“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” —Warren Bennis


Few weeks ago, scholars of the European Erasmus Masters in Education Policies for Global Development (GLOBED), had a visiting professor from Stanford University, lecture us on some themes in the programme syllabus. The professor, Joel Samoff, is a Consulting Professor, African Studies, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University. His years of experience in education, research and evaluation, make him a force to be reckoned with in global education and development discourses.

His classes were most inspiring to me because he taught from his wealth of research and experiences on Africa. I was very much interested because I am from Nigeria, an African Country, so I could easily relate to his examples. I had great respect for him because I saw him different from other ‘top’ researchers from the West who spend few days in some African countries and feel that all of Africa is the same or in some ignorant cases ‘Africa is a country’.

Furthermore, these ‘top’ researchers claim the legitimacy of proffering the best practices for different sectors of the society to many African countries and upholding the belief that no good thing can come out of Africa, except it be given to her by ‘them’.

Professor Samoff though obviously from the West, has actually lived and worked in many African countries, so I could give him the benefit of the doubt. He shared many ideas with we, the students, and our professors. One of the ideas he shared that struck me was the idea that the givers of foreign aid, grants, policies etc. to developing countries - including African countries - who we often in most cases refer to as ‘donors’ are essentially ‘takers’. In other words, the donors benefit from the relationship and donations in the long term. I believe this is true, even the Holy Bible confirms to us that ‘givers never lack’.

The programme coordinators later organized a dinner for Professor Samoff and his wife – who accompanied him to experience the beautiful city of Barcelona. At the dinner, I was privileged to sit close to Prof. Samoff; there were so many chitchats that night and at some point, I became curious. I asked this question: “Sir, from your wealth of research experience and expertise working in the African context; what do you think Africa needs to do right to attain that ‘developed’ status like Europe and North America?” Professor Samoff paused for some seconds and responded: “I think African countries should be pacesetters rather than being followers”, he went further to give many brilliant examples supporting this idea.

This got me really thinking, and I responded to his answer by pointing out that the relationship that exists between Africa and the developed world is unequal and exploitative in nature. This is also traceable to the colonial periods, so I argued for a ‘de-linking’ instead.

Professor Samoff responded by arguing that he did not agree with the de-linking idea because the world is a global village and we all need one another to exist.

He believes that African countries can borrow ideas on what makes things work in the developed world and redefine those ideas in line with their values and socio-cultural context to achieve success. For example, universities in Africa should inquire of what makes Harvard, Oxford and Stanford Universities great and apply these ideas within their situational and environmental context. This is also applicable to other sectors of the society.

So, instead of waiting for the ‘best practices and policies’ from the global north, I believe African countries should investigate what makes the United States of America (USA) relevant! Rather than only wanting the USA to be the ‘Superman’ that flies to her rescue. Africa should observe the developed nature of the European continent and learn from such findings in order to create her own pathway.

Then, Africa can become a Pacesetter and not Follower!


“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
- Pablo Picasso



Seun Adebayo
Graduate Student under Erasmus Master in Education Policies for Global Development (GLOBED)
Erasmus Masters Scholar (2015-2017)