Most recently in March 2022, his Open Source Intelligence (OSINT investigation Who Killed Hiny Umoren?

made the global shortlist at the 2022 Sigma Awards for data journalism.

Journalist David Hundeyin describes his job as ‘irritating powerful people for a living’, which means living in exile under asylum protection.

CAMEROON ACADEMIC

Landry Signé

Thought leader extraordinaire

Landry Signé is a thought leader and

SENEGAL-ITALY / SOCIAL MEDIA STAR

Khaby Lame

The TikTok king with the golden smile

It has been a crazy few years for Khaby Lame, Senegal’s TikTok sensation. In 2020, the 22-year-old was working in a started making TikTok videos.

Two years later and the internet star is the most followed person on the social media platform to date, accruing an estimated $12m in wealth along the way. Lame became popular through his trademark smile, which he would use in silent videos while looking at things.

He was born in Senegal but his parents relocated to Italy when he was one year old.

Reviewers Taylor Lorenz and Jason Horowitz of the New York Times attributed Lame’s success to his “universal exasperated everyman quality” and described his rise to fame and different from most TikTok stars in being “entirely organic”.

Samir Chaudry, the founder of The Publish Press, a newsletter focused on the creator economy, stated that Lame’s appeal derived from his emphasising “authenticity over production” and “not trying too hard”. Christina Ferraz, the founder of American marketing agency Thirty6Five, stated, “His exasperation is relatable, and the feelings are universal.”

Lame has credited his popularity to his humorous facial expressions and his silence, which he has described as “a way to reach as many people as possible”. In February this year, six of the 25 most- liked Tik-Tok videos were his.

Two years after starting to make TikTok videos, Lame is the most followed person on the platform, with an estimated $12m in accrued wealth.

NIGERIA MEDIA MOGUL

Mo Abudu

Explosive creative energy

Mo Abudu has been described by CNN as Africa’s ‘Queen of Media who conquered the continent’. She is the CEO of the EbonyLife Group, which includes all EbonyLife Media assets and entertainment resort.

Abudu gained recognition for her successful talk show, Moments with Mo, which began in 2006. She had the vision to develop a Pan-African platform, EbonyLife TV, launched in 2013 on DSTV.

What originated as a desire to change the negative stereotypes of Africa on 2014. She has since produced a string of blockbusters such as: Fifty, The Wedding Party, Chief Daddy, The Royal Hibiscus Hotel and Your Excellency.

She was the executive producer of Oloture.a feature film that exposed the budinessof human trafficking in Nigeria and premiered as Netflix original in 2020. EbonyLife Media is currently in production discussions with the BBC and Hollywood greats, Will and Jada Smith’s Westbrook Studios.

In 2021, the EbonyLife story made history when it become the first case study of a media company led by an African female to be taught at the Harvard Business School. She was also selected to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

(the Oscars) in the producer category, and is the only African woman to have achieved this feat.

The EbonyLife story recently made history when it became the first case study of a media company led by an African female to be taught at Harvard Business School.

GUINEA-BISSAU ECONOMIST

Carlos Lopes

At the forefront of Africa’s economic policy

Carlos Lopes is one of Africa’s foremost economic thinkers, having spent years in the engine room of the continent’s economic policy. He is the former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) where he served from 2012 to 2016.

He continues to have a massive influence on policy and development as a regular contributor to the media and high – profile events across Africa .

A specialist in development and strategic planning, he has written or edited 22 books and has taught at universities and academic institutions in Lisbon, Coimbra, Zurich, Uppsala, Mexico City, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In addition to belonging to a large number of academic networks, he has contributed to the creation of non-governmental organisations and research institutions in the social sciences, particularly in Africa.

He currently sits on the board of directors or on the advisory or editorial board of a dozen institutions, the International Institute for Educational Planning of UNESCO, and the African Sociological Review and African Identities.

He started his career in the civil service of his home country, Guinea- Bissau, where he said the numerous challenges inspired him to want to Africa.

KENYA JOURNALIST

Zain Verjee

Crafting and changing narratives

Zain Verjee has one of the most distinguished and recognised careers in journalism, with a background as a storyteller, entrepreneur, communicator and interviewer.

She is well-known as a former CNN anchor and State Department correspondent, who has made a successful transition into the world of communications and creative Group, builds communications products for emerging markets that empower citizens.

She has worked with a deep line-up of organisations and entities such as Bloomberg Media and Philanthropies, the Mastercard Foundation, the UN and many more on their communications and public relations delivery and strategies via advisory, consulting, and content production. Today she has the ear of some of the most high-ranking Africans in politics and business, including at the highest echelons of the UN. Executive producer of the latest Unstoppable Africa event during the UN General Assembly, she is a highly sought-after facilitator and interviewer and has spoken on platforms such as TED and Africa House.

A serial entrepreneur who believes in changing the narrative, she co- founded aKoma Media, a continental network of workspaces for Africa’s creative and cultural economy, in 2015. Other ventures in the creative space include Amplify, a content creator fellowship with participants from East and West Africa and the US, in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. Zain resides in

Nairobi and LA.

