African Leadership For Racial And Religious Tolerance

Kwame Nkrumah

Discuss about the African Leadership for Racial and Religious Tolerance.

He was the leader of Ghana and its state, the Gold Coast from 1951 to 1966. He became the first prime minister and president of Ghana as well as the founder of organization of African Unity. Nkrumah started his political career as an advocate of national independence in Gold Coast (Britannica. 2018). Following are some facts about the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah:

• Being a leader, he joined a group of African Student and make that group the national African Students Association. Later on he became the president of that association.
• He served as a secretary to UGCC and later on he formed his own party named as Convention’s People Party. The leader protested against British rule in Ghana and lead CPP with a slogan of “Self-Government Now”.
• Kwame’s protest were successful and Gold Coast got full independence on March 6, 1957 and became the first liberated black African colony.
• Nkrumah emerged as a sole ideology and the policies framed by the government were guided by his personal philosophy which later on known as Nkrumahism. The leader fought against the influence of outside powers on his country.
• In addition to this, the leader established a foreign policy which makes Ghana the more important factor in the struggle of Africa’s liberalisation. He was focused on increasing personal ties with other African leaders and expanding the international ties of Ghana (Black History Heroes. 2010).

All the above and other political practices of Kwame Nkrumah has contributed a lot in creating good governance and the fact that he bring independence to Ghana is a major milestone in his political career. Kwame was confident and aggressive by nature and was comfortable to work under the environment filled with pressure. He was habitual of taking challenges, dominant and a forceful person which makes him a good leader and self-reliant. The most important factor was that Nkrumah was forward looking that is his vision for results was one of his positive strengths. This helps in influencing his leadership skills and practices (Sarpong, 2015).  

Moreover, the approaches used by Nkrumah were properly aligned with the African world view, as the leader was focused on the culture of African people and united them to create an individual party for fighting against the Britain rule. He made ties with international leaders to strengthen its party. He also believes that Ghana has an important role in international affairs and for that purpose he form a foreign policy based on Pan-Africanism and liberation. Overall Nkrumah’s vision was to unite the people of Africa.  

He is one of the most respected figures of Africa. He became the president of Tanzania and was in practice from 1964 to 1985. He himself gave a resignation at the end of 1985 but was respected by many other world political leaders. He contributed a lot for Tanzania (Maoulidi, 2010). Some of his leadership practices are as follows:

• He became the leader of Tanzania, previously known as Tanganyika in 1960 and served the nation till 1985. He led Tanzania to independence after it was granted responsible government in 1960.
• In his political career, he established a one-party state and eliminated the trade unions and political forces of opposition. Later on, he politically united Tanganyika with Zanzibar and renamed it Tanzania. He became the president of unified country later on.
• He developed a concept named as Ujamaa by getting influenced by the ideas of African socialism. However the concept started dominating his own policies later on. There were many problems faced during this movement, still Julius was focused on unifying the multiple ethnic groups of Tanzania by using a national language named as Kiswahili (Mwakikagile, 2007). 
• As compare to Nkrumah, Julius chose to take regional East African union as his first step and later on both the leaders formed the Organization of African Union.

Nyerere believed in freedom and work and stated that no nation has the right to take decisions for other nation. Apart from this, according to him, education is a way to fight against poverty and if the country wants a real development, then people must be involved in it. In addition to that, his integrity and ability as a political originator helped a lot in bagging independence for Tanganyika. He had the quality of working with different groups and society which make him a great leader.

Julius Kambarage Nyerere

His approaches were also aligned with the African worldview. He unified the people of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and created Republic of Tanzania. The country was considered to be the poorest country and was serving from foreign debt. Nyerere focused on increasing the African rural development by encouraging people to work on co-operative basis or in ujamaa. The basic purpose of doing it was to expand the traditional values of the country (Molony, 2014). 

