REDEFINING T.I.A: Volume 1

The League of Extraordinary Young African Leaders.

The best way to aggravate any Type-A personality, or someone with an eidetic memory or an Academic with an IQ of over 140 and a fairly of the charts EQ is to present facts without substantiated evidence.  Martin “The Managing Director” (at one of South Africa’s only 90% *minority owned Broadcasters in South Africa) and his business partner David did just that in their attempts to draw favorable funding from us (my colleague and I) at a recent meeting.  Over a month later, having done enough research to write a book about it…It’s time to address the intellectual fools of the Martin “I’m -the-Managing-Director” era.   If you’re going to generalize quantifiably about a particular race group or generation – get your facts straight.  To understand why, we need to move back to the when and the how.   In the middle of a frenzied and unprepared presentation to us, Martin ITMD turned to us…and posed three questions:

“Do you ladies know that South Africa has a crisis in leadership?  There are no role models for our children to look up to…do you have any idea what that is doing to our society?”   My initial reaction to this…insinuation that we the nation of colour, black folk in our multitude of ethnicities had produced nothing but failures was nothing short of miraculous because I did not say a word, neither did my colleague…but we were acutely aware of the dynamic that had presented itself; the scrawny, wrought face of Neo-colonialism at play within the spaces between those words.  Were we supposed to answer? Maybe it was a rhetorical question?  In that case – the nerve. There were two possible responses which they had anticipated if not attempted to prompt from us:  to either bolt out of our seats (embodying the stereotype of the angry black women) in defense of a generation that cannot possibly be quantified as an entire nation of lost and uninspired souls to be written off at the whim of old, rich white folk, with nothing better to do with their time than try to “solve” the colour problem which they started by showing them  black folk a couple of “educational” movies and making a huge profit in the process. The other option would be the ludicrous notion that we would nod politely in some form of acknowledgement.  

The South African woman is not so much the cookie-cutter, moulded doll once perceived to roam the hallways of the business with empty titles and “busy” work…the front rather than the depth.  So, when we sat back, in deafening silence, that heavy-handed confident footing these men thought they had…well…that went out the window.  Insulting women is one thing, doing that with an undertone of racism…that’s another story…but telling us that our entire people, and our culture are bumbling buffoons regardless of our individual backgrounds, education and frame of reference, experiences in our lives leading up to the people you would eventually meet across the boardroom table…well – all bets are off.

The next pale-faced question posed to us from across the room?

“Do you ladies have any idea how important education is, especially in a country like ours, in South Africa”

To make matters worse – for him, not us –  let’s say that on a somewhat subliminal wave length we got the distinct feeling that he honestly thought he was addressing “The Help”  except that there were no awards involved here, he went as far as to blatantly state that he could easily arrange a meet with our UK based, and truly European in every way that matters, CEO any day.   And are we surprised when we reject their proposal like it’s a deflated balloon on a child’s birthday?  Who in their right mind knowingly walks onto someone else’s “turf” and unwittingly plays both hands like a crack gambler on a high?  That speaks to a weak strategic appetite, clouded by white liberalist drama, making it all too easy to decline and send them on their merry way, albeit, tails between legs after having been “schooled” by two little ” Lilly fair” black girls. Excuse us “boss-sir” we’ve been a bit busy mopping the floor with your pre-1994 prejudiced derrière.

What we should have said to good ole Martin was this:

“ We have role models.  Matter-o-fact…I am one, and so is she. And we’re part of a generation of examples of Success, tenacity, determination and ambition. And here’s the thing, we didn’t just get here spontaneously.  Now…ole boy…take a deep breath, go back to slide one, get your sh-t together and try again.”

I’ve done it before with mediocre presenters with equally mediocre proposals paired up with their inflated perception of their worth to society.  

 To answer his questions though,  I think the term “role-model” is antiquated at best, if not an entirely warped notion.  The term is an inference to some idyllic being, whom we need to shape ourselves to emulate or transform into  variations of someone and ultimately, the end product is some diminutive version of that person and somewhere, the individual is lost.  We’ll pass on that thanks.   We as a collective are a nation under strife, and some may lay that blame at the feet of political turmoil, moral degradation and the new strong sense of entitlement that has emerged in my peer group over the past 10 years.  We may be a lot of things but we are not is a carbon copy of each other.  I will not model myself to become Thembi or Boipelo or Maria and neither will they remold themselves to become me.  I am of the belief that what we have out here in South Africa is a unique moment within the war for differentiation, the war for survival and ultimately the same war for talent that McKinsey and Company  theorized ages ago…my generation is not a collection of clones and I can prove it.

I am primarily who I am today because of my rearing, socialization and so forth, as is everyone else.  It’s as simple as that – yet it’s an intricate design when we bring in all the South African societal elements.  In my case, if I were to use the term…I had a living breathing “role model” in my life in the form of my mother, one of those strong South African women of color pushing back on boundaries and taking strides towards the future as a young mother in a country where every message out there told her that by virtue of her skin tone…her ability, intelligence, ambition needed to be measured accordingly.  Her response to that was the proverbial…middle finger…watch me overcome type of attitude. . 

She put herself through boarding school, made life-altering decisions at before she was fifteen years old, and decided that she would spend her life helping people bring their babies into this world, and be the last person an old or terminally ill one would see as they left this world.  In a time of prejudicial reservations stretching across  every possible industry, she kicked down the doors of the private boarding school as one of the only students of color and then once again as she entered private nursing institutions and subliminally influenced  many of her own high school peers who then followed suit.  Here was an African who had got it into her brain that she would “make it” in life…and not just make it…she would achieve and then go further and over-achieve.

