Numerous African leaders are lauded in the annals of history. Their names are recognized the world over – Nkrumah, Nyerere, Lumumba, Obote, Kenyatta and Kaunda. Whilst at first glance, their main achievement seems to have been the post-colonial establishment of the African nation states, these were actually based on weak foundations. I dare to venture that many of these nation states have never actually been fully accepted by our people – for reasons that I write about elsewhere.
However, this generation of nationalist leaders succeeded in something else – they embedded Pan-Africanism in our collective consciousness. This was an important achievement because this movement has emerged today as the main device for counteracting the Balkanisation of Africa that resulted from the creation of the nation states. But to realise the possibility of bringing the continent together, we will need a generation of leaders every bit as visionary and strong as those of the 1960s.
This older generation of African trailblazers brought Africa out of colonialism in the decade to 1970. But when discussing leadership in Africa we must also recognise that between 1970 and 1990 the continent saw its share of renegades and dictators who caused much damage to our people and also to the reputation of Africa in the world. They were primarily from the military and their autocratic regimes embodied the antithesis of leadership. We must guard against repetitions of the military coups, repression, greed, corruption and misuse of power that their incompetent governance brought about. As a consequence of their poor political management, those nation states that suffered under them have fallen behind economically. These ineffectual leaders also undermined democracy as a value on the African continent.
But from the 1990s, we can detect a democratisation of Africa at the level of the state, of society and importantly, on the economic stage as well. This occurred in the time of a dynamic generation of leaders that President Bill Clinton referred to in March 1998 during his African journey as the “new generation of African Leaders”. Since then we have seen yet a third generation of leadership emerge.
Africans have achieved much through the vision and determination of all of these men – and yes, they have been, till now, primarily men and this will, of course, change. For now, we see that those countries that have benefited from progressive leadership have experienced advances in development. It has been shown that liberal economics can succeed in creating and distributing wealth in Africa – but only under the guidance of good and active leadership.
But democracy of this type has not yet brought about the radical transformation that can rebuild the nation states into stronger entities. Since the nation states had been established on shaky foundations, is not unreasonable to conclude that senior African politicians, from both the first group of nationalists who took part in de-colonisation and the second group of autocrats, in some sense failed in their mission.
If we now want a stable and prosperous Africa, then we must grasp the opportunity for Pan-African solutions to the problems of our nation states. We must do this soon otherwise we will have to say that this generation of well-meaning leaders has also failed. For this reason, and to avoid the embarrassment of perpetually failing leadership, we must address the question of headship across the whole continent. Our very future depends on firstly understanding, and then resolving, the question of how Africa should be led.
Nevertheless, we cannot get away from the fact that our interaction with western culture and ideas throughout the time of colonisation affected us deeply. It led us to lose confidence in our own strength and ability to deal with problems in an African way. President Mbeki recognised this need to return to an African paradigm of wisdom in his speech to the 2005 conference of the Association of African Universities. He said: “To address this state of affairs we need a distinctly African knowledge system.”.This call to action clearly points to the need for creating a generation of leaders who are capable of reinforcing the foundations of our post-colonial states. They should understand the potential of Pan-Africanism to do this and they must be better able to champion the interests of our people. But in achieving this we must first negotiate the contradiction between our traditional way of doing things and the Western way that has insidiously been introduced into our societies.
Essentially, we must choose a path that runs between the Western notions of thinking about what Mbeki called “knowledge systems” and our own African understanding of the way the world works. We must then tread this path with regard to delivering the kind of leadership that is going to guide Africans into a successful and prosperous second half of the 21st Century.
In doing this, we need to have a clear idea of what “leadership” means in both paradigms – the Western and the African. It seems to me that in some ways both overlap to an extent. Perhaps we can find ways to combine the best of both into an excellent strategy for leadership on the continent. And we might try to explore a series of principles that will encompass what we might call a new theory of African leadership – and I contribute to this debate in this article.
