PERSONAL GROWTH, AFRICAN STYLE takes an approach to leadership which offers a path to personal development, dealing with leadership as a process of self-discovery and a journey to the centre of oneself and one’s origins. It inspires leadership through the individual’s reclaiming his or her wholeness as a human being, as an African, as a global citizen. It seeks to regenerate and ignite the less tangible aspects of leadership: those linked to higher purpose and self-awareness and to the good of a broader community. Click here to read more…
I recently had the privilege of hearing former Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs speaking at a conference on Hope hosted by the University of Stellenbosch. A struggle veteran, as well as one of a team of ‘midwives’ who enabled the birth of the South African, he offered an authoritative perspective on our evolution as a country. Sachs acknowledged that in 1994, while there was relief and triumph, there was also anxiety about the future. And yet we are at a particular moment in time where we have transcended that anxiety and are basking in our new-found success as one of the best hosts ever of the FIFA Soccer World Cup. He said, ‘We have not known this degree of hope in this country ever before . . . this is a beautiful moment and a time of hope. And in this time of hope, we are looking for something that is enduring.’ He reminded us that the constitution, one of the enduring features of our country, did not simply arrive on the table out of the thin air, but was part of a long series of dialogues and mutual accommodation that took place over a period of six years, where respect for human dignity was central to everything. For Sachs, uBuntu is embedded in hope and it belongs to all of us.
I am struck by the timing of the Hope conference and the imminent release of our book, Personal Growth, African Style. Our book IS a book of hope, inviting all of us in South Africa and in Africa and people everywhere in the world to step into a larger picture of what it means to celebrate what is good and beautiful about Africa and to reflect on what personal and collective growth is needed. We draw on many African writers to spark our imaginations to remember, question, revalue and adapt what is most precious in our collective heritage in shaping a world with a more human face.
I am reminded of the joy of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in welcoming tourists to South Africa on the evening of the World Cup concert. ‘We are all Africans, French, English, German – we all started in the Cradle of Mankind. Welcome home.’ And many people during the World Cup ‘felt it’, experienced the love, the spirit, the warmth, the ‘gees’.
And yet all too often, Africa is not seen for what she is. Our tertiary education is steeped in a Eurocentric view of the world, too often being blind and closed to what African world views have to offer.
Our book seeks to mitigate this imbalance. And so, with Tutu, we’re also welcoming everybody home to discover that Africa’s gift to global leadership lies in communally expressed humanity. Yes, we all ‘felt it’ during the World Cup. The ‘it’ that is that intangible joy of belonging to and feeling connected with one another. Of unity in diversity. And yet, before the World Cup euphoria and in its aftermath, we often forget what could be and should be most enduring – the possibility of reclaiming a more human style of leadership, not only for Africa, but for the world. Just as uBuntu infused the process and outcome of the South African constitution to turn it into a worldwide beacon of hope, so we believe that our world through the lived experience of uBuntu, can be transformed. Personal Growth, African Style invites you to step into a more human version of yourself and also inspires us all to live and learn together, evolve together. We invite you to read a book which plants the seeds to co-create a different kind of world. Join us!
Barbara Nussbaum (co-author Personal Growth African Style)
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August 2nd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
There is so much hope in Barbara Nussbaum’s “Personal Growth African Style” and it reminds me of the United States during the Kennedy administration. We all knew then that we could change the world and there was a beautiful spirit of pulling together to light candles in every dark area. I have been discouraged about the path my country is currently on but I take hope that others — around the world — have picked up that standard. Perhaps we will be moved by the energy that is coming out of Africa and, once again, light candles in America.
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:45 pm
I am so glad this book has come out and the message of hope that it shares. I also agree it challenges an assumption held by too many that the most important ideas come from the West, rather than being collectively shared and understood uniquely in each geopgraphical part of the world. uBuntu is a particular manifestation of African wisdom, a knowledge that is critically important now for the entire globe.
Let us all stand up and cheer for this wisdom; we need it. Alan
August 5th, 2010 at 12:11 am
There is no doubt in my mind that this book is a manifestation of the collective call of this exciting time for South Africa. For the first time ever, we have generated a consciousness of united hope as a country. A hope that was born of a potential future rather than just a liberation of the past. Because of this fact, the need for a pro-active approach to defining and reclaiming our core as spiritual africans is paramount and I can think of no better individual to mark the course and set the destination than Barbara Nussbaum. She is truly one of Africa’s Mentors. Sibambene and congratulations for the launch!
August 18th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
This is without doubt a timely and welcome intervention in conversations about leadership. At least a welcome contribution coming out of Africa for Africa and for the world. One thing that has stood out for me has been placing the self in a wider sphere that’s aware of its surroundings that play a crucial role in nurturing that self to lead. This is firmly centred within ubuntu and thank you Barbara et al for producing a leadership conversation that I favour, that regards the discipline and practice not as an arcane, rarefied, pedantic and irrelevant speculations but as one which reflects and is a reflection on human efforts to understand themselves, their environment as determinants of their cognitions, aspirations and limitations. Congratulations, Amhlophe!
August 19th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Thank you very much for your feedback. We appreciate your insights, your reflections and understanding what is useful to you about the book, and why you believe it will help others. We are at a critical point in time, both in South Africa and in the world, and we need to find a way to create the possibility for ubuntu to become real -as lived experience, for individuals and groups. It will take all of us to make ubuntu a more real force in our world – whether we are writers, practitioners, teachers, or activists. Appreciation to all of you, who have made comments for your insights and support!