Verjee is well-known as a former CNN anchor who has made a successful transition into the world of communications and creative entrepreneurship.

BURUNDI-BELGIUM CHEF

Chef Coco Reinarhz

Michelin Man

Burundian ‘Chef Coco’ has reinvented African soul food with a French gourmet twist.

After learning to cook from his mother in Kinshasa’s most fashionable restaurant Pili Pili, Coco Reinarhz has gone on to lead Africa’s culinary renaissance.

The 54 year-old graduate from the Ecole Hotelière de la Province de Namur in Belgium, cut his teeth in kitchens from Antwerp to Abidjan, before basing himself in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Having gained celebrity status with Epicure in Johannesburg, he now plans to open branches in Michelin hotspots from London, Dubai, Paris and New York.

Chef Coco was the star of the Dubai Expo where he put African culinary specialities at the centre of the cultural experience.

The go-to chef for African cuisine will be cooking up a storm in Chanel’s upcoming Africa launch in Senegal in December.

‘I believe our duty as African chefs is to take African food to another level. Nobody will do it for us.’

TUNISIA MEDIA

Sonia Mabrouk

Ruffling feature for a living

TV news analyst and hard-talk interviewer Sonia Mabrouk sharply divides opinion, but love her or loathe her, you cannot ignore her, say the millions who have been watching her on some of the most popular French channels.

Born in Tunis in 1977, she is the granddaughter of a Trade Minister and the niece of a Tunisian ambassador to France. Her childhood was dominated by the Habib Bourguiba era with its emphasis on education and modernity.

She attended a business school in Tunis (both as student and teacher) before moving to Paris to try her hand at journalism. In 2005, she joined the Jeune Afrique.

She quickly moved on to become the first Tunisian woman to present the news on a French channel, Public Sénat. In 2013, she joined Europe1, where she now presents the Sunday morning political programme. In 2017, she joined the news channel CNews, where she hosts the midday slot.

Today she has one of the most sought-after ‘black books’ in the country. In France, the political elite are queueing up to be on her show.

Her interview technique is said to be ‘sharp’ although she has also been accused of going ‘soft’ on some her interviewees. She’s also criticised for being ‘too close’ to many right-wing says she represents French common sense.

She will surely ruffle more feathers next year with the eagerly anticipated release of her book of essays that she says “may raise some eyebrows” – and plenty of blood pressures, one would think!

Creatives

KENYA ACTRESS

Lupita Nyong’o

Hollywood queen

Wakanda Forever, the much-awaited , Black Panther, looks set to register some of the highest cinema earnings worldwide this year. It has already grossed over half a billion dollars and according to insiders, this is just the beginning.

While the cast is composed of familiar characters from Black Panther as well as several new faces, global attention has been focused on the fabulous Lupita Nyong’o who reappraises her role as Nakia, the undercover spy for Wakanda from the River Tribe. Nyang’o says that in this still “the one you want to call when you’re in trouble”.

It seems that this Mexico-born, Kenya-raised superstar is the one producers want to call when they want to avoid box office trouble Ever since she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2014 for her scorching performance in 12 Years a Slave – which was in fact her debut film – she has been in non -stop demand from film ,TV and stage producers and directors.

Viewers in Africa will also remember her sensitive, moving performance in The Queen of Katwe, which also went on to win global awards and remains a perennial family favourite during holidays.

In addition to the Oscar, she picked up a large number of awards and nominations from other organisations and the list would take more space to supply than we have space for on this page. She has also won awards for documentary narration and children’s film and podcasts.

Wherever she goes, cameras follow her. Her costumes, her looks, her hairdos are endlessly discussed in society media, magazines scramble to have her on the covers and talk- show hosts jostle to have her on their platforms. Her views are sought, it seems, on every subject under the sun. As a high-achieving student and with a degree from an American university, her responses have considerable thought and depth to them.

Through it all, she says she has not gone ‘Hollywood’ and remains her pragmatic African self. The force of her influence both inside and outside Africa cannot be overestimated. She often chooses to portray strong Black women who command respect, dignity and attention by their mere presence. As one reviewer put it: “She is Africa’s most powerful, and loved, ambassador. Every move this hugely talented and beautiful lady makes is a salute to the genius of her mother continent – Africa.”

RWANDA-UK ACTOR

Ncuti Gatwa

Culture-bending Black Dr Who

A refugee family from Rwanda, a boy with a big dream, a dream come true. When you read about Ncuti Gatwa’s rise to stellar fame, you might think it belongs more in the realms of hard-to- believe fiction than reality.

He was born in Kigali, Rwanda but his family had to flee to Scotland in 1994, during the horrific genocide when he was just two years old. Surviving the turbulent teenage years in a Scottish secondary school, by the time he left he knew he wanted to be an actor and began the demanding journey, training at the Royal Conservatoire in Scotland, before making his debut on the London stage at the Globe Theatre, playing the part of Demetrius in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

From this classical beginning, life took on the twists and turns of a young actor’s experience, at the mercy of the overwhelming expenses of trying to working a day job and borrowing money to survive.

