The Past Alive in the Present Authority, Leadership and the Future We Create

Nana Kobina Nketsia V is the Paramount Chief (Omanhen) of the Essikado (British Sekondi) Traditional Area in the Western Region of Ghana. He is a sportsman and a committed Pan-Africanist. He is the founder of the Nana Kobina Nketsia IV Trust a non-partisan and non-profit organization named after one of the heroes of Ghana’s independence struggle whose life straddled indigenous community development and the National Agenda. The Trust as part of its objects is to champion African-Centered Development; African-centered governance and articulate the Integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems among others. Until his retirement nana was a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast from 1995 to 2012 and served as the examination officer in the history department and also the coordinator for the department of African studies at a point during his employment. Nana Nketsia holds a Ph.D. in African History from the University of Calabar (Nigeria) and a B.A. in Modern History from the University of Ghana He has a publications titled “African Culture in Governance and Development (the Ghana Paradigm)” published by Ghana University Press and University of Cape Coast Press. He also has the following manuscript to his credit “The Oron Nation 1600-1900: Evolution of Nationhood in the Cross River Belt which was Foreword by Prof. Obaro Ikeme and published by the Press Information Services Ltd., Lagos, in 1994 and “The Quest for Self Determination: A History of the Oron in Nigeria” in Press, (publishers-ibid) Currently, Nana Nketsia has three manuscript in preparation and they are “A Perspective of Akan Chieftaincy”, “An Awesome Responsibility; A Reflection of Chieftaincy among the Akan” and “The Epic of Positive Action: The Watershed of the African Struggle for Emancipation” Nana Nketsia has chaired and served on a lot of boards at the national and community level and currently served as the Chair for the Advisory Board of WaterAid, Ghana, Deputy Chair of Bisa Abrewa Museum, and a Director of the Panafest (Pan African Festival) Foundation just to mention a few. Nana Nketsia has been a Guest Speaker at international conferences and public lectures among these are “The African Heritage Studies Association at 50 Conference, at Washington DC, USA, in November 2019, The University of Birmingham Pan African Conference, on “Re-engaging Pan Africanism” at the University of Birmingham United Kingdom in November 2018 and The Sixth Onkgopotse Tiro Memorial Lecture at the University of Limpopo, South Africa, in September 2018 just to mentioned a few. Currently nana has been a part time lecturer at the University of Cape Coast since his retirement teaching postgraduate course in “Intellectual history of Ghana” and “Military and one party rule in postcolonial Africa”. He has won many awards and notable among them is the EXLA Award on Distinguished Traditional Leader in 2015 and the Personality of the Year (Western Region) in 2004.

Ato Quayson is the Jean G. and Morris M. Doyle Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and English at Stanford University. He completed his BA (Hons, First Class) at the University of Ghana and his PhD in English at the University of Cambridge.

He has held faculty positions at Cambridge University (1995–2005), the University of Toronto (2005–2017), New York University (2017–2019), and Stanford University from 2019 onwards.

He has published 6 monographs and 10 edited volumes, including the award-winning Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism (Duke University Press, 2014) — winner of the Urban History Association Prize in 2015 and noted in The Guardian as one of the 10 Best Books on Cities for 2014 — and Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2021), winner of the Warren-Brooks Prize for Literary Criticism in 2022.

Interdisciplinarity and Interpretation and Exile and Diaspora in African Literature, 1960–2020 (ed.) are both forthcoming in 2026 from Cambridge University Press.

Dr. Cheryl Grills is a Professor of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University and a founding member of the California Reparations Task Force. She also serves on the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC).

A clinician, researcher, and community activist, Dr. Grills has spent decades working at the intersection of African psychology, community healing, and social justice. Her work focuses on the psychological dimensions of racial trauma and the role of healing in reparative justice.

She has been a leading voice in framing reparations not only as an economic and political matter but as a deep process of community repair, restoration of dignity, and institutional accountability.

