Fellowships
Fellows 2025 - 2026
African Scholars in Peace, Security & Development Fellowship
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Chidinma Rita Nebolisa
Nigeria
2025–2026 Fellow
Chidinma Rita Nebolisa is a fellow on the Peace, Security and Development Fellowship for African Scholars at the African Leadership Centre (ALC). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from Afe Babalola University, Nigeria, and is a researcher and analyst with interests in radicalization, violent extremism, and African politics.Her professional experience spans peace and security research, policy analysis, and knowledge production. At ARDA Development Communication Incorporation, she supported the use of indigenous storytelling to counter violent extremism in northern Nigeria. At the Centre for African Conflict and Development, she curated podcast discussions with security experts and authored articles on African politics and security. She further developed her research and writing skills at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, where she presented a paper titled Exploring Web3 Terrorism: Implications for Digital Counterterrorism Strategies at the 2024 Behavioural and Social Science in Security Conference at the University of St Andrews.
Chidinma has also served as a Junior Editor at The Republic, contributing to African-led ideas and processes of change. She is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London, with a research focus on understanding the dynamics of violent extremism and Africa’s intractable conflicts.
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Tonye Marclint Ebiede
Nigeria
2025–2026 Fellow
Tonye Marclint Ebiede is a Fellow on the Peace, Security and Development Fellowship for African Scholars at the African Leadership Centre (ALC). He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the United States International University–Africa, Kenya, and a Bachelor’s degree in History from Niger Delta University, Nigeria.Tonye is a Conflict, Security, and Peace researcher whose work focuses on community peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and violence dynamics in Nigeria. He serves as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) in Abuja,Nigeria, and is a member of the Conflict Research Network – West Africa (CORN–West Africa). He is also a Resource/Teaching Assistant at the Sultan Maccido Institute for Peace, Leadership, and Development Studies, University of Abuja.
Tonye is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London. His research examines how communities in Northwestern Nigeria negotiate with armed groups to secure peace, and how these local peace processes shape trust in national and institutional leadership. In this work, he positions trust as a critical metric of state legitimacy in conflict-affected settings, exploring how community-led negotiations reconfigure relationships between citizens, the state, and its security agencies.
Associate Fellows
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Mrinalini Agrawal
India
2025–2026 Fellow
Mrinalini Agrawal is a Fellow of the Associate Fellowship in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding for the Global South, at the African Leadership Centre (ALC). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Leiden University College, Netherlands where he majored in World Politics with a focus on gender and decolonial thought.Mrinalani is a policy researcher with a passion for decolonial thought, governance, and policy analysis. His academic and professional journey has been shaped by questioning “default” systems, the assumptions in institutions, policies, and cultures that render communities invisible. Having lived across India, Hong Kong, Thailand, Namibia, and the Netherlands, he brings a global perspective to questions of identity, postcolonialism, and leadership and a commitment to inclusive policymaking that recognizes lived realities alongside institutional frameworks.
His professional experiences include contributing to sustainable development outreach and communications with UN-Habitat Lao PDR and supporting peacebuilding, decolonial dialogues through student assistantships. He has also collaborated with grassroots organizations on human rights and community development initiatives in South Asia and Southern Africa.
Mrinalani is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London. Through the ALC Fellowship, he seeks to deepen his engagement with interdisciplinary approaches to leadership while advancing inclusive and transformative models of development and peacebuilding.
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Mwesigwa Peter Claver
Uganda
2025–2026 FellowMwesigwa Peter Claver is a Fellow on the Peace, Security and Development Associate Fellowship for Africans, at the African Leadership Centre (ALC). He holds a Master’s degree in Terrorism, International Crime, and Global Security from Coventry University, UK, and a Bachelor’s degree in Governance and International Relations from Uganda Christian University, Uganda.
Mwesigwa is a researcher and analyst with expertise in global security, compliance, and governance. His professional interests include anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing (CTF), and migration governance. He is currently pursuing certification with the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS).
Mwesigwa is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London. His research interests include human trafficking in East Africa, diaspora governance, migration politics, and the intersection of financial crime and security.
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Danielle Sophie Tietchou Tegang
Cameroon
2025–2026 FellowDanielle Sophie Tietchou Tegang is a Fellow on the Peace, Security and Development Associate Fellowship for Africans, at the African Leadership Centre (ALC). She holds a BA in International Relations with a minor in Psychology from Webster University Geneva and an MSc in African Politics from SOAS, University of London, UK.
Sophie considers herself an activist and philanthropist with a commitment to poverty reduction, sustainable community development and institution building in Africa. Motivated by the deteriorating state of governance in her home country, Cameroon, Sophie is committed to reimagining democratic forms that are responsive to local social and cultural realities. Aspiring to work in governance, she has a strong interdisciplinary interest in ethnography and cognitive/social psychology, exploring how their intersections with political theory can support more context-appropriate and effective governance models.
Sophie is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London. Her research explores how governments can more effectively serve their constituents’ needs, and how interpersonal dynamics shape both domestic and international politics. Her thesis, Reimagining Democracy: Must it be Tailored for the African Context?, serves as an early contribution to her broader inquiry into state theory and the possibilities for democracies grounded in African epistemologies and lived realities.