Who We Are?
Our MissioN
To intentionally provide experiential knowledge of politics and governance for the
preparation of political participants.
Vision
Our vision is an effective and ethical political leadership culture for Africa
Our Solution
A new valueset, mindset and skillset for Africa’s political leadership
There are three classes of political participant that we address: aspiring politicians,
policy influencers and voters. We have developed a structured curriculum for each of
them. Our guiding philosophy is to create a new valueset, mindset and skillset to enable
“The Africa We Want” (according to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 goals).
For Aspiring Politicians:
A guided tour is given to the arena of politics in Africa, practicalities of governance and
to the potential for ethical service of their communities and countries.
For Policy Influencers:
Non politicians are brought to understand constitutions, institutions and participants’
roles and motivations.
For Voters:
Non politicians are brought to understand constitutions, institutions and participants’
roles and motivations.
Instructional delivery is through online and offline coaching, courses, publications,
presentations and media production
Africa Olea was founded in 2019 by Dr. Olivia N. Muchena, a former cabinet minister in Zimbabwe. Her political career began with a hypersonic transition from academia and civic society. As a first-term parliamentarian in 1995, she found herself thrust into the role of Deputy Minister of Lands and Agriculture at a time when the land issue was heating up in the nation. She soon discovered that her years of criticising government from the outside had not prepared her to actually get things done within it. So she learnt on-the-job for the next twenty years without a curriculum or any structured facilitation to speak of. Until, finally, her exit from active politics came about suddenly and unplanned. With the benefit of hindsight, Dr. Muchena established Africa Olea to intentionally prepare Africa’s next generation of leaders for effective participation in politics and governance. That vision has grown to include the education of citizens and non-state actors for success in their engagement of the system.
Since 2019 Africa Olea has been sharing Dr. Muchena’s knowledge of politics and governance through:
• the publication of a book
• one-on-one coaching
• the production of a video course
• facilitation of workshops
• presentations and speeches across the continent
With every interaction, the Africa Olea team has strengthened its resolve to enlist more of the target audience in the creation of a new narrative for African leadership. Arm chair critics, passionate aspirants, students, the clergy, Christian laity and corporate leaders alike have all discovered pathways for their own contributions to national problem solving. Even serving politicians have benefitted from the perspectives shared. Looking forward, Africa Olea is creating opportunities for active and retired politicians to share their lessons-learnt through documentaries and new media productions. The idea is to build an accessible knowledge-bank of adapted African solutions to national question challenges within uniquely African contexts.