Something that caught my attention during our amazing leadership dinner earlier this week, it was a short discussion on how lucky South-Africa was to have great leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Walter Sisulu and many alike being alive at the same time in the same country. We accredit South-Africa’s liberation from apartheid primarily to the striking coincidence of these great men being alive and in South-Africa at a crucial time. Of course one can dispute this by arguing these great leaders came up because of the apartheid system rather than in spite of it, however this raises the question of whether or not leaders are made or born. Whatever your thoughts on this may be, the fact remains South-Africa had a power house of great leaders all alive and in one country at the same time. This was in a time of change for South-Africa and South-Africa had the arsenal, the leadership arsenal, to make change happen and change a nation forever.

So I wondered if we have the same leadership arsenal in the world today. Looking at the state of the world, it is certainly clear we need the likes of Nelson Mandela in conflict resolution in places such as the Middle East. Many people question the ability of today’s leaders to bring positive change in the world and rightly so, because there hasn’t been a leadership parallel to that of Nelson Mandela or Martin Luthur King, Jr. There haven’t been colossal efforts to eradicate many of the world’s problems such as poverty, racial and gender inequality, water scarcity and many more. It seems that solving global problems is a seasonal process; there is a season where each problem comes up in the U.N or A.U and other organizations, while people affected by these problems die on a daily basis. This is largely due to the institutionalization of leadership through organizations like the U.N. But this is not the only factor hindering positive change. Gone are the days when great men did not only live for something, but were willing to die for it. Maybe we don’t need such drastic measures of leadership, but we certainly need something to inspire change.

In pondering the idea of great leaders being alive at the same time and influencing a nation to change I turned my thoughts to myself and SAWIP. Am I not alive in an age of great leaders? Will the world ever have the caliber of Nelson Mandela again? I am tempted to say no, but in reflecting upon SAWIP and what it entails, I realize I live in an age where potential great leaders are not just alive, but brought together and supported to collaborate in such a way that transcends anything ever done in the past. The organized effort to bring together young emerging leaders in a cooperative network that creates a bond and platform, which will last a life time for these leaders to interact and collaborate their efforts to solve and address global issues, is an unprecedented truth. This could be the greatest time to be alive in the history of our country and the world. I believe I am more fortunate to be alive in this day and age where not just a few great are alive at the same time, but a network of potential great leaders are alive, active and being equipped to solve the world’s problems. The only thing we need to do, the only thing the SAWIP students should do, is live up the potential and faith that is entrusted in them. If we all do that, history will tell a story of a network of great leaders being alive at the same time and inspired colossal efforts which changed the world.