Hosting President Nana of Ghana at Princeton…

By the time I arrived Princeton in mid-July 2018, I’d learned that the campus could use some “Africa mojo”. With help from some of the most enterprising and intelligent people on earth, I launched the Africa Summit at Princeton as an annual opportunity to promote scholarly, academic and professional opportunities in the Princeton community.

Within 10 months, we hosted the first Summit — with lovely pictures. For the first time in history, the President of Ghana visited Princeton. He delivered a thoughtful and engaging lecture on the case for Africa. In the Africa game, Yale is well ahead of Princeton (this past week, Peter Salovey, President of Yale has been traipsing around Nigeria!) but we move.

My desire for the Summit is to encourage the world’s brightest to participate actively, early and enthusiastically in Africa’s development. When Princeton alums look back, I hope they point to that moment when they engaged with high caliber leadership as a critical juncture in their journey. I am proud and thankful to have initiated what will hopefully become a historical marker in Princeton-Africa relations.

Excerpts from President Nana’s Speech [Video Below]

“I thank the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies for the honor of this invitation to speak at the inaugural Africa Summit and to be at a university which has been responsible for producing many important men and women who are doing great things in their respective fields of endeavor across the world. The chance to speak here was one I could not pass. I’m glad to be in the midst of so many people eager to discuss the future of Africa.

The theme of this year’s maiden conference “The Future is African: Translating Vision into Action” is most compelling as it speaks directly to the nature of the existential challenge confronting contemporary Africa. It is obvious that we need to get on with things that will change the Africa story. The daily grim stories of our young people trekking across the Sahara and dying from thirst from being washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean as they try to get into Europe. We cannot be proud. And according to the Bookings Institute, nearly 413 million of the population of SSA lives in poverty with some 140 million African youths being unemployed and 89 million children of school-going age out of school. Therefore comes as no surprise that our continent attracts the unfriendliest of adjectives.

We must change the narrative, make Africa attractive for our youth, enabling them to see the continent as a place of opportunities and generate wealth and prosperity for our people. All of us, citizens, leaders have our work cut out…”