Presentation Schedule
Sankofa Reading of S.E.K. Mqhayi’s Two IsiXhosa Poems: Lessons for South African Leadership Crisis (96125)
Session Chair: Paulo Batista
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Saturday, 4 October 2025 13:25
Session: Session 2
Room: Live-Stream Room 3
Presentation Type:Live-Stream Presentation
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South Africa is faced, among other things, by a leadership crisis. This has been the legacy of African states that gained independence from foreign rule since the late 1950s. Corruption, money laundering, lack of service delivery, and embezzlement are all synonymous with leadership in South Africa. The country is falling in the pitfalls predicted by Fanon and is trapped in what Marwala calls politicism, a system that is crippling a country with an immense potential. As Sankofa encourages people to go back to their origins and get what can be useful for today, this paper goes back and draws leadership lessons from two poems written by S.E.K. Mqhayi, a prominent isiXhosa writer of the 20th century. The two poems, ‘UMafukuzela’ and ‘Umfikazi uCharlotte Manyhi Maxeke’, offer rich data on Mqhayi’s leadership philosophy, which today’s leaders can draw significant lessons from. The first one is about Dr JL Dube, the founding member of the African National Congress in South Africa, a party that has been at the helm of leadership since independence in 1994. The second one is eulogising the first black woman in South Africa to graduate with a university degree and the founder of the Bantu Women’s League, which later became the African National Congress Women’s League, Charlotte Mannya-Maxeke. South African leaders can draw valuable lessons on issues of servicing people, building societies and the nation, establishing institutions of influence, and being a breadbasket for its citizens by creating opportunities for people to sustain themselves.
Authors:
Lukhanyo Elvis Makhenyane, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Lukhanyo E. Makhenyane is currently a Senior Lecturer in the African Languages Department at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukhanyo-makhenyane-37410564
See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule
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