Journal Rudiments β: The basics before D.C began – Servant Leader.

A life time can be judged as being too long. A life time, our life time is somewhat something that is to an extent in our hands. We ought to realize and question what value would we be of if we had nothing, the truth of it being, when we are down to nothing. Here we are in the spin of things, the center piece being Washington D.C, and the curtain opener, being the most pivotal aspect of leadership in our life time, servant leadership.

Permit me to start by eluding from the main and initial notion, servant leadership, and allow me to tie it in with the events that make up our first week in the Washington D.C. Rain marked the arrival of the SAWIP fifteen, the 2011 class, one could take them as an excuse for relatives. The proceedings were ventured through by a braai, what Americans call a barbeque, hosted by the lovely Cantrel family, with the presence of the US Board. Come Monday, the metro became the place to get lost at or should one say in, if you are not getting into the wrong metro, you are dumbfounded as to where you are at. I thought my geography worked like a charm, till I realised, being a couple of meters below the ground can be change things drastically.

Selling SAWIP is similar to selling water to persons in a desert; everyone needs a peace of it. I personally can attest to this, why? I was a merchant for the night. I ought to say thanks to Ms Karen Strydom for letting us host the fundraiser at her house, where people saw the value of this amazing program, where as an intern, you see the interests of the world in a room filled with the movers and shakers of D.C and other spheres of America. What followed was something I can not afford to contract Parkinson’s diseases to erase; it captured the future in a glimpse, words, and discourse, the Youth Day roundtable discussion with Ambassador Rasool

While time has flown by like rearing a teen, the fruits of Democracy allowed us to celebrate Youth day on foreign soil, but in a South African home. We entered into this day under the theme; Youth Action for Economic Freedom in our Lifetime. One must acknowledge the honour of being chosen to speak at that event, we all where moved at the words placed forth as key points of the discussion by fellow SAWIP interns, Howard university and the young American professionals. Many of the things that I learnt from that dialogue center around the concept that we understand as human development and its goals that need to be highlighted, objectively approached, nationally pursued and achieved, as suggested by Erik de Ridder. This concept has been explored in the realm of academia, including that of private institution in a form of international reports. However; a set model for South Africa has not been set as yet, even though some have come close to having the same frameworks, none have been dynamic in their approach.

Human development is not mono-culturally centred, yet it is dynamically multifaceted to establish the pursuit of a more evened platform in three aspects, social, economical, and political development. The core quest being the end point where all citizens of the country can participate in the steering of the great vessel we call South Africa on all three levels of development, this all ties in with the freedom charter in one way or another. Human development in the context of South Africa will one day be propagated into the global playing field as soon as we master and understand in our own model. One of the key facets that make up the keys that will start, drive, and steer human development is Servant leadership. Servant leadership is the inverted mirror image of self-serving leadership, which we are branded for by the world as a result of our past flaws in leadership. It is rooted in the demonstration of the desire to lead people as an authentic servant through servant hood that is Ubuntu centred. The “I am because We are” philosophy is mother to servant leadership, and will ever be so as long as the ideal of service is centred around the African continent, but more South Africa. Dr. Kent Keith once wrote, “To be a servant-leader, the African must reject the concept of leadership as a money-spinning business venture; or a rare opportunity to feather one’s nest and bequeath material security to one’s offspring. He must repent of past misdeeds, adopt transparency and make appropriate restitutions” - (The case of leadership)-.

Servant leadership grants room for shared vision on the future of a family, a community, a nation, and the world. It is the center that feeds the periphery, it is transparent, it is invigorating those who are in line in its path and those who choose it, and it nurses the injustices that have and might have occurred. The foundation we have shall be brick-laid more and more by the contractors that we shall meet along the path here in D.C and back home in South Africa.

We are by virtue of SAWIP and rooted personal values in a dynamic setting, a playing field where everyone is a winner; the loser is that one being that chooses to stay inert while servants, leaders, erupt to spew change and gases of motivation for a better future. Today we work like slaves; tomorrow we live like queens and kings.