The 4th Generation Podcast

In this second session of the Ideological College Uganda series, Olemo Gordon Brian and Surumani Manzi turn to class as a tool of political analysis — asking whether Marxist categories of bourgeoisie and proletariat are even useful for understanding African societies that never went through the historical stages that produced them in Europe. They argue that Africa is not an infant Europe, and that...

Why do Africa's liberation movements all seem to end up in the same place? In this conversation, Olemo Gordon Brian and Surumani Manzi anchor a discussion of Liam Taylor's essay — The Eighteenth Brumaire of Yoweri Museveni, published in the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) — on the broader question of why national liberation movements across Africa have failed to deliver the tra...

In this second part of The Great Text Series discussion on Peter Ekeh's "Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa", Olemo Gordon Brian and Surumani Manzi take the conversation from diagnosis to debate. They interrogate the African bourgeoisie — arguing that it is not fundamentally different from the European bourgeoisie in character, only in its inability to externalise exploitation...

Why does a civil servant who would never steal from his hometown association feel no guilt at all stealing from the public purse? Why do voters demand that their elected representative attend every funeral and wedding in the constituency — and punish them at the ballot if they do not? Why does every new government, however clean its record, end up behaving just like the one before it? In this firs...

A February 2018 speech by Trevor Lwere delivered during the African Leadership Academy (ALA)'s Decennial Celebrations. More than five years later, this speech remains foundational to us. Trevor makes a forceful case against political apathy and argues that even if we do not take an interest in politics, politics will always take an interest in us. He challenges young Africans to resist the com...

Why does the South African left keep losing — not to the right, but to itself? In this conversation from The 4th Generation Initiative, hosts Olemo Gordon Brian and Michelle Hadebe sit down with Kganki Mphahlele — political activist, EFF Students Command alumnus, and now aligned with the Mayibuye movement — for a rigorous examination of progressive politics in South Africa and what its repeated fa...

Is Africa's pursuit of development a rigged game — or is the problem simply that we have not learned the right lessons? In this conversation, Olemo Gordon Brian is joined by Trevor Lwere, Surumani Manzi, and Thomas Lesaffre to engage Trevor's undergraduate thesis on Africa's experiences with modernisation. Together they interrogate why development has remained elusive to African states...

Is Africa's leadership crisis really about the wrong people being in power — or is it about something far more structural? In this conversation from The 4th Generation Initiative, host Olemo Gordon Brian sits down with Surumani Manzi and Trevor Lwere for a rigorous examination of leadership formation, political education, and the politics of longevity on the African continent. Together they interr...

Right from independence, the question has always been how African countries can attain real independence. In this archival conversation, host Olemo Gordon Brian reunites with Trevor Lwere — Chairperson of the Pan-African Youth Conference (PAYC) and the guest behind Conscientize!'s most-streamed episode — to trace the full arc of Pan-Africanism: from its origins in the diaspora, through the Nkr...

What does it mean for Africa's educated diaspora to truly "return to the source" — and what are the counterfeits we must reject along the way? At the 3rd National African Students' Association (NAfSA) Conference in Washington D.C. on April 24, 2026, The 4th Generation Initiative's Coordinating Director, Olemo Gordon Brian, delivered a keynote address drawing on Cabral, Fanon, Nyerere, and Nkrumah...

Often, when we think about the challenges bedeviling our continent, our minds first run to technical and technocratic solutions borrowed from elsewhere. We neglect the critical task of thinking and understanding the nature of our challenges — as would a good social doctor. The end of this has been predictable: policy prescriptions and ideologies that have not moved us forward. At The 4th Generatio...

What separates young people who actually change things from those who simply make noise about it? In this Fireside conversation, host Olemo Gordon Brian sits down with Faith Abiodun — then Executive Director of Future Africa and Executive at the African Leadership Academy, now Executive Director of United World Colleges — for a wide-ranging discussion on political education, youth activism, and wh...

In this second session of the Ideological College Uganda, Olemo Gordon Brian sits down with Surumani Manzi, Thomas Lesaffre, Twahiirwa Asiimwe, and Mushamba Dauda to examine the origins of the twin ideologies of liberalism and neoliberalism — and their expression on the African continent. Together they trace the intellectual roots of Fukuyama's "end of history" thesis, the geopolitical conditions...

In this first session of the Ideological College Uganda series, Olemo Gordon Brian sits down with Surumani Manzi, Thomas Lesaffre, Twahiirwa Asiimwe, and Mushamba Dauda in Kampala to lay the intellectual foundations for the series. Together they explore what politics is, how ideology enters and features in politics, and the place of ideological tools of analysis. They interrogate whether our borro...

In the second part of this conversation, host Olemo Gordon Brian and Thomas Lesaffre move from the history of empire and technology to its present — and to the question that matters most for the fourth generation: what is technology actually doing to youth political engagement on the African continent? They examine the origins of the Arab Spring and the role social media played in the Tunisian rev...

Technology is not neutral. It never has been. It follows power, capital, and the agendas of those who finance it. The question is not whether technology is good or bad — it is: who does it serve? In this 2021 conversation, host Olemo Gordon Brian sits down with Thomas Lesaffre — politics teacher, researcher, and PhD candidate — to trace the relationship between technology, empire, and the African...

In the second part of this conversation, host Olemo Gordon Brian and Surumani Manzi turn from the anatomy of Museveni's regime to the question of the alternative — and whether Uganda's opposition is actually equipped to deliver it. Manzi offers a sharp and nuanced critique of Robert Sentamu Kyagulanyi and the National Unity Platform — arguing that Bobi Wine is in many ways the average Ugan...

From President Museveni's seemingly unending reign in power, to the emergence of a new face for opposition politics in Robert Sentamu Kyagulanyi with his NUP vehicle, to the nature of our 11th Parliament — this episode offers a critique through a historical analysis of the moving parts of Uganda's politics. Political commentator Surumani Manzi approaches these intricate topics through a ba...

In this 2020 interview, host Olemo Gordon Brian speaks with Obakeng Leseyane — South African youth activist, public service fellow, and aspiring politician — about why young Africans are disengaged from formal politics, and what it will actually take to change that. Obakeng makes a sharp and practical case: no one is going to make a seat for you at the table. Politics is not panels and speeches —...

In this 2021 episode — the first session of The 4th Generation Book Club — host Olemo Gordon Brian is joined by Marouane ElBahraoui and Siybonga Michelle Hadebe to unpack Muammar Gaddafi's The Green Book: his Third Universal Theory and what it offers as a framework for understanding politics, economics, and society. Together they work through all three parts of the book. First, Gaddafi's c...

A November 2020 interview with Trevor Lwere — author of Visions at Dusk, speaker, and ALA alumnus — then a student at the University of Notre Dame majoring in Economics with a PPE minor and a supplementary major in Global Affairs. Host Olemo Gordon Brian quizzes him on a speech he made during ALA's decennial celebrations in which he made the case that even if we do not take an interest in politics...

" A soldier without any ideological or political training is a potential criminal ," said Revolutionary Captain Thomas Sankara. As Africa's fourth generation of leaders, we are all soldiers fighting for the emancipation of our continent. As such, we need the training — the political orientation — of which Sankara speaks. This podcast aims to play a part in providing that training by...