Bay woman’s message to Obama:
Great name, great place, US president tells Bay entrepreneur
Young leaders meet Obama in Washington “GREAT name, great place.” These were the words of US President Barack Obama when greetings from Nelson Mandela Bay were delivered to him in Washington DC by the metro’s young leaders this week.
Minutes after announcing the new name of his massified training, leadership development and capacity-building initiative for young Africans – now the Mandela Washington Fellowship – Obama was walking the perimeter shaking hands with some of the 500 leaders his state department chose to be part of the inaugural initiative.
Four Eastern Cape fellows on the Young African Leaders Initiative (Yali) were there to witness one of the world’s most influential leaders speaking on matters related to the continent and some even got to shake his hand.
“It was a fleeting but electric moment. I was there representing my country, but also the city I am so passionate about,” said Amy Shelver, head of Meropa Communications Port Elizabeth and co-founder of youth creative industries network, the n_mb city project, who spent six weeks at Dartmouth College on the Yali business and entrepreneurship track.
“As he shook my hand, I had to say, ‘with greetings from Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa’, to which he responded, ‘great name, great place’.
“I am not 100% certain if he meant South Africa or Nelson Mandela Bay, but whatever the case it was an honour to meet the man who has recognised the value of nurturing leadership among young people on a continent where over 65% of the population is under the age of 35.
“I have never been in a room where the atmosphere is so electric. It felt like a suspended limbo while he engaged on where the continent was and what could be. Animated, eloquent, composed, sharp and witty, but also very human, each movement broad, bold and calculated – he has successfully cultivated leadership presence.
“The effect and experience was made more powerful by the knowledge I was sitting among 500 future chief executives, parliamentary members, non-profit heads, leading activists – some, in fact, already are – and perhaps even future presidents. Obama has recognised the power of Africa’s greatest resource, not its raw materials and minerals, but its people.”
Another Eastern Cape fellow, Thabang Moleko, a property manager for the Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works, held back on a prime opportunity to shake hands with POTUS.
“I didn’t have to, because I felt that we had met him for six weeks already – every moment of the Yali experience is hinged on his personal faith in Africa and his actions to cultivate young talent,” Moleko, who was based at Morgan State University, said.
“Next time, I if I have a chance to meet him again, it will be to thank him and to ask him how I could help him as he has helped me.
“To see an African son step into the most powerful office in the world makes you realise that anything is possible. There was so much potential in that room that could completely change what Africa is about. You look at the energy that the children of the Soweto Riots of 1976 children showed in creating and shaping change.
“We are far more skilled and far better positioned than they ever were – and look at what they did. We can do much more.”
Also representing the Eastern Cape at the Yali were Bongi Ndakisa from Mthatha, Warren Johannes from East London and Bonolo Cebe from Port Elizabeth.
The fellows are due back in South Africa this week, but the fellowship has just begun as they prepare to share and put into practice what they have learned.