From Pretoria to the equator and back: Students travel sharing stories about African women in leadership

On 30 June four female UP students left South Africa as part of the #TalkAboutHer initiative, which is rooted in spreading the message of African women in leadership, across the African continent. Students, Tsholofelo Magagula (Mechanical Engineering), Sarah Kandolo (Food Science (Masters), Paulah Mothotoane (Theology) and Tshegofatso Pooe (Nursing), were involved in an initiative called “Pretoria to the Equator”.

Magagula explained that it is an annual initiative organised by facilitator, Pastor Emmanuel Landman, and has been running since 2008. This year it was all about women leadership, specifically African women [led] leadership”. She further explained that the initiative was about African women going to speak to other African women and sharing their experiences but most importantly, learning from them.

The students explained that their experience was also aimed at exposing South Africans to other African countries and shifting their mindset - “South Africa tends to isolate itself and put herself into a bubble from the rest of the continent […] then it’s easy to create assumptions, fears and all sorts of conspiracies. So we just wanted to see it for ourselves, experience it and learn”. Kandolo said that UP was very involved in the initiative as UP “provided [them] with some prospectus and educational material because one of [their] objectives was to speak at schools or communities [...]. They were also involved in pushing the project, in terms of advertising and marketing”.

The “Pretoria to the Equator” journey, saw these students travelling across six countries. “We went from South Africa, then Zimbabwe, after Zimbabwe it was Zambia and Malawi […] Tanzania, then Kenya at the equator, and down to Botswana then back to South Africa” they explained. With regard to the financing of this expedition, the students had to raise R30 000 each to cover their travelling expenses. They raised the funds by “networking, sending emails to corporate companies, going door-to-door, asking family and friends and this was [their] greatest challenge”. “I think we learned how to really speak and push the project”, elaborated Kandolo. Kandolo further put it forward that they had to explain to their donors that they are not sponsoring an individual but a vision and a team that is passionate about women’s leadership in an African context.

Mothotoane said that she was sponsored by the Faculty of Theology - “I was privileged to be sponsored by [...] a scholarship called Life Abundance and they sponsored me with R10 000. We also had an opportunity to visit local churches […] so I was assigned to the Presbyterian Church in Hatfield and I was sponsored by a lady with R10 000”. Mothotoane also explained that they also raised funds by selling things like eggs and