Mandela and excellent African leadership : lessons from an appreciative thematic analysis

Abstract

Abstract: Nelson Mandela is highly regarded as an example par excellence of African leadership. In this regard he is praised for the ways in which he united South Africans, ushering in a new national order. Yet little has been done in Communication Study, in South Africa, to describe the key leadership communication traits that make up his leadership. What is more, notwithstanding some claims regarding how Mandela embodied ubuntu in practice, little has been done to locate and theorise his leadership style in relation to African traditions of communication. This paper presents an appreciative thematic analysis of how Mandela’s leadership communication practices were eulogised and remembered in selected South African newspapers in the ten day period between his death and burial. This entails putting into play a methodological innovation that brings insights from appreciative enquiry to bear on established practices of thematic analysis. The aim is to arrive at key lessons for contemporary and future leadership that can be drawn from the praise of Mandela that is found in the extraordinary newspaper coverage of him that one finds in this time of mourning