Africa no longer has the luxury of describing itself as potential.
The global order is recalibrating. Energy transitions are redrawing industrial priorities. Strategic minerals have become geopolitical currency. Supply chains are shifting. Capital is seeking stability in uncertain terrain. Africa sits at the centre of these negotiations.
Influence is not the question. Discipline is.
At the launch of Beyond the Ballot in Nairobi, diplomats from across the world joined African public servants, political leaders, private sector executives, women leaders, young professionals and some of the continent’s most consequential storytellers. The convergence was not ceremonial. It reflected an emerging consensus that Africa’s next phase requires alignment between soft power, institutional credibility and strategic intent.
The evening opened with Didier Drogba, whose intervention during Côte d’Ivoire’s period of division demonstrated how moral authority can stabilise a nation when formal politics is under strain. Influence, when anchored in credibility, can widen the space for resolution.
In the room was Luol Deng. Displaced by conflict and forged in global sport, he returned to build institutional capacity in South Sudan’s basketball federation. Under his leadership, the country qualified for the Basketball World Cup. That achievement projected organisation, discipline and national confidence beyond its borders. It demonstrated that soft power, when structured, enhances national positioning.
Africa’s cultural and sporting reach already extends into every major capital. The question is whether that reach is integrated into statecraft or allowed to operate in isolation.
Thebe Ikalafeng has consistently argued that reputation is economic leverage. Narrative shapes how nations are received before negotiations begin. Veteran journalist Milton Nkosi understands that perception often travels faster than policy. If Africa does not articulate its position with clarity and coherence, it negotiates at a disadvantage.
But influence without institutional trust is unstable.
Dr Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, articulated this with strategic precision. Trust is not rhetorical currency. It is negotiating power. In diplomacy, credibility strengthens leverage. In governance, it sustains durability. A state that cannot maintain confidence domestically cannot command authority internationally. His intervention underscored a critical evolution in African leadership thinking. Power in this century is exercised as much through consistency and coherence as through formal authority.
Mutahi Kagwe, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and a seasoned political leader who previously steered the country through the Covid crisis, reinforced the centrality of narrative during moments of national stress. Communication in a pandemic is not supplementary. It shapes compliance, stability and institutional confidence. Narrative, when disciplined and transparent, strengthens state capacity. His intervention was a reminder that leadership in any sector depends on clarity and credibility.
I wrote Beyond the Ballot not to criticise leaders, but to contribute to this discipline. Elections confer authority. They do not secure legitimacy.
President John Mahama has endorsed the book, and within it, a case study reflects on his political trajectory following electoral defeat. He accepted the result, undertook a national listening tour and returned to office with a renewed mandate. Democratic restraint strengthened legitimacy. Engagement deepened the mandate. That is institutional maturity.
Former Presidents Macky Sall and Jakaya Kikwete have endorsed the book’s central proposition, underscoring its relevance at the highest levels of African leadership. Their support is complemented by a distinguished group of case study contributors, leading African thinkers and practitioners whose work reflects the book’s practical and intellectual depth.
Leadership in this era requires credibility anchored in trust and sustained by disciplined communication.
Africa possesses strategic assets that the world requires. It holds demographic weight that will define markets. It commands cultural platforms that influence global perception.
What it risks losing is not relevance.
It risks negotiating from fragmentation rather than from coherence. It risks allowing soft power to operate without strategic integration. It risks entering high-stakes global bargaining without the domestic trust required to sustain its position.
Africa, once described as the future, is now a present actor in a shifting order.
Authority must align with influence. Narrative must align with policy. Trust must be treated as infrastructure.
Votes are counted in a day.
Trust is built daily.
In this moment of recalibration, Africa must not merely participate. It must negotiate from strength.
Image © Emmanuel Yegon
