Companionate leadership: A shemswian perspective

ABSTRACT

Given the calls for theories and models of leadership unique to Africa, I leverage insight from African historical, anthropological, and philosophical accounts to propose one type of indigenous leadership: companionate leadership. It is based on ancient (Kemetic scribes of the Nile Valley) and modern (bards or griots of the Niger Valley) African traditional principles of shemsw which entailed maât and sebait. The model proposes companionate states (constitution, attention, and co-relation) and behavioral processes (communication, engagement, and cooperation) that through complex processes affect organized action, shemsw, to yield group and individual outcomes. Implications of the model for theory and practice of leadership in African organizations especially but also around the world are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Companionate
• Leadership Shemsw
• strategic followership
• Africa
• restorative followership
• Maat
• sebait

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Correction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with an error, which has now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (10.1080/23322373.2023.2243707).

Notes

1 https://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063-presentation.pdf.

2 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/africa-doesn-t-need-charity-it-needs-good-leadership/.

3 http://www.afrobarometer.org/online-data-analysis/analyse-online.

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Prize.

5 My addition.

6 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/companion.

7 B1, (65–68) refers to Book 1 verses 65–68 of the (see Karenga, 2004, p. 71).

8 The sharers and keepers were one group of companion scribes but split because of differences in utilization of knowledge. While the sharers wanted their knowledge distributed or shared with others because “sharing does not reduce us” (Armah, 2002, p. 266), the keepers wanted to keep the knowledge away from others because they wanted to be “the Keepers of Mysteries” (p. 275).

9 http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/prize/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Baniyelme D. Zoogah

Baniyelme D. Zoogah (PhD, Ohio State University) is an Associate Professor of Management at the Williams College of Business, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. His research interests are Africa Management, Human Resources Management, and Strategic Followership and Leadership. He currently serves as President of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM).