Cameroonian Acha Leke, a partner at Mckinsey & Company, and the co-Founder of the African Leadership Network and the African Leadership Academy, tells Homecoming Revolution why he decided to take the plunge and come home.
When I started thinking about going back to the continent in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, nobody was going back. We had just come out of a decade of no growth, corruption and an AIDS pandemic and I remember somebody saying they would only go back when there is power in Nigeria.
I remember thinking that we complain and complain about issues on the continent and we always hear educated Africans saying they will only go back when things change. But if we, who have had a taste of what life is like in the diaspora, don’t go back to change things who will?
The fundamental question was: Whose responsibility is it to effect the change we so badly wanted? So I took the plunge & my parents were like why are you coming back to the continent? It was the best personal decision I ever made. It’s been 13 years and I haven’t looked back. I spent 10 years trying to convince Africans to come back to the continent but my attitude is very different now – it’s now not about trying to convince you to come back you are missing out if you are not on the continent – you have seen all the statistics. My message is very simple come home. You will look back one day and ask yourself why you didn’t.
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