The South African Ideas Festival (SAIF) aims to empower disadvantaged youth in Johannesburg with essential and relevant skills for securing meaningful opportunities. The festival is organized by a team of passionate students from the African Leadership Academy and focuses on creating a festival relevant to the youth in South Africa that prioritizes their needs and provides them with important skills to navigate their landscape. The mission is to generate a prosperous Africa driven by empowered young African leaders.
Ideas to Impact: Leading for Lasting Change
Building on SAIF 2025’s theme, “Ideas Worth a Shot,” this year’s focus shifts to what happens after ideas are given a chance. SAIF 2026 emphasizes impact, sustainability, and leadership, challenging participants to turn bold concepts into ventures that endure and uplift African communities.
As SAIF continues to evolve, one thing remains constant: its commitment to African youth as the drivers of Africa’s future; one idea, one community, and one lasting impact at a time.
Five students from the African Leadership Academy (Abdramane Diabate, Julius Kakwenzire, Kenza Bouhaj, Tafadzwa Matika & Segun Olagunju) joined the Bezos Scholars Program 2011.
After forming their ideas in Aspen, they returned to South Africa to initiate the first “Local Ideas Festival”.
This year’s theme was about coming up with an inclusive and implementable idea for change-making. The festival challenged 36 participants who were coming from different African countries.
SAIF positively impacted participants by equipping them with the necessary information to help them draft their business ideas and actualize them after the festival.
In addition, Bezos Scholars created the first SAIF Facebook page to maintain contact with participants after the festival. This also served as a new marketing strategy.
“Explore your talent through utilizing opportunity”.
This theme has attracted many African youths from Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana, and eventually, 65 people have taken part in SAIF 2016.
Bezos Scholars were able to design a website that would serve as a communication platform to maintain contact with participants after the festival.
This year’s festival was outstanding. The number of participants who came to campus (85) was not only the largest hosted at the Academy but the most diverse, with a wide range of students coming from different African backgrounds:
South Africa, Egypt, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Liberia, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Congo, Zambia, Algeria, Tunisia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Botswana, Kenya.
The theme was “Catalyzing Your Big Ideas For Action”.
At Least 80% of the participants stated on the post-conference feedback surveys that they believe they can implement their ideas thanks to what they learned throughout the festival.
The 2018 South African Ideas Festival, led by Diana Marie Spencer, Felix Morara, Winnie Msamba & Chernor A Diallo, chose “Ideas for Global Issues” as the festival’s theme.
They focused on connecting innovative African youths between the ages of 16 – 20 to develop their entrepreneurial capacities by providing a platform that fosters the development of impactful ideas.
This year’s theme was “Empowering the youth of Africa through social entrepreneurship”.
This year was unique in the history of the festival as SAIF came to Instagram!
Bezos Scholars, Samkelo Ntetha, Jelissa Kamguem, Rutendo Njawaya, Salome Maina, and Jonathan Banza did a remarkable job when it came to assigning the tasks and creating an effective departmental system:
Management
Finance & Strategic Relations
Marketing
Curriculum Development
Administration & Logistics
#VivaIdeas was the hashtag used on social media to promote the South African Ideas festival of 2020 that inspired the theme “Long Live Ideas”.
Bezos Scholars Thaksheel Nirvaan Alleck, Aury Mike Remezo, Abigail Abuga, Mipwa Qwindi & Nicolus
Mositi led this amazing festival that took place one month before the Covid-19 outbreak in South Africa. The winner of the festival, E-Nova, pitched an idea to create an online learning platform that students in the Alexandra township will use.
This festival was the most diverse when it came to the background of the participants. The countries represented in the festival were Zimbabwe, South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Tunisia, India, Kenya, Morocco, Tanzania, and the United States of America. | |
This year’s festival hosted the most significant number of participants, which was about 107 participants! Bezos Scholars, Akinfolami Akin-Alamu, Maged Hassen, Chizoma Duru, Macdonald Chiara, and Patra Mwaniki did an excellent job when organizing the festival, as they had to completely shift plans because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet this festival, which was the first online SAIF, was with no doubt very successful. | |
IDEAS TO IMPACT: LEADING FOR LASTING CHANGE
South African Ideas Festival is an annual program hosted by the Bezos Scholars at the African Leadership Academy.
Address: 1050 Printech Avenue Honeydew, South Africa 2170
Safeguarding Commitment: SAIF upholds the highest standards of student safety and protection. All personnel are required to comply with ALA’s Child Protection Policy and pass relevant background checks. For more information, please refer to ALA’s Child Protection Policy, linked below under the Safeguarding section.
