Why I’m studying Africa and International Development

Losing 'H'

In 2018, I lost a pupil in my classroom. Together, we all had an end of the year Christmas party before I travelled home for the holiday. But when I returned for the new term, I heard the devastating news. But more agonising were the circumstances surrounding her death.

I'll call her by the first letter of her name: "H".

Becoming a classroom teacher

In 2017, while working in Media and Communications, I started volunteering with Leap Africa in a public secondary school in the neighbourhood, taking classes in leadership with the students. Every week, we would meet and I would facilitate sessions on goal-setting, patriotism, visioning, budgeting, project management, and every other skill a leader should have.

This volunteering experience would change my life. For the first time, I was standing at the other side of the classroom, not as a student but as the teacher. It was electrifying to experience the exchange of ideas in the classroom and how committed the students were to growing, becoming leaders and creating a better community for themselves and their families.

At the end of our time together, we took on a change project, to build wash facilities for girls in the school and also create a community development project that will encourage motorists close to the school to drive more consciously and reduce road accidents involving students.

Towards the end of my time as a volunteer, something had changed, I was deeply invested in the education of young people. In a short time, I had experienced its transformational power. And I had even dared to have a vision, that if every young person in Nigeria receives an excellent education, we will build a different, better, society.

But I realised that this was going to be far-fetched. I had come across Teach For Nigeria, an organisation I had just learned about in 2017 explained the crisis of education and even more offered an opportunity to solve it.

With his new vision for education, I joined Teach For Nigeria as one of its first cohorts. I left my job in the media, packed my bags and started a new job in Abeokuta as a primary 5 teacher in a public primary school. And for two years, I worked to ensure that the 82 kids in my classroom received a quality education and that other children in my host community could access the same.

Education was the silver bullet for me. I was passionate and hungry about making a difference. When I got to the classroom, I did everything to ensure that the 82 children in my classroom learned. It was a public school and we didn't have the budget for anything at all - even a pencil. But we would go out and get a kerosene stove and kettle for our science demonstration.

I saw children who came to school hungry every morning, without notebooks nor textbooks. They came from homes with abusive parents and guardians, from poverty and neglect. Although my experience showed me the transformational power of a quality education, I doubted my theory of education as the silver bullet. Quality education alone isn’t what my pupils needed at the time. They also needed a stronger economic and social system, a viable health sector, and the political will to make these a reality.

So it was evident that I wouldn't make much difference as a teacher if I wasn't ready to go beyond the classroom to create relief for the bigger problems that existed within the communities. That meant, to raise academic outcomes, I also had to address the problems of hunger and nutrition, jobs and housing, as well as providing a semblance of a welfare system within my classroom.

The more our micro welfare system improved, the better the academic culture within the classroom grew. But it was clearly not enough, nor was it effective because in 2018, we lost a pupil in our classroom. Together, we all had an end of the year Christmas party before I travelled home for the holiday. But when I returned for the new term, I heard the devastating news. But more agonising were the circumstances surrounding her death.

H was really hungry one evening but no one was at home. Her mum had gone to the market to find work. So, she walked down to a stream of water by her home. The previous week, she had seen cassavas growing there. So she pulled them from the ground, went home, boiled them, and with a bowl of red oil, she ate till she had satisfied her hunger.

But when her mum returned from the market with food in her bags, H was lying there on the floor where she had just eaten the cassava, with substances coming from her mouth. She was barely conscious. The mother looked in her daughter's bowl and shouted at the top of her voice. She picked H up from the floor and ran outside, rushing to the closest hospital.

What H had pulled out of the ground and boiled and eaten, was not cassava.

When we lost H, I realised that the economic and social disadvantages children suffer need economic, social and political solutions, not just educational ones.

Education is local and exists within a nexus of political, social and economic functions. To make education work, the others have to work too. When I founded Sharing Life Africa in 2019, this new realisation informed our vision and the programs we created. We wanted to build communities where children can fulfil their highest potential and we knew that to do this we must also expand access to economic opportunities for women in low-income communities - to not place just children, but entire families at the centre of our work. This is why today, at Sharing Life Africa, we believe that prosperous women lead to healthier communities, so we are investing in testing this belief through our programs.

My inexperience and the search for skills

I had spent two years as a teacher and community organiser and in August 2019, the Teach For Nigeria fellowship that led me there had come to an end. It was time to pack up and leave. But, I knew we hadn't scratched the surface of the deeply rooted problems in the community, so I stayed back. I was convinced if anyone had a shot at cracking these issues, I did. So, I stayed to give it my best.

