Introduction
In our previous articles, we reflected on the high price of neglecting technical leadership in South Africa’s development journey. As we assessed our progress, or lack thereof, along the Hero’s Journey of nation-building, we unpacked the need for Mentors and a commitment to developing Technical Mastery as one of the fundamental responses to the many monsters which are eroding our collective hope and dreams as a Rainbow Nation. Too much confidence is placed in our social structures, politicians, and social leaders. Too little attention is given to developing the technical competencies that can deliver the infrastructure and systems that enable economic growth. It seems that our leaders have given in to the temptation of focussing on the easy, comfortable and egocentric activities of building a social culture, without paying the same attention to the challenge of pairing this with a strong technical culture.
As the current political term draws to a close, and our political leaders fabricate more hollow promises in the bid to gain, or at least keep, their electorate, South Africa is sinking deeper into the dark of shadows of mistrust and hopelessness. No clever marketing tactics are enough to steady the ship that threatens to fall victim to this storm. We need a vision which compels all South Africans to come together and build our nation. We need a sense of urgency, akin to that of the urgency we all felt in the Springbok’s last three games of the 2023 World Cup. The scoreboard shows that we are falling steadily behind. Who will take the ball and give us hope? Or, have we perhaps chosen to refuse the Call to Adventure? Are we already defeated and sitting on the side-lines waiting for the final whistle to blow?
We are a country of abundance and diversity. Our national sports teams show us time and again that we are resilient and worthy of a seat amongst the best of the best. Adventure is beckoning, and there is much traveling to be done. It is time to get going. It is time to heed the call.
Monsters must be slain.
Refusing the call to adventure
Continuing with the lessons from Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” [1], we see that there are many reasons that the architype hero would refuse the call. This may include fear of the unknown, wanting to remain in your comfort zone, feeling inadequate for the task, or a host of other reasons that make a potential hero reluctant to take up the challenge. In a country as diverse as South Africa, there is an equally diverse response as to why we are not heeding this call to adventure, this call to become all that we hope and believe we, as a nation, can be.
The most glaring reason for which we have failed to heed the call to adventure is our failure to cast a vision that is a worthy pursuit. Our socio-economic diversity can result in very different visions for the future of our nation. With a lack of trust having eroded our society, creating a unifying vision of a future worth pursuing, which all South Africans can buy into, is no simple task.
Similarly, our relentless return to the past chapters of our complex and violent history is a characteristic of our cultural dynamics which shape the worldview of all South Africans. This habitual post mortem has kept our eyes on the past. Whilst we look back on the lives and experiences of our ancestors, we are not focused on our future and the paths we need to take to reach our destination. This cultural dynamic keeps us locked in the past and we become immobilized in the face of present danger. In the words of Socrates,
The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
If we are to take heed of the call, we need to shift our focus.
Transition to a new socio-political dispensation is a tumultuous and often painful time. However, for South Africa in 1994, our transition from an apartheid state to a democracy was marked by the absence of nation-wide violence, a scenario which was viewed by many as a miraculous transition. Maybe the unintended consequence of this peaceful transition was the creation of a false sense of unity and national pride. Although now a democracy, South Africa remains trapped in racial segregation and discrimination that characterized our past. It is human to want to return to the familiar comforts of the past. We are not the first nation who battled to rid the memory of sitting around pots of meat eating all the food we wanted while under the oppression of a Pharaoh. Perhaps we are too comfortable in our discomfort to be willing to pay the price for the change we hoped for.
My last thought on why we did not heed the call to building our nation is that we had too many options. We had too many back doors to choose from. As the emergent political leadership were handed the keys to the new South Africa, they became the custodians of world-class facilities and infrastructure which provided the foundation and tools for economic growth and development. On the international stage, the world welcomed the new South Africa with open arms. It was a time pregnant with possibility. Hope was alive and it seemed that South Africa was destined for greatness. Yet, with so many options to choose from, it became easy to choose the smooth and well-worn paths, to take the easy way out. Michio Kaku once said:
The easy path is the most dangerous road you can take.
Instead of the hard choices and hard work required to transform into a beautiful Rainbow Nation, we have chosen the easy path and have remained a nation divided against itself, continuing to wallow in the pit of past injustices, hopelessness, and desperation.
Letting go
“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”
~ Ann Landers ~
If you ever read the classic children’s novel “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls [2], you will know all about raccoon hunting in the Ozark Mountains. Frustrated by his numerous failed racoon hunts with his beloved Redbone Coonhounds, Billy Coleman learns about the “Monkey Trap” concept. First, you make a hole in a cage just big enough for the animal’s hand to fit through, but small enough so that it cannot remove its hand when made into a fist. Next, you place an object of interest, like a handful of nuts, into the hole and wait for the animal to put its hand through the hole to clutch its prize. Holding onto the object, or nuts, it turns its hand into a fist and the animal is unable to return its hand through the hole. This is where the animal should say to itself, “Hey, I’m stuck, drop the nuts.” But, it won’t. It wants that prize. An inquisitive animal won’t want to surrender and will start pulling and pulling on the trapped hand until the hunter snatches it from behind. Many inquisitive animals such as raccoons, baboons, monkeys, mongooses etc. are caught daily in this manner. If they just surrendered what they were holding on to, they could have been free. Because they refused to surrender, they lost their ultimate freedom. Only an empty hand can be returned through the hole.
It is not only animals who fall prey to the monkey trap. Humans are gatherers. We love to collect possessions, ideas and titles. We savour memories, and treasure artifacts like a favourite jersey or the watch your dad gave us on our 13th birthday. Yet, these same things that we hold so dear can be the very things that keep us trapped, preventing us from reaching our potential and freedom.
Could it be that we have not heeded the call because we cannot let go of the past? What nuts are we holding in our hand? In our quest for freedom and fullness of life, what ambitions, comforts, treasures, past hurts, beliefs, and fears are keeping us trapped?
It is time to let go of the old ideologies which fan the flames of division and hatred, cast aside the artifacts of our unjust past: our old flags, city names and struggle songs. It is time to open our hand and allow memories and past dreams to fall to the ground. An empty hand is a free hand …
In the words of author and poet C. JoyBell “Last night I lost the world, and gained the universe.” What universe, renewed hope and future awaits us if we are willing to let go of all that we know and think we love?
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
Previous Articles
- The Fruit of Our South African Culture.
- Culture: Structures and Dynamics.
- Culture: The path of inevitable change.
- The High Price of Neglecting Technical Leadership in South Africa’s Development Journey.
- Monsters have emerged.
- Where are the Masters?
References
[1] ] Campbell, J. (2008). The Hero With a Thousand Faces. New World Library, Novato, California
[2] Rawls, W. (1996). Where the Red Fern Grows. Yearling, Broadway, New York. Broadway, New York: Yearling.
Leave a Reply