Presidential Address: Embracing the Secular in our ‘Sacred Scholarly World’

ABSTRACT

In this Address, I reflect on the journey of AFAM with regard to its past, present and future. As a new scholarly community, AFAM is called to the sacred society. Its future therefore should be based on the use of the legitimacy associated with that calling to enact its strategic role – facilitating transformation of African societies – by assuming the paramount duty of parrhesia. As a parrhesiatic organization, AFAM has to engage in value-creating practices through its discourses so that it can endow Africans with the right and ability to speak. These value-creating practices are means by which AFAM moves beyond its sacredness to the secular context of Africa. Unlike other scholarly communities, AFAM does not have the luxury of not ‘unliving’ the African challenge; it has a sacred duty to help provide a different and new living to Africans than the one they are currently experiencing.

KEYWORDS:

• discourse
• strategic followership
• parrhesiatic organizations

Acknowledgements

I benefitted greatly from the invaluable feedback of Prof. Moses Kiggundu, Editor-in-Chief of AJOM.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on the Contributor

David B. Zoogah (PhD, Ohio State University) is an Associate Professor of Management at the Williams College of Business, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Visiting Professor at the Johannesburg Business School, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. His research interests are Africa Management, Human Resources Management, and Strategic Followership. He serves as President of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM).

Notes

1. See www.Africaacademyofmanagement.org

2. My friend, Jim Walsh, is an intellectual shaman, an academic who mediates between various disciplines, ideas and theories, as well as makes sense of ideas, insights, and research for others. (see Waddock, (2014) – Intellectual Shamans: Management Academics Making a Difference). I am not. But I am learning from him.

3. Thabo Mbeki on the battle of Adwa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=624BaD6wKIQ). See also Jonas (2011).

4. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Departmental-Papers-Policy-Papers/Issues/2018/12/14/The-Future-of-Work-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa-46333

5. See http://decolonialthinking.blogspot.com/2013/04/fanons-zone-of-being-and-zone-of-non.html. Accessed on 6/18/2018.

6. See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parrhesia

7. See https://ilimi.org/. Even though the African Development University is established as a non-for-profit entity and by entrepreneurs, it has the stamp of approval of the US government.

8. Ubuntu, a Zulu term, originated from South Africa and centers on the collective tendencies of Black African tribes (see Mangaliso, 2001; Mbigi, 1997). Sankofa, an Akan term, refers to reflecting on the past in order to move forward. It also has management implications from a motivational stand point (Puplampu, 2017) and seems to be a practice among Africa Americans in the US (Temple, 2010). Kwimenya is a Kikuyu term that refers to self-knowledge (Maathai, 2009). It can be leveraged for community education and reversal of distortions associated with identity capture (Mungai, 2012). Pungwe, a Shona term that refers to all night renewal ceremonies is a practice that focuses on participation and a sense of togetherness (Mbigi, 1994). Akoben, a war horn, in Akan, means vigilance or wariness. It refers to the tendency to the state of alertness or readiness to serve a good cause (Sakyi, 2011). It is a practice on environmental performance management used by the EPA of Ghana. Ma’at which focused on moral ideals is based on ancient Egypt (Karenga, 1994). Its principles can enlighten management of groups today.

9. My gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief, Moses Kiggundu, for assisting me with these themes.

10. Foucault (1983) noted the following:

When, for example, you see a friend doing something wrong and you risk incurring his anger by telling him he is wrong, you are acting as a parrhesiaste. In such a case, you do not risk your life, but you may hurt him by your remarks, and your friendship may consequently suffer for it. If, in a political debate, an orator risks losing his popularity because his opinions are contrary to the majority’s opinion, or his opinions may usher in a political scandal, he uses parrhesia. Parrhesia, then, is linked to courage in the face of danger: it demands the courage to speak the truth in spite of some danger. And in its extreme form, telling the truth takes place in the ‘game’ of life or death. (p. 4)

It suggests that parrhesiatic actors – individuals or organizations – are normal but should be aware of the risks. One implication for AFAM is that functioning as a parrhesiatic organization is that it might be labeled as revolutionary or conflictual. Another is that members who are motivated by only research or scholarship might not be members anymore. Such people are exploitative, anyway, and therefore should not be part of AFAM. They are Trojan horses.

11. In this quotation, I replace ‘we’ with ‘African’ and ‘our’ with ‘their’ in Maathai’s (2009) quotation to make it more concrete.