“Our purpose is not to reach chummy agreements, but to challenge our Fellows with well-constructed arguments against their world view, to examine the idea of compromise, and to test its limits; to unsettle and to stretch our Fellows. Good debates on race, gender politics and economics are rare– there are very few other places in South Africa, or indeed the world, where such communication can occur.”
Like most organisations which stand the test of time, ALI was founded by a hard-driving entrepreneur. Isaac Shongwe had so valued his Henry Crown experience, and the readings and fellowship it gave him that he teamed up with classmates Peter Reiling; Ken Ofori-Atta (who subsequently became the Minister of Finance of Ghana); and the late Ali Mufuruki, to bring the Aspen programme to Africa.
I remember the first meeting we had, in April 2003. We sat in the Barloworld offices, munching on snacks and enjoying corporate hospitality while Isaac told us what this initiative was all about. “We will send you reading lists with excerpts from Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, Hobbes’ Leviathon, Darwin’s Ascent of Man, Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, Simone de Bouvier’s The Second Sex, Isaiah Berlin’s On Liberty… that sort of thing. And then we’ll get moderators to come out from Aspen to moderate you guys to discuss those readings.”
I remember thinking to myself: “That’s going to work.” We were sceptical, but we marveled at Isaac’s infectious enthusiasm. We looked around at each other, and realised we were a diverse bunch, with only one thing in common: we were all FoIs – Friends of Isaac. We thought this could be the name of our class, but we were too disorganised to formalise it, so we got assigned the rather unoriginal name, the Inaugural Class.
Our class period was from 2003 to 2005. What was striking was the important part the anti-apartheid struggle of the 70s and 80s had played in most of our lives. Several of our classmates had spent arduous months and years in apartheid prisons, some enduring terrible torture. The struggle was a visceral backdrop to our ethereal readings, informing almost all of our debates. Observing Fellows from the 12th and 13th classes, we saw that for them the 80s was at best a childhood memory, and for some a historical period – this is a tribute to ALI’s longevity.
So yes, ALI has stood the test of time. We have built solid foundations, and by September this year, we will have graduated our 13th class – some 260 Fellows, all of whom have gone through the vigorous debates and discussions of the sometimes impenetrable readings; have had that nervous feeling of arriving at Spier, wondering what this is about; had that sinking feeling, reading the same paragraph of Aristotle for the 10th time with no discernable improvement in comprehension. They’ve done their first read-through of Antigone, thinking “how are we going to herd the cats of our class to put together a play with any semblance of meaning?”, and they’ve had that satisfying feeling shared by every class in every AGLN Fellowship around the world when it’s done.
We’ve all shared that experience of moderated discussions, of trying to express our contributions to the class discussions; and felt the light come on in our minds about the readings, as others give their views, and moderators prod and nudge the ideas forward.
The moderators for ALI started off with the best: Keith Berwick, Peter Reiling, Skip Battle. The efforts that they made to get our ALI programme off the ground… Skip Battle flying from San Francisco to Barloworld in Mpumalanga. He is a Board member of Netflix, a Board member and on the audit committee of LinkedIn, an early-stage investor of GoPro, Expedia and Netflix, yet he was willing to fly 36 hours to spend six days moderating four seminars for the first four classes. Think of the effort, the time, the prioritisation that took. He did it because he really believed in the value and the power of this process, of taking leaders at an inflection point in their careers through a deep, rigorous, challenging engagement with the conversations that have taken place over the past two and a half thousand years; and to apply that ancient wisdom to our own very real leadership challenges. Those early leaders made sure that we didn’t get away with any erudite philosophical discussions at 20 000 feet, but brought all the debates back to: what are you going to do about this? What action are you going to take when you get back to your office on Monday?
South Africa was the first Fellowship to operate with its own moderators, and we have struggled on, for better or for worse. We have had the undoubted privilege of being guided and herded by Watanan Petersik, that unique combination of Mother Hen and Vampire Squid, who has kept us on a tight rein.
Over the two decades of ALI’s existence, many stars have gone through the programme. Ralph Freese has been an outstanding contributor through his committed participation throughout. In Class III, Seriti, social impact was massively boosted by the school feeding programme instituted by Fellow Charles Luyckx and implemented by Fellows in subsequent classes – nine million school kids have been given two meals a day in the poorest areas of South Africa for many years. A meeting between Nicola Galombik of the same class and Adi Enthoven (Class II: Kilimanjaro) led to the youth employment work of Harambee, plus countless other development initiatives from within that stable. We recognise with real gratitude that the thread through the years is the extraordinary generosity of Adi, who supported our efforts beyond any call of duty.
We had the benefit of the mellifluous voice of the sadly late Sibongile Khumalo, who Nelson Mandela described as a national treasure; and we’ve had heavyweight politicians and government officials in, amongst others, Mike Mabuyakhulu, Kuben Naidoo (Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank) and Busani Ngcaweni, serving in the Office of the President at the time of the class. We had the benefit of the Maluleke sisters, Tsakani and Basani who (from a news point of view) seem to take it in terms to be most famous.
Class VII boasts the winner of the McNulty Prize, Rejane Woodroffe, for her Bulungula Incubator project. In the McNulty process, ALI punches above its weight on the world stage. Dele Olojede also won the McNulty Prize for his media work in Nigeria, and in terms of the number of McNulty laureates, finalists and prize winners, ALI still has the most out of any Fellowship, including the Henry Crown (and we have far fewer classes).
This cursory glance at the Fellows shows that we select for diversity. There’s no typical ALI Fellow, no one type. We select Fellows with deeply opposing views on business, politics, the environment, and on how to construct a Good Society. Our readings illustrate and amplify the opposing views. Our purpose is not to reach chummy agreements, but to challenge our Fellows with well-constructed arguments against their world view, to examine the idea of compromise, and to test its limits; to unsettle and to stretch our Fellows. Good debates on race, gender politics and economics are rare. Genuinely differing opinions voiced within a safe space, moderated so that everyone has a fair chance to express their views, and with the writings of great thinkers to anchor the discussions – there are very few other places in South Africa, or indeed the world, where such communication can occur.
It’s been an incredible 20 years. Let’s ensure we make it to 50.
This is an edited transcript of Bruce’s comments, you can watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKC_RUWtKUE
FUTURE GOALS:
ALI’s first 20 years are but the starting point of intrinsic values-based leadership in generations to come. The Initiative holds high ideals for the near future:
- We aim to create more high impact ventures benefiting as many South Africans as possible.
- ALI will remain a support base for Fellows to utilise their influence in promoting our constitutional democracy and values based leadership.
- The platform will allow future Fellows to contribute more ideas and perspectives to build a more inclusive society which is abundant for all.
Sufficient Funds will ensure that the above-mentioned outcomes become a reality and that the tangible social impact ALI has made over the past two decades will continue.
