Eswatini, like many other countries in the African continent, faces a crisis of leadership. This crisis is across the board – family, community, government and also in the private sectors. We come from the premise that leadership is not a title-based official position one occupies.
There are many who hold positions, but, unfortunately, lack the virtue of leadership. We are also not going to focus on leadership in general, as it has many facets, but we will confine ourselves to servant leadership.
Challenges that require servant leaders
Our country is blighted by many challenges, including the breaking down of family structures, which is the foundation for children grounded in values such as Ubuntu.
The rate of divorces has reached unprecedented levels in Eswatini.
Women-headed households, as well as child-headed households have also increased.
Our country faces the crisis of heightened poverty levels, high levels of unemployment with the youth the mostly affected; resulting in many young people losing hope, high levels of gender-based violence, endemic corruption that is recognised by His Majesty the King and government, but not yet able to stem the tide.
Families facing chronic hunger that has overstretched the capacity of National Disaster Management Agency to intervene.
Churches are embroiled in conflicts and are non-responsive to social ills facing the people of God in their churches and communities much against their leader Jesus Christ. He aligned himself with the down trodden of society and made a bold message in a synagogue as recorded in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and to set the oppressed free NIV”
What are servant leaders?
Robert K Greenleaf first popularised the phrase servant leadership in ‘The Servant as Leader’, an essay published by the renowned author in 1970. In this essay, Greenleaf explains how and why he came up with the idea of servant leadership, as well as defining a servant leader. Greenleaf gave this idea an extensive amount of thought before bringing it to life
“Greenleaf credited his reading of Hesse’s 1932 book, Journey to the East, as the personal source of inspiration in his coining the term, ‘servant-leader’ in his 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader.” In Journey to the East, the main character, named Leo, is a servant just like all the others. All the servants worked well together, until one day when Leo disappears.
When the servants realise that things are not the same without Leo, they came to the realisation that Leo was far more than a servant – he was actually their leader.
The Bible contains the following teaching of Jesus Christ: ‘‘And Jesus called them to Him and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great one’s exercise authority over them.
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’’ – Mark 10:42–45 ESV.
Greenleaf believed the betterment of others ought to be the true intention of a servant leader: ‘I serve’ in opposition of the traditional ‘I lead’.
The ‘serve’ mentality is evident in politicians who define their role through public service. From the ‘I serve’ mentality come two premises: I serve because I am the leader, and I am the leader because I serve.
Characteristics of servant leadership
The most important characteristic of a servant leader, according to Greenleaf, is making one’s main priority to serve rather than to lead. This means that: ‘A servant can only become a leader if a leader remains a servant’. In simpler terms, servant leaders should seek to be servants first and care for the needs of all others around them.
In our context we need leaders in every facet of society who will serve for the betterment of others. The problems the country, family and communities at large face, require this type of leadership.
Let us serve wherever we are
Those who are privileged to serve, whether in health facilities, schools, companies, non-governmental organisations, government ministries, in the justice system, provision of social services and others, should do so not based on money they earn, but in service to emaSwati.
All those in positions of power, in all sectors of society, should embrace servant leadership so that Eswatini is transformed.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Mahatma Gandhi
Leave a comment