Time for serendipity to step in and reward his talent and tenaciousness comedy-drama, Sex Education, where his deserved 2020 BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Television.

From here his journey has been on the road of success, playing the part of Jojo Moyes’ bestseller, The Last Letter from Your Lover and then landing the part of one of the Kens in Mattel’s Barbie movie, due for release in 2023.

Into this mix has come a role that has quite possibly tipped the scales of British culture. Following an outstanding audition, he will become role of the BBC’s Dr Who.

NIGERIA-UKACTRESS

Amara Okereke

Black Eliza Doolittle charms London

NIGERIAAUTHOR

Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Making a way out of no way

Award-winning author and cultural critic Sarah Ladipo Manyika seems to have fashioned her work after the famous quote from legendary US writer, story you want to read, write it.”

Her writing includes academic papers, short stories, reviews and essays, the latest of which is her 2022 book Between Starshine and Clay: Conversations from the African Diaspora, a collection of stories that celebrate history, making a way out of no way.

Described as a one-of-a-kind book, it includes interviews with remarkable 21st-century intellectuals, artists and activists from the Black Diaspora, such as Wole Soyinka, Michelle Obama, Toni Morrison, Xoliswa Sithole, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Margaret Busby, and has a foreword by Bernardine Evaristo.

Manyika was born and raised in Nigeria but has lived in the UK, France, Kenya and now teaches literature at San Francisco State University.

Her best-selling debut novel In Dependence, published in 2009 by Legend Press and later Cassava Press, sold over three million copies. Her second novel, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun (Cassava Press), published in 2016, was translated into six languages and was a California Book Award.

Her decision to choose an African publisher was, according to an excerpt from her essay ‘Betting on Africa’, because they were “savvy and diligent custodians” of her work.

NIGERIA SINGER, SONGWRITER, PRODUCER

Tems

Afrobeat’s latest rising star

Tems, Nigeria’s newest, brightest Afrobeat star, has collaborated with superstars such as Beyoncé, Drake and Justin Bieber and counts amongst her growing fanbase the likes of Adele and Barack Obama.

Born in Nigeria, she moved to London (her father is British) as a baby but returned to Nigeria four years later following her parents’ divorce. During her student days, she studied music in her spare time, watching videos from to its compelling call in 2018, gave up her job in digital marketing to devote herself to it. Cue some hard times, but run for their money!

In 2020 she became noticed enough to appear on DJ Edu’s list of artists to watch, collaborating with fellow Nigerian, Davido and later in the year, with WizKid on the song Essence from his Made in Lagos album – which later won them Best African Collaboration the map of African singers in the global eye.

In September 2020 she released her debut extended player, For Broken Ears. The song, Damages, from the EP came in at the No. 1 spot on the Nigerian Apple Music Charts and by 2021 she was astutely snapped up by RCA records. Following a new extended player, If Orange Was a Place, 2022’s

The Headies (a music awards show established in 2006 by the Nigerian magazine saw her walk away with a hat-trick of awards for Best Collaboration, Best R&B Album and Best Female Artiste.

This year has been a peak for Tems, playing at Glastonbury, the O2 arena in London with WizKid, and headlining at Somerset House, to name just a few key performances.

Featuring on American rapper Future’s single Wait for U made her the Hot 100 chart, while working on a song with Rihanna for the new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever movie, means the next new album, projected for 2022, will just have to wait. We have a feeling the best is yet to come!

SOUTH AFRICA ACTRESS

Thuso Mbedu

Tour de force performances

Losing her parents when she was just four years old did not stop Thuso Mbedu from following her dreams and whilst you may say she has been lucky to get the breaks she has, you could also say it is where hard work met opportunity.

Brought up by her grandmother, she attended the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, graduating in 2013 with a degree in Physical Theatre and Performing Arts Management. The following year she series, Isibaya, quickly followed by parts in the TV series Scandal! and a guest role in SABC’s teen drama series, Snake Park.

It was not all smooth sailing. A daunting six months of unemployment was followed by a happy ending with playing the part of Winnie in the teen drama series IsThunzi. This led to a 2017 International Emmy Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress.

She finally got her international breakthrough in 2021 with Amazon Prime’s historical series, The Underground Railroad, in which she was cast as Cora, a runaway slave. Her compassionate performance won her a trio of accolades – the Gotham Award, Hollywood Critics Association Award and Independent Spirit Award.

From television to the silver screen.

In 2022 she was offered a part in Sony’s The Woman King, home country, with a lead role as Nawi. One critic said, “Mbedu gives a The Woman King, ingenuity, and strength. The South African-born actor uses every colour in her box to deliver a stunningly nuanced performance that can only be described as a tour de force.” And that neatly sums it up!

BURKINO FASO-GERMANY ARCHITECT

Francis Kéré

Designing from the soul

NIGERIA SINGER

Burna Boy

Picking up global awards for fun

Damini Ogulu, aka Burna Boy, continues to take the world by storm, receiving his third Grammy nomination in a row this year for his song Last Last, in the Best Global Music Performance category. The self-proclaimed ‘African Giant’

also received a nomination for his latest album Love, Damini in the Best Global Music Album category.

