Here at BGU we are familiar with the term city immersion. Each master or doctoral student should sign up for a course that takes the class members to a global city where they explore and learn about leadership, organizations, and ministries in the global context. During my DTL studies, one of my first courses was the Kuala Lumpur Immersion where I had the opportunity to visit the Malaysian capital and to immerse into its businesses, churches, and educational organizations.

This year, I participated at a special immersion. That one was not required by any degree curriculum. It was rather a private immersion into two countries in West-Africa: Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Ghana. I have never been in Africa before and I did not even plan a visit there, but: I received a special invitation from BGU Ph.D. Program Director, Dr. Martine Audéoud, who was my advisor while studying and working at BGU. Martine’s heart is for Africa and African people: she has been living in the continent for 30+ years where she has been mentoring students and colleagues at different Christian organizations. She invited not only me but DTL alum, Dr. Debbie Yip, who is originally from Singapore but lives in Amsterdam. The three of us established BGU’s ''European Chapter” while we worked together in different leadership roles out of Europe.

Our recent visit in Africa was a special meet-up with colleagues, alumni, and students of BGU. First, we spent a couple of days in Ivory Coast’s capital, Abidjan. The French-speaking country has 31 million inhabitants, out of those, 6.3 million people live in Abidjan. The city is growing, the first subway line is under construction together with tall office buildings and bridges in the downtown area. The majority of Ivorian population are Muslim (42.5%), the Christian population represents 40% of the city inhabitants. Dr. Martine took us to the Université de l’Alliance Chrétienne d’Abidjan (UACA) school which is a key partner of BGU and provides DTL studies in French. We met the dean and former BGU students who serve in leadership roles.

We flew to Ghana’s capital Accra where we spent four days. Ghana is East of Ivory Coast, as a former English colony. People speak English here. The population numbers are close to Ivory Coast’s: 35 million people live in Ghana, 5.6 million in Accra metro area. The majority (71.3%) is Christian and a minority (19.9%) is Muslim. In 2024, BGU’s global city immersion took place in Accra, so first we learned about the city through the reports of the participants of that immersion. Our host in Ghana was Dr. Brian Jennings, BGU Professor and the second reader of my dissertation. Dr. Jennings organized our program with his wife, Comfort, who is a student of our MATL program! She took us to her company that produces products of shea butter under the brand name, Nasheaba. The team of the company represents the Joy at Work disciplines and Comfort is a servant leader by heart. Interestingly, Comfort’s first mentor was a Hungarian lady who married a Ghanaian man – and we had the opportunity to meet her and visit her jewelry shop and workshop!

In Accra, we met BGU alum, Dr. Kofi Osei-Kusi, who is the founder and leader of the Pan-African Leadership Institute that provides certificate courses for leaders from 50+ countries. This institute was created based on Dr. Kofi’s DTL studies at BGU. I was delighted to contribute to its MBA course last November when I was the speaker on marketing, sales, and communications. Dr. Kofi took us to a short visit to one of Africa’s biggest university campus, the University of Ghana. Another BGU alum, Dr. Ransom Affram guided us through Accra’s sights. We learned about the first democratic president by visiting the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. Christianborg is a fortress / castle on the coast which served as a site for the slave trade.

"Being a lover of geopolitics, I go to every new country to learn from that perspective. My deepest and most pensive moment of the trip was when I saw the quote by Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, that "I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me". I cannot help but think that geopolitically, the world would have been a much better place than it is now if he was able to unite Africa as he had dreamed to do." (Dr. Debbie Yip)

What were the most surprising experiences while travelling in these cities? Ivory Coast has no elephants or ivory anymore. I expected to see some, but there were none. Ghana was once called Gold Coast, but we haven’t seen a sign for gold. But both cities are about life and people. People are energized, keen to learn (education is highly respected), to work (as for Accra, everyone is selling something on the roads), and to believe. As another BGU alum shared earlier, ''Africa is about spirituality.” People were believers even before Christianity arrived there. For me personally, this is the key learning: it was not the Europeans, the white missionaries who brought Christ there, but Christ brought the missionaries there (J.S. Mbiti). And God brought us there now to experience His love for His people there and the joy and love of people toward God.

Dr. Krisztina Oláh

DTL alum