‘Madiba, Gandhi were the epitome of consciousness’
DR NKOSANA Moyo recently shared his views on what makes a conscious leader at the Conscious Companies Leadership dialogue breakfast hosted by Strate.
Moyo, an economist and former Zimbabwe minister of industry and international trade, has declared that he is contesting Zimbabwe’s presidential elections in 2018. This is what he said: “I recently attended events in Cape Town that celebrated Madiba’s birthday anniversary. All the time, I found myself thinking about Mahatma Gandhi and Madiba.
“They wouldn’t leave my mind in terms of the kind of people and their attitude towards other human beings.
“So I want to define consciousness that broadly ecompasses their positive attitude to other human beings…
“Then I asked this question: ‘Is it possible to have this attitude without going through a particular experience?’
Coming of age
“When you look at Madiba and human beings who are exceptional in terms of their positivity towards other human beings, more often than not something has happened in their life. They have gone through a crucible almost.
“My question is… just like what Xhosa boys have to go through in terms of coming of age, they go through a particular experience.
“Could it be that our consciousness needs to be pricked by inexperience as opposed to conceptualising and theorising.
“What makes us suddenly understand life in a very different way?
“Could Madiba be Madiba without having spent all those years in prison? That is the question I am struggling with.
“Whether in fact there is something we have failed to put into the architecture of our experiences, which increase as we bring up our children.
“Because this is not just about company leadership.
“It is leadership of society broadly. Globally, we have got a problem. But where are we looking for the solutions? Are we looking for the solutions in the right place?
Like refining gold “What makes us suddenly really understand how to relate to the person sitting next to you in a fundamentally different way?
“Could it be that the expression that you can’t get to find gold without putting it through a furnace actually applies to conscious as well? And if it does, what are the implications?
“What is it we are failing to programme into human beings as they grow up and how our children are bought up?
“Is there an experience we have failed to put in broadly defined education processes, which makes them not theorise about it, but leap through it and then understand life through this particular experience?
“You have heard that I have decided to throw my hat in the ring (referring to the Zimbabwean presidential elections).
“I can’t understand how somebody who leads a society can be completely oblivious to the suffering of people in that society. But we see that happening all over the place.
“Are we looking for the answers in the right places?
“I can’t give you an answer. (But) I have questions…”