Freedom in Africa has often been spoken in narrow terms, usually reduced to the absence of colonial rule or the right to vote in regular elections. Yet, as many Africans know too well, political independence has not automatically delivered economic opportunity, free expression, or the dignity of choice in everyday life.
In most of the continent, trade restrictions still stifle entrepreneurship, and state policies criminalise dissent.
Leonard Ogunweide, a Nigerian-based freedom advocate and founder of Face of Liberty International, an advocacy think tank spreading free market awareness on the continent, acknowledged Atlas Network’s role in strengthening their efforts.
“Atlas Network’s training is more than what we could have asked for. Without it, we wouldn’t be here today,” says Ogunweide.
Leonard was among over 200 leaders invited and sponsored by Atlas Network to attend its Africa Liberty Forum, an annual gathering of freedom advocates held in Nairobi, Kenya on July 31 and August 1.
Leonard Ogunweide, Founder of Face of Liberty International
“Many of us might have rushed in without direction, but the training we received, combined with the funding to implement our initiatives, has truly helped us achieve what we set out to do,” he said.
Atlas Network is a U.S.-based non-profit foundation that supports the development and successes of pro-freedom organisations across the world. The organisation has active partners of over 500 independent think tanks globally. Each year, it makes hundreds of grant and training investments to promote, support, and strengthen the work of these local think tanks.
For Leon, liberty means teaching Africans why their continent is rich but their people remain poor.
In South Sudan, liberty has taken on a deeply practical meaning for women who were long denied the right to inherit property. David Benjamin, Co-founder of the Organisation for Liberty and Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit organisation empowering women to claim property rights and economic freedom, recalled how customary law once overruled the constitution, leaving widows stripped of their homes and livelihoods after the death of their husbands.
“For years, women had no right to inherit property. Even though it is enshrined in the constitution, customary law prohibited them. When a husband died, the widow was pushed out because culture demanded she could not own anything,” explains Benjamin. “With support from Atlas, we have worked to educate women about their rights.”
David Benjamin, Co-founder of the Organisation for Liberty and Entrepreneurship
He noted that this injustice began to shift in 2019 when his organisation won recognition for women’s property rights.
“Our organisation was the first winner for the Think Tank Shark Tank competition in 2019 for the property rights of women,” he said. “Today, over 1,500 women have been able to claim their rightful inheritance after being displaced from their family homes.”
‘Liberty As a Universal Language’
Juan Carlos Maldonado, a Human Respect Ambassador at the Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity and Students For Liberty (SFL), says liberty is a universal language that connects distant continents through shared struggles and aspirations. Leading the Human Respect Project with SFL in Ecuador, he sees striking parallels between the challenges facing Latin America and those confronting Africa.
In his view, political instability, fragile institutions, and recurring battles against authoritarianism are not confined by geography, they echo across societies.
Juan Carlos Maldonado
“We want to see more persuasion instead of coercion in the world,” he said during an interview with The Liberalist. “That’s what human respect is about, and it aligns perfectly with the mission of Atlas and other libertarian institutions.”
During the last Africa Liberty Forum, Dr. Charles Feyisade, the founder of Chale Institute, an organisation promoting an indigenous culture of liberty and sustainable development in Africa, says the work of Atlas Network’s partners and participants at the Forum, is to ensure Africans have freedom to trade, travel, and speak without fear.
“Just look at Kenya,” he said. “Recently, the government announced visa-free travel for all Africans. That’s a big win, something some of us have advocated for years.”
‘Atlas Network Redefines Partnership, Not Prescription’
The role of African advocates in redefining freedom and prosperity with the support of the Atlas Network came into sharp focus when Hunter Rauch, the organisation’s Institute Relations Manager, addressed a familiar concern during an interview with The Liberalist.
“We don’t dictate to partners,” he explained. “We ask, what’s your priority? How can we support you? Then we try to meet them there. It’s exciting to see African organisations, led by Africans, making ground-up impacts.”
Hunter Rauch, the former Associate Director of Network Outreach at Atlas
Rauch emphasised that the Network’s mission is grounded in values such as human dignity, individual liberty, and removing barriers to prosperity. But the emphasis is on partnership, not direction.
“These are African-led projects,” he said. “Our role is to stand behind them, not in front of them.”
While justice and rights dominated much of the discussion at the Africa Liberty Forum, entrepreneurship remained a central concern. Charles Nyakumbo, Executive Director of Suvira Africa, says liberty is inseparable from economic empowerment.
Charles described Africa as a “relay race” where one generation passes the baton to the next.
“The most important lesson is understanding the perspective of those whose rights we advocate. Liberty must connect to the challenges of business, entrepreneurship, and daily life.
“Atlas has seen the value where others don’t. Beyond funding, they mentor us, help us package our ideas better, and give us the energy to keep pushing for a free and prosperous Africa,” says Nyakumbo.
Adding her voice, Kathya Beranda of the Arab Center for Research in Morocco spoke about her organisation’s vision to bridge two regions often overlooked in African integration.
“The idea to connect North Africa to East Africa is the fact that we, as a think-tank based in Morocco, see ourselves very much connected with our own African tradition and the importance of connecting to other parts of the continent,” she explained. “North Africa and East Africa are, unfortunately, very under-linked and under-connected in terms of educational exchange, but also in terms of trade and more generally, in terms of different kinds of connections that typically exist between countries.”
Her organisation’s initiative went on to win the Smart Bet Pitch competition, giving momentum to its work. “So we say that the first and initial step would be to connect North Africa with East Africa, with, of course, the prospects to go beyond that and to connect all African continents in a future step of the project,” she said, reflecting on the broader vision behind the program.
Kathya Beranda
But Beranda also acknowledged the obstacles. She noted that the free market ideas in the Arab world, really have a hard time getting through because it challenges the much more entrenched kind of ideology that has been there for many decades now.
“In some countries of the MENA region, we unfortunately work within a very, very restrictive environment that does not all the time support the dissemination of ideas,” says Beranda.
Linda Kavuka, fondly called Mama Africa, a Kenyan-based lawyer and Students For Liberty’s Leadership Incubator Associate, reflected on how Atlas Network’s support has seeded a network of young African freedom advocates.
“Atlas Network is the reason we have a community of freedom advocates in Africa,” she told The Liberalist. “Through their mentorship, training, and grants, young Africans have become leaders, running projects from Burundi to Tanzania, Uganda to Ghana. These projects are changing lives.”
Linda Kavuka, a Kenya-based lawyer and Students For Liberty’s African Programs Manager
Yet she was quick to remind that progress remains fragile. “Africa’s journey to prosperity is long. These initiatives may seem small now, but they are laying foundations. Investors must keep supporting them, because these are community-focused solutions that lift people from poverty.”
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The story was facilitated by the Liberalist Centre, a pro-freedom think tank promoting liberty and prosperity in Africa, and an Atlas Network grantee.
