Closing Keynote Address: 2023 Africa Academy of Management (AFAM) Conference

Abstract

As I am sure you have come to appreciate over the past few days, there is no place like this on earth. For four and a half millennia, Egypt has been the home of the most dramatic and enduring monuments to the power of our collective imagination, ingenuity, and effort as humans – the Pyramids of Giza. Now, as we gather here in Cairo, Egypt is again building something amazing in the middle of the desert – the New Administrative Capital. We have spent a few days together on this land of momentous building, a land that is clearly about enduring history, yet is also forging a path towards change and the future. Collectively we should begin asking ourselves a series of questions. What is the Africa Academy of Management building? What are we building and changing at our home institutions? What are we – as scholars and practitioners of management, each with roles, roots, or interests in Africa – building and transforming? The answer to these questions can be found in the welcome letter in our conference programs. I quote our colleagues Samuel Aryee and Lilian Otaye-Ebede who write, “The primary purpose of AFAM is the development and improvement of members’ capabilities for research and teaching of management in organizations in Africa.” That is a valuable and worthwhile purpose. Our collective pursuit of that purpose has, in a relatively short time, created a powerful, Africa-focused community of scholars, academics and practitioners that is truly global – just take a look at the representation here in Cairo. This community is inspiring, enabling and providing a platform for discourse, dialogue, research, and advocacy. We are advancing the very field of management itself and we are nurturing future generations of colleagues and leaders in our field. And we are doing it all with a focus on this continent, Africa. This continent where there is so much potential and where we – as AFAM and as individuals – can have so much impact. Below my name in the conference program, it says “McMaster University, Canada.” Canada has been my home for decades. It is where I built my career. It is where I completed most of my university-level education. But I was born in Africa, in Egypt, right here in Cairo. The issues, ambitions, and goals we are discussing at this conference are