You see this pattern right here? I’ve picked up on it in the stories I have heard of trail and error in careers on the African continent.  Thought leaders, these “role models”  they have a power that mass media cannot harness in the way that they can…the ability to influence in true subliminal fashion.  She would go on to become formidable in the medical field in the country and all the while, I was able to watch, as I grew up, and decide that I would do something similar, albeit…from the within the folds of the corporate environment.  Still, I knew I would actively try to affect lives with some inner force and external role that would combine to design my own calling in life.

In an impromptu feedback session with a few of our interns and colleagues, other young women of color as well, my colleague and I posed the same questions as well to which everyone was stumped for a good few minutes.  Meaning what?  Marty and Dave were right?  Not right per say as my much older colleagues (crypt-keepers really) could easily list a bunch of South African and African names that sounded remotely familiar to the ear (really, because it’s our job to know every possible stakeholder out there even if it is father time himself) whilst my even younger counterparts could list influences in Media: Zakes Bantwini, Bonang, Zahara, Ama Kip Kip…and of course abroad, Wiz Khalifa, Beyonce, Jay Z, Kanye West, The Kardashians (Good God…yes…Kimmie and family are somehow tied into the same breath space as the definition of role model to some).  But when asked about our own influences and not only in entertainment, no one had an answer for me.

How could these 22 year old’s in business not name a single, South African “role model” in any industry other than Entertainment?  Statistically, entertainment is the one of the most coveted industries by our youth – and adversely, it is the most difficult to penetrate successfully.  There are millions who believe that they are the next Beyonce.  The reality is stark – not everyone is destined to be famous although the power of today’s entertainment has intrigued many into believing in that possibility.  Music is powerful that way…it is a behavioral filter…hope, joy, healing, sadness…if you need to alter a behavior as a young person – music is your shrink.  Although we can never underestimate the power of music, movies and so forth…there are a multitude of industries out there and by virtue of existing – there should be veteran leaders, leaders and emerging leaders in each one of them.

It’s always a bad idea to strategize up by dragging down societal elements of the very panel that you need to back up your proposal or hire you or whatever the case may be.  But Martin’s strategy did get me thinking because, although I was able to list, in the moment he asked us, at least 8 names of people who might be considered “role-models”. South Africa, and in actual fact, further into Africa as well –  we have something better, more substantial that just “role models” we have a *League of Extraordinary Young African  Leaders (LEYAL) Movement.  And it is we who will redefine this African continent…redefine the pale-face western ideology that we are the stepchild of the world, the groveller, the beggar, the savage, the violent, the perpetual child in need of the colonial papa to steer us in the right direction.

Social Leaders are inspirational, they are aspirational, they are revered and if not charismatic, then, the very fact that they are not infallible (in the way that we expect role models to be) makes them even more endearing to us.  The most important thing about this LEYAL is that it is made up of every level of what I term in my upcoming book, the *Re-imagining of Success in South Africa: LEYAL Movement and a Paradigm Shift. The levels?  From high school graduate with outstanding potential, sitting in junior parliament or traveling across the seas to participate in global Innovation Competitions, Science tours for inventions deemed impossible at first, proven as possible by a 17 year old still unwrapping foil paper to eat his lunch at the canteen. 

These levels include those of us who are somewhere in the middle, strategists, entrepreneurs, practitioners making headway in our fields of interests but offering a hand up…finding our way back to the grassroots, hand up and spreading the drive and ambition and coming away from all of that inspired as well…we are after all not units operating on islands without emotions.  We exist as social beings and our effects in this redefining of our generations journey through this part of the South African and African story is wholly dependent on our integrated effects on each other.  The next level would be the tier just below  holistic success.  You can’t get to the latter without effecting your generation in some way or the other.  Our lives are stories that affect people within our immediate system and they affect people in their system, and so forth…it is entirely possible that one young man who decides that he will become a great businessman will in fact inspire at least a thousand young men and women to follow the same route, or to become another version of the LEYAL and in turn affect numerous other individuals…system by system. 

Young Black Women…Corporate Giants in the making

Ours is a societal system rarely understood in the African diaspora – except maybe by African Americans.  The burning desire to achieve is literally almost a pain in the gut.  The need to prove, to achieve, to die trying if I could embody the sheer bluntness of that hip hop star who made millions off that simple, undeniable fact.  We are dying to succeed. 

So, Marty…you want role models?  I’ll do you one better.  We the youth…well…as our population ages, these are the people who are being groomed, waiting in the wings to lead in whichever sphere and industry they’re in. 

And, we are not alone, the African diaspora is more animated than ever…you want black entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, strategists, authors, directors, industrialists, aviators?  I’ll tell about a Kenyan who rejected Google, a South African who ditched SABMiller PLC and ended up running 5 different companies, I’ll tell you about a Sub Southern African chef who started out in a small program, trying to win just a little bit of money and turned the South African culinary world into a food lover’s paradise.  I’ll tell you about the risk takers, the men who literally take to the skies, the Randburg “Cheese-Boy” Boy who became an aviator…what more limits are there after that?  I’ll tell you about a Cape Tonian inventor who has changed the face of medicine as we know it.  What about the social investors?  I’ll tell you about  the Lucille Ferreira’s, Nosipho Radebe’s, Gabby’s and Aimee’s of our generation.  I’ll even tell you about my other people… you know, the young African authors, the journos, the strategists who are stampeding through the old white fence of the older, pre-1994 generation who are desperately holding on to their roles as they slip into retirement.  

To any other Martins or Davids out there, just a heads up – this will not be some insurmountable uphill climb. This is Africa … the here and the now.

T.I.A after all and everyday…we redefine it.

NEXT UP:  Volume 2-4:

The Aviator, The Inventors, The Philanthropist, The Entrepreneurs:

Men of the LEYAL Movement.