Africa is also often cited as holding around 60% of the world's uncultivated arable land, one reason the continent matters so much to future food systems. These figures do not simply represent economic progress. They represent potential. They are reminders that the continent is not waiting for others to build its future. It is already doing so.
by 
By Levy Burke, Global Youth Ambassador, WEHAT, Uganda
For a long time, many of us carried the same script in our heads: grow up in Africa, leave if you can, and do not look back. I believed it too. I told myself that the real opportunities lived somewhere else, in the cities we saw on TV or heard about from relatives abroad. When I left, I did not picture myself returning. I thought coming back meant settling, shrinking, or giving up something better.
It took distance, real distance, to understand how limited that story was.
At first, being abroad feels exciting. New systems, new freedoms, new routines. But over time you notice how easy it can be to disappear into the background. Sometimes you work twice as hard for half the recognition. You realise that being foreign can feel like a ceiling, not a bridge. Slowly, you start comparing the life you imagined with the life you are actually living.
Then something shifts. You start looking homeward, not out of obligation but out of clarity.
A good friend of mine, Nadia, is living in the United Kingdom right now. When she left Uganda, she believed she had stepped into a world where everything would fall into place. But the longer she stays away, the more she speaks about Uganda with a sense of longing. Not simply missing home but recognising its momentum. She sees a generation experimenting, innovating, and refusing to settle for the limits imposed by older stereotypes. And just like me, she is coming to see that the opportunities we once thought existed only elsewhere are increasingly emerging in the very places we left.
Across the continent, the numbers are starting to match what many of us feel. Kenya’s growth was around 5% in early 2025, and its ICT sector has been one of the faster-growing parts of the economy over the past decade. Kenya also remains a global leader in mobile money, with FinAccess 2024 putting mobile money usage at 82.3% of adults. Nairobi has developed into one of East Africa’s most dynamic start-up ecosystems, supported by a dense network of incubators, accelerators and innovation hubs.
Uganda is not far behind, and our story is also demographic. The World Bank notes that Uganda’s working-age population, about 15 million today, is set to nearly double by 2040. That is not just a statistic. It is a generation coming of age with expectations, ideas, and the ability to build.
Africa is also often cited as holding around 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, one reason the continent matters so much to future food systems. These figures do not simply represent economic progress. They represent potential. They are reminders that the continent is not waiting for others to build its future. It is already doing so.
We laugh sometimes about how confidently we both once said we would never go back. Now we feel the pull of the very place we thought we outgrew. It is not guilt. It is not pressure. It is something deeper: the understanding that Africa is not a consolation prize. It is a launching point for ideas that genuinely need building.
And it is not just private conversations. Even on TikTok, entire pages echo the same sentiment from young Africans abroad. I see this energy every day in my work as a Global Youth Ambassador for the Ujamaa Foundation. Young people are searching for ways to reconnect, contribute and rediscover a sense of purpose through their roots.
People rarely admit it, but many of us feared being judged for wanting to return. There is a quiet worry about hearing, “So you failed abroad?” But choosing Africa is not failure. It is maturity. It is recognising that you want to pursue a life where your identity is a strength, not something you constantly defend. It is wanting to contribute to a place where your ideas matter and where your work can shape communities directly.
None of this is romantic. Africa has real challenges, and anyone pretending otherwise is not paying attention. But that is exactly why it holds enormous potential. Sub-Saharan Africa’s working-age population is projected to rise by over 600 million between 2025 and 2050 and to surpass both India and China by mid-century. Renewable energy and digital infrastructure continue to expand across the continent, though unevenly. Consumer markets are growing too, with one major analysis projecting Africa’s consumer expenditure could reach about $2.5 trillion by 2030, alongside a potential market of around 1.7 billion people.
For young people, that translates into something simple. There are entire sectors waiting to be built, systems waiting to be redesigned and industries that need leadership grounded in experience, empathy and cultural understanding.
And the diaspora is awakening to this. People like Nadia. People like me. People who left for all the right reasons, but who now understand that we can shape Africa in ways that would be harder anywhere else. We are not simply fitting into existing structures. In many cases, we are helping create them.
At the same time, “coming home” does not have to mean only one thing. Not everyone can return quickly, or at all, and not everyone should be expected to. Some people will build from abroad through skills, networks, investment, mentorship, or advocacy that opens doors for others. But the change I am describing is still real: Africa is no longer treated only as the place you are from. More and more, it is being treated as a place you can choose, deliberately, as a site of ambition.
Leaving gave me perspective. It taught me how the world sees us and how incomplete that picture can be. But returning, or preparing to, offers something more powerful: purpose.
Nadia says it all the time now. “The UK is good. But Uganda is home.” And I understand that completely. The longer you stay away, the more you see that Africa is not behind. It is rising. It is complex, ambitious, beautiful and full of opportunity.
Some of us left because we believed we had no choice. Now many of us want to return because, for the first time, we can clearly see the continent for what it truly is. It is a place where our futures are not limited. They are waiting.
The story is not that Africa is calling us back. It is that we are finally listening.
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Levy Burke was born and raised in Uganda and recently moved to Australia to pursue further education. He works in youth advocacy with a focus on inclusion, cross-cultural dialogue and environmental sustainability, and currently serves as a Global Youth Ambassador with WEHAT Foundation, Uganda.
