Story By: Dennis Ato Keelson
The role of culture and indigenous knowledge as a springboard for Pan-African unity and economic collaboration took centre stage at the 3rd Reformative Community Leadership Summit 2025, held at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Accra on November 28 and 29, 2025.
Dr. Dickson Adom of the Rights of Nature-Ghana Movement (RoNAG) and a Senior Lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), serving as a panelist, called for a strategic shift in mindset among the continent’s youth. He argued that viewing African nations as complementary partners, rather than competitors, was essential for unlocking sustainable development.
In his address to a gathering of youth leaders, academics, and policymakers, Dr. Adom positioned linguistic diversity as a strategic asset. “African youth must endeavor to learn the basics of the five major languages spoken on the continent,” he proposed, highlighting greetings in Portuguese, Arabic, French, English, and Swahili as a simple yet powerful tool for building trust and intercultural empathy.
According to him, shared values like Ubuntu and communalism provide a strong foundation for collaboration but warned that ethnocentric biases can be a hindrance. To counter this, he called for educational reform. “We must intentionally integrate cultural intelligence, cultural empathy, and cultural tolerance modules as part of foundational learning in Ghana’s educational institutions,” Dr. Adom stated. This, he believes, will foster the cross-border collaborations needed for entrepreneurial opportunities to thrive.
A significant part of his presentation focused on reframing economic perspectives. “Adopting a shared African identity will enhance willingness to collaborate economically and culturally,” he said, advocating for integrated value chains rooted in Africa’s rich cultural assets and creative industries.
Dr. Adom also tackled the challenge of unequal infrastructure across the continent, recommending models of “ecosystem sharing,” such as resource pooling and open-access knowledge platforms, to ensure inclusive participation.
Responding to questions on heritage and discrimination, he underscored a forward-looking view of tradition. “Africans need to reorient ourselves to our understanding of culture as not a static phenomenon but as transformative and progressive,” he remarked, urging communities to halt unproductive practices that restrain development.
The 2025 Reformation Community Summit served as a platform to explore the evolving responsibilities of young Africans in shaping the continent’s future, with Dr. Adom’s contributions reinforcing the critical link between cultural wisdom and innovative, borderless collaboration.
About the Ghana Young Academy:
A body of outstanding early-career scholars committed to advancing research and providing evidence-based advice on national and global development issues.
