Two very distinctive leaders, taking on two wildly diverging paths for the same pursuit, equality, and equity in South Africa. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela could be compared to the spiritual and political contemporaries, Nehemiah and Ezra. Tutu was said to be the moral compass of South Africa, while Mandela was its father, guiding the oppressed people through the challenging road of freedom.<\/p>\n
In Mandela\u2019s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom<\/em>, readers are taken into a masterclass of how leaders are shaped, formed, and reformed. From the early influence of his father until his untimely death to opportunities provided for him by his surrogate family to the subjugated clients he represented as a lawyer, Madiba recognized that he was a product of the people and context of his rearing in Apartheid South Africa.<\/p>\n As he reflected, \u201cI had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, \u2018Henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people;\u2019 instead, I simply found myself doing so and could not do otherwise.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n While Mandela was a driving force behind the political and governmental changes to South Africa, Tutu prophetical led a spiritual revolution through peaceful, non-violent social disruption. He would later lead the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, investigating the crimes of the Apartheid state after Mandela\u2019s democratic election in 1994. His work, No Future Without Forgiveness<\/em>, gives a glimpse into the formation, experience, and reflection on this experience and the long history that made it necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cThus, to forgive is indeed the best form of self-interest since anger, resentment, and revenge are corrosive of that summum bonum, that greatest good, communal harmony that enhances the humanity and personhood of all in the community,\u201d urged Tutu.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n While Mandela would be the leader of the fight for decades before Tutu arrived on the scene, their paralleled leadership approaches bring into full view the myriad ways leaders are formed and utilize their influence to bring about change. I return to my earlier statement about the contemporary leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah; one brought about effective change through spiritual formation while the other through the means of organization and visioning. Nevertheless, both served simultaneously in a challenging period in Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Through their respective writings, Mandela and Tutu show that influential leaders are never fully formed but are continually shaped by the perspective of others and the context of their times. As Mandela noted, \u201cThere are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n As organizational leaders living in a post-COVID pandemic, politically divisive, and culturally contentious time, these two extraordinary leaders provide countless lessons and examples of the commitment, sacrifice, and grit necessary to bring about radical change. Their lives hold up a mirror for us to examine the depth, quality, and characteristics of leadership. More importantly, they challenge us to consider the level of grace by which we will encounter others.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom<\/em>. London: Abacus, 2004.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness<\/em>. New York: Doubleday, 2000.<\/p>\n