Theory A: Preliminary Perspectives on an African Model of Leadership

I would take it a step further by suggesting that Mandela exemplifies what the Jewish theologian, Martin Buber (1958), identifies as the power of “I/Thou” and what Greek’s identify as the form of love called “agape.” In the case of both “I/Thou” and “agape” there is an overriding concern and commitment that brings two people or an entire nation together. A higher purpose, a greater goal, and sustained vision serves as a “third party” in the two-person relationship, community, organization or nation. The individual recedes into the background on behalf of something bigger than that to be found in the “I”. For Nelson Mandela this greater good was concerned with equity and inclusion in his home country. He was not in it for just himself.

Commitments to “I/Thou” and agape do not fit well in a modern society—especially one that is highly individualistic (such as the United States). In many ways, these commitments are most closely aligned with old (premodern) religions and cultures (Bergquist, 1993). We might even suggest that Theory A is a “throwback” to another era in Africa (and elsewhere in the world). Mandela’s biographer (Sampson, 2000 p. 575) is suggesting that this might be the case with the man he studied:

Mandela was not so much postmodern as premodern. He belonged to the much older tribal tradition-in which he had been brought up, of a chief representing his people and accessible to them. He still recalled the boy Mandela sitting at the feet of his guardian, the Regent, watching him hearing his tribesmen’s outspoken criticisms and settling their disputes with careful courtesy, making them all feel part of the same society. His rural roots remained a crucial ingredient in his makeup: it was noticeable that he wrote best about his home territory. He still genuinely saw himself as the “country boy” who had a sense of his own belonging and ubuntu, and his own rural values: it was no accident that his life would end as it had begun, in his tribal village of Qunu.

Given this appraisal, it is understandable why Mandela exemplified many of the perspectives and practices of his African heritage and why Theory A might be fully aligned with Mandela’s work (Sampson, 2000, p. 575-576):

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