The Broken Promise: How Elite Scholarships Are Failing Africa's Brightest For years, names like The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program , The Gates Scholarship , and full-ride opportunities at Oxford, Harvard , and other Ivy League universities shone like beacons across Africa. They represented a radical, transformative idea: that the most brilliant minds, trapped in the most challenging economic circumstances, deserved a chance to shine on the world stage. These were meritocratic dreams, lifelines thrown to the continent's most vulnerable yet promising youth. That dream, according to a growing and deeply disturbing chorus of voices, appears to be broken. These very programs designed to uplift the poorest are now being accused of entrenching the very inequalities they sought to dismantle. The light has dimmed, and in its shadow lies a generation of disillusioned and depressed young Africans. From Meritocracy to "Who You Know"-ocracy The core allegation i...