The latest recognition reflects Burna Boy’s meteoric rise over the last few years, from humble beginnings growing up in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Along with artists like Wizkid and Tems, Burna Boy is the face of Nigeria’s hugely successful Afrobeats scene, which has taken the world by storm.

Whereas Afrobeat musicians used to feature on tracks by European and American artists, the industry is now clamouring to secure collabs (collaborations) with Africa’s hottest artists as everything they touch turns to gold. Burna Boy’s latest album features collabs with Ed Sheeran, Khalid, Popcaan and J Hus.

Before becoming a musician, Burna Boy studied media technology at the University of Sussex in the UK, and then media communications and culture at Oxford Brookes University. He returned to Port Harcourt in 2010 to take up a year-long internship at Rhythm 93.7 FM.

MALI- FRANCE SINGER

Aya Nakamura

Enthralling the world with her song

This enchanting songstress has been bewitching us with her sultry sounds since 2014, when she released her Karma, as a 14-year-old on Facebook.

Born in Mali as Aya Coco Danioko, she took the stage name Nakamura series, Heroes. She emigrated with her parents to France as a young child, and studied fashion, but then followed her true calling into the world of music

– although in a nod to her past, in September 2021 she did launch a capsule collection for underwear brand Undiz.

Coming from a family of West African griots, telling stories through her songs is in her DNA. Her heartfelt break-up song, J’ai Mal, which quickly garnered secured her spot in the limelight.

In 2016, she paid tribute to her roots as support to US-Nigerian star, Davido’s sell-out concert at the Modibo Keita Stadium, in her hometown of Bamako, Mali.

A year later, her debut album, Journal Intime, went platinum in France. In April 2018 she released the first single from her very successful second album, Nakamura.

The song Djadja is perhaps the one sensation in France and rapidly went on to become a hit throughout Europe, female artiste to hit the No. 1 spot in the Netherlands since Edith Piaf in 1961, with Non, je ne regrette rien!

Her 2020 third album, AYA, was downloaded on Spotify over 12m times in only four days, making it the third most-listened-to album across the globe. In the same year she won an NRJ Music Award for Best Francophone the Apple Music Awards. Long may she continue to captivate and enthral the world.

Coming from a family of West African griots, telling stories through her songs is in Aya’s DNA.

ZIMBABWE WRITER

NoViolet Bulawayo

Searing, poetic writing

Born in 1981, a year after Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister, Bulowaya experienced a traumatic childhood that would later become the source of her searing yet rhythmically poetic writing.

Completing her college education in the US, she gained her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Cornell University, where she later went on to teach fiction writing students at Stanford were also the lucky recipients of her wisdom.

Just a year after completing her degree, her short story, Hitting Budapest, won the AKO Caine Prize. Telling the trenchant tale of a starving gang of children from the poor side of town, the 2013 debut novel, We Need New Names.

The book was shortlisted for the Booker prize and Bulawayo became both Zimbabwean to be in the last six. The book also picked up the Etisalat Prize for Literature, the LA Times First Fiction Award and the Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award.

Then there was silence, but in 2022, came her triumphant return with a second bold and unique novel, Glory. Taking three years to write and described as a “satire with sharper teeth, angrier, and also very, very funny” by the New York Times, her second book also went on to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, giving her another moment in history as she appear on the list twice.

She is currently writing full-time so hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we can expect a third tome from her talented and thought-provoking pen.

NIGERIA ARTIST, NFT CREATOR

Jacon Osinachi

Breaking Africa’s crypto boundaries

Africa is breaking boundaries in crypto space and Jacon Osinachi is at the forefront of the innovation. The crypto artist and NFT creator shot to fame last year when he became the Christie’s auction house in Europe. (NFT stands for non-fungible token – NFT art is a digitalised piece of artwork that a person has tokenised onto a blockchain.)

His series of five NFTs Different Shades of WaterLondon edition of the 1:54 African Art Fair, was inspired by the work of British artist David Hockney.

Prince Jacon Osinachi Igwe was born and raised in Nigeria’s south-eastern creating digital art on Microsoft Word after his father bought him a computer tried to sell his work he was met with rejection. But in 2017 he discovered he could sell NFTs using blockchain.

Before blockchain, limited edition digital prints would sell for as little as $60. At Christie’s, his work sold for more than $68,000. In September this year, he announced he would establish his own accelerator programme to on- board African creators and establish an enriched community in the NFT art world. Six accelerator winners, curated by Osinachi, will also be invited to exhibit two additional artworks at the SCOPE art show during Art Week Miami in December.

KENYA WRITER

Idza Luhumyo

The incandescent storyteller

Born in Mombasa, Kenya, Idza Luhumyo trained to be a lawyer and worked as a screenwriter and copywriter but soon realised she had a special skill – the ability to entrance audiences across characters, time and landscape in her short stories. Luhumyo admits she enjoys the challenge of short story writing, something many writers say is harder than writing a full-length novel!

