A Principal Blessing for Dr. Martin Luther King from the Rainbow Nation

A Blessing from the Rainbow Nation...

An assassin gunned down Dr. Martin Luther King 50 years ago, in a bid to silence his voice and destroy his dream of freedom, unity and equality. Like Mahatma Gandhi and President Lincoln before him, the violence of extremism and intolerance cut them down, destroying lives dedicated to serving others and unlocking the chains of oppression.

It is 8,387 miles from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. King made his most famous speech, across the Atlantic Ocean, across the multi-ethnic land of South Africa that Bishop Desmond Tutu christened the Rainbow Nation, and a little further through the sugar cane fields of the province of Kwa Zulu Natal to a narrow hallway at Sibusisiwe High School, a rural school in Umbumbulu, just south of the port city of Durban where Gandhi developed his policy of satyagraha, the power of truth, to initially combat the injustice of apartheid and then the yoke of colonialism in India.

Prominently positioned on a wall, just above the South African constitution and flanked by newspaper articles of two of its students who received 8 distinctions and national recognition for their final matric graduation exams, is a photograph of Dr. King and the opening words of his speech of hope, “I have a dream.”

 At first glance, one might not think that dreams live here in this impoverished school with peeling paint, ancient wooden desks and more ancient classrooms. While the school is visibly resource poor, its leadership ethos is rich, the hopes and dreams of its students kept alive by a remarkable principal who exudes passion, power and tough love. Sibusisiwe is a word of Ndebele origin, one of the many indigenous tribes inhabiting South Africa and its literal meaning is blessing.

Tune into the media and there is not much blessing going on in the world. Every day brings bad news of bad actors, bad policy, bad ethics and bad feelings. It seems we are being swept along on a cursed wave of malaise powered by bad leadership. Sigal Barsade at Yale has written of the ripple effect, negative or positive moods that can affect the behavior of others through emotional contagion. We are being swept along on a wave of bad emotions, bad moods and bad will.

Facebook and the National Academy of Sciences also showed, in a study of 689, 003 people, that emotions can be transmitted virally through positive and negative words in Facebook feeds, influence transmitted electronically through bits, bytes and keystrokes. https://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788 It seems we can change behavior at long distance through non-verbal, viral linkages. We are all mood inducers with great power for good and evil, for positivity and negativity. Superhero Spiderman succinctly summed up what we should do with the subtle yet tremendous force we have at our fingertips, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

I wonder whatever happened to that super heroic ideal of with great power comes great responsibility. Leaders worldwide, in government and industry, are repaying the followers that elected them and the customers that pay their salaries, in a currency of absolute arrogance and staggering indifference. Great power begets great irresponsibility. Every day brings another example of rank self-interest, belligerent obfuscation and a lack of an ethical compass. Instead of serving followers, the principal role of any leader, many elected leaders are stabbing their electorate in the back, CEOs are stealing from their customers, and both are serving themselves huge gluttonous portions. Leaders across the globe have become experts on self-service rather than service.

However disheartening the news, Sibusisiwe High School in faraway South Africa, and its principal Sipho Khomo, are a luminous bright spot in this sea of darkness, a shining example to politicians and business people everywhere, a blessing come to life of Dr. King’s dream of freedom, equality and decency.

Last year I undertook an inspirational trip across my former homeland, speaking to 40,000 students at 24 schools – the poorest and the poshest – about how to create a personal code to activate positive choices. I partnered with one of South Africa’s largest financial organizations, Liberty Group, and at the same time released “The Code – The Power of I Will”, a book I wrote for teens to inspire positive decisions in a dangerous world. The goal was to create a positive wave across the country, getting students to inspire each other with words of positive commitment. I called it “The Positive Wave Tour” and Sibusisiwe was one of the first schools on the itinerary.

After I gave my presentation called “Commit to the Next Wave” to the enthusiastic students, Mr. Khomo, a small compact man, graying at the temples, but possessing boundless energy and drive, gave me a simple lunch of sandwiches and tea in his office. We discussed a range of topics and he gave me his take on education, leadership, performance and accountability. 

Here are some of Mr. Khomo’s leadership principles on being a principal.

Principal Leadership

“I run a 7-day school – we are all here 7 days a week.”

“I give my students everything they need to succeed however failure is not tolerated and if students fail they are out.”

“I do not need more resources to make my students more successful – all I need is more teachers.”

“In South Africa teachers cannot be fired for poor performance however at my school my teachers know they are employed on a day to day basis.”

“I have deep community support from the parents of students. When I have a conference for parents I have to hire a tent for thousands of people.”

“Every one of my students must study mathematics.”

“My goal is a 100% matric pass rate.”

“At the beginning of each year my students all sign a performance contract. They establish their grades at the beginning of the year and I hold them accountable to those grades.”

“You cannot look to the past for your success, only the future.”

“I believe in service not self-service.”

 Even though Martin Luther King was gunned down on the 4th April 1964, no amount of metal bullets or malice, malfeasance or malcontent can silence his universal message and I can state without equivocation that Dr. King’s words live on, in every student in that humble school I visited in South Africa, and every every leader can draw inspiration from the wave of hope that he activated by thinking on Principal Khomo’s powerful words:

“I believe in service, not self-service.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-OUNCfi7UI