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African political leader, a philanthropist and anti-apartheid revolutionary. He also served as a president of SA from 1994 to 1999. He was considered to most powerful and great leader of his times. He had given a lot to the nation and some of its contribution are as follows:

• He bring an end to apartheid and has been a global advocate for human rights. Although his actions take him towards imprisonment, but he became the face of antiapartheid movement. After his release, he became the first black president of South Africa who eradicated the whole racism and set up a multiracial government.
• During the period of his presidency, he was focused on national reconciliation. This means he worked on assuring the white people of SA that they would not be discriminated against the black ones (Kalungu-Banda, 2006). 
• He provided water and electricity access to many of the million people. In addition to that free health care was also introduced. Overall he worked for his nation and his people (Newtonic. 2017).
• Mandela founded and established number of organization which deals with problems like AIDS and fight for the right of equality. The organizations promotes equality in the nation, focused on creating peace in the society and protecting human rights

Apart from the above there are various other contributions of Nelson Mandela which make Africa to develop and grow as a nation. The first and important philosophy he followed was to create peace. He was a man of peace. Mandela shows the world how to forgive people, think positive and be visionary in life. Apart from that, he was focused on goals and missions and all these things made him a great leader. He also followed Afrocentric approached and was focused on properly utilizing the human and natural resources, creating peace in the country, unifying the people and promoting the collective responsibility and cooperation (SkipPrichard 2018).

She is a Liberian politician who became the 24^th president of Liberia in 2006. She was the first elected female head of state in Africa. She has done a lot for the nation in her tenure. Her presidency opened up the space for women and made them engaged in politics and more visible in terms of leaderships. She lifted the international trade sanctions against Liberia and make the country free from external debt. She enforced equal rights for women and right for free education. She in her whole tenure worked for the empowerment of women of Africa. Her suffering from the past life make her a great leader and developed great leadership quality in her (Academy of Achievement. 2018).

Steven Friedman is a South Africa based newspaper columnist, activist, and a journalist. He has written many articles on the politics and leaderships of Africa and is also a strong supporter of Palestinians’ rights. He gave a statement which holds the fact that the biggest obstacle of South African businesses are not the corruption or economic radicalism, instead it is the racism and gender biasness caused by the leaders and people involved in that business. The pointed example of the above statement is the court action taken against the Mark Lamberti who is a CEO of Imperial Holdings, a company engaged in motors and logistics. The lamberti’s leadership take the right of Adila Chowan who is an experience and qualified black woman charted accountant, from being the CFO of the company. The leader gave that post to a white man who founded to be unexperienced in motor industry. According to the records, it was found that Chowan was told that she is a woman and belongs to employment equity which is a group that is historically discriminated. The whole case make Lamberti racist and sexist, however he rejected the claims later on (The Conversation. 2018).

Nelson Mandela

Based on this case, Steven gave his statement that leaders who are involved in doing this racism are not aware about the same. A deep rooted prejudice can be seen here, as Imperial has two out of four executive directors and half of the non-executive directors are white and also include two black woman. Still, the leader was accused of choosing white man over the black qualified woman. However the problem arises when Lamberti may believe that his words and actions were not prejudice, even though they were. He saw Adila as ‘employment equity’ and believed that she is only in job because of her race and gender. It is irrespective of the fact that whether he recognizes it or not, he directly questioned the ability of Adila Chowan though he mentioned her technically component. Nevertheless, his main reason for rejecting her was that she is neither white nor man. This what deep rooted attitude is which only sees that white men are capable of handling the business and the black people specifically women needs to prove themselves in every situation (The Conversation. 2018).

Furthermore, it is not only the problem of Lamberti, it happens in every businesses where white men are given more privileges than black women. It is in the root of society that one group creates a law to dominate the other group and it is always seen that the group who is dominating is in skilled positions and assumed that they only belongs here. As per the Steven’s statement, these assumptions are deeply rooted that people do not realise that what they are doing and how their actions may affect or hurt other people. Such assumptions shows that the companies or leaders who believes that they are free of prejudice are actually making a decimation between black and white people in the workplace. They exclude black men and women from their roles and responsibilities and boycott them from every means. This gender biasness and racism is such a big problem in businesses of South Africa as people are associating white people with full skills and merit and consider other incompetent and with lack. They look black people from the view point that they are useless and will not bring success to the organization despite of the fact that they have sufficient skills and are very much competent in their work. All such practices from the end of a leader creates many obstacles for the success and growth of South Africa’s businesses.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Learning from the above, the leaders must use proper measures and should take corrective steps in order to reduce such racism and gender biasness in the workplace. Being a leader, certain steps should be taken to make the workplace free from racism and gender bias.

• Being a leader we should Introduce and implement the laws and policies which allows the employers to appoint black people and women for the same job and position as received by white people in the workplace.
• We must evaluate the skills and competency of black people also as it would not deprive them and the business from having good skills, knowledge and experience.
• The most important thing which is to be included in the practice at the workplace is that we should consider every employee equal and evaluate them on the basis of their performance, rather than judging them as per their gender and colour (Eagly & Karau, 2002).
• As a leader, we should try to change the viewpoint of the society and make them believe that the racism and gender biasness is the root cause for the unsuccessfulness of businesses operating in South Africa.
• We must oppose those practices which supports discrimination at every level in the organization and should properly communicate with each of our employee regarding the same.
• Another thing which can be introduced is to give equal chance to women to speak up and put their point of views in corporate meetings of the business where men are also present.

Apart from the above there are many areas in South Africa which have fought against racism and sexist society and gave equal power and authority to women of the nation. As per the statistics of SA, the constitution of South Africa passed a bill on gender equality and Women Empowerment. As per the labour force data there are 44 women out of every 100 employed individuals, which means 44% of the women have skilled post such as technicians, managers and professionals. However this figure was reported in 2017 and was remaining same since 2002.  Despite of many actions the gender representatively was still below the mark of 50% as mentioned in the data of the year 2014. It was found that in top 40 JSE listed companies, only one company had a female CEO. However, the situation is different in case of country’s parliament. SA is considered to be on the tenth position among the world wide companies with the high number of females in Parliament. The country has started making progress towards non-sexist societies but still it is a long way to go for achieving a workplace or a society totally free of racism and gender discrimination (Schlosser, Cha-Jua, Valgoi & Neville, 2015).

Mamphela Ramphele is an academic and medical doctor and a political activist who is focused on reimagining the future of South Africa and figuring out the way to share heritage across the boundaries. Dr. Ramphele argued that there is only one way to achieve this which is known as “emotional settlement”. She said that it is an urgency to complement the SA’s political settlement of 1994 with the emotional settlement, otherwise the burden of nation’s ugly past will threaten the future hostage. According to her, there is an increasing need for the nation to hold deep and healthy conversations in order to make the process of emotional settlement successful. The nation is required to acknowledge the pain of those people who are deprived of the privileges given to the white people. In addition to this, there is an increasing demand for unifying and reconnecting all the citizens over the colour coded system (Petersen, 2016).

Racism and Gender Biasness in African Businesses

It is a fact that Dr. Ramphele was true in her point and was correct in saying that South Africa is lacking behind as a nation due to the lack of emotional settlement. Adopting this would give a free rein to the talent and energies of the individuals and make them work together for the purpose of reconstructing a more equal and united society. She gave many points which proves that blocking emotional settlement will give a back to leadership at all levels. She said that the country needs to communicate an education philosophy that will provide a training system which gives the values and tenets of Ubuntu. This would express the democratic system more clearly and young people has the right to ask for the fundamental transformation in the education system. This would result in more active and passionate young children and citizens as the study of African history and civic education is the core part of this system.

