The disruptors I wish we talked about more...

"Sometimes we need the chairs and no table-just the space for open, honest, overdue and necessary conversations."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you"-Maya Angelou

Lately, I have been thinking about the current "whispered" disruptors in Africa's development journey, not the ones in reports and plenary speeches, but the ones we carry quietly; Yes, we have talked about many of the big disruptors: migration, pandemics, debt, poor governance, funding landscape, humanitarian crises etc. 

They are personal. Political. Woven into the silences between speeches and the choreography of convenings.

Here is what I wish we talked about more often:

• I wish I saw more Africans negotiating from a place of confidence, not gratitude - knowing our worth, articulating our value, and expecting it to be honored.

• I wish there were fewer moments where African leaders find themselves pacing international corridors, pitch decks in hand, dignity quietly fraying, chasing funding that should already recognize their worth.

• I wish more of our conversations were rooted in genuine connection - not performances on the philanthropy stage, but honest exchanges between equals, bound by shared values.

• I wish the promises of “power shift” and “trust-based philanthropy” lived beyond hashtags, and showed up in decisions, behaviors, and funding flows.

• I wish the spaces we gathered in were not just diverse in attendance, but in voice. In visibility. In who speaks, who is heard, and who dares to be fully present without code-switching or compromise.

• I wish more of our stories and realities were told by us - not filtered, translated, or framed for external comfort, but raw, true, and ours to own.

But beyond personal longings, there are disruptors we rarely name, yet deeply feel; They do not always make it onto keynote slides, but they shape our realities just the same:

• Civic space is shrinking: Civil society is being squeezed through surveillance, legal red tape, and quiet intimidation-not just in the global majority world-this has persisted for a while, and now also more blatantly in countries where we traditionally source for resources.

• Corruption and illicit financial flows: Draining resources meant for communities, and eroding trust where it is needed most-both in the people and institutions we rely on.

• Fragile food systems: Exposed by climate shocks, conflict, and global market instability, leaving millions vulnerable.

• Digital exclusion: Even as we celebrate innovation, a growing divide shuts many out of opportunity.

• Social fragmentation: Identity-based divisions- from ethnic divides to national and/or xenophobia, and even ideological segregations, eroding the solidarity we need and therefore pulling us further apart.

• Shifting power dynamics: South-South partnerships offer new promise, but also usher in new hierarchies.

• Persistent conflict and insecurity: Ongoing violence continues to destabilize regions, often ignored, always devastating.

These are not just “issues.” They are structural. Emotional. Existential. Disruptions we carry quietly - off stage, between meetings, beneath the hashtags.

If we are serious about shifting from survival to sovereignty, We must stop circling symptoms and start naming patterns.

We must reclaim the narrative - Not just to be heard, But to be whole.

Let us create space for the conversations we have long avoided; Where no one is performing. Where healing begins. Where dignity is built into the system - not begged from it. Again, I give a shout out to the efforts made by #sidebar TheSidebar in helping us get closer to this reality; and the spaces created by Catalyst Now that keep pushing us closer here.

To peers, allies, and fellow disruptors: I look forward to continuing with the conversations we have been waiting for. 

What about you? would you have liked to hear more about in the recent months?