Inspired by the Kenyan coast and its people, her story, Five Years Next Sunday, is a tale inspired by old traditions and fears of witchcraft along the coastal towns of Kenya, which continues to this very day. It is a haunting, poetic and clever piece of writing.

Her work has been increasingly recognised in the last three years. In 2020 she was the inaugural winner of the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award. The prize, worth £20,000, covered all the tuition fees and accommodation costs involved in a Masters degree at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London, which has taken Luhumyo on a journey from which there is no turning back.

In 2021, her story won the Short Story Day Africa Award, resulting in it being published as part of an anthology, Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa (Catalyst Press), giving her a gateway to an international audience.

2022 saw further tributes to Five Years Next Sunday, and she was the proud recipient of the continent’s biggest literary prize for it, the 23rd AKO Caine Prize, where judges described her work as “incandescent”.

So where to now? Well, we do have a hint that she is about to disappear off the radar for couple of years to produce her first full length novel We eagerly await.

NIGERIA MUSICIAN

Ayra Starr

Aiming for the galaxy

Ayra Starr initially pursued a career as a model but when she started posting covers of tracks on her Instagram in 2019, she quickly gained a huge following. This brought her to the attention of Nigerian record executive Don Jazzy, and led to her signing to his label Mavin Records.

Three years later and the 20-year-old singer, who is Nigerian but was born in Benin, has shot to worldwide fame with a string of chart-topping hits.

In a latest interview, Starr said she turned to music as an escape after she was bullied at school because of her appearance. Moving between Nigeria and Benin due to her father’s business, she said that she often had a hard time would listen to Nicki Minaj on her way to school and stated that she would feel like “the second Nicki Minaj”.

Coming from a musical family, she would also make songs with her brother, Dami, to help her deal with life’s problems. She continues to write songs with her brother well into her professional career. Describing herself as a “celestial being”, it is very likely that Ayra Starr will soon shoot into the stratosphere of fame.

‘You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough’ – Ayra Starr

NIGERIA ART ENTREPRENEUR

Tokini Peterside

Building Africa’s hottest art fair

Tokini Peterside is one of the most recognisable names in the crossover between African art and business. Growing up between Nigeria and the UK, she initially pursued a successful career as Head of Marketing for Moët Hennessy in Nigeria.

In 2012, she founded TP-Collective, providing strategy, business planning and marketing consulting to luxury and culture businesses in Nigeria, such as ALARA, the David Adjaye-designed luxury concept store and Maki Oh, a luxury fashion designer.

In 2016, she launched ART X Lagos –the first international art fair in West Africa, which has since become one of the continent’s hottest art events. The fair has been described as “West Africa’s calling card for contemporary African art fairs” and has featured exhibiting artists and speakers such as Akunyili Crosby, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Barthélémy Toguo.

The art fair was such a success that in 2018, Peterside led the visiting French President Emmanuel Macron through a special exhibition of contemporary Nigerian art by ART X Lagos, as part of the ‘Celebration of African Culture’ hosted at the New Afrika Shrine in Lagos, to launch the African Cultural Season scheduled for France in 2020.

NIGERIA FILM PRODUCER

Kene Okwuosa

The great Nollywood mogul

Kene Okwuosa is the man behind the big screen in Nigeria. If you’ve seen a movie at Filmhouse Cinemas, the biggest cinema chain in West Africa, then you’ve been to one of his establishments. As the co-founder and group CEO, Okwuosa has helped roll out 15 cinemas across Nigeria, with plans to expand into other cities and West African countries.

An old hand in Nigeria’s movie industry, Okwuosa has been on the scene for more than 16 years. His Film studio FilmOne distribution and Production Limited, is one of the fastest-growing independent entertainment companies focused on content.

His studio has brought box office Hollywood hits like Logan, Assassin’s Creed and Black Panther to Nigeria. It has also co-produced some of Nigeria’s highest-grossing movies including Merry Men 1 and 2, The Set-Up and The Wedding Party 1 and 2.

FilmOne also works in partnership with Netflix (to aggregate Nollywood) content for the streaming platform) and, most recently, Disney (as its sole distributor in Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia).

‘The producers of Bridgerton have argued that there is no reason Black actors cannot play period drama.’

GHANA-UK ACTRESS

Adjoa Andoh

Restless and talented - a force of nature

SOUTH AFRICA DESIGNER

Thebe Magugu

Decolonising design

Thebe Magugu is a South Africa-based designer who rose to prominence after 2021 International Woolmark Prize.

Since 2017, he has released 10 solo collections under his own- namesake label, as well as several collaborations with international brands such as Dior, Adidas and AZ Factory.

Originally from the small city of Kimberley, he moved to Johannesburg to study fashion design, fashion photography and fashion media. After winning the best graduate collection accolade, he interned and worked for a selection of designers, fashion institutions and retailers.

Speaking about his brand, the designer says, “together with our pillar values of quality, novelty and culture, we constantly seek new ways of presenting women with clothing that both complies with and enhances the everyday. Sleek, forward-looking design intersects with motifs from our continent’s storied past, providing smart, multifaceted clothes as valuable as their woman”.