Augustine Sagoe is an organisational consultant, executive coach, and Group Relations practitioner grounded in systems-psychodynamic thinking and the Tavistock tradition. He has directed and staffed Group Relations conferences and leadership programmes across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, and has helped pioneer Group Relations work in Ghana. A former NHS Executive Director in England, Augustine brings extensive experience in leadership, organisational transformation, and the dynamics of authority, identity, and difference. His work supports leaders, organisations, and communities in understanding conscious and unconscious processes shaping institutional life and collective action. He is a Director and Trustee of OPUS (Organisation for Promoting Understanding of Society, UK), Co-Founder of Palena Gardens Centre in Ghana, and a member of the Global Advisory Council of the KNUST Alumni Association. His interests include how slavery and colonial legacies continue to shape institutions, leadership, and social relations, and how these histories can inform reparative and transformative change. As Conference Director, he is committed to creating a reflective space for exploring leadership, authority, identity, and difference in ways that foster insight, collaboration, and meaningful change.

Dr. Gladys Maame Akua Setordzie is a Clinical Psychologist, Psychometrist, and Senior Counsellor at the University of Ghana, where she also lectures in Psychology and Ageing Studies. She holds a PhD in Guidance and Counselling and an MPhil in Clinical Psychology, with expertise in career development, learning support, educational testing, and evidence-based interventions. Dr. Setordzie participated in Ghana’s first Group Relations Conference (GRC), demonstrating her commitment to systemic leadership and group dynamics. She is a registered member of the Ghana Psychology Council and the South African Career Development Association. Her consultancy portfolio includes the development of counselling manuals and anti-sexual harassment policies for both national and international organizations. She has also facilitated impactful training programmes across Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, and the United Kingdom.

Maxine Dennis is a Psychoanalyst, psychotherapist and consultant clinical psychologist , who works with individuals, groups and organisations. One of the original founding members of 10 Windsor walk ( which provides psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and training in south London) and a founding member of Black psychoanalysts speak. A speaker , lecturer for various psychology, counselling , psychotherapy organisations in the UK and abroad. A training analyst for child psychotherapy and various adult psychotherapy trainings. Her clinical practice is in South London . She has Directed and staffed on numerous group relations conference .

Professor Samuel Aniegye Ntewusu Professor Samuel Aniegye Ntewusu is the Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. He is a historian whose teaching and research focus on: African history Historiography and research methodology Colonial and post-independence Africa The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Pan-Africanism Chieftaincy and development Urban and transport history He earned his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Ghana and completed his doctoral training in social history at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has published widely in African history, including a monograph on urban and transport history, numerous journal articles and book chapters, and has co-edited books on African history, gender and culture. He has collaborated extensively with scholars and institutions across Ghana and internationally. His academic distinctions include: Recipient of the 2016 Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) Fellowship. African Distinguished Speaker at California State University, Long Beach in 2019. Member of the Board of Trustees of Voorhees University, South Carolina, USA.

Meera Venkatachalam was trained as an anthropologist and historian of West Africa, and has worked extensively in Ghana and Togo. She has held positions and fellowships at the University of Edinburgh; Leiden University; University of Ghana, and University of Mumbai. She is the author of 'Slavery, Religion and Memory in southeastern Ghana' (Cambridge, 2015), and co-author of ‘Common Threads: Fabrics Made in India for Africa’ (ASCL: 2020); and co-editor of ‘India’s Development Diplomacy and Soft Power in Africa’ (Boydell & Brewer: 2021). Her current work is focused on the circulation of ideas, capital, and people between Africa and South Asia. She is currently a Research Associate at the Centre for Asian Studies in Africa at the University of Pretoria.

Gabriel King Akpalu is an international leadership strategist and human capital expert dedicated to driving institutional transformation and sustainable development. His extensive portfolio spans advising governments, corporate entities, and global partners on workforce development and strategic human capital systems. Notably, his commitment to systems-thinking and deep behavioral dynamics is reflected in his participation in the prestigious Group Relations Conference (GRC) in Ghana.

Gabriel has spearheaded leadership initiatives for elite institutions, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Youth Fellowship and the London College of International Business Studies. As Executive President of SOLNetwork Group, Founder of the GKI Leadership Center, and President of CONDA, he champions transformational leadership — empowering next-generation leaders and building collaborative partnerships that deliver lasting social and economic impact.

Prof. Nyamal Tutdeal, a South Sudanese-Ethiopian-American healer, liberation architect, decolonial somatic practitioner and Pan-African feminist whose work sits at the intersection of healing justice, peacebuilding and conflict transformation. As Founder of Matkel and an educator and practitioner with deep roots in Indigenous healing traditions, restorative justice and feminist praxis, Prof. Tutdeal brings together scholarly rigour, clinical expertise and lived experience in service of healing and liberation.