Global society
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The United Nations Conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi is discussing how to limit the growth of the world's population. Above all, it is about the global strengthening of women's rights, poverty, health care and education.
And again and again it is about Africa, where the world's most children are born per family. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where one-fifth of children between the ages of six and eleven and one-third of twelve-to-four-year-olds do not go to school and certainly will not study. How can that be different? How can Africa be strengthened, also to strengthen the world? (Read here our large piece of data on global population development and common mistakes.)
About 6,000 kilometers from Nairobi, just outside Accra in Ghana, a bumpy road with knee-deep potholes leads up a mountain. Above is a university. It takes 43 minutes to really see it.
Anne Backhaus / DER SPIEGEL
Since there are student residences on campus, the number of female students has increased
Behind a forged gate with three guards in front of it, stand the bright, low houses of the university, embedded in the green landscape. From up here, the Ghanaian capital Accra looks flat and huge, no noise can be heard, no stink.
Can one think about the future of the continent here?
It is at least expressly desired. Ashesi University wants to train future leaders to do just that. This is where those who want to become successful entrepreneurs, judges or presidents go out.
Including many who otherwise could not afford it: Half of the more than 2,000 students from 28 countries receive financial support through a scholarship grant from the university. Nothing has to be repaid.
Anne Backhaus / DER SPIEGEL
Half of the students at Ashesi University are female
This is not only unusual in Ghana. Just like the student body, half of which are women and half men. Those here in courses learn not only to learn, but to think independently. Who has decided that she is to trust so far that at the exams no professor must be present. The students do not cheat. If someone tries, there is trouble with the classmates.
The multi-award-winning university founder Patrick Awuah, who has thought it all, sits in his office. He does not look like a typical leader. A thin man with fine features and a gentle voice, who takes his time talking.
SPIEGEL: Mr., Awuah, your university is among the best in Africa. They value training the leaders of tomorrow. Why are they important?
Patrick Awuah: If you look around the classroom of a college today, you'll see the Africa that's going to happen in 20 years. That's why we have to take care of it. The reason why there are many problems is always that those responsible are unable to solve them. Or they are corrupt and think only of their own profits. If you really want to change society for the better, you have to make sure that your leaders are caring and capable.
SPIEGEL: What is currently going wrong?
Awuah: In this part of the world, like everywhere else, you see leaders who simply accept that people are poor. That was not supposed to be like that. That's why we need to train the minds of young people. In such a way that they see the big picture. Few such people can make a big difference to whole peoples.
Anne Backhaus / DER SPIEGEL
Here, students in the first year learn to think differently about problems
SPIEGEL: A big problem is population growth. At present, the UN World Population Conference is being held in Nairobi to discuss, inter alia, how women's rights can be strengthened and education can be improved to curb this growth. Why is it so complicated to find a solution for it?
Awuah: I think it starts with a mistake: Every child has to go to school.
SPIEGEL: Is not that right?
Awuah: Yes, that's important. So this goal is decided and you give yourself 15 years to get it done. However, this is always an unspoken assumption: At school, a child learns. But that does not have to be right. If you put a child in a school where there are not enough teachers or where it does not feel well, then that child will not learn. So it's not just about having children in classrooms. We must start by investing heavily in teacher training and the entire educational infrastructure.
SPIEGEL: At the same time, however, it has been proven that, among other things, the birth rate declines as soon as women are better educated.
Awuah: Yes, a high level of education leads to fewer children. However, one should not think too short and must definitely teach both sides, women and men. A 15-year-old who is not in school becomes a member of a gang or terrorist group.
SPIEGEL: Since the opening of your university in March 2002, you have been striving for a balanced gender ratio. Only recently did you actually have 50 percent female and 50 percent male students. What was the difficulty?
Awuah: We asked ourselves that many times! In the beginning there were only 25 percent women and that really bothered me. So I went to many schools with my team and advertised our degree programs. Within two years, we have come to a 35 percent share of women. But it only really changed with the new student apartments on our campus.
SPIEGEL: What do student accommodation have to do with the proportion of female students?
Awuah: We actually built these apartments so students can better focus on the university, because so much of the time on the bad roads falls away. Suddenly we realized: Suddenly, many more families were ready to send their girls to us. Because living on campus, they no longer have to be alone and in unpredictable traffic. Since then we have the same number of women as men with us.
Anne Backhaus / DER SPIEGEL
Edel Togobo, 20, a student at Ashesi University, wants to start a business after graduating
SPIEGEL: Why is it generally difficult to establish a gender balance in African schools?
Awuah: We were here a society that had no formal education system. This was introduced by missionaries and colonial governments. And what did they do? They went to the village chiefs and said, "Give us your boys, we'll send them to school. It was not asked about the girls. We have to overcome this thinking. Ghana is almost there, but here too it depends a lot on the region and the local conditions.
SPIEGEL: What else needs to happen?
Awuah: We have to make sure that all changes in Africa are made by us. Not from the outside. To do this, we need to enable people to think, question and justify. Our education system must be equal or better than in the rest of the world. The most valuable thing we have here is the human intellect. There is no gold in the ground and no oil under the seabed.
SPIEGEL: Do you have the impression that you are looking at Africa with an arrogant look?
Awuah: Of course. As soon as one country has less money and less power than another, there is always that undertone of: Well, we know more than you, and that's why you should do that and leave it.
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SPIEGEL: You are also queuing up with your students in the canteen and taking part in carnival festivals. What is your oriented leadership style based on?
Awuah: I grew up in Ghana and my first experience in education has shown me how it should not be. In my first school I was beaten when I made mistakes. All students were beaten there, very often. One day my teacher got so hard with her ruler that I came home with a swollen, blue thumb. My parents took me from school and everything was different in the new one. Before, I was a very bad student, where I was soon one of the best in class. The same child, a completely different result. It is important how to deal with students. And what questions you ask yourself.
SPIEGEL: What is the most important question for you?
Awuah: In which society do we want to live? If you think this through intellectually and come to the conclusion that one with a high level of trust and care is the best, well, then you will advance that society. So let's think about it.
This article is part of the project Global Society, for which our reporters report from four continents. The project is long-term and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
What is the project Global Society?
Under the title Global Society, reporters from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe will be reporting on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development. The reportages, analyzes, photo galleries, videos and podcasts appear in the Politics Department of SPIEGEL. The project is long-term and will be supported over three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
Are the journalistic contents independent of the foundation?
Yes. The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.
Do other media have similar projects?
Yes. Major European media such as "The Guardian" and "El País" have created similar sections on their news pages with "Global Development" or "Planeta Futuro" with the support of the Gates Foundation.
Was there already similar projects at SPIEGEL ONLINE?
SPIEGEL ONLINE has already implemented two projects in recent years with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: The "Expedition The Day After tomorrow" on Global Sustainability Goals and the journalistic refugee project "The New Arrivals" Several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and escape have emerged.
Where can I find all the publications on the Global Society?
The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL ONLINE on the topic page Global Society.