When I met Deng Malek Agei recently at a meeting, the first thing I noticed was how tall he was and of course his sense of humor. Deng is the founder of The Time Foundation and an alumnus of Young African Leadership Initiative.

He was born in South Sudan in Tonj state in Jang Payam village to a polygamous family. His dad who was the chief at the time had five wives. Deng is the second last born of five siblings. Growing up was not easy after he lost his mother at three years and his dad three years later. The large family was very close. Deng and his siblings were taken in by his step parents who divided them amongst themselves.

One of the great traits Deng possessed was the ability to herd livestock. At age five, his older brother gave him a group of calves to herd. He did this for two years. At age seven, he was promoted to herd cows and goats. Deng loved his life and especially his regular rich food which was milk, kada kombo (okra) with sorghum cake, Miok Weng (fried cheese) and meat.

I loved my livestock very much. The cattle and goats had become my family. I had given them different names and I used to talk to them as they grazed. It actually developed in to a relationship because they often responded.

My brother who I lived with, and a former fighter got a chance to travel to Ethiopia to study and later on to Liberia on a scholarship. He later moved to Kenya. He kept telling me of how he wanted me to join school but I did not see what the big deal was. All I wanted was to spend time with my cattle and continue whispering, singing and throwing commands at them.

I remember I was 10 years old when my young brother and I were taken to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya because my brother saw it as an opportunity for me to join school. I hated it. The weather was horribly bad from extreme heat to bad storms.

To make matters worse, they put me at a nursery school at age 10. It was humiliating and the other children kept laughing at my brother and I, okay, mostly me because I was older and very tall, taller than most of my age mates.

Deng did very well in nursery school and went on to join primary school where he moved to class seven because of his good grades. His brother took him to Najjanakumbi in Kampala where he joined Winston Standard secondary school.

He quit after one year because of the harassment he encountered at the Kenyan Ugandan boarder seeing that he did not have residential documents and had to keep explaining his situation- it never went very well with the boarder police.

He later joined St. Marks high school in Kitale, Kenya but had to quit after one year because of the bad weather conditions which affected his health. In year 2012, he joined Langata Boys high school in Nairobi and this was the first time he felt at home in a school.

He found on going campaigns to select the school captain and he decided to vie albeit he did not know anyone. He managed to convince his fellow school mates who voted for him in huge numbers and he was crowned the school captain.

He did a very good job as the captain to a point the school nicknamed him “The Principal” as all students approached him in all matters including disciplinary issues. He also got a few rivals who now and then wanted to punch him in the face.

Upon clearing high school, Deng joined Moi University and pursued two diplomas in Business Administration, Entrepreneurship and IT. He is currently pursuing his degree at Moi University.

The young leader joined Warrap Community in Kenya in 2013, an association for the South Sudanese community living in Kenya at a time where they were restructuring and holding an election for a chairperson. Malek decided to vie and he won.

He created a great manifesto for the group which touched on key areas such as education, sports, cohesion within the community and youth matters. He managed to get funds from the South Sudan government and was able to enroll over 81 association members to college. Many lives continue to be transformed through this program.

Malek was selected early this year to YALI Regional Center under the public management track. He confesses that his life was changed at YALI and challenged by how young African leaders were transforming their societies.

I had sleepless nights at YALI seeing how other young leaders, most of whom were younger than me were fearlessly empowering and transforming their communities. After graduation, I immediately formed my organization, The Time Foundation (Transform Individuals Through Mentorship and Excellence).

Our core vision is to develop and equip the South Sudan youth through education, culture & sports, economic empowerment and community Leadership. We are starting our first business clinic in August in collaboration with Transform Management Solutions to help and equip youth in entrepreneurship.

Deng is passionate about young leaders and believes they are the backbone of Africa. You know the way some of the leaders are always telling the youth to wait for their time? Well, Malek hates that notion and believes the narrative is old and selfish. He believes that as long as you are in the world, then it is your time to make things happen and I agree with him.

The youth need to believe in themselves. They need to come out of their comfort zones and provide solutions for Africa. We need to dream big, If your dreams do not scare you then they are not good enough.

It hurts me when young people are used by selfish politicians and leaders. We need to be visionary, committed and passionate in everything we are doing as we strive to leave a legacy behind. Let us also tell our own stories. 

I am sick and tired of other people telling our story, a stereotypical Africa. We have both the good and the bad just like other continents.

Deng’s vision in the next 10 years is to transform the young generation of South Sudan and Africa through his organization.

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