Page 18 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 14

Leadership

guiding paradigm to enable that widely acknowledged, there is much philosophy argue that Africa’s effort
leap. Ubuntu leadership combines less certainty about which leadership to engineer authentic development
many of the most researched behaviors are most likely to produce will continue to be unsuccessful
theories and philosophies of favorable outcomes. until endogenous leadership and
leadership and employs practical, management systems are established
tangible learnings that apply to all Secondly I have taken a look at the and institutionalized The call for
of us as leaders. government position paper of 2008 indigenous approaches to manage-
entitled “Understand school lead- ment and leadership falls within
We maintain the answer is the ership & governance in the South the broader cry for an African
ultimate value-driven leadership African context”, but here we are Renaissance that seeks to reclaim
concept of Ubuntu. However, it looking beyond the South African the aesthetics and identity of
is important to look at how it can school context. Africans. It is also consistent with
be incorporated into our existing post-colonial theory that calls for
dominant leadership paradigm. African Leadership and Man- the colonized to re-claim a culture
Leaders and managers, in any sit- agement Philosophy of their own, a history of their own,
uation, are ever required to make There is a debate that Ubuntu is not aesthetics of their own, all based on
distinctions between competing exclusively African but universal. My an essence of their own, free from
choices, hence they have to make research is that Ubuntu was devel- and independent of the images of
ethical decisions. For everything oped in ancient Egypt, which is in the ‘Other’.
we do and say represent a choice. Africa, by Thoth Hermes, an Afri-
How we decide determines the can from ancient Ethiopia, who was George’s (1968:4-5) The History
shape of our lives. a god. He communicated directly of Management Thought, offers a
with God. Literature is very rich on more telling in-depth discussion of
Ubuntu Principles for Lead- this. Therefore, Ubuntu, universal ancient Egyptian management:
ership Model as it may be, it is an African product ‘The building of the pyramids with
Ubuntu leadership model is char- and an African philosophy, and that a technology that would be consid-
acterized by the following princi- is why it is more pronounced among ered primitive by modern standards,
ples: Africans. That’s why Africans live affords us testimony of the mana-
• trustworthiness, it. It is in their blood. They do not gerial and organizational abilities of
• respect, have to learn it in text books or in ancient Egypt. . . The managerial
• responsibility, literature. planning of where the stones were
• fairness, to be quarried, when, what size, and
• compassion In the last few years a body of how they were to be transported
• caring, and literature has arisen in response to required the practice of what today
• good citizenship. Africa’s relegation to the margins of might well be called long-range
global considerations of leadership planning. . . By using masses of
There is great interest in educa- and management as well as prac- labor the Egyptians were able to
tional leadership in the early part tice. This field of study has become accomplish tasks that astonish us.
of the 21st century because of the known as ‘African management While their system of organization
widespread belief that the quality philosophy’, and defined as: may appear unwieldy, cumbersome,
of leadership makes a significant ‘The practical way of thinking about and even wasteful, they actually had
difference to school and student how to effectively run organizations no reasons to economize on labor
outcomes. There is also increasing – be they in the public or private since more peasants, mercenaries,
recognition that schools require sectors–on the basis of African and slaves were always available
effective leaders and managers if ideas and in terms of how social simply for the asking . . . We find
they are to provide the best pos- and economic life is actually expe- also that the Egyptians were aware
sible education for their learners. rienced in the region. Such thinking of sound managerial practices and
Schools need trained and commit- must be necessarily interwoven with principles. They understood and
ted teachers but they, in turn, need the daily existence and experience appreciated, for example, managerial
the leadership of highly effective in Africa and its contextual reality’ authority and responsibility, and they
principals and support from other (Edoho, 2001) recognized the value of spelling out
senior and middle managers. While job descriptions in detail’
the need for effective leaders is Proponents of African management

18 | we tell the true afrikan story