PONDERING AFRICAN GREATNESS

Do today’s crop of African leaders ever ponder greatness and legacy? Do they even know what the criteria for greatness is? I always thought that these were the two things with which leaders, in their most reflective moments, preoccupy themselves. But if Joseph Kabila’s laissez faire attitude towards the mass rape of women and the mass rape of the DRC itself by his "mafia-esque" associates to say nothing of Robert Mugabe’s demonstrable disdain for his own people or Jacob Zuma’s disturbing retreat from constitutionally mandated transparence and Laurent Gbagbo’s promotion of hatred and division are anything to go by, the answer can be one of only two possibilities – they are busy carving out a legacy based on a misguided interpretation of the meaning of greatness or more likely – they just don’t give a damn.

African greatness always conjures up images and the names of the philosopher kings of the continent’s near and distant past – Mandela, Senghor, Nkrumah and Nyerere. These were men who studied greatness and then sought to put it into practice ever mindful of how history would judge them. These were Africa’s true but few public servants.

How do we define greatness in the leadership classes I have taught? We bring the concept to life through the models that have embodied it – Aung San Suu Kyi – Sacrifice; Mother Theresa – Compassion; Mohatma Gandhi – Humility; Nelson Mandela – Focus/Discipline; Martin Luther King – Vision; Julius Nyerere – Exemplary; Leopold Senghor – Thoughtful; Kwame Nkrumah – Universalist; Abraham Lincoln – Strategic; Barbara Jordan – Charismatic; Crazy Horse – Proud/Courageous; and Wangaari Mathai – Principled.

Such giants in human history are hard to miss. Don’t today’s African leaders watch the History channel? One would think it would be easier and easier to emulate greatness but it seems that is only if you subscribe to the values that would motivate you to aspire to true greatness in the first place.

I had an animated discussion today in my office with a leading Congolese anti-corruption advocate who is based here in Kinshasa. He is as perplexed as I am as to how the disease of “kleptomania” has taken such a stranglehold on the psyche of the Congolese political elite thus undermining any real chance the country has for economic expansion and global competitiveness.

The star that presides over the gold-trimmed diagonal red stripe on the Congolese flag could well be replaced by the image of a soldier shooting himself in the foot as that image for me most aptly characterizes the national pastime! This whole country from the president on down is in desperate need of a course on “economic literacy.” Lesson number 1 – if everyone has more in their pocket, everyone benefits. Lesson 2 _ if everyone is better off they will be more able and willing to pay taxes which would lead to a) better infrastructure; b) better education; c) better health care; d) less crime; e) more investment and tourism; and f) the country would be more globally competitive, not just economically but even in the areas that inflame passions and instill pride – sports and culture.

The corrosive effects of corruption would be reversed. This is NOT rocket science! But for a president who reputedly spends his days playing Nintendo, perhaps it is.

We actually need African leaders who have the capacity to lead. We already have a few African presidents who are ex-professors and at least one who is an ex-World Bank professional and in Ivory Coast there is a glimmer of hope that we could have another one after the second election round is completed. But most are still woefully undereducated which perhaps explains why the models of greatness have no resonance for them. South Africa, arguably the continental leader is led by a president who never finished high school, has 3 wives, 20 children and thus barely enough time or inclination to contemplate greatness much less study it. While it is true that in Nigeria two professors finally followed a long succession of uneducated strongmen, the culture of anti-intellectualism at the political center (in great contrast to the strong tradition of educational achievement at the core of the intellectual elite) is still too entrenched to forge a new tradition of thoughtful leadership.

Yet thoughtful leadership is deeply embedded in the history of this continent and if mined as aggressively and feverishly as are the gold, diamonds, cobalt and copper so plentiful here, the rewards will be exponentially greater than the bounty from all those minerals put together!