Ethical leadership resources in southern Africa's Sesotho-speaking culture and in King Moshoeshoe i

Abstract

The problem addressed in this paper is the need for fresh resources for enhanced ethical leadership in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa. To respond to that problem the paper uses two valuable but insufficiently known sources from the culture of the Sesotho-speaking people of southern Africa, now found in Lesotho and much of South Africa's Free State province. The first one is a set of concepts that pertain to sound human relationships. The second one is Basotho history in the persons of the founding monarch of the Basotho nation, King Moshoeshoe I (ca. 1786-1870) and to a lesser extent his remarkable mentor, Chief Mohlomi (ca. 1720-1815). A final section of this paper draws these sources together into a set of contentions about successful leadership in which ethical quality is seen as paramount.