I had dinner with the president of Malawi

It is not often that an African leader comes to Brown University, but just this week I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by former President of the Republic of Malawi – Dr Joyce Banda. And for those of you who do not know, Malawi is a COUNTRY in southern Africa next to Zambia and Mozambique. If you still don’t have a clue where that is… Google is your friend.

Dr Joyce Banda is a tireless champion for maternal health after nearly losing her own life in childbirth in 1984. Pregnancy, a time for joy and excited anticipation in the West, is a time of anxiety for many in her country. She also left an abusive marriage in a country and society where a woman simply does not leave her marriage. She is an activist against domestic and relational violence. When asked how she developed the courage to pursue these causes and eventually become the first female president of Malawi and southern Africa she said, “I sat down and made up my mind…to help women and youth in their social and political advancement.”

She began her lecture discussing whether leaders were born or made, and I was surprised by her answer. She posited that leaders are born. That there is something innate about leaders, and they must nurture and unleash that spirit of leadership they have for the betterment of others. She believes the one thing that all female leaders have in common is the role that their fathers played in their childhood development and adolescence. Her father, a member of the police band, insisted that she attend school in the urban area away from her grandmother who was raising her at the time.

Dr Banda’s friends that she left in the rural neighborhood where her grandmother left ended up living a very different life to her. Her best friend Chrissy had a child when she was 15 years old who eventually died of AIDS. President Banda’s experience with this inequity lead her to build three schools in Malawi that have benefited 3500 girls so far. “Millions of girls are denied the right to an education, and that is simply not right.”

I could go on about what she said about Africa’s untapped potential – a theme I’ve heard much too often. I could talk about her moral leadership and how that vastly improved the trajectory of her nation, but that too is quite obvious. I could talk about her demands to the US government and Western NGOs, but instead I will talk about the impact that this lecture had on me.

As a Nigerian woman, in an Ivy League institution, I was amazed by her sheer resilience and determination. Her dedication to her country and to herself despite all the challenges she faces. Her astuteness. President Joyce Banda is a woman I hope to be for my own people. To be fearless and full of conviction. She has challenged me to occupy any and all spaces I believe, as a woman, as a Black woman, as an African that I believe that I am entitled to.