Welcome note from Chairman of NBF

Contemporary African leaders face daunting challenges. Popular images we have of the continent and its people are those of poverty, sickness, deprivation, hopelessness, oppression, dictatorship etc - a stereotype of what some have come to dub "the African condition".

Contemporary African leadership must change all this. It must ensure the development of a healthy sense of history. The leadership that shall make Africans succeed must be authentically African in outlook, orientation and foresight. Those that support Africa can help and encourage us, but in the final analysis, Africa will be the instrument of her own salvation.

It is in this regard - the crying need for pertinent, appropriate leadership - that the NEPAD Business Foundation and Wits Business School and the School of Public and Development Management have joined forces to offer the African Leadership Programme; a bold initiative designed to develop leaders from the private, public and non-governmental sectors. The leadership development Programme will heed the challenges facing contemporary Africa and will be designed to address these frontally in the context of a rapidly globalizing environment.

It is our wish, that candidates emerge from the Programme with a view of life that predisposes them to prefer delivery over pronouncements, expertise and competence over title and position, shaping events over control, developing mindsets over merely setting goals; characterized at core by great personal integrity and exceptional organizational capabilities.

Doctor Reuel Khoza
Chairman - NEPAD Business Foundation

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

To me it means to live the Ubuntu concept. To see myself as others would want to see me. To be African is to be proud of my land of birth, African is being connected to the rest of the world. Being African is part of being the stage of life. Being African is remembering the past and making the most of our future. Being African is preserving our heritage for the experience of our unborn children. Being African is to dance freely with the rest of the world with no inhibition.

African is who I am.

My birth is what makes me an African.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

I’m a proud African who lives in a rich and diverse country. To be African means having a global view in ensuring the economic emancipation of all Africans. And this can be achieved through developing a sense of pride, self respect in the way we conduct ourselves in developing and producing quality products and services on the continent. This will ensure we change world / first world perceptions that Africa is inferior.

If we value what we consume – quality – it will have an impact on the buying decisions of our various communities and then be able to build / reconstruct our continent. It will also change or have a positive impact on those “despotic” countries to want to be part of this new partnership which is entirely based on our innovative skills / qualities to survive. It will change the world view

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

In general the world has no accumulated wealth and is in a comfortable place to accommodate Africa. Lets come back and do favours at least our wealth will not be shaken i.e. we are in a comfortable position to decide what we can let go / what we can protect / what we have.

Values vs Economics

Africa values families. It values its extension as its wealth. No man is an island and Umntu ngumntu ngabantu.

This has transferred its impact to what we do and how we spread our wealth. A family was spread to achieve and the collection of riches according to skills. Those good at ploughing will go the field etc. When wealth is achieved would be spread amongst each other.

Am I my brother’s keeper?

What we do today still relates to this for if I have completed my studies I should help my brother sister to complete hers out of the little beginners salary. This is tough since I have yet to meet my forward planning and reserve for the needs of my nucleus family.

This is Ubuntu and that makes me an African.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

An emancipated mind free of any collar from the past, present or future. A view that oppresses / conditions negativity. Embracing the diversity across all and utilizing all potential to the benefit of Africa.

Understanding that in our individual uniqueness the combined power of all with one vision and mission is more powerful than fragmented views of those that have attempted to condition us into thinking that Africa is a Third World and will always be a Third World country. We will still stretch out our hands not to receive but to give.

It is Ubuntu that dictates that each person is as important as the other. God bless Africans!

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

It means I need to acknowledge who I am and where I came from and where I need to go as I am African.

It means I need to acknowledge that we have different kind individuals, community, organization and nations with similar and different worldviews and that I need to accept that so as I can find a common purpose of being an African.

It means I have to acknowledge that I am an African because of other Africans and my interaction with others should be to think of the organization, communities and nationals and the continent in my endeavours to be an African for Africa.

It means I need to ask myself on any …. That I do as an African is it going to help the organization, my community, my nation, my African continent forward for the benefit of all humanity.

It means as a leader I should serve my organization, my community, my nation, my Africa with a distinct ….. that I am an African because of other Africans. It means I am being guided by the concept of Ubuntu where I am because of you are.

It means I should lead or I am truly an African to serve my people, to create an environment where we would act to do something for the benefit of the group, an organization, a community, a nation, an African before my own individual needs.

It means I need to accept that we are all equal and we have different qualities of humankind for the benefit or our being then I am an African.

It means I need to listen, give all people in a group, an organization, a community, a nation, in Africa, an opportunity to express their views, to participate in debate, to make …… on issues that would make Africa and the world better for all human beings

It means I am an African because you are an African.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

Not only am I born in Africa, but my roots are deeply rooted in it. I have a sense of belonging to this that I am a son of the soil – mwana wevhu. As an African I am greatly influenced by my culture with its values which I have a lot of work to do to change the misconceptions therein. As an African I have a lot of work in changing my history – of poverty – to that of accumulating wealth.

