Africa in the World

October 21-24, 2026

Stellenbosch, South Africa

View the 2025 Festival Highlights

Our Story

A Festival of Hearts and Minds

Welcome to Africa In the World, a festival that brings together the world’s most innovative thinkers and top leaders to platform invigorating ideas for fresh changes and sustainable solutions for African people. Our purpose is to spark connections and engage actions that can move African society forward. Learn more about our story and meet our founder, Dele Olojede, who believes in the power of dialogue to bring the best and brightest together in unearthing solutions that can be implemented and sustained over the long term.

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Africa In the World is an ideas festival. We have conceived it as a convening of great minds, not only to explore how the best ideas can help us solve our biggest challenges, but also to infuse the festival with spirit. That’s why we don’t call it a conference. We call it a festival of hearts and minds.

Dele Olojede

2025 Festival Highlights

When we are radically inclusive, intentionally committing to bringing everyone around the table, we are always better off.
— David Moinina Sengeh #AfricaIntheWorld2025
In these societies, with the history of violence, we are challenged to constantly be thinking about: How do you relate to one another?
— Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela #AfricaIntheWorld2025
The more you listen, the more curious you are, and the more legible and available material becomes.
— Neo Muyanga #AfricaIntheWorld2024
Be open to things that appear in the cracks — things at the edges of improvisations, new ideas, which are small ideas at the side that can take over.
— William Kentridge #AfricaIntheWorld2025
For me, political morality begins when one is able to identify with any people anywhere in the world without hedging, without fudging, without relativism.
— Wole Soyinka #AfricaIntheWorld2023
We came from a generation of artists who were really interested in this idea of shifting art from a question of commodity into a gift.
— Ibrahim Mahama #AfricaIntheWorld2025
The mistake we make in Africa often is that we see independence as the cure, when really, I would say it’s a misdiagnosis… independence was the breaking of the fever.
— Mohamed Ali Diini #AfricaIntheWorld2025
We live in a world without burning bushes, but the forests are on fire.
— Alan Storey #AfricaIntheWorld2024
I fervently believe that we’ve got an amazingly good constitution. It speaks to the past and to the future. It speaks to rights and obligations. But it’s observed in the breach.
— Trevor Manuel #AfricaIntheWorld2025
I believe that the single silver bullet that will solve 70% of our problems in Africa will be the education of the girl child.
— The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II #AfricaIntheWorld2019
This is not to say we should disregard these technologies, but that we should be focused on how we make them work for 8 billion people rather than eight billionaires.
— Alix Dunn #AfricaIntheWorld2024
If you cannot identify your stakeholders and map where you have influence and power to shift dynamics in a society, then frankly, you’re wasting your time.
— Jumoke Oduwole #AfricaIntheWorld2025
We will make more progress by working to tackle common problems than fighting a common enemy.
— Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka #AfricaIntheWorld2023
We may dislike politicians, but they shape our lives, and they set the ceiling of what can be.
— Dare Okoudjou #AfricaIntheWorld2025
This is what we need to come to realise: that my story today could be your story tomorrow, my pain today could be your pain tomorrow.
— Hope Azeda #AfricaIntheWorld2023
Our project is to become more human and more humane. That work never ends.
— Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana #AfricaIntheWorld2023
Luckily, we do not live in the West, but in this far-off province of grief and sunlight, where we still have enough ancestral knowledge to know you must weep collectively in choirs.
— Dominique Botha #AfricaIntheWorld2025

Highlights from the 2025 Festival

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2025 Speakers

David Moinina Sengeh

Sierra Leone

Dr David Moinina Sengeh is the Chief Minister and Innovation Officer of the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone, advising the President and Vice President and coordinating with ministries, departments, and agencies to deliver on the government’s agenda. Previously, […]

William Kentridge

South Africa

William Kentridge is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions. His method combines drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre, and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, yet […]

Jumoke Oduwole

Nigeria

Dr Jumoke Oduwole MFR is the Honourable Minister, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Before serving as Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke was Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu […]

Daniel Erasmus

Netherlands

Daniel Erasmus is a member of the Club of Rome, as well as a member of the AI Expert Group under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He conceived of and led the development of ClimateGPT, the world’s […]

Awam Amkpa

United Arab Emirates

Awam Amkpa is an accomplished and world-renowned theatre scholar and practitioner — director, playwright, actor, filmmaker, and curator of visual and performing arts. He is Dean of Arts and Humanities and Vice Provost for the Arts at New York University […]

Trevor Manuel

South Africa

Trevor Manuel served as a Cabinet Minister from 1994 to 2014 under the first four Presidents of democratic South Africa: Mandela, Mbeki, Motlanthe and Zuma. He was first appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Trade and Industry in May 1994, […]

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View all 2024 Speakers