But it was hard; and if I knew how hard it was going to be, how much the sacrifice would demand, maybe I wouldn't have taken a swing. But I had made a promise to myself and the community, and I couldn't take that back.

So, since 2019, I have spent considerable investments in expanding my skills in leading teams, building effective programs, organising grassroots communities, and being good at the business of social impact. This led me to three major schools:

1. The `Reform Entrepreneur Program at Incubator Africa

2. The Nonprofit Leadership and Management Program at the Lagos Business School, and

3. Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania

Going through these courses between 2019 and 2021 gave me the confidence, skill set and network to build a team, a strategy and offering that solve hard problems in the lives of women and children in some of our poorest communities.

I think of the story of madam Olurebi, a mother of 4 who for 12 years depended on her church for food, shelter and clothing - I think of how she took charge of her own life and that of her family - I think of how she found the confidence to choose a business and how she overcame the fear to go from door to door in her neighbourhood telling other women: "I now sell rice, if you need please buy from me. I sell at an affordable rate". Madam Olurebi now funds her children's education and puts food on the table without the help of her pastor or church. She has gained financial freedom to determine her future and the future of her children. I think of her and women like her whose lives have been changed as a result of our programs and the amazing team we have at Sharing Life Africa and I am grateful that I stayed back to take a shot at the problems; I am glad that in Olurebi's family and many like hers, the story of H will not repeat itself because there's food, there's medicine and there's safety.

Madam Olurebi

As I write this reflection, I am also drawing up a new women empowerment program with the vision of providing added value and support to women-led businesses in rural Abeokuta. As I design this program from Edinburgh, Scotland, I do it with a certain sadness and longing. Sadness for the lack we suffer in Nigeria and Africa; and a longing for the days when every family can live decent lives. This is not a longing for a perfect system, just one that works for children like H and women like madam Olurebi.

In many ways, I am still that idealistic young boy that left his job in Abuja to go teach in rural Abeokuta. I am still the same person that is moved by friendship and stories - who even after his 2-year fellowship stayed back to take a swing at a problem bigger than his skillsets. And although so much has happened in 5 years, both in my personal and professional life, I still maintain my optimism that change is possible and that we can still transform lives across Africa.

The next phase: solving problems at scale, reaching a billion Africans

Yesterday, I was having a chat with a classmate here at the University of Edinburgh and was sharing the work we do at Sharing Life Africa. I shared this impact story of Adewunmi and as questions were asked, I could share details as specific as the birthday of the kid. It is involvement like this in the lives, progress and milestones our beneficiaries record that keep us going, and proves we are making a difference in our communities.

While Sharing Life Africa for the next couple of years will stay connected to people and communities, my next challenge will be in answering the questions of building systems at scale that solve the problems of Africans, creating access to decent living, prosperity and quality education. This may not be a person-to-person intervention that I have grown to love, but it will be the much-needed work of building a better future for us all.

To prepare for this next phase I am currently at the University of Edinburgh studying for a Masters in Africa and International Development as a Mastercard Foundation Scholar. In my first semester here, I'll be studying 3 courses:

1. Politics and Theories of International Development

2. Rethinking Africa: Race, Space, and Power

3. Digital Education: Strategy and Policy

Here are some questions I hope to answer by the end of this semester:

1. Can I build the critical tools to understand Africa in all its complexity?

2. How do we, as Africans, build economically stronger nations? And,

3. How can we build and manage e-learning frameworks as well as digital learning strategies to advance the education of children and young people across Africa?

I do not have the answers to all these questions yet, but if there's anywhere I would get them, it's here in the University of Edinburgh's Center of Africa Studies - a world-leading centre for the study of Africa. I'm looking forward to the academic rigour, the access to world-class research, conversations with professors and classmates with diverse history, culture and experience, who will provide a rich learning experience for me.

My studies here in Edinburgh is being funded by the Mastercard Foundation, giving me the freedom to focus on research and answering the tough questions ahead of me. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be awarded such a prestigious scholarship in one of the best schools in the world.

I'm excited for the opportunity to be back in the classroom and I look forward to all the skills, knowledge and network I'll build in the next 12 months. And importantly, the transformation that will be birthed as a result of my time as a Mastercard Foundation Scholar here at the University of Edinburgh.

Henry Anumudu,
September, 2021