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Manage Articles World and Business Political Opinion Celebrating African Leadership Heritage...A call to Action
Manage Articles World and Business Political Opinion Celebrating African Leadership Heritage...A call to Action
| Celebrating African Leadership Heritage...A call to Action |
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| World and Business / Political Opinion / Friday, 18 September 2009 06:50 |
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History and achievements of Africans includes relevance of African heritage, values and customs in today’s world Due to the ills that are often associated with the African story, little has ever been said in celebration of our continent’s leadership in the face of the most vicious onslaught of colonization. In many African countries it took men and women who were very brave to stand up against powerful forces including imperialists in order to overcome colonialisation and free their countries from dehumanizing occupation of their ancestral land. The heroes of African liberation have bequeathed a legacy of self determination and liberation to future generations. These leaders were the last line of defence between the total desecration of African traditions, cultures and customs and whatever was left after years of oppression. For this, we must celebrate them. It is a major achievement that African religion and world view as well as African literature and arts survived the colonial onslaught in many countries. The extent to which cultural practices relating to social power relations, music, arts and traditional dress still characterize many African societies can only be attributed to the resilience of such African Leadership. While it is my considered view that by and large Africa has defended its roots and therefore its future, I would equally submit that the future still demands a greater commitment from Africans to defend and claim the space for their heritage in the modern world. In some instances however historians concur that the replacement of the colonial power with local oppressors, in a form of insensitive and often unelected governments or even military rulers, does not help matters when it comes to the next big challenge facing post liberation societies – Reconstruction. Somebody once claimed that African governments have not merely failed to develop Africa, but in most cases such development was never even a goal in their plans. Rather, regimes have often committed to a spirit and programmes of patronage. It is true that a foreign hand with selfish interests can often be detected in most of our continent’s traumas. But we cannot afford to be complacent about this, for the success of such an invisible hand is judgement against vigilance of African Leadership. The legacy of conflict, in some instances resulting in needless wars, civil strife and as we now painfully know in cases such as Rwanda’s, a horrible genocide, poses one of the clearest challenges that modern African leaders must overcome and transform. In all these instances of the project of liberation gone wrong, the capacity of African leadership both in the individual countries and as a collective in the continent has been brought under huge scrutiny. The successes and the failures are a legacy we should learn from by analysing, understanding and correcting future trends as societies in transition. Such learning must be rooted in a commitment to rediscover and locate in the centre of our efforts, a recognition of what is best in Africa, and what good we can identify in the legacy of other nations to be relevantly appropriated for the best of Africa. For purposes of our discussion tonight I would like to zone into the issue of African leadership as an anchor and vanguard of African legacy, its customs and traditions. I call for deliberate and conscious commitment to understanding the value of such legacy, as well as the role of our current leadership in making our heritage relevant to today’s contemporary challenges of our continent. I take this opportunity to salute Dr Phinda ka Madi for his gallant effort through his book, Leadership lessons from Emperor Shaka! Firstly, the tendency of our leadership to fail to read the currency and relevance of their leadership roles. There continues to be a view, if not practice in our society that when Africans assume leadership, particularly that of major institutions they must prove that they have been adequately mentored and have mastered the white ways… ‘Bangabelungu abamnyama.’ We too succumb easily to this view. When one takes a contrary view that insists that Africans have much to give that is valid from their own experience, that is often taken with a pinch of salt. Perhaps we are to blame for often presenting the African legacy in half cooked measures that do not allow it to stand the test. Hence my affirmation of efforts like those of Dr Madi that put the African right at the centre of today’s challenges and agendas. To call for an African agenda should never be an excuse for lowering standards. It should instead push us to greater heights of excellence and achievements that will stand ground anywhere and anytime. One notes with sadness how a call for transformation from the racial past of our country is often misunderstood as an expression of a spirit of entitlement. Perhaps we may have acted ourselves in ways that lend evidence to this laxity of discipline and application. Those who have an understanding of the value of this call have got to accept the immensity of this call on their lives. It may even lead them to take positions that may not always be popular even with the Africans sometimes. We talk about Black Consciousness and Steve Biko as something that is not only revolutionary, but also something that fills us with joy. But the fact is that this philosophy was not always celebrated in his lifetime, for it puts demands on black people to excel and claim the right to stand within the family of nations, proud of who they are and proud of their legacy. It was never an effort to carve a comfort zone for black people. This is equally true of the call to claim the African legacy. It is not an excuse to hide behind what Africans know and thus shy away from putting themselves at the cutting edge of competition and intellectual combat. The Afro American scholar, Booker T. Washington chastised his fellow freed slaves when he felt that they were being weakened by the spirit of entitlement from all the suffering as slaves. In building Tuskegee College as a centre for their empowerment he uttered those words that have rung through the centuries… ‘No nation can be free until it learns that to till a field is as honourable as writing a poem!’ The hardwork that had been meant as a humiliation for the slaves, was yet the only way to their dignity. The spirit of entitlement that is foreign to the heroic legacy of the African people. It has to be rooted out in our lifetime. And it is only African leaders who can legitimately be champions of this campaign. This tendency to entitlement expresses itself sometimes as a claim to leadership. Those who led Africa out of colonialism and oppression have been often found to be prone to be claiming for themselves the mantle of leadership irrespective of the value of their leadership to the greater populace. In some African countries this has even been illegitimately transferred to members of the families and/or fellow liberators in spite of them being totally unable to reinvent themselves to better respond to the challenges of reconstruction and development. Countries end up imploding first before they can take heed of the challenges to serve their people and lift them from poverty. This kind of leadership holds Africans as hostage and must be rejected in favour of robust democratic processes. Indeed another trend that must worry us is the issue of complacency of our leaders once they are in power. A cursory glance of development trends reveals that most African nations have experienced a slump in development hardly a few years into liberation. A heightened sense of connection with the aspiration of our people disappears quickly, with leaders defining themselves and their reign with scandal, corruption and patronage rather than entrench a long lasting legacy of development intervention. I make this statement to accentuate the point that development, caring for people and lifting people out of poverty seems to rank low in the list of priorities for leaders once liberation is achieved. It has therefore unfortunately become common cause that the struggle for economic emancipation hits a snag – even in the most visible of forms. Deteriorating and dilapidated infrastructure, disinvestment by foreign business interests and the collapse of basic services for our people. And this always follows like clockwork the enrichment of a strategically placed people. If we look at numerous capitals around the continent, very few will quarrel with the fact that most of them are shadows of their former selves. In fact for some, the last major improvements to their economic backbone such as roads were last done before liberation. And yet even in these capitals the African customs, the arts and so on thrive, not because of the support from government but rather in spite of lack of such support. Anybody who recalls how African arts and culture provided the backbone of the struggle against colonial oppression, will also remain convinced that these will be yet again tools for the continuing liberation of Africans even from the sidelining by their own. To kill the resilience of the hope of Africans, one will have to kill their celebration of their legacy of arts and culture first. Because only where there is a dearth of arts and culture will the death of creativity certainly follow. The apartheid regime was not being unimaginative when it focused itself on putting African cultural heritage on a stranglehold. They knew that cultural creativity is the fertile ground for lateral thinking, be this political or economic. It is not coincidental that the feeder for our own struggle internally and externally was our cultural and artistic heritage. Understanding African cultural gurus like Khabi Mngoma, who never touched an AK-47, suffered greatly at the hands of our tormenters for their recognition that one could never separate the future of a free South Africa from the cowhide Drums, as Oswald Mtshali would say. God forbid that our modern African leaders will be misled to sacrifice this legacy at the expedient altar of ‘modern technology’ as a primary pursuit. The preservation of culture and norms of our continent will remain a delusion if there is no environment created where these can thrive. I can imagine that a country going through a civil war, where gun toting people roam the streets, using children as child soldiers and so on will not have the time for folklore and oral tradition where customs are taken from generations to generation. Where there is no democracy development will also not thrive. It is important that we understand that the building block of our customs is the civil atmosphere through which these can be practiced. This includes the ability to educate the nation in a manner that is supported by good leadership. What kind of leadership therefore does Africa need given all these flaws? What is the role of professionals like yourself both here and across the continent? Allow me to submit that we need: • A leadership that is rooted in communities, that celebrates and seeks to enrich the lives of our communities: This will ignite a partnership between community leaders and community members to shape the future together. Partnerships can only take off if leaders are not detached from communities. • A visionary leadership: A leadership that can see beyond their current situation and their current term of office and will make it their business to promote African culture, customs and traditions and apply these in the modern context focusing on development. • Compassionate leadership: Leadership that is empathetic to the needs of the people, their hopes and their future. • Servant leadership: Leaders who understand that to lead is to serve, and not to seek to be served and gratified. • Accountable leadership: Leaders, who will encourage accountability, stamp out corruption and promote a culture of excellence. All of these qualities are underpinned by a respect for who we are as children of Africa. This is very relevant today as we remember leaders such as Biko who argued for a heightened sense of consciousness about a sense of respect for self and for others – a prerequisite of a successful African renaissance; the concept of Ubuntu underlined by fundamental care for others as well as the celebration of diversity. While we must hold up political leaders as a mirror of broader society we should be clear that these pointers apply equally to all leaders, be they corporate, religious and/or community leaders. The question is; how do we in our boardroom today make an impact that gets our companies to contribute to the affirmation of African existence? We must commit to repositioning companies to respond to transformation challenges; to making the companies diverse, ensuring that difficult issues that require courage are faced, such as the acceleration of employment equity, the creation of opportunities for small and micro enterprises and the investment into communities that have an equal claim to being South African, even if they are poor. For me this is the most poignant way to apply the values of Ubuntu into our business environment. Lifting each other, making sure we all play our part in turning the legacy of African leadership into practical benefit for the economic emancipation of our people. It is with this in mind that I call for leadership from amongst you that will be active in spreading the wealth of our country by empowering the young and the rural communities to be part of reaping the rewards of the stability that has been brought to our country through freedom. If we do not do this, all we are doing is to build up reservoirs of resentment amongst our people and reinforce chasms between the poor and the wealthy of our country. Such is a situation we do not desire but a situation that will not go away but for concerted common action spearheaded by courageous African leaders. If people amongst you do not take action we will not succeed. South Africa needs a leadership that is long on action and short on promises.
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