Magugu’s Spring 2023 collection, titled Discard Theory, debuted at the Victoria and Albert Museum in October 2022 as part of London Fashion Week.

He was then enlisted by Italian fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuru to reinterpret the ‘New Look’ for French luxury house Dior in a limited- edition capsule collection, whose proceeds will go to the Charlize Theron Outreach Project.

NIGERIA GALLERY EXHIBITOR

Adenrele Sonariwo

Artist on a mission

Returning to Lagos in 2010 after studying in the UK, Adenrele Sonariwo started small but dreamt big. She felt something was missing in the local art scene and so started an art pop- up gallery at her house, to showcase works of art to a younger audience at affordable prices

After five years of pop -ups , she opened her own art gallery Rele in 2015. A year later, Sonariwo set up the Rele Arts Foundation, to provide mentorship, critique and weekly stipends to young artists.

But her ambitions didn’t stop there. In 2021, she opened a gallery in Los Angeles and in 2017 she co-curated Biennale, alongside writer Emmanuel Iduma. In a latest interview, Sonariwo says that she wants to use her platform to diversify the stories being told in Africa’s art world.

Before she worked in the art world, she was an accountant for PwC in the US, but said she was drawn to the arts . She comes from an ifluential background in Nigeria – her late father was the 18th Akarigbo of Remo, the traditional ruler of the 33 towns that make up the kingdom in Ogun state.

Sonirawo wants to use her gallery and the Rele Arts Foundation to diversify the stories being told in Africa’s art world.

NIGERIA WRITER

Ainehi Edoro

Reinventing fiction and literary culture

‘There was a need for a place where we could talk about African literature in a fun and meaningful way‘ – Edoro on Brittle Paper

SOUTH AFRICA DJ

Black Coffee

Master of the dance floor

Ainehi Edoro is the founder of brittlepaper.com, a critically acclaimed literary blog for fans of African literature. Explaining how she came about the name, she explains: “The brittleness of paper evokes the ephemeral nature of literary work and ideas within the digital space... Brittle Paper is about documenting the life of texts within the social media space”.

According to Edoro, the dissatisfaction in sharing her literary thoughts with only her academic community was what led her to blogging. However, she stated that her objective was to “reinvent African fiction and literary culture

She is also an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin- Madison in the US where she teaches and researches on African literature, political theory and literature in social media. Her research interest is centred on the form, theory, history, and culture of the novel as it emerged in Africa.

She is working on a book titled Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think. The book argues that the African novel, at the moment of its inception, introduces a model for configuring space in fiction.

NIGERIA AUTHOR, ARTIST

Eloghosa Osunde

Awards galore for creative all-rounder

Eloghusa Osunde is a multidisciplinary artist and writer, but it took her a while she would write a book eventually but thought she was “too young to have anything to say”.

However, once she put pen to paper the accolades began rolling in. She was awarded a Miles Morland Scholarship Good Boy, which won the 2021 Plimpton Prize for Fiction but it’s her debut novel Vagabonds!, published this year by Riverhead Books (US), Fourth Estate the literary world ablaze.

It has received glowing reviews, been named a ‘Most Anticipated Book of the year and is wildly considered as one of the best works this year by a host of major publications including Entertainment Weekly, British Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Goodreads, Brittle

Paper, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and more. Vagabonds! iwho live in the margins of capitalist Nigeria.

Osunde is also a visual artist, director, producer and editor. Her art and photography overlap. She believes in pushing the limits of reality. Her visual art exhibitions have spanned the globe and her artwork can be seen on prints, fashion runways and book covers.

Her writing has appeared at theatre festivals and in multiple international magazines.

SOMALIA ART FOUNDATION CURATOR

Sagal Ali

Creating spaces for Somali art

Sagal Ali always felt it was a shame that Somalia did not have an organisation to promote its rich artistic heritage. So, the Somali- Dutch national set up the Somali Arts Foundation in 2020 to support and promote Somali art.

She said she founded the institute “due to the overwhelming need for and absence of any spaces dedicated to contemporary art in Somalia”.

The institution hopes to leverage the arts to support young people and marginalised communities to express themselves creatively, while seeking to create initiatives that support the establishment of the creative industries.

Before Ali set up the foundation, she worked in the Horn of Africa for several years. She was the Cultural Heritage Expert Consultant on the Reviving Culture, Building Peace in Somalia project from 2015 to November 2017, where she designed and implemented numerous projects using art and cultural heritage as means to foster peace, dialogue, and self- expression.

In November 2018, Sagal started to work directly with the Federal Government of Somalia, as the Senior Technical Advisor for Art and Heritage, and she was also the Deputy Secretary General of the Somalia National Commission for UNESCO.

NIGERIA - UK POET, PLAYWRIGHT

Inua Ellams

Master of the old and the new

CAMEROON ARTIST

Barthélémy Togou

Spotlighting plight of migrants

A graduate of the École supérieure d’Art de Grenoble, France and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany, Cameroonian-born Barthélémy Togou’s story.

Through his art installations, he reflects on the plight of migrants and displaced peoples, compelling his audiences to confront the uncomfortable spectres that are often just out of their line of vision

The painter, visual and performing artist believes art is a cultural weapon that can be used to shape society and his own work is an energetic attempt to bring that change.

