Introduction: Listening with African Leadership in the 21st Century—Paradigmatic Considerations for Liminal Contexts

Abstract

Sawubona (a Zulu word meaning “Hello—I see you”) (Caldwell & Atwijuka, 2018), and welcome to Africa, the beautiful! That is how I have always framed the land of my birth. The beauty of Africa lies in its awe-inspiring landscapes, rich earthy soil, diverse wildlife, and amazing people! Anyone who has lived in Africa knows the fragrant mist after an afternoon thunderstorm or the captivatingly hypnotic sounds of nature on the open bushveld (grasslands)!

I was born in a small town called Bulawayo, in the Mater Dei hospital in Zimbabwe. “Born Free” played as a dedication song at my birth. However, my family has lived in Africa for over three hundred years, and we have a storied history on this beautiful continent. I mention my birthplace and birth song because they epitomize so much of what it means to be “African” (Elkington, 2020). You see, I was born in a town with an Ndebele name Kwa-Bulawayo in a colonial hospital “Mater Dei” but “Born Free” and raised with a wild optimism and hope that characterizes many of those who live in Africa.

I believe that Africa and its peoples are rich and that richness exists within a framework of generations of oppression arising from colonialism, slavery, and exploitation (Meredith, 2011). However, to glean that richness and benefit from Africa's wealth, we need to adopt a listening posture; we need to hlalanathi (sit deep and sit long). The symposium aims to provide a forum where leadership scholars and practitioners from Africa share their insights concerning leadership and followership across various sectors in Africa. However, the journey only begins with their wisdom because it gives us a sense of Pandimire a Shona word for “where I stand” or “the space I occupy” (Bhebhe, 2015). How do their insights into leadership within an African context intersect our Western leadership notions, which dominate the leadership paradigms we hold as central and (sometimes) inviolable (Elkington & Tuleja, 2017)? How might African leadership paradigms enrich the leadership discourse globally, and where might other indigenous perspectives from different countries and continents enrich the discourse on leadership (Chasi, 2017; Julien et al., 2010)?

We are amidst an unprecedented time of uncertainty and volatility emerging from a global pandemic, facing the climate crisis, and a war in Europe that threatens human peace and stability. The outcome of this new liminal environment is that we might require a different type of leadership and followership (Uhl-Bien, 2021). This type of intense dyadic and emergent co-creative leadership-followership process within an adaptive space to support the emergence of entrepreneurial, enabling, and operational leadership seems to be embedded within the African context and consequently manifests itself in African leadership paradigms (Le Grange, 2012; Volmink, 2010). This embedded liminal leadership context is assumed because it appears that liminality is the framework informing much of the existential reality of African people (Hallowell, 2014; Motha, 2010; Tagoe, 2011). Perhaps it is true that “There can be no genuinely global ethic until non-Africans start taking the rich and immensely long-standing ethical heritage of Black Africa seriously” (Murove, 2012). What can we learn from African leadership informed by worldviews such as Ubuntu, Ukama, and Pandimire, to name a few (du Plooy, 2014; Metz, 2014; Metz & Gaie, 2010; Mukuka, 2013; Ngcoya, 2015; Oppenheim, 2012; Regine, 2009; Skelton, 2014; West, 2014)?

How do these rich paradigms or worldviews inform leadership and followership within Africa, and how might we glean from this richness and interpolate principles and learnings into our extant Western notions of leadership? It is perhaps essential to highlight too that, as with all leadership throughout all-time in every part of the world, there exist pathological and toxic versions of leadership, from which we might also learn important lessons (Schwella, 2014). The hope is that this symposium on African leadership will start us on the journey of listening, reflection, integration, and growth.

I join the symposium authors in expressing our gratitude to the editorial team at the Journal of Leadership Studies (JLS) for their willingness to entertain a Symposium on African Leadership. We express sincere thanks to Dr. Nicole Stedman for a critical and helpful review of the articles accepted for publication and for Dr. Matthew Sowcik's initial thoughts and encouragement. I also wish to thank Dr. Jennifer Moss-Breen, who encouraged the development of the symposium and the former JLS Symposium Editor, Dr. Tony Middlebrooks, for his willingness to create space for the project. Finally, a huge thanks to Dr. Mark Ludorf for his leadership of the entire process.

I began this introductory piece with the customary Zulu greeting Sawubona a powerful leadership expression. I end with the traditional Zulu farewell Hlala gahle, which means “stay well” and serves as yet another concept intersecting African leadership and the notion of Ukama in which we care for the land to ensure that you have a space to flourish (Le Grange, 2012). Human flourishing is embedded in the African worldview and within African leadership. Over the next few pages, you will encounter the following articles written by scholars and practitioners in Africa or within the diaspora. These articles were selected from a large pool of submissions and represent various sectors of African leadership, such as grassroots leadership, political leadership, business leadership, healthcare leadership, and diaspora leadership. As with all symposia, it is hoped that the series of articles will contribute to the field of leadership and spark discourse on how there may be an integration of the richness and depth of African leadership paradigms to build a better world. After all, as a great African leader, Dr. John Volmink once remarked to me: “Poverty is not the absence of material goods but the lack of power to change one's position.”