Ramphele also said that the nation required a reimagined system which has an Afrocentric curriculum content, form and symbolic expressions. She focused on the problem of the failure of school system which create a positive environment for teaching. Along with this, demotivated black teachers has inferiority complex which impacted the future of majority of children to a great extent, specifically for the ones who are from poor background. She also argued that the biggest challenge of the society is to prioritize its resources. There is a big issue of corruption prevailing in the nation and eliminating the same could contribute in having huge funds in the nation. She was correct in her view to a great extent by mentioning the fact that the country can learn from anti-poverty programmes of 1930 that includes the creation of jobs, social welfare, education, housing and training. Also the successful implementation of these programmes help the Africans to secure their power and position they had in time period of 1984 to 1994 (Jones, 2017).

The absence of the concept of emotional intelligence do hold us back in exercising leaderships at all the levels and is accountable for having poor leadership practices. As it is a fact that South Africa still carries the scars of its past and people like Nelson Mandela are still got accused for supporting white people in their times. Following are the points which shows that how lack of this concept affect the leadership at different levels.

• There is a lack of conversation among the leaders about the actions that have been performed in the past which has impacted the society and divided it. In past, the country has faced abuse of human rights which include exploitation of economy and slavery that has impacted both the white and black people. All this is considered to be major block in attaining leadership in all context and reflects the poor practice of the same.
• Another factor which was focused in earlier times was to discriminate people on the basis of their colour and treating the black and white people differently. The black people, specifically women were treated very badly as they were deprived of their rights despite of having sufficient skills and competencies. As a result of which, they feel humiliated and were highly impacted. Such wounds were not acknowledged by the leaders due to the lack of emotional intelligence.
• Emotional settlement basically has two elements, one is emotional and other is transactional. It is very difficult for the leaders to address the emotional aspect as it is not always possible to understand the feelings of other. Leadership must be performed with the due intelligence of one’s emotions and the leader must know how to deal with the burden of poor leadership practices.
• Lack of proper education and training system can also lead to the poor leaderships. Absence of literature and academic learning among young African people may restrain them from learning about the culture and history of nation. In the past, teaching of SA’s history and culture was not in the curriculum of Africans. This negligence had left a huge impact on today’s generation according to Ramphele.
• Corruption and wasting the resources of the society is another issue faced by many leaders while performing their practices. Having misdirected priorities and involvement in the corruption activities may also result in the poor and bad practices of leaderships.

All the above points stated that, M Ramphele was correct in her view of bringing emotional settlement as the absence of such concept may affect the leadership skills of a leader to a great extent and also hold back the leading quality to be exercised at all the levels.

It is very important for changing the ways of teaching African students in order to develop leadership competencies in them. Changing the manner of conducting researches and adding new concepts in the education curriculum will definitely change the way African sees themselves. If the teachers focused on learner centric approach then student will understand more and retain what they have learned for a longer period of time. Enhancing the concepts and content will definitely make African students to emerge as a good leaders in future. As it is a known fact that, in earlier times Africans have faced a lot of criticism and are been humiliated on the basis of their colour and gender. Also, there were no proper education and training systems for the citizens of the country. So, making changes in education system of present era may help in creating a better picture of South Africa. Following modifications can be made in the manner of teaching and in the curriculum.

The teachers must provide sufficient knowledge to the student about the culture and history of their country. African students must be aware about their country’s culture, origin and the political history of Africa. Students should have knowledge about their famous political leaders like Nelson Mandela and their contribution towards developing the nation. The culture adopted by Africans in their past must be taught in the class so that the students get to know about their country’s cultural activities and can take the legacy ahead. Teachers should provide students with the knowledge about the leadership styles and qualities of the famous political leaders which help them in establishing and developing greater leadership competencies in themselves.

