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hat do we want from flashy,
powerful men we call leaders. Or icons.
Or role models? We want them to want–
and in our names get- everything they
possibly can. Success at work and in
friendships. Change. Money and power.
We want them to embody multiple
fantasies. We want them to make us believe that exciting realities are just
around the corner.
It used to be that great leaders of style
gave us variations on one grand theme.
Julius Nyerere: short walking staff,
kitenge shirt, and ujamaa legacy.
Kenneth Kaunda: Kaunda suit and
African socialism.
Yoweri Museveni: a huge buff scout’s hat
and a constantly amended constitution.
Today, leadership isn’t about the grand
theme, it’s about juxtaposition and it’s
filled with allusions of history and art; to
movies and music; to iconographies of
race and ethnicity, religion and gender.
The millennials opened the door to this
collage approach. Today, we see it in
advocacy, activism, and single-handed
movements of Malala Yousafzai. And, of
course, in social entrepreneurship,
community service, volunteerism, and the
rise of the ultimate combination: Baraka
Pilipili.
As students graduate from college, it
briskly becomes clear that money, whose
enchanting force has made the Koch
Brothers business magnates, has moved to
the Kingdom of Far Far Away. It appears as though all the years they invested in education have gone to waste.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo,
DRC, it’s even worse. With an
unemployment rate of 46 percent, young
people barely stick their necks out in the
competitive market.
I’m sitting opposite a young man, had I
known who he was I would have
understood why his colleague, Tojosoa
Ramarlina calls him ‘The Face of Africa.'
Baraka tells me about the crisis in DRC,
not one you’re thinking about, but the one
that has to do with the ethos of many, if
not all Congolese. “Wealth is eating everyone’s heart out. Politics is regarded as the
easy route to wealth, so from a secondary
school student to a retired citizen; they all
yearn to jump into the political arena.
For instance, five people were needed for
the Member of Parliament (MP)
candidacy in Goma, but 285 people
applied. A total of 500 candidates were
needed to run for the position of MP
across the country and 19,500 applied.
The worst part is, everyone admits that
the main reason of being a leader is to
feed one’s own belly. It’s only a matter of
who gets there first,” says Baraka.
Indeed, Baraka is no gutless wonder.
Born in the eastern part of DRC, Sake
village, made a move to Goma town at age
six to pursue primary school education,
Baraka has lived through what most of us
only hear of – a volcanic eruption. While
in second grade, on the 17th of January,
2002, mount Nyiragongo which stands
3,470 meters high erupted. “Many people
died and others were left homeless. My
family lost everything and we later had to
restart our lives,” he recalls.