Page 75 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 11

COMMUNITY

Samuel Phillips is a writer,
podcaster, photographer, is simple enough. in your manifesto when you were
songwriter and singer. Leadership in Afrika seeking my vote, and if truly your
position is that of a servant leader,
As a content creator, he is passion- Have you ever been bullied before why then do you have priority over
ate about creating a better image and by the very same person you em- me concerning health care? Why
positive narrative about Afrika. ployed to take care of your busi- is it ok for you to go overseas for
medical treatment costing millions
ness? Or let me put it this way. Have
philpsalmist@gmail.com you ever been slapped on the face while I, and your other employers
by the very man or woman whose on the street, cannot even access
salary you just paid a few days prior local health care either because it's
to the slap? If you still don't under- not available or that one which is
stand my drift, let me put it this way. available is too expensive for me and
Have you ever been chased off the my little salary? Why is it ok that you
road by the sound of those chaotic who is the servant eats three meals
sirens and the rude and bullying se- a day at the expense of the public
curity personnel attached to the very while the public themselves never
president, county governor, senator, stop to wipe tears of hunger from
MP whose salaries you pay monthly? the eyes of their kids each night they
Well in some cases, the guys who have to go to bed without food? Are
say they work for you, steal your you really a servant like you claim
money to pay themselves lavish or you are just a bully obsessed with
salaries while they whip your back power?
for not paying taxes, just because the
very business you have and which If truly you are my servant, why

words mean? To give the most basic they were employed to protect do I have to clear the road for you
meanings of both words, I will use through favorable economic policies to pass with your noise-polluting
the dictionary. The Merriam Web- has failed miserably. So instead of sirens and bullying unruly security
ster dictionary defines leadership as having servant leaders at the helm details who have no regard for your
"the office or position of a leader". of our affairs, we have rulers of employers? Do you really know and
But another website says "Leader- slaves who think it's their birthright understand what leadership means?
ship is the art of motivating a group to suddenly sit far up in the sky, that
of people to act toward achieving a the very floor from which they were And are you really a servant or just
common goal." So basically, lead- taken to become leaders has now some overfed bully who can't tell
ership is about leading a team, a become the field on which they beat the difference between serving and
people, a nation etc towards a set the very people that employed them. being served? If truly you are the
goal. Now to define servant, let's So instead of servant leaders, we servant leader that you claim to be,
see what Merriam Webster defines have rulers of slaves, even though how is it that your eyes are very
a servant to be. It says "A servant they claim they are in public service. blind to the pain and the distress of
is one that serves others; especially It is shameful but real and in your your employers? Who in his right
: one that performs duties about face every day. thinking mind will impose fresh and
the person or home of a master or higher taxes on his people even in
personal employer." So putting both Who are you really? the face of a pandemic that has shut
terms together, I will personally There are lots of aspects of lead- down businesses and workplaces for
define a servant leader as"someone ership that I can talk about in this a year? Who in his thinking mind
who was appointed by an employer article, but I will simply narrow it will increase the cost of petroleum
or employers to help lead a people, down to political leadership and a products as a post-pandemic "gift"
a team, a nation, in this case, the bit of leadership in business. to the very people whose pockets
employers, towards a certain goal So the question I will ask the polit- have been over stretched and are
and by his appointed position as a ical employees who call themselves now empty? Someone clearly needs
servant or employee, he serves his servants on ballot papers and flyers brain cleansing in our local tax of-
employer or employers. I just hope but live as mindless and ruthless rul- fices. If the government of the day
my definition of servant leadership ers in political office, is this: If truly with all the loans and resources they
you work for me as you suggested waste on foolish spendings is crying

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