African Women in Leadership & Peacebuilding

Amal Mohamed (Somaliland)

Amal Mohamed, from Somaliland, is a communications specialist with vast experience in the peacebuilding field. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Journalism from Marist College in New York, USA. Amal has been deeply committed to community leadership throughout her academic and professional career. During her time at Marist, she co-founded and served as Vice President of the Muslim Student Association and was an active member of the Black Student Union and the International Students Club. Her commitment to service began in high school, where she launched a literacy and math program for children with special needs, helping them apply to high schools.

After completing her undergraduate studies, she returned to Somaliland to contribute to peace and development, serving as Deputy Director of Communications at a peacebuilding organization. In this role, she led public relations efforts, promoted dialogue on social issues and worked to amplify marginalized voices in peace initiatives.

She is currently on the ALC’s Fellowship Programme for African Women in Leadership and Peacebuilding and is pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London. Amal is passionate about advancing women’s leadership and contributing to sustainable mediation efforts as vital steps toward achieving lasting peace within her community and beyond.

Associate Fellow

Kamila Atta (Nigeria)

Kamila is a dedicated communications specialist and development practitioner with a strong background in international relations and human resources. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish and International Relations from the University of Southampton, UK, Kamila has applied her skills in both public and private sectors. She is currently serving as an External Affairs Officer at the World Bank, where she supports employee engagement initiatives, develops internal communication strategies, and promotes a positive organisational culture.

With diverse experience spanning communications, human resources, and development work, she has contributed to impactful projects, including the design of Human Resource (HR) policies and staff training programs in her role as HR Programme Officer at Bono Energy. At Neem Foundation in Nigeria, Kamila played a pivotal role in mental health awareness, crisis response, and conflict sensitization, where she organized events and led workshops to support vulnerable girls affected by insurgency.

Her passion for social impact and organisational development is reflected in her efforts to drive policy reforms, improve workplace engagement, and support leadership initiatives. Through volunteer work, she has supported empowerment projects for marginalised communities, particularly youth and women in conflict-affected regions.

Kamila is on the ALC Associate Fellowship Programme and is pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London. She is committed to furthering her understanding the process of leadership and institutional transformation in Africa. She aims to leverage her expertise in communications and human resources to contribute meaningfully to Africa’s development and to the leadership discourse on the continent.

 

African Scholars in Peace, Security & Development

Geoffrey Lou Duke (South Sudan)

Geoffrey Lou Duke is a committed advocate for peace, justice, and human rights in South Sudan and the Horn of Africa. With over a decade of experience, he is renowned for his significant contributions to small arms control, community security, peace negotiations, and humanitarian disarmament. Mr. Duke holds a BSc in Politics and International Relations from the University of London- London School of Economics, UK and an Associate Degree in Development Studies from Kampala International University in Kampala, Uganda.

Mr. Duke has been serving as the Head of the Secretariat for the South Sudan Action Network on Small Arms, where he addresses the critical issue of small arms proliferation and its effects on national and regional security. Additionally, he has served on the South Sudan National Small Arms Policy drafting committee and acted as a ceasefire monitor of a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement between the South Sudan government and an armed opposition group.

During his time in civil society, Mr. Duke has spearheaded and contributed to several pivotal campaigns for change in South Sudan, including the “Referendum Without Guns Campaign,” the “Bread Not Bullets Campaign,” the “South Sudan Is Watching Campaign,” and “The South Sudan We Want Campaign.

Mr. Duke also has notable experience in multilateral settings. He was a prominent African advocate for the adoption of the Global Arms Trade Treaty, a board member of the Control Arms Coalition, and in August 2016, represented the coalition as a speaker at the High-Level Opening Panel of the Second Conference of States Parties to the Arms Treaty. In addition, he advocates for the universalization of humanitarian disarmament both in Africa and globally.

Mr. Duke’s scholarly interests centre on everyday security and justice dynamics, the legitimate use of force, and state-society relations. With over a decade of experience in community security, security sector reform, humanitarian disarmament, and arms control, he has authored numerous policy documents, research papers, and a book chapter, offering significant contributions to both academic and practical discussions in these fields. A regular commentator on peace and security issues in South Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and beyond, his insights have been featured in national and international media outlets, including BBC, Al Jazeera, Politico, CGTN, and The New York Times.

Mr. Duke is on the ALC Fellowship for African Scholars in Peace, Security and Development and is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London. Before taking up the fellowship, he was a civil society representative at the High-Level Tumaini Mediation Initiative for South Sudan, held in Nairobi, Kenya. This engagement further underscores his commitment to promoting sustainable peace and security in Africa.

African Scholars in Peace, Security & Development

Esther Wadzanai Mano (Zimbabwe)

Esther Wadzanai Mano is a Zimbabwean African historian and scholar-activist dedicated to exploring the intersection of education and liberation in Africa and the diaspora. She holds a Master of Philosophy in African Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK, where her research critically examined the role of education in Zimbabwe’s colonial detention centres. Esther was the chair of the 10th anniversary Cambridge Africa Conference, the biggest African student-led conference, where she inspired her team to create a decolonial space within the walls of Cambridge.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in African & African American Studies and Human Development & Social Relations, with a minor in Public Health, from Earlham College in Indiana, USA. Beyond the classroom, Esther served as co-president of the Black Student Union for two years, where she founded a residential floor for Black and African students who were a minority at the institution. This space, which continues to exist today, fostered a pan-African community and helped cultivate a sense of belonging for marginalized students. Esther was a dual-student athlete at Earlham, being an active teammate and captain on the women’s football and track & field teams throughout her four years.

Esther’s leadership and academic excellence earned her the prestigious Watson Fellowship, allowing her to embark on a year of independent international research. During this time, she crafted a project on community efforts at decolonizing African education, living and learning from communities and their leaders across the continent and diaspora. Her work focused on grassroots efforts to rethink education holistically creating solutions for community development, leadership, security and peacebuilding concerns.

Esther is currently pursuing an MSc in Global Leadership and Peacebuilding at King’s College London and is on the ALC Fellowship for African Scholars in Peace, Security and Development. She remains deeply engaged in understanding education’s potential as a tool for justice and peace, focusing particularly on the relationship between the legacies of colonial education systems and contemporary leadership challenges in Africa. Her work envisions reimagining educational institutions as hubs for peacebuilding and catalysts for Africa’s development.

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