In 2008, he unveiled the Bandjoun Station, an exhibition space, library, artist residency and organic farm that had taken him three years to build. The purpose is to provide a space that other artists can appropriate for their own purpose, thus providing an avenue for more culture moulding art to flourish

In 2021, he added to his list of honours and decorations when UNESCO named him an Artist for Peace. This year, he was commissioned to produce The Pillar of Missing Migrants installation under the Louvre Museum’s Pyramid in Paris, bringing his message to a wider, critical audience. It seems certain that Barthelemy’s weapon of choice will not be blunted for a while yet.

He believes art is a cultural weapon that can shape society and his own work is an attempt to bring that change.

SOUTH AFRICA CURATOR

Khanyisile Mbongwa

Chosen to curate 2023 Liverpool Biennial

‘I wasn't born black, but my experiences in the world have made me black and continue to remind me what that is.'

SOUTH AFRICA ILLUSTRATOR

Karabo Poppy Moletsane

Defining the unique African aesthetic

Growing up in a small South African mining town, a career in art seemed the least likely option for someone like Karabo Poppy Moletsane, whose parents dreamt of her becoming a doctor one day.

She thought so too but the drive to create became too strong and she enrolled in a school which had art as a subject. Art was something that only rich people or White people indulged in, she thought, but persisted and discovered a whole new world of digital art What was lacking was sufficient African representation.

Using the colourful illustrations found in barber shops as an inspiration she began to define her style. The freshness of her approach and their power to communicate eventually brought international clients. She began to illustrated global brands like Nike, Google, The Wall Street Journal asked her to be the illustrator for their African stories.

With her exhibitions and tours within and outside Africa, Karabo Poppy Moletsane is being identity and the unique African aesthetic.

Her growing influence means that she will remain an increasingly significant factor in shaping how Africa is seen by the world and more importantly, by itself.

With her exhibitions and tours, Karabo Poppy Moletsane is being recognised as a figurehead for Black identity and the unique African aesthetic.

Sportspeople

ALGERIA- FRANCE FOOTBALLER

Karim Benzema

The world’s best

Karim Benzema, the French international of Algerian descent, has made a remarkable comeback to claim his place at the very top of the footballing tree.

The Real Madrid Number 9, who for many years was overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo in the Spanish capital, is only bettered by the Portuguese in the list of all-time Los Blancos scorers, having overhauled Spanish legend Raul during the year.

Benzema was instrumental to Real Madrid’s league and Champions League as top scorer in La Liga with 27 goals

– nine clear of his nearest challenger - whilst netting an incredible 15 times in only 12 Champions League ties.

It was the Real Madrid captain’s performances in Europe’s premier club competition that really stood out as they came from behind to win, over two legs, against PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City.

He netted a hat-trick against the French side, and another in the away leg versus Chelsea before scoring the extra-time goal to send his side into the Etihad as Madrid went down 4-3 to Manchester City.

In the second leg he kept his cool to slot home the extra-time penalty to deny City, under the stewardship of long-time Real foe Pep Guardiola, a date with their Premier League rivals, Liverpool in the final

Madrid won the final 1-0 without Benzema on the scoresheet, but by that point, he had done enough, his 10 goals in the knockout stage equalling the single-season record of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 2021/22 season was his most prolific in front of goal averaging nearly a goal a game with 44 strikes in 46 appearances across all competitions.

He had been exiled from the French national team for over five years for his part in an alleged blackmail plot before returning for Les Bleus just before last year’s delayed European championship. His performance there made him the automatic spearhead for the World Cup attack – but alas, an injury sustained in training ruled him out at the eleventh hour.

After receiving a host of individual awards and being hugely significant in team recoveries throughout the year, he was presented with the Ballon d’Or for 2022, the trophy that declares who is the world’s very best, to complete his own personal resurgence into total acceptance from the global football family.

After a host of awards and being hugely significant in team recoveries, he won the Ballon d’Or, the trophy that declares who is the world’s very best.

CAMEROON MMA FIGHTER

Francis Ngannou

Predator looking for prey

UGANDA DISTANCE RUNNER

Joshua Cheptegei

Inspirational on and off the track

Over the past few seasons, the 26-year- old Ugandan long-distance runner has consistently been there or thereabouts at the record- breaking end of races. He currently holds the world records in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres – both set in 2020. Additionally, he holds the 15km world best time, recorded in 2018.

At the 2022 World Athletics Championships, he claimed gold in the 10,000 metres in a close race where all the medallists set season’s-best times and were separated by only just over half a second. He now had hopes of completing the 5,000 and 10,000 metre double which he had narrowly missed out on at the previous year’s Tokyo Olympics, where he picked up gold in the shorter event but could only manage a silver in the longer one.

So, it was a shock and disappointment to many in East Africa, where he has a huge following, when he finished well outside the medals in the 5,000 metres, nearly four seconds behind the winner, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Everybody has a poor race in them and it is hoped that with that performance out of the way, he will continue to rule the long-distance roost and bring glory to his beloved Uganda.