I have a lot of taboos – myths to unearth i.e. witchcraft, traditional ceremonies and many other spiritual beliefs. This I have to make clear that it does not influence the future but only working hard and being open-minded. As an African I have to deal with issues of the blood line ie curses and names put on us by our forefathers. I am proud of being an African and that fact that I am working from behind in every aspect of life e.g. political. economic and social changes gives me the vigour to continuously work even harder.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

For me it means an unrelenting pursuit of critical thinking with transcendal leadership that result in new spaces for expression and existence. To be African means changing the status quo and encouraging free thinking with the intention of removing historical events that manifest as constraints in the present. It is about having the ability to grow new paths towards new realities wherein the manifestation of a person allows for the …. of human potential. Being African is a state of mind incomparable to previous states. The state of mind is one of refusing to become a victim of the past, but rather a creator of the future.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

To be African is to be proud of the uniqueness of our collective identity as Africans and the differentiating factors that set us apart from any other continent – which are:

· One of the oldest civilizations and cultures in the world

· Diversity – embrace the diversity of the many different tribal and country characteristics and traits

· The massive opportunities that exist in Africa as a developing nation – developing means still to be developed – which means to be inventive and create our own solutions that are appropriate for Africa. Creative plus new solutions.

· Excitement at the dawn of a new era for Africa – pioneers in how we re-engineer and re-invent our collective identity and continent for economic and social growth

· Development of a shared vision for African Renaissance

· I am an African of Chinese heritage but our environment shapes us and we define our identifies by the values and cultures we are influenced by our experience – environment

· We have an opportunity to shape the future of this continent and drive it to its rightful glory

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

I would like to consider the term “African” both from a generic view in which case people may be classified as Africans by no input from them and from an individual value internalization view in which case being African becomes a choice, which is consciously and freely made by the individual.

In the generic approach, African itself is a geographical expression and a group of countries within the same physical proximity. Physical proximity will naturally bring about similar beliefs, practices and values as a result of acculturation. Other manifestations of involuntary Africanism may be seen in citizenship by birth and citizenship by decent; after it is said that all black people originate from Africa.

Historically, countries in Africa which were mostly formed by the whites for administrative convenience have gone through similar experiences of white domination and slave trade. As a result of this common fear and hazard, there have been alignments and fraternity of the people as it is said “people bond in adversity”.

However, my opinion of being African stems from a people with a similar shared vision of greatness for the geographic location and its people economically, psychologically and spiritually. It is interesting to note that in this respect there are a number of people who are more African than black people or people who were born within the borders of Africa. Similarly we have a number of people who would otherwise qualify to be Africans but who refuse to share this common vision of a great continent.

I have chosen voluntarily to be an African both at heart and in deed.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

I was once described, I am assuming he was telling his family and trying to describe to them, and words he used were strong African features. It hurt because even though I know I am African and have a wide nose and lips and kinky hair, I do not feel that defines me. I do not go around thinking I am black.

I see myself as a girl born on Saturday to my family. The only thing I feel differentiates me from another person is more of lack of enough resources and exposure to things. An African to me is a person in most instances with limited resources that affect and defines how he/she fits into the world.

You find that more you speak of with less of an accept, the more you understand western culture perceived less aggressive, the more you are embraced by the western world and almost awarded for it. I am a human being.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

It is an honour, a privilege to be able to trace my origins from such a magnificent continent. A place where pain, adversity, poverty has failed to erode the principles of humility, hope and belief in a better tomorrow.

The rainbow symbolises all the people originating from their respective countries, allows me to subscribe to the vision of colour. Brilliance, courage, Ubuntu and never leaving others behind to me speaks of Africa.

Sometimes I am tempted to believe that the architecture of anyone born in Africa allows them to experience, explore and yet be seen as the only ones of a kind who would have survived certain trials.

It is a combination of colour and courage that makes me believe that Africa’s destiny is brighter than it was yesterday. I believe Africa looks upon me with great expectations, allowing me to use resources to reverse fortunes while empowering many to take notice.

Africa to me is a continent that has never known when and how to give up.

WHY I AM AN AFRICAN

NBF AFRICAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

MAY 2007

I am an African! But what makes me an African? Was it because I was born on the African continent of black parentage? Or is it because I am living out the values that are African on which I was raised as a child?

Values such as respect for elders, parents and authority; values such as looking out for the wellbeing of my neighbours who I’ve been taught to know and call my brothers and sisters. The values of respecting the opinions of others, taking other people along when making decisions that affect them; values such as being honest and hard working. I am an African not because I am black, but because I’ve believed, internalized and now live out these values that defines my Africanness.

If you can answer the question “Am I my brother’s keeper” in the affirmative then you are an African.

The programme is run at Wits Business School on a block release basis.

There are four sessions - the first session is two weeks, followed by two sessions of one week each. The final two week session includes the international study tour. The total duration of the programme is seven months with sessions spaced approximately seven weeks apart.

The Wits Business School Learning Experience

Knowledge is exciting and our approach to learning is to make it such. We aim not to teach but to help delegates discover new knowledge that is relevant for them. Our learning method is highly interactive and uses a variety of methods such as:

• case study discussions led by lecturers
• management videos
• learning on-site through field trips
• interacting with business and political leaders as guest speakers
• small group discussion on leadership dilemmas
• interchange of ideas with lecturers and other delegates

Custom designed classrooms and small group discussion rooms facilitate the learning experience through promoting ongoing conversations.

Personal Leadership Assessment

The programme commences with a personal leadership assessment process facilitated by registered psychologists and career development specialists. In this process delegates receive extensive feedback on their performance through facilitated video feedback, psychometric instruments, performance on leadership simulations and individual presentations. This process culminates with the delegates setting their personal learning objectives for the programme.

Academic Assessment

Each module will be assessed either through an examination or a written assignment. An integral part of the assessment is an Individual Leadership Project in which delegates identify a problem in their organisation or community, resolve it and produce a report indicating both what they did and what they learnt from the experience.

University qualification

Delegates who successfully complete the programme will be awarded a Certificate of Competence by the University of the Witwatersrand. This certificate has been assessed by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) at the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 7.