Organizational behaviour basically deals with understanding the behaviour of the people. It means developing and making students learn good communication skills and the way to behave in a group. Teachers must introduce this concept as it is very important for African students to know how to understand the psychology and sociology of different people while leading them. Making a proper behavioural analysis is one of the main competency required to become a successful leader. Students must learn how to deal with the changing behaviour of the people and should know how to understand the behaviour of the groups or society. They should learn how Africans react in different situations as this well help them in leading the country properly. Analysing the organizational behaviour will be a great competency of leadership that every African student must learn (Miner, 2015).

Teachers must introduce this concept in the education curriculum as it will enhance the knowledge of the students and make them learn how to unify the thoughts and life of Africans. Many political leaders of Africa had perform their leadership practices by keeping in mind the African world view. They were focused on bringing the unity in their part or a particular social group. It should be thought to the students that unifying the various thoughts and perspectives of Africans will help them to fight against the world and to deal with the challenges to be faced by the country in near future. Students should be aware of this thing how Africans view themselves from the perspective of world. They should be taught about the practice of historical political leaders and their tactics used based on Afrocentric view. African worldview basically defines the good life that is required to be pursued, preserved and protected. It also guides the thinking and the choices of the people. Teachers must taught this concept to the students as it will bring out a leadership quality in them (Mathema, 2007).

Apart from this, students should learn how to meet the societal needs. The competencies required for being a good leader that contributes in nation building and meet the need of society should be taught to the African students. To become a good leader, students must pursue some skills like planning, motivating, act as a facilator and must be committed towards its nation. Also they should master the art of being diplomatic. Diplomacy is the one fine competency of a great leader. It will help them in making contact and tie ups with the world and other international leaders. All this will eventually lead to the satisfaction of societal needs and nation building.   

References 

Academy of Achievement. (2018). Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Retrieved from https://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/ 

Black History Heroes. (2010). Kwame Nkrumah: The First President of the Independent Nation of Ghana. Retrieved from https://www.blackhistoryheroes.com/2010/09/kwame-nkrumah.html 

Britannica. (2018). Kwame Nkrumah – president of Ghana. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah 

Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological review, 109(3), 573.

Jones, A. (2017). We need to reimagine what kind of country we want to live in,” says Ramphele. Retrieved from https://www.matiemedia.org/need-reimagine-kind-country-want-live-says-ramphele/ 

Kalungu-Banda, M. (2006). Leading like Madiba: Leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela. Juta and Company Ltd.

Maoulidi, S. (2010). Racial and religious tolerance in Nyerere’s political thought and practice. AfricA’s LiberATioN, 134.

Mathema, Z. A., (2007). The African worldview: a serious challenge to Christian discipleship. Retrieved from https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2007/10/the-african-worldview.html 

Miner, J.B., (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Molony, T. (2014). Nyerere: The early years. Boydell & Brewer Ltd.

Mwakikagile, G. (2007). Nyerere and Africa: End of an era. New Africa Press.

Newtonic. (2017). 10 MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF NELSON MANDELA. Retrieved from https://learnodo-newtonic.com/nelson-mandela-accomplishments 

Petersen, T. (2016). SA’s future imprisoned by its unacknowledged past – Mamphela Ramphele. Retrieved from https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/sas-future-imprisoned-by-its-unacknowledged-past-mamphela-ramphele-20160915 

Sarpong G. K., (2015).  4 LEADERSHIP TRAITS OF NKRUMAH MISSING IN AFRICA TODAY. Retrieved from https://therawafrica.com/4-leadership-traits-of-nkrumah-missing-in-africa-today/ 

Schlosser, M. D., Cha-Jua, S., Valgoi, M. J., & Neville, H. A. (2015). Improving policing in a multiracial society in the united states: A new approach. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences, 10(1), 115.

SkipPrichard (2018). 11 Leadership Qualities of Nelson Mandela. Retrieved from https://www.skipprichard.com/11-leadership-qualities-of-nelson-mandela/ 

The Conversation. (2018). South African business must tackle its deeply rooted prejudice. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/south-african-business-must-tackle-its-deeply-rooted-prejudice-94686