{"id":14018,"date":"2017-09-14T10:38:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T17:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=14018"},"modified":"2017-09-14T10:38:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T17:38:10","slug":"how-leadership-affects-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-leadership-affects-change\/","title":{"rendered":"How leadership affects change"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his book, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid<\/em>, historian and political scientist David Welsh quotes Absolom Vilakazi to say, \u201cdisorganization and disintegration are simultaneously accompanied by reorganization and reintegration.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Part of what Welsh sets out to show in his book is the dynamic flow between \u201cdisorientation\u201d or the deteriorating situation in South Africa for the African (ie: black African) people, and then the way that \u201creorganization\u201d comes to take place. Throughout the book, he highlights major events and people, but also takes care to show the \u201cgrass-roots\u201d way that change happens. There is a certain amount of \u201creal polik\u201d at work in the history of South Africa, where things evolved over time and at each step, what had come before, led to the new development.<\/p>\n

Welsh says, \u201cIn 1948, on the eve of the coming of apartheid, South Africa was already a comprehensively racialised, segregated state. Apartheid would entrench and extend what were already established institutions and apply them more ruthlessly.\u201d[2]<\/a> The reality on the ground, or the life situation as it was actually felt, was the soil in which the weed of apartheid grew and flourished. Historical events always grow up within the context around them and do not spring \u201cex nihilo\u201d into life.<\/p>\n

This is a challenging idea to me because it suggests that the creeping influence of these racial divisions and control, which came be codified and made into law as \u201capartheid, were actually felt and well known long before that happened. In the pre-history to the apartheid era, Welsh lifts up some of the early White and Black advocates for the Black African population, but there is a deafening silence among many of those white Christians (either of Boer or British heritage) who disagreed with these policies. What is challenging to me is that this is the group of my own national and spiritual heritage (Dutch Reformed), but even more than that, it is the group of which I am a part now.<\/p>\n

Here in the United States in 2017, I sit as a white Protestant faith leader, in much the same place as those forbearers. Given much privilege and status, in particular when it comes to speaking out or keeping silence, I read this book with one eye on the history and one eye on the present.<\/p>\n

An additional layer that Welsh brings out in the book, is that for many poor Afrikaaners, their struggles paralleled those of Black South Africans, and yet, by nature of their racial identity, they came to feel superior. Again, the links to the contemporary situation in the United States leap off the page. The \u201cpolitics of resentment\u201d are alive and well in our nation, especially among those who feel left behind or lost within a nation that is changing rapidly. So, again, the challenge to me is how to hear the South African history for what it is, but also to let the links to my own country and experience come to light.<\/p>\n

One critical factor on both sides of the line with Apartheid, as drawn out in the book, was leadership. Welsh uses examples of leaders like PW Botha and Dr. HF Verwoerd to show how skillful and willful they had to be in order to develop the official Apartheid system. This was a structure which was always splintered and not-fully-embraced, and yet was able to develop and become entrenched, even over-against internal and external condemnation. It was the people involved, these leaders, who made this history happen.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the regime, it was leadership that mattered most as well. From F.W. de Klerk, who oversaw the peaceful transition, to Nelson Mandela, the spiritual center of the anti-apartheid movement, it took leadership to re-direct the path of history. Welsh writes, \u201cSouth Africa\u2019s transition underlines the importance of leadership of the contending parties: it was vital to keep their respsective constituencies in line, to prepare them for the inevitable compromises and to have some flexibility. It was also important that mutual trust be built up.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the strengths of this book is that it not only focuses on the \u201ctop level leaders\u201d (whose names are internationally known), but it also plumbs personal histories, letters and conversations to bring out the lower level people, those who risked their reputations, their freedom and their lives in order to affect change where they were. Reading about the people whose names I had never heard was one of the links that this book brought from history to the current time.<\/p>\n

As I reflect on this book from the present moment, it is a sobering read. The book does not let the reader dwell in the gauzy and vague recollection of \u201cthe end of apartheid\u201d as if it had always been a foregone conclusion, or as if it were a made-for-tv-story. The truth is that change (for good or evil) happens over a long course of time, and that it depends upon leaders at every level.<\/p>\n

I imagine that many people would like to be seen as \u201cthe Mandela\u201d of some cause or justice issue of their day. And Nelson Mandela stands as a world-wide icon for the part he played in the anti-apartheid struggle, but especially for how he worked for reconciliation in the transition and during his presidency. And yet, much more likely, we are called (and I am called) to play a small, but active part, with less fanfare, in the challenges of our day. \u00a0This book helped remind me of that.<\/p>\n

One example from the book that stuck out to me[4]<\/a> was the student leader, Philip Kgosana, and the \u201cgood cop\u201d, Colonel IPS Terblanche. Each had a particular position or sphere of influence, and each used their leverage, their networks, and their moral standing to avert a disaster between student protesters and police. I had never heard either of their names before, but in their story, I see again the way that the great movements also have many \u201cminor movements\u201d within them. And it takes people of conviction to step into those struggles. \u00a0I am open and seeking in these days to discover the “minor moments” where my leadership, words and actions can have a meaningful impact.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> David Welsh, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid<\/em>, 48<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 47<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 347<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, see pages 122-124<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his book, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, historian and political scientist David Welsh quotes Absolom Vilakazi to say, \u201cdisorganization and disintegration are simultaneously accompanied by reorganization and reintegration.\u201d[1] Part of what Welsh sets out to show in his book is the dynamic flow between \u201cdisorientation\u201d or the deteriorating situation in South Africa for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1017,974],"class_list":["post-14018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lgp8","tag-welsh","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14019,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14018\/revisions\/14019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}