Announcing the Griots Fellowship Class of 2026: Storytellers Chosen to Carry Africa's Most Important Narratives

The fellows will gather for their Foundation Seminar on 26th and 27th June 2026 at the Latitude Hotel, Makindye, for a two-day residential experience titled Finding Your Unshaken Core: Character, Courage and the Power of the Story. The seminar opens the fellowship's intellectual and personal journey. Before fellows can carry their stories to the world, the programme asks them first to turn inward, to locate the moral clarity, resilience, and courage that will make those stories worth hearing. Drawing on the griot tradition of West Africa, in which the storyteller is not merely an entertainer but the memory of the people and the conscience of the community, the Griots Fellowship treats storytelling as a leadership obligation, not a soft skill.

" As journalists, we are trained to tell other people's stories with precision and courage. What I am looking forward to in the Griots Fellowship is the chance to understand my own story more deeply, to ask not just what I report, but why, and what it costs, and what it means. I think that kind of self-knowledge makes the work better." — Canary Mugume, Senior Investigative Journalist, NBS TV; Griots Fellow 2026

The seminar's discussions will draw on a rich and deliberately diverse set of texts and ideas. Fellows will sit with Judy Brown's poem "The Trough," a quiet meditation on finding stillness and direction in moments of crisis. They will engage Theodore Roosevelt's "Citizenship in a Republic," with its enduring argument that the credit belongs to those who are in the arena, not those who watch from the stands. Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning will ground conversations about purpose-driven leadership and the distinction between leaders who derive identity from outcomes and those who draw it from something deeper and more durable. The programme will also draw on Rumi's "Not Here," Dawna Markova's "Wide Open," and TED talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Brené Brown, and Simon Sinek, weaving together philosophy, psychology, and the craft of storytelling into a single arc. By the close of the two days, each fellow will have begun structuring their own personal story using the Resilience Journey Framework and will make a personal leadership covenant to carry into the fellowship ahead.

" "What strikes me about this cohort is how many of them are already doing the work, in courtrooms, newsrooms, health clinics, theatres, and public squares. They are not waiting for permission to lead. The Griots Fellowship exists to give that leadership a deeper foundation: a story they understand, a voice they trust, and the courage to use it for more than themselves." — Awel Uwihanganye, Co-founder and Programs Lead, LéO Africa Institute

The Griots Fellowship is supported by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and is part of the LéO Africa Institute's broader portfolio of leadership development programmes, which include the Huduma Fellowship and the Young and Emerging Leaders Project (YELP). Together, these programmes form a growing network of transformative leaders across Africa, connected, inspired, and building together for impact.