A bricolage, a pot pourri, a metissage … all words that accurately describe African Leadership College (ALC), ALU’s inaugural campus in Mauritius’, Monday evening Diwali celebration. This event was a reminder of the boundaries we are breaking, and the culture we are creating. Picture this: a tall West African university student, dressed to the nines in dazzling Hindu attire, flowing lines and gold embroidery, his moves setting the mood of the evening.
Diwali is known as the Festival of Lights, an ancient Hindu festival that is one of the most important and celebrated dates in the Mauritian calendar. Students, Faculty and Staff arrived at the brightly lit tent on the beach, resplendent in their colourful garb ready to take part in a day so closely observed by our Mauritian friends and countrymen.
ALC is a fast growing Pan-African community; with students, staff and faculty from over 35 countries. As remote as we are geographically – a spec in the Indian Ocean – this microcosm could well have been a desolate and isolating experience. The opposite is however true. Instead we are part of a bustling and lively community that makes one feel like they are part of a busy, vibrant city.
Like other ALC gatherings – in the residences, classes and recreational spaces – Diwali was an exploration and excursion into an unfolding future that we are creating moment by moment as a community of like-minded and passionate people. This inaugural group of students and faculty are building a network, deliberately imagining, designing and playing guardian to the future of prosperity in Africa. ALU’s modest objective is to make this leadership cadre happen.
Our ambitions as an organisation can sometimes seem far reaching and difficult to conceptualise: 25 campuses with 10,000 students each at capacity. It’s a big, audacious goal. But the idea that a prosperous Africa is within reach, within our lifetimes, in this century is energising and propels us forward. All we need do is dare to imagine it – and to shape that imagining into reality. It is a reality that has just begun and is slowly taking shape in front of our eyes as these students create and dream together. It is a story of the creation of a critical mass of a new generation of leaders that are already driving transformative change across Africa.
It is the kind of bold decision that feels right when a big enough number are jumping right in; that feeling you get when you realise that everyone around you is daring, is pushing and driving towards a prosperous new Africa.
It is a way of being, and every piece of costume, every fervent face, every reverberating step on the dance floor, that hunger to be part of this new world: all speak to the passion and power of this future that we are crafting. Monday night’s celebration was a festival of lights, a festival of colour and a reminder of the boundaries that we continue to break.
Happy Diwali!
