An evangelical opportunity

IT has been said that the notion of servant leadership is alien to Africa. Among Africans, the argument goes, leadership means power and controlling influence; it means domination, being feared and lording it over those you rule.

I want to contest this argument. The idea of leadership being associated with power and domination is not uniquely African. It existed before Jesus was born; it was the dominant leadership paradigm in Jesus’ time and it still is the dominant paradigm the world over. It was this worldly notion of leadership that Jesus sought to turn upside down. Furthermore, there is evidence to show that one of the pillars of traditional African philosophy actually negates this notion of leadership.

To summarise my argument, I will quote only one of the Scripture passages in which Jesus teaches about leadership:

Jesus said to them: The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves I am among you as the one who serves (Lk 22:25-27).

Let us now compare Jesus’ teaching with the widely known African philosophy of ubuntu or botho. This holds that a person is a person through other people or because of other people: I am because you are. We are because you are. You are because we are.

To be a human being is to be a person who relates to and serves other people. Consequently, the philosophy emphasises the primacy of the community over the individual.

But ubuntu goes further. It defines the relationship that should exist between the leader and the people he/she leads. The Southern Sotho maxim on this says: Morena ke morena ka batho. A king is a king through the people or because of the people. A true leader is one who serves because he or she understands that the leader does not own the people or the country he or she rules; the leader exists only because of the people, to serve the people.

Using the passage of Luke quoted above, and others, we can see the following common threads between Jesus teaching and the philosophy of ubuntu:

First, the notion of leadership as power, controlling influence and domination is negated by both philosophies.

Second, the ubuntu leader and the servant leader put others first. The ubuntu leader knows that the people come first because without the people, he or she would not exist as a leader.

Robert Greenleaf has said: The servant-leader is servant first It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Thus, the fact of being a leader comes after the obligation to serve.

Third, the ubuntu leader does not serve only his or her family or those who support him or her. The ubuntu leader serves sechaba the nation, and by extension humanity.

Similarly the servant leader does not serve only those who belong to his family or party or race or church; the servant leader serves the community, the nation, humanity and all the people of God.

What is the purpose of this comparison? Our society in Southern Africa and humanity the world over is crying out for servant leaders and leaders who are fired with the spirit of ubuntu. All too often the Church acts like an opposition party that waits to see what the government does and then criticises whatever it thinks is wrong. It is indeed necessary for the Church to react to whatever it thinks governments and other authorities are doing wrong, but the fundamental role of the Church is not to oppose in reactive mode, but to lead You are the salt of the earth  You are the light of the world, Christ said.

The Church has a leadership role in the world. The Church in Southern Africa is particularly blessed in having the opportunity to draw on a combination of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the African tradition of ubuntu in developing a new culture of leadership which will help our institutions to become servants of the people rather than sources of oppression, injustice and suffering.