I am excited to share below my favourite quotes from the engagements I had with each of the contributors to the coffee table book “Tana At Ten: A Celebration”. You can read the full contributors’ reflections here: https://hesphina.com/2025/01/06/tana-at-ten-publications/
“With the same disarming candidness as the deliberations during the Tana Forum itself, Dr Rukato pertinently highlights some of the forum’s challenges. Amid a plethora of new dialogue fora on the continent, it is crucial that Tana maintains robust ownership of African leaders, secures stable and diversified sources of funding to guarantee its autonomy and strengthens its institutional governance structures. These are essential preconditions to guarantee both smooth proceedings and high-level participation.”
Dr Tobias Thiel, Director, GIZ African Union
“I always say that God is a God of diversity. If God had been God of sameness, that everything created is the same, it would be so boring, monotonous. God being so wise, he created diversity. Unfortunately, when leaders come into office, they either ignore or mismanage diversity. This is a fundamental cause of lack of peace, security and stability in Africa.”
H.E Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and first Chairman of the Tana Forum on Security in Africa
“I want to thank my own predecessor, the late Prime Minister Zenawi, who instructed our party that we need a succession plan, and our party started documenting studies and thinking about a strategy for succession to take place. I am a result of that succession planning. By the time he passed away, early preparation had been made. We had some little hiccups, but even after his passing the transition was managed properly.”
H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, former Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and former Tana Forum Advisory Board member
“While more forums have subsequently come on board, the Tana Forum has been the pioneering pacesetter: it has created critical momentum for the AU agenda. But more still needs to be done.
More emphasis needs to be put on implementing the forum’s recommendations. I wish the Tana Forum many more years, …the African Union stands ready to work with the IPSS, as well as all stakeholders in every field, for the betterment of our continent.”
Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS)
“Are African governments managing triggers of conflict such as poverty, marginalisation of people, disparities between rich and poor, and population growth. If so, why are we having all these coups d’état, and why are they being celebrated? I can go further and say, what about elections, are leaders accountable to their people, do they believe in these elections? Because today, leaders who are elected, and I am not just talking of heads of state, I am talking about members of parliament as well, are they accountable to the citizens? So, people do not have faith in elections any more, that is why they take up arms to fight, because elections are marred by rigging and vote-buying, and all kinds of activities. Do we not, with all these powerful people coming in, need excellent research, don’t we need to go to the drawing board and translate some of these issues into action?”
Hon. Betty Bigombe: Former Senior Director for Fragility, Conflict and Violence, World Bank, former Tana Advisory Board member, conflict and peace negotiation expert, and participant.
“The technical committee may not always get everything right, but the effort it demonstrates is commendable. Another laudable effort of the Tana Forum is the involvement of younger thought leaders, its student essay competition, and its efforts to involve the private sector. The establishment and convening of the Meles Zenawi Lecture Series also offers an opportunity for Africans to reflect on African leadership legacies, to reflect on what we can learn from people such as Kwame Nkrumah, through their good and bad attributes. Dr De Coning says that all these are examples of how within the Tana Forum we tried to focus on African issues, involve African thought leaders and focus on African history.”
Dr Cedric de Coning: research professor with the Peace, Conflict and Development Research Group at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, peace and security expert, and a former member of the Technical Committee of the Tana Forum.
“And my message (to young people) is if there are those opportunities within your community and your country for young people to engage with the national government, even if this is not a very popular option, engage with your national government and engage with your local council. You may not have the same political views, but when it comes to issues of development, these are issues that affect all of us. It is getting more and more important for all of us to contribute towards a better country and a better Africa, as well as a better world. So, get involved, and also make use of the opportunity of institutional changes in organisations.”
Ms Cynthia Chigwenya: Tana Forum participant, peace and security expert, AU Youth Ambassador for Southern Africa (2022-2024).
“We have made efforts to understand that women will speak and must be at the table, whether men like it or not. Women are going to be part of the solution…Why are our member states going overseas to beg? What we need is to accelerate unity, and develop tools through alliances and partnerships, unity and common purpose.”
Mme Bineta Diop, women’s rights activist, AU Commission Chairperson’s Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security.
“We put the candidates in rank order. We had our own reasons. He picked the third one, who was former President Obasanjo, and he had good reasons for not taking up the first and second ones, which was excellent. He then promised to write us a support letter to give to President Obasanjo, asking him to be Chairperson of the forum. At that time, we had already set a meeting appointment with former President Obasanjo at his residence in Nigeria. We had also recruited a head of the secretariat. Initially we recruited a high-level lady, Michelle Ndiaye, but she took another responsibility. And then we found a replacement, Dr Hesphina Rukato, who had served as deputy CEO of NEPAD, a very, very organised lady, very focused, very much duty-bound and disciplined. So, we brought her. She was very much instrumental in this high-level networking.”
Dr. Mulugeta Gebrehiwot, former Director of the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) at Addis Ababa University.
“I always say as Africans, we are not going anywhere. The African continent is not going anywhere. We are the ones who must change the system. Don’t wait for other people to come and solve your problems, or issues or challenges, look deep within yourself. I believe we have agency as Africans. I believe we have ability. We have insight. But we need to find ways to marry that with political action that will in fact shift the agenda on the African continent. This is my belief, and I will continue working along these lines with the hope that all the young people, all the women, all the men of this continent, will join us on this quest to build a much more peaceful and prosperous Africa going forward.”
Prof. Tim Murithi: Head of the Peacebuilding Interventions Programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, and Extraordinary Professor of African Studies at the Centre for Gender and African Studies, University of the Free State former Tana Forum Technical Committee member. During the 10th Tana Forum in 2022, he was awarded the Tana @Ten Award for three decades of contributing to peace, security, transitional justice and governance research and practice across Africa.
“So, for me, I think it was a moment of reckoning just to see researchers and academics being honest with the policymakers and the decisionmakers. Without necessarily, you know, fear of backlash. It’s a platform that has not yet been replicated at the national level, where policymakers can have an honest conversation…I think that has really been a big, big contribution for the Tana Forum. Involving young people in such conversation has been quite critical. And of course, in line with our recognition that in Africa, the youth are our demographic dividend.”
Dr Martha Mutisi, former Tana Forum Technical Committee member, and peace and security expert.
“You feel the vibes of pan-Africanism, which is not very strong in North African countries. So, when you go to the Tana Forum, you feel pan-Africanism very much. Obviously the first one was very exciting for me. It was the first time to see heads of state speaking in such an informal manner…To my generation, I think we need to adapt to all this new technology and artificial intelligence and be able to use them to empower the concepts of peace and security, which will not come without confronting our challenges of human rights, disrespect or exclusiveness. So, we have a duty to do more for the new generation.”
Prof. Noha Bakr: academic and member of the National Council of Human Rights in Cairo, Egypt. Former Tana Forum Technical Committee member, and peace and security expert.
Share your favourite quote.