Your Role Can Evolve-Embrace it!
Musings with Haneefah Lekki, founder of Community For Africa
Behind every thriving community is a a human with emotions and things to deal with. This is Community Musings: Conversations. — a series dedicated to navigating the mental and emotional rollercoaster of building a career in community.
Meet Haneefah Abdurrahman Lekki
Haneefah Abdurrahman Lekki is an award-winning community manager who is passionate about advancing tech communities in Africa. She previously served as the Programs and Community Manager at Ingressive for Good, and is currently serving as a Talent Success Manager at Andela. I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to what she’s building at Community For Africa- a community for community managers in Africa. She is an amazing person and a great inspiration.
Here is her story!
I didn't even know what community was at the time
Haneefah: I got the opportunity to do physical computing with Raspberry Pi when I was in my 3rd year of school. I was into tech which attracted a couple of friends who were also into tech mostly from the computer department, and maths department. We had conversations and they were interested in what I was doing, giving me the scope of how the tech world was at the time and because of that, I had the chance together with 3 other guys to start a community in school. But bear in mind I didn't even know what community was at the time. It was more of having events to show students the other things they could get into while still being in school.
In my final year, I got an opportunity to intern at Ingressive for Good and I was reporting to the Community Manager at the time. I still didn’t know I was doing community but I was able to support him in his tasks, and basically do all those little admin tasks that you get to do as a community manager and then over time I had to grow and understand how to do better in my role. I started to research more about the role and understood that I was doing some part of it even though I was interning. Luckily for me, he left the company and I was able to take on a lot more tasks than I normally would which gave me the chance to implement all that I was learning, and started to call myself a Community Manager.
The funny thing is I’ve never had to job hunt
Haneefah: I was at Ingressive for like 5 years before I joined Andela, but in between I’ve applied for roles. Actually, I think the first time I updated my resume was in 2022 or 2023 and when I did, I started to apply for some random jobs just to test the market and see what was going on. I did a couple of interviews, and even got a role but unfortunately, I couldn’t get the role even though the company wanted me because I wasn’t located in the preferred location they wanted; I think one of the states in the US. The pay was really good and it was super sad to pass it up. I think since then I didn’t apply anymore because why apply for jobs I’m not able to get because of location and things like that?
One good thing that I think I’ve been able to do successfully is to kinda also build my own skill, career, and life outside of where I work and so I’ve been known to be an expert in community management which is really good and made me kind of like a top voice in the industry to an extent. I’m using that to do more like starting Community for Africa, doing some mentorship, training, etc.
Overtime we have to make decisions that fit who we are at that moment in time
Haneefah: I’ve considered switching careers considering I’m coming from a tech background. After school, I spent one to two years doing backend, and frontend development but I had to drop it because I guess it got boring. But over time I’ve had to think about maybe going back to Data because I did that as well in the past. Even right now I’m not doing core community management, I’m currently a Talent Success Manager. Over time as community managers, we have to kind of look at what we’re interested in, weigh our options, and make decisions that fit who we are at that moment in time.
Haneefah: Navigating low days is a lot easier when you’re behind the keyboard. Most of the time even when I’m down, I’ve always had to keep the vibe up within the community because it’s a lot easier when you’re communicating via chat. But sometimes I get human with them and get to know how they are faring- like, “I’m down right now, how are you guys doing?” This also helps to bring out the human in them and get them to talk about their feelings outside of what we talk about within the community. Sometimes just take a break, it’s totally okay to take a break, and communicate with your team depending on how your work environment is.
It was a tough one to learn how to drop down the phone or the laptop
Haneefah: Work-life balance was a really tough one to learn most especially because I started as an intern and was really really invested in the growth of the community. Then I moved from being an intern to owning the community full time when Ingressive changed into a nonprofit in 2020, and so I was working full 8 hours, extra 8 hours, and even in my dreams 😅
So it was a tough one to learn how to drop down the phone or the laptop, to say you’ve closed for the day. Sometimes we could have negative community members, negative stories, even sad stories (it comes with the job), and because it was a nonprofit, I had to deal with different scenarios like this. It was a lot but one of the things I liked to do was to share those stories with my team so we know what we would do. While also acknowledging that certain things were beyond what me and the team could handle.
Over time when we started to bring in more team members, I was able to kind of let go because I was not just managing the community, I was also the programs manager; managing the programs the community had. I really enjoyed it though, because it stretched me and made me grow very fast.
Now in my new role, I’ve had a hard stop because I’ve been hardwired to work and so even outside of my role I’m having one project or the other that I’m working on. Just today I was talking to my mom about how I’m turning down projects and I’m trying not to feel guilty about them.
But this year has taught me a lot! I’ve turned down projects I normally won’t, I have reduced my contribution in some other projects, and I think it has helped me to continue to grow as a person and understand that my own space, my mental health, my personal boundaries, are important. It’s all a work in progress, a very big work in progress.
What sets me in the right direction when managing communities
Haneefah: Different things have worked for me but my one place to go to is learning. Most especially when I just started in the role, I was researching and reading books back to back, I was saving articles, and I was reading up on other people’s stories because that also helped to shape my own view of community management.
Learn, and amass as much knowledge as you can.
Try to join a community of community managers. This has helped me as I am able to ask questions, get my questions answered and read what others are talking about to stay informed.
Attend events
Try to get a mentor in the space as well.
Connect with Haneefah on X and LinkedIn
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*Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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