By Sydney Kodama | skodama@alextimes.com
Witney Schneidman’s new book starts out with a simple anecdote: him chatting with Nelson Mandela about Bill Clinton. Schneidman said he wound up in the role that led to such conversations by traveling to Africa during a gap year.
After his travels, he went on to study African politics and decided to “be a bridge of understanding between Africa and America.”
“This Africa Idea: A Memoir of Discovery, Diplomacy, and Opportunity,” released in September, details how Schneidman got there.
Schneidman was born in Radnor, Pennsylvania, to a mother and father who “were not supposed to meet,” he told the Times. His mother’s family immigrated to the United States from Witney, England, in the 19th century. His father was the descendant of Russian and Lithuanian Jewish immigrants.
“My dad went into [his family’s dress] store to work for his aunt, and my mom, when she finished high school … went into Philadelphia to become a model at the store, and they met,” he said. “There was actually all this, really, anti-Semitism because from my mom’s side, [they were saying,] ‘How are you going to marry somebody Jewish?’ And, ‘That’s not going to work.’ Anyway, they loved each other, and I was sort of a product of these two worlds.”
When Schneidman was 11, his father died of a heart attack. Afterward, Schneidman recalled being “adrift” and underperforming throughout high school. He decided to take a gap year between graduating from Lawrence Academy, a Massachusetts boarding school, and heading off to the University of Denver.
That gap year would put him on the career track he remains on today.
Schneidman kicked off his gap year by volunteering to teach children how to swim in Newfoundland, Canada. He had a plan for how he would spend the remaining year: six months learning Hebrew at a kibbutz in Israel then three months traveling in Europe. That plan changed when he made a friend in Israel who proposed that Schneidman visit him in Kenya for New Year’s.
“I met these American kids that had grown up in Kenya and listening to their stories about game parks and hippo pools and endless beaches on the coast appealed to me greatly,” he recalled. “So I would spend my evenings in the library, instead of doing my Hebrew homework, just looking at an atlas of Africa, and … I found it irresistible.”
Schneidman wrote to his mother about the change in plans, and she wrote back, asking that he “tell her in ‘more detail as time goes by about this Africa idea,’” Schneidman wrote in his book.
Schneidman then left for Kenya and, while staying there, took a trip to Uganda with a friend. They were in Uganda in January 1971 when Idi Amin seized power in a coup.
“This didn’t happen to Radnor, Pennsylvania,” Schneidman joked.
Schneidman and his friend found themselves stuck in Uganda but were able to connect with the U.S. Embassy and leave. He was then able to continue his travels through South Asia, the Middle East and Europe before starting college.
Even though the University of Denver didn’t have an African politics course available at the time, Schneidman was able to complete an “independent study on East Africa’s transition to independence.”
“When I finished that, I said, ‘I get it. That coup that I was in is reflective of what’s happening in the continent, … and nobody in my world knew anything about it,’” he recalled.
He then transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia and graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in history before starting a 12-month master’s program at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
“It turned out that I was the only one who looked like me in the student body of 2,000 African students,” he said. “… Twelve months later, I realized I had more in common with my classmates and friends than [what] separated us in that we all wanted to make the world a better place.”
Schneidman’s professor suggested he pursue a Ph.D. He decided to expand on his master’s thesis about Frelimo, the governing political party in Mozambique, and examine how the United States saw Frelimo.
Schneidman earned his Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Southern California in 1987. He then began his government career as the South Africa analyst for the U.S. State Department, which brought him to Alexandria.
On a work trip, Schneidman realized the importance of addressing poverty if he got the chance to shape policy one day.
“Where Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities, Khayelitsha [a township within the city] is one of the most aggressive slums that I’d ever seen, and just the juxtaposition just really hit me,” he said.
Schneidman then took a job monitoring corporate activity in South Africa and learned about the Sullivan Principles that “compelled U.S. companies [in South Africa] to hire black workers, train black workers, promote black workers [and] invest in communities,” he said.
He noticed the Sullivan Principles positively impacting local communities in South Africa and sought for the principles to become more widely implemented across the continent.
