Miriam Mutebi, Breast Surgical Oncologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Aga Khan University Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Some sunsets don’t signal an ending. They signal a shift, a reminder that light can move, settle and rise again in a new place.
Last week, as I watched a striking sunset over Tunis, I was reminded that endings can be both tender and triumphant. They invite us to pause, breathe, and let gratitude gather where striving once lived.
Having successfully closed the curtain on my AORTIC- Africa Presidency (2023–2025), I stand in that same gentle light, reflective, grateful, and aware that leadership is never about the title.
It is about people, purpose, and momentum that continues long after the sun dips below the horizon.
These two years have been some of the most exciting, stretching, humbling, some of it joy-filled, years. Together, as a continental family, we planted seeds that I believe will outlive us all.
Here are a few reflections from this ‘sunset view’:
- We built foundations for African-led knowledge.
The AORTIC Journal became a home for African science, data, and innovation; our stories being at the centre, not the margins.
- We invested in the next generation.
Through the AORTIC Microgrant Program and AORTIC Ubuntu Cancer Foundation, we opened pathways for early-career investigators, clinicians, and advocates to pursue bold, Africa-shaped research and the funding mechanisms to facilitate this.
- We strengthened the pipeline.
From training primary healthcare providers, improving care delivery, to expanding science and elevating regional leadership, we nurtured branches that will keep growing.
- We turned collaboration into a continental and global language.
Old partnerships with American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and AACR Journals and new ones with IARC – International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization, Africa CDC, BioUsawa BVGH, RCC, PMABC, and others became partnerships of shared research, shared training, shared responsibility.
- We expanded access and imagination.
The new Special Interest Group (SIG) on Access to Innovations and the revived Advocacy SIG affirmed that access is justice, and that Africa deserves systems built with us, not for us.
- We centred humanity in cancer care.
One truth remained constant: patients are people first. Africa’s Ubuntu is our greatest clinical asset. Our new AORTIC Website will strengthen connection and engagement across our community.
As this sunset settles, I don’t feel an ending. I feel continuity. AORTIC is stronger, braver, and more aligned than when we began.
To President Cesaltina Lorenzoni and the Board of 2025/2027: you inherit a torch, not a burden. May it light your path as brightly as it lit mine.
And to every colleague, partner, advocate, survivor, and friend across this continent and beyond, THANK YOU.
The honour has been entirely mine.
Here’s to the next sunrise.”
More posts featuring Miriam Mutebi.