Being one of life’s optimists, I start my analysis from the position that the overall balance is positive. Despite some very bad experiences that I have mentioned, we now are where we are. We should analyse what has been good about our successful leaders and politicians and, in the current phrase, “bake this in” to our common approach to headship.
Much is made in Western leadership theory about the importance of leaders having a vision. The leaders of the 1960s did not lack vision. Their vision for Africa was largely set on the foundations of leftist politics but it ran into trouble in its implementation. These leaders knew that they had to get Africa out of its colonial subjugation and in this they were successful. But the division between the western leaning Casablanca group of politicians e.g. Ahidjo, Bongo and Sédar Senghor and the opposing Monrovia group e.g. Nkrumah, Touré and Keita festered for some time led to the opportunity for Pan-African solutions being missed. But the essentials of their vision provided set of values and common goals that people could get behind. When your followers believe that the cause is worthwhile, they will be willing to support it with all their energy. We must forge a common vision of an African future in the spheres of society, wealth creation and politics that all Africans can behind.
Many of the generation of politicians from the 1960s adopted a style that was influenced by traditional African ideas of leadership. They were inspired by the common African experience of strong leadership from priests and kings who were, before colonisation, the keepers of the traditional religious patrimony. This form of leadership guided the community by touching people deeply and by awakening their feelings.
Those leaders of former times had integrity that built trust in the community. If this trust was lost, then the leadership position was lost. Consequently, the determined leader showed compassion for the people, competence in administrative matters and a thirst for natural justice. This is not so far away from the contemporary challenge set for Western students of leadership, who are encouraged to put others before themselves. The idea being that making others feel important gains their trust and improves the relationship between leader and led.
In the Western model, leaders are also encouraged to communicate effectively. They are expected to have conversations within their groups and to interact with them. This is aimed at getting the message of the leader properly understood by all in the group. But this requirement is not news to African leaders. The Zulu King Chaka spent time communicating with villagers and community members. He managed conflict, he trained armies and developed young leaders from within the community with the aim of protecting the weak. He was a quintessentially African leader.
But now we look to the future. The new African leaders will play a role in taking the continent forward in several different spheres. Firstly, they will have to deal with the crisis of the nation state that is occurring across the continent. This requires a Pan-African consciousness to lead us to effective regional cooperation. In this spirit, the new leaders will also have to consider the role the African mega cities that already exist and will continue to multiply. Further, they will need to find solutions that facilitate the flow of trade around the continent to ensure continued wealth creation for our people.
Secondly, if Africa is to play a united role on the world stage, the new leaders will need to address the fragmentation of the continent. The idea of the nation state must be rejuvenated without prejudice to its existing territoriality. I do not advocate a massive redrawing of the political map of our continent, but rather a change of perspective. New territorial principles that embrace Pan-Africanism will allow the new leaders to better deal with the difficult problems that hinder the lives of our people. These include the existence of enclaves, of poorly defined borders and the under-development of basic infrastructure. This amounts to a call for the pragmatic resolution of the Balkanisation of the continent that I mention above.
Thirdly, the new leaders must encourage the development of new intellectual elites that can carry the burden of these changes. I write elsewhere of the skills needed for the 21st century and the new elites will have to disseminate these skills across the continent. They will ensure the equitable and fair development of our social capital that will, in time, change the focus of the development agenda.
The new leaders will have courage but also an attention to detail that will allow them not only to lead but also to manage – they will drive and control the change that is coming to Africa. They will be faithful to the traditional nations and to their own vision. They will be people of honour, prepared to do their duty and with a commitment to making change happen across the continent.
Africans are natural communicators and effective communication for leaders is a two-way activity – they send information and messages to their followers and the followers react. Without followership there is no leadership. I believe that Africans want to communicate with their leaders. They want to be part of a common movement based on action. Is it too much to say that they want to love their leaders? But they will…only if their leaders love them first and treat our people with respect and dignity. Only then will the common journey become a reality.