“That sort of set my compass, and I kept working and … joined a consulting firm and started working with one of the biggest banks in South Africa,” he said.
Schneidman also worked on Democratic presidential campaigns – Walter Mondale’s and Gary Hart’s – before meeting Bill Clinton.
Clinton’s presidential administration was Schneidman’s ticket to an ideal policy position. Susan Rice, then the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, brought Schneidman on as her deputy to address commercial and economic issues in Africa.
“We got … the African Growth and Opportunity Act passed through Congress, [which removed tariffs on thousands of products and] used trade as a stimulus for economic development instead of aid,” he said. “It was totally consistent with my focus on the private sector.”
When the Clinton administration ended, Schneidman searched for a way to continue his work.
“I just wanted to work with companies investing in Africa, and I saw no job that would let me do that,” he explained. “So I started my own consulting practice, and my goal was to help U.S. companies align their commercial objectives with African governments’ economic growth and development objectives [to] provide the basis for sustainable investment.”
In addition to starting his own practice, Schneidman took on an adviser role with Covington & Burling LLP, a law firm, to advise companies on their work across Africa, a position he held for 10 years.
“If I could help Covington develop the best Africa practice of any law firm, I was up for that,” he said.
After leaving Covington in 2023, Schneidman returned to his own practice. He also writes for the Brookings Institution, where he’s been a fellow for the past 15 years, and is on the board of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art.
Throughout his career, Schneidman estimated that he’s been on more than 100 trips to Africa. He said he’s been able to see tangible, positive impacts come from his work creating jobs in Africa.
“I went back to Liberia last year [and learned,] in the course of 15 years, [a loan program I worked on] supported about 800 companies [and] created about 8,000 jobs,” he said. “They took me to see a bunch of the companies, and it was just so affirmative.”
Schneidman said he hopes the latest step in his career, writing “This Africa Idea,” expands many Americans’ views of Africa.
“I wanted to write a story … to get beyond the single story that most Americans have, that Africa is a continent in crisis or chaos,” he said. “… Real things are happening out there that are really interesting and compelling.”
In addition to his involvement in communities across Africa, Schneidman has gotten
“deeply involved” in Alexandria’s community since he moved to the city nearly 40 years ago. He decided he wanted his children, Sam and Ellie, to go to Sunday school and found Christ Church in Old Town.
“I found out that they [Christ Church] were supporting a hospital in Kampala, Uganda,” he said. “So I said, ‘This is a no-brainer for me.’”
Schneidman has led the church’s efforts to support the Ugandan hospital, viewing it as a way of giving back to one of the first countries he visited in Africa.
“That’s been a bit of an anchor, and then Alexandria is such a beautiful town,” he said.
“… Our kids went to school here, and I never ever thought about leaving. Never do.”
A major highlight of Schneidman’s time in Alexandria was meeting his wife, Lee, at the Safeway in Bradlee Shopping Center 20 years ago.
“I see this woman with a cart overflowing, and a shirt that said Nonquitt on it. And Nonquitt is a small community [on] the south coast of Massachusetts, that my family had been going to every summer for [about] 20 years,” he said.
After learning they had both stayed at the same cottage in Nonquitt, they found out that they had also both been going to Christ Church for 25 years at that point, but always to different services.
“We just had all this stuff in common and started talking about it,” he said. “And two years later, we got married.”
Schneidman said he’s not sure what’s next for him. He promoted his memoir at events around the Washington area, including at Christ Church, and said he’s excited to continue on the board of the National Museum of African Art.
He said he’s grateful that he pursued his passion and encourages others to do the same.
“I often said, ‘Find your passion.’ Well that’s true, but it has to be something much larger than you to keep you going,” he said. “… There are always going to be things to do in Africa. But I certainly derive a great sense of fulfillment working on problems … trying to create opportunities. I don’t do it myself. I’m connected to a community of people, and that’s really the best part.”
The post Better with Age: Witney Schneidman recounts how a gap year led to his career appeared first on Alexandria Times.
