African Indigenous Cultures

The West has continued to supply leadership and management ideas, political systems, and economic infrastructures to Africa, from colonial times to present.  Understandably, most Western theories that are continuously being used in organisations in Africa, with their seemingly good intentions, have not achieved the desired outcomes, because many Africans find it difficult to relate to them and have to sacrifice their authenticity in order to fully embrace them.  Some have identified the limitations of perspectives and practices formulated solely in the West (Blunt & Jones, 1992; Kamoche, 1993, 1997; Nzelibe, 1986), while others have offered empirical evidence on the nature of extant practices, pointing to their appropriateness or lack thereof (Blunt & Jones, 1986; Kamoche, 2000a; Seddon, 1985).  This growing critique has highlighted the need to understand the African context as well as the indigenous thought system and, in particular, the perspective of the African worker.
The unquestioning use of Western models of management in Africa merely stifles the incentive to examine critically the real needs of organisations on the continent.  The results of these imposed theories are counter intent and innumerable unintended consequences, as the leadership- and management styles are not well guided by theories that are meaningful to the majority of the African populace.  True to the ‘African Way’, African theories are seldom captured in literature, and specifically not in organisational literature – the wisdom of the ages usually used to be passed on through the oral tradition.  This no longer appears sufficient, as many Africans, particularly educated and skilled Africans, have been drawn to, and into, urban lifestyles, thus separating them from the traditional forms of oral transfer and additionally placing them in direct contact with often dominant Western organisational norms and cultures – and it has therefore become imperative that such traditional- and contemporary African wisdom be captured in supplementary communication forms, e.g., modern African music, art, popular-, praxis- and academic literature.

Ever since the arrival of colonialism gained momentum in the country, Somali literature has been approached narrowly from the tutelage of the pastoral culture. Colonial as well as early Somali writers have taken the comfort of disdaining the study of anthological themes related to the non-nomadic cultures and literatures. That restricted notion of one culture, as purported by colonial writers and later politically enshrined by the state and a section of Somali scholars, has obscured the wealth of the various non-nomadic cultures in this Horn of Africa nation. Therefore, contrary to the notion of a homogenous Somali nation of the same nomadic culture, this essay aims to produce a non-nomadic version of Somali literature as practised by a section among the agrarian communities in Somalia; those known as Bantu or Jareer. Because the Bantu is an ethnically oppressed community, all what is related to their culture and literature in particular has been deemed valueless and, as a consequence, an institution unworthy studying. In particular, the essay argues that despite the degradation by the Somali state and neglect by Somalia scholarship often obsessed with the apocryphal ideology of a self-same Somalia, the agrarian wordsmith is bestowed with rich cultural and literary wisdom which makes him view his environment with sharp consciousness.

The wounds inflicted by the great massacre of 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Namas in the former colony of Southwest Africa have yet to heal. Added to the concentration camps and slave labor, are the scars from the exhibition of human remains in museums and the manipulation for racist scientific theories. After a century of denial, the governments of both countries agreed to compensation of 1.1 billion euros over a period of 30 years. However, the descendants of the victims do not feel that their demands are heard.

By Robert K. Hitchcock and Melinda C. Kelly