First ladies of Africa take page out of US book
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If you need tips on coordinating the east and west wings of an African presidential household, scheduling a visit to a maternity ward or developing leadership without authority, there’s a class for you.
For a week, 12 men and women – all chiefs of staff or advisors to first ladies or wives of prime ministers from Tanzania, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and Kenya – sat for hours on end in a conference room in a glass building in Virginia, taking notes and hanging to the every word of their “teachers”.
Anita McBride, who was chief of staff for former US First Lady Laura Bush, lectured the classes along with Jocelyn Frye, who works with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and Melanne Verveer, who served Hillary Clinton when she was first lady.
It all started last year with a summit in Los Angeles for African first ladies, co-organised by the independent think tank the Rand Corporation.
The organizers felt that while first ladies can be instrumental in bringing much needed change on social issues like infant mortality or education, they are often not able to realize their full potential because of a variety of challenges.
In Africa in particular, the wives of leaders could make a real difference.
“[African first ladies] are mothers of their country, they refer to them as Mama so and so,” said Gery Ryan, a senior social scientist at Rand and one of the organizers of the program.
“They’re probably the only woman in the country who can pick up the phone and talk to anyone, the only other person apart from the president or prime minister who can get on TV and people will listen,” Mr Ryan said.
He added: “So you have access at the top and you have respect and trust at the breadth of your society. So it’s an extremely influential position yet they have no power or authority.”
The class was self-selecting, as the invitation to the summit was sent to all countries last year.
A dozen wives of African leaders attended, and they then expressed interest in taking it further.
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