With the evolving nature of the struggle to consolidate the liberation gains of Africa, there is an equal need to look at how the new leadership can live up to challenges of a fast changing global environment. Whilst the fight against colonialism was a clear cut affair with defined boundaries and fronts, known and identifiable enemies, the current war to consolidate independence is different. The enemy in our midst is now poverty, underdevelopment, hunger, unemployment, disease pandemics, ethnicity and corruption to mention a few. Above all the North South divide threatens to want to confine Africa to the periphery of development, exploit its resources and condemn it to a basket case, reliant on aid and grants.
The asymmetrical nature of the new struggle certainly calls for a closer look at what should be the makeup of the men and women who will lead the African rebirth process. Whereas courage, resoluteness, principled focus, will power and charisma in pursuit of the liberation objective was critical for the decolonization effort, the contemporary challenges will certainly have more demands upon leadership hence the need to examine new insights of what will constitute the new leadership as we migrate from the ambivalent post-independence leadership menace to a new era of the African reality.
182 7.7.1 Patriotism
Candidates for leadership must be men and women with unquestionable patriotism and loyalty to their countries and the African cause in general. They must have intrinsic love for their country and must be devoted to the duty of servitude. They must regard leadership as a calling to servanthood rather than a vacation or job to self-enrichment. They must be prepared to pay the supreme price in defence of the mother land. The freedom generation of comrades such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Eduardo Mondlane of Mozambique, Augustino Neto of Angola and Hebert Chitepo of Zimbabwe are examples of iconic heroes who sacrificed their entire lives to the liberation of their countries for no reward. In some cases they gave up promising careers at the prime of their young lives and chose the arduous and perilous journey to share the trenches with the suffering masses fully aware of the hazards they were going to meet. Imprisonment, torture, assassinations, murder and all forms of brutality were all a wide cocktail of the perils of choosing to lead, which they consciously chose to endure. Potential leadership candidates must share and believe in the values and founding principles of their countries and not revisionists who want to turn the clock of freedom backwards. They must not be proxies of foreigners and must stand for the cause of their people.
7.7.2 Ethics of Potential Leadership
Candidates must be torch bearers of the African ethical compass moulded around Ubuntu.
They must be able to usher in value centred leadership in their dealings. A value centred leadership is just, honest, transparent, accountable and capable of building harmonious communities and teams in all facets of life. Political leaders must be proud of their identity and culture and must propagate with vigour and without apology the importance of culture based development models of society. The leaders must be aware of cultural and ethical relativity and diversity and in turn must be able to manage intercultural relations cognisant of the heterogeneity of the modern global population trends.
Leaders must not take Ubuntu as an appendix to their life. Rather they must live Ubuntu, it must be practiced in word and indeed. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu are iconic figures who lived, practiced and preached Ubuntu. They showed the world that Ubuntu is not about antiquity, they unveiled its sophistication as a rare doctrine for managing cross cultural conflict and diversity in modernity. Through Ubuntu science and humanity can co-exist for the benefit of mankind hence it (Ubuntu) becomes an indispensable leadership imperative.
Rather than have leaders who mimic and imitate foreign culture, Africa needs authentic
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ethical leaders who are true to their nature. All developed nations have a distinct feature of being culturally and ethically distinct. Whilst so much has been written about classical Western ethics, Chinese ethics, Indian ethics to name a few, you rarely come across books with African ethics yet in terms of population Africa is third following China and India. It is therefore imperative that in order for Africa to rise and take up its position, it must show the rest of the world what makes it distinct. Ubuntu should therefore be the defining label for African Ethics and leadership culture which is invaluable to development through solidarity, survival and unity.
7.7.3 Power, Influence and Charisma
Leadership must be given to those with power in all its manifestations, but with the potential to use that power for the general good. Tshaka of the Zulu empire, King Moshoe of Lesotho and the Mutapas of Zimbabwe all succeeded because they had power in their different ways.
Leaders need power to influence events and processes. They need power to mobilise and marshal resources and direct them towards goal achievement. They need power to get their way in international institutions. Leaders must be resolute in defence of national interests.
They must fight pressure from within and without and must be prepared to face negative consequences as long as they are standing on the peoples’ side. Robert Mugabe was vilified and put on sanctions for his principled stand in defending the black majority’s right to land which was at the core of the liberation struggle for Zimbabwe. It is for this principled stand that even after being forced to stand down, his legacy is still defended.
7.7.4 Knowledge and Skills
Potential leaders must have basic knowledge and skills in leadership, management, the economy, governance and international relations. Leadership is no longer about slogans and promises but a game of delivery. People want jobs, they want good social services, they want quality life and this can only be achieved if the leaders can modernize, industrialise and grow their economies and national wealth. Because the globalization trend and competition for development resources is unstoppable, discerning leaders with the capacity to identify, grab and exploit opportunities will win the current struggle for economic freedom. The information overload and clutter available through the various technological advances is overwhelming. Cultural imperialism and global consumerism are threats confronting Africa and the third World to the extent that they have become slaves of Western commodities to the extent of shading their own culture and products. There is an urgent need for knowledgeable leaders who can spur the academic and all information propagations to aggressively develop
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and sell Africa to the world. There is a need for leaders to lead in the battle of liberating the African mind so that citizens can begin to believe in themselves. The need to emancipate the African mindset from over a century of acculturation is daunting but it is doeable.
7.7.5 Transformation Capacity
For a very long time Africa in general has been subjected to bad governance, economic regression, instability and proxy little destabilizing wars and the scourge of corruption, all which have manifested in the underdevelopment of the continent and its people. With new thinking focusing on the rebirth of the continent, there is need for urgency in identifying leaders with the capacity to transform and drive change for the better. The Transformational leaders being looked for are people with a passion for developing their country and people, elevating all to greater heights. People must be developed, empowered and motivated so that they can take charge of their upliftment. Opportunities must be opened for all to exploit and the national cake must be shared by all in the form of social services and amenities such as infrastructure in road, rail, air, water and electricity. Hospitals, schools, colleges and universities must be upgraded and expanded to meet international standards.
The Transformational leader must work to restore the dignity and self-worth of citizens by propagating the culture of self-reliance, duty in rebuilding the country and shunning the culture of the donor syndrome. Donors have promoted a culture of laziness and many a people now believe in manna from the donors as opposed to giving the self a hard earned day’s work. The transformational leader must fight all societal ills such as greed, corruption, nepotism and patronage. The culture of inner cabals, kitchen cabinets and king makers must be dismantled and replaced with accountable and transparent institutions.