He is a tremendous inspiration to many, not only by his deeds when he is wearing his running spikes, but through his work with the development foundation that bears his name, which is dedicated to promoting talent and education as well as community wellbeing.

NIGERIA SPRINT HURDLER

Tobi Amusan

Poetry in motion

AFRICA CRICKETER

Kagiso Rabada

Carrying the weight of the team on his shoulders

MOROCCO STEEPLECHASER

Soufiane El Bakkali

Broke Kenya’s domination in event

Kenya had won the gold medal at every Olympics they had entered since 1964 until El Bakkali hit his stride.

TUNISIA TENNIS PLAYER

Ons Jabeur

The Arab world’s ace role model

SENEGAL FOOTBALLER

Sadio Mané

Twinkling feet, golden heart

For decades England’s Liverpool FC was a giant among the world’s soccer giants, known and admired everywhere the beautiful game was watched or followed. Then after the 1990s it fell into a slump, winning very little by comparison until it seemed to suddenly rise like the Phoenix from the ashes in 2019, propelled by coach Jürgen Klopp and two outstanding African strikers

– Mohamed Salah of Egypt and Sadio Mané of Senegal.

Linking up with the Brazilian Roberto Firmino as the third force of the triumvirate, the forwards ransacked all opposition to win the English Premier League in a record number of matches and by a near-record margin of points.

Liverpool were the talk of the world as they won a hatful of other titles, including the Champions League. Nothing, it seemed, could stop them from contending. Then in the 2022/23 season, they slumped to 10th with the league only a few weeks old. It was the same old Liverpool team with one had joined German champions Bayern Munich “to challenge myself”.

If ever there was any doubt about Mané’s contribution to Liverpool’s success, it was there in plain sight for all to see – without him, the lightning- fast forward spearhead of the team was just not clicking. “We miss you Mané, come back!” said placards raised by Liverpool fans as they saw their chances of another championship slipping away.

At Bayern, Mané quickly acclimatized scoring five times and assisting in a dozen goals.

He had become an instant star as he prepared for Senegal duties at the Qatar World Cup. Unfortunately, a knee injury then ruled him out of the competition. This is a big blow not only for Senegal but for the tens of millions who were hoping to watch him at his mesmerising best.

Mané, who has won African footballer of the year trophies twice as well as collecting an EPL Golden Boot award, came second to another African-origin star, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema in the race for the 2022 Ballon d’Or (‘Golden Ball’) award for the best player in the world. recipient of a new prize, the Socrates Award, given to a player for his social work off the pitch

Mané, who grew up in poverty, has never forgotten his roots. He has built a modern new hospital in his home village of Bambali in Senegal and invested millions in building a school and other infrastructure in addition to providing cash support for villagers and young people

A true champion on and off the field.

KENYA MARATHON RUNNER

Eliud Kipchoge

The best of all time?

For most of the past decade, marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge has been one of the most consistent performers in any event.

In January this year, he stated his desire to win all six Abbott World Marathon Majors. At the time he was halfway to his goal, having previously been victorious in the Berlin, London and Chicago events. By March he had captured the Tokyo title, completing the course in just over 2 hours. This leaves the 38-year-old, whom many unsurprisingly rate as the best of all his to-do list.

Later in 2022 in Berlin, he set a world record in a time of 2:01:09, breaking his own record, set four years earlier on the notoriously quick Berlin course, by an impressive 30 seconds. In fact, the last eight world records have all been set in the German capital, by either a Kenyan or Ethiopian runner.

But perhaps one of the most remarkable pieces of long distance running by any human came in 2019, when during the Ineos 1.59 Challenge, an event specially set up for him to attempt to break the world record, he broke the 2 hour barrier with a time of 1:59:40.2. While, given the nature of the event, his time was not this Kenyan can do the seemingly impossible and run the marathon in under two hours.

He has made the five – man shortlist for the World Athletics Association’s Men’s World Athlete of the Year award.

In 2022 in Berlin, he set a world record time of 2:01:09, breaking his own record, set four years earlier on the notoriously quick Berlin course, by an impressive 30 seconds.

SOMALIA-UK FOOTBALLER AND COACH

Iqra Ismail

Spotlighting Muslim women players

Iqra Ismail, the hijab-wearing Muslim footballer and coach, has already become an inspiration. It says much about the marginalisation of Muslim women that she has been able to do so with a limited career to date, good publicity and determination.

In December 2019, Ismail led a Somalia national women’s team comprising players from the UK and Mogadishu to compete in the Human Rights Cup in Cape Town, and the play in PepsiCo’s Game of Champions at Expo 2020 Dubai.

The worldwide pandemic, which curtailed footballing activity and expectation, did not dim her ambition. For the UK-born Iqra, her childhood hobby has developed into restrictions from which she, herself, has been the victim.

Ismail is the founder of the UK’s NUR (Never Underestimate Resilience) FC, a team for black and ethnic minority women, as well as Director of Hilltop Women’s Football Club in north-west London. She was the youngest person to top the Football Black List in 2019.