My life as second fiddle

In my last column I promised to reveal some of my weaknesses and failures in the hope that by “lifting this cup of my life”, I might help others to accept their own limitations and even failures.

My focus this month is on how I have played second fiddle in life, how I have found myself being considered second best in leadership positions.

It all begins with how my school authorities and teachers viewed my leadership abilities and my suitability for leadership positions. This was at St Ignatius College outside Harare, then a new Jesuit high school, where what I had thought was my calling to the priesthood as a Jesuit came tumbling down.

I believe it was the year after I had announced that I no longer wanted to be a Jesuit that one of the Jesuit Fathers came to me and said words to this effect: “Emmanuel, we thought hard about whether you should be the head boy, because you do have good leadership qualities. The problem is that you are small in stature and we have very big boys here. We have therefore decided to appoint Dominic the head boy. You will be his deputy, but we expect you to do the job of head boy.”

This was the beginning of my life of playing second fiddle.

The second time was when I was a lecturer at the National University of Lesotho in the 1970s. I was a popular lecturer in English who got involved in the administration of the faculty of humanities — and guess what? I became the faculty tutor, or deputy dean!

During Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation I got actively involved in the struggle. Among other things, I established a successful underground branch of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front), or Zanu-PF, in Swaziland where political activities were outlawed. Because of my political activities in Swaziland and previously in Lesotho, I was prevailed upon (against my wish) to join the diplomatic service.

In briefing me before posting, the then deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Simon Muzenda, gave me a message to this effect: “We have appointed you deputy ambassador to Ethiopia and the Organisation of African Unity, but you are being appointed as a career diplomat because you have been interviewed and recommended by the Public Service Commission. Your ambassador is a political appointee who has less education and less international exposure than yourself. We therefore depend upon you to ensure the success of the embassy in Addis Ababa.”

When the embassy in Addis was successful and fully operational, I was allowed to leave the diplomatic service in order to take up a senior lectureship at the University of Zimbabwe.

At the farewell party hosted for me by the embassy, a friend, Dr Martin Ngwenya, commenced his speech with these words: “A pig will always be a pig. You take it out of its mud, wash it and anoint it. As soon as you leave it to its own devices, it will go back to its mud.”

Indeed, people said I would have had a brilliant career as a diplomat, and would have been appointed ambassador or even minister, but I found myself continuing with my trajectory of playing second fiddle as a pig in the mud: I became deputy vice-chancellor at the Universities of Zimbabwe, Fort Hare, Natal and KwaZulu-Natal. I became a veritable professional deputy!

There are a few lessons I have learned from my life as a pig in the mud. First, high positions are not the only things that matter in this life. You get more satisfaction from following a career that is in line with your interests and calling.

Second, it is good to recognise that some people may be more gifted in matters of leadership and, all being equal, these may be promoted over you.

Third, it is sometimes necessary to be patient and bide one’s time. As it is, I am now employed as chief executive officer, and am no longer playing second fiddle.