KIGALI, Rwanda—As geopolitics shifts and development finance tightens, African countries are being urged to reimagine how to meet their own challenges with home-grown solutions.
The call was made this week during the two-day Africa Mindset Reset Forum, Africa’s flagship gathering on ideas, leadership, and institutions.
The event that kicked off on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, and ended on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, was convened by the African School of Governance.
Over the two days at the Kigali Convention Centre, over 1,000 leaders explored the shift from Pan-Africanism to Meta-Africanism.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who shot the first salvo, underscored that Africa’s challenge was no longer simply identifying its problems or defining the solutions but changing the behaviours and attitudes that have kept the continent from achieving its ambitions.
During the panel discussion, he called for greater alignment between what Africans say they want and what they actually do.
“We have to change our continent, but we can’t change our continent without changing our behavior, our way of doing things, our attitudes,” said Kagame.
Why African countries must walk the talk
Kagame observed that African countries have to stop saying things about what they have to do and then start doing different things.
“We have to match what we say and what we want with what we do and then be able to see the results. And there are no two ways about it. We can’t keep running around in circles and sometimes congratulating ourselves, sometimes hugging each other, and then doing this. But after a year, or three years, or five years, when we look back, we find we are either in the same place where we were or have even moved backwards,” he added.
The Rwandan leader also observed that Africans need to challenge themselves and say, “Why? Why have we even gone to a point where we are reduced to simply admiring others?” And “others” means not others among us, no, others outside of the continent. Why don’t we do things so that we can actually admire each other among us?”
In his own words, Kagame, the host of the event themed “From Pan-Africanism to Meta-Africanism,” went on:
“Some people are capable of doing good things, and why don’t we join them and do exactly that? And that attitude, that mindset of admiring others, is what reduces us to being subjects of all kinds of dictates.”
Speaking at the same time, former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn indicated that there was a need to change the political economy from a rent-seeking-dominated political economy to a developmental political economy.
“And that calls for nothing short of leadership. Right. So leadership is a key. Therefore, you know, there are several issues that we can mention: the mental setup or the mindset that has to be changed. But our future, even the current one, rests on our young people. So if we do not, you know, cultivate a critical mass of future leaders now at this time, because it’s a generational journey. It’s not just fixing in a month or in a year. It should go for generations. And that calls for beginning somewhere,” explained Desalegn.
The quality of leadership needed on the African continent
On his part, former South African President Thabo Mbeki observed that the real issue in Africa is about the people who must act to ensure that the continent achieves its identified objectives.
“Hence the request that we must focus on the matter of a mindset reset, and, to put it differently, this is about the quality of leadership. We need leadership with the mindset of a principled and dedicated agent for fundamental change to enable our continent to achieve its renaissance,” said Mbeki.
Mbeki, an economist turned politician who served as the second democratic president of South Africa from June 16, 1999, to September 24, 2008, said Africans should look for genuine pan-Africanists or meta-Africanists, defenders of African independence and unity, and combatants against neocolonialism.
“Active participants in African developmental programs such as the African Continental Free Trade Area and active drivers for Africa’s rightful place in global affairs. I think that’s one group of distinguishing features about the leaders we’re looking for,” he added.
Mbeki, who is widely recognised as a major intellectual force in African politics, said, “We’re also looking for leaders who have the necessary legitimacy. And that legitimacy would derive in the first instance from the fact of having been genuinely elected, affirming one’s respect for the people as a repository of sovereign power. It is in reality impossible to rely on leaders who lack this legitimacy to act as agents for the genuine transformation of our continent in favor of the ordinary masses of the people.”
In her address, Ghanaian Vice President Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang reiterated that there was a need for Africans to go back to the fundamentals and then imagine something that Pan-Africanists imagined: a continent capable of going into negotiations with the proper information, education, confidence, and willingness to do what it is that helps the continents to grow and grow and be sustainable.
“That is also very important. So we should move ourselves from a position where we think others should or must do things for us. Nobody should be doing anything for us. We’ll be doing it for ourselves, and it’s about time. Okay. We need to move away from, you know, what you want to do, your budget, and how much somebody is bringing you and how much the person is not bringing you. All that time wasting. Spend it on how much you can give yourself,” she said.
The much-needed African vision for prosperity
Prof. Agyemang said all this is about putting the self forward and also putting the country forward.
“You know, we’ve done a lot, so let’s not give, you know, give up. So much has been done. We have our blocks and so on. Yes, we are not perfect. We have a system; we need to continue to grow,” she added.
The vice president emphasised that Africans need to be focused on the vision.
“And the vision is to have the Africa we want. We cannot just have the Africa we want. We must have an Africa and contribute to it,” she added.
Africa moves to reset the lenses as the world transforms
Claudine Umutoniwase, a career coach at Victoria University, Kampala, said the world is changing, and technology is rewriting industries.
“And as that happens, our roots still matter—our history, identity, and the struggles that have shaped us—but they cannot be the limitation of our imagination. The truth is, what brought us here might not take us there. The next chapter demands a whole different mindset, and that means asking different questions,” said Claudine.
For a long time, Claudine, founder of Betha Mynds, remarked that people have looked at Africa through lenses of scarcity.
“What we lack, what we do not have, and who is responsible. But now we are resetting the lenses from scarcity to abundance, competition to collaboration, and waiting for solutions to creating African solutions for African problems by Africans. Because the question is no longer, What don’t we have? It is, “What can we do with what we have?” “And that is what the Africa Mindset Reset Forum is all about,” Claudine further explained.
Meanwhile, Desalegn, the co-founder of the African School of Governance, disclosed that alongside President Kagame, they established the school as a place where there will be a practical movement.
“This is a big movement now. So if we don’t participate in our masses, as President Mbeki was saying, we cannot change Africa. So only political elites cannot change Africa. Only business elites cannot change Africa. We need the masses behind the agenda, and that can only be done if we do have a cohort and critical mass of leaders, young leaders, that are taking responsibility for the future of our continent,” added Desalegn.
