STRIVE MASIYIWA – Strife. Success. Significance.
The stirring story of an affluent, all-round African who began the burgeoning of Black British billionaires. From a southern African refugee status to a global tech giant stature, Strive Masiyiwa’s life story is loaded with life lessons.
INTRODUCTION
Strive Masiyiwa is a household name in the world of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on every continent of the world. Zimbabwe-born and London-based, the nearly-63-year-old African billionaire businessman and philanthropist worth 1.9 billion USD (2024)[1], a little ahead of Apple’s Tim Cook in the same industry,[2] has caught our eye at PELÉ for several reasons. Our interest has been in how well he straddles the worlds of leadership and entrepreneurship, politics and philanthropy, family and faith. Strive is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Econet Group, the international technology conglomerate comprising Econet Wireless Global and Cassava Technologies.
GROWTH
Early Years
Born to entrepreneurial parents on January 29, 1961 in then Rhodesia, later to become Zimbabwe post-independence, Strive Masiyiwa’s family left the country after the government of Prime Minister Ian Smith‘s Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom.[3] Their refugee family settled in a copper mines area in Zambia where Strive would attend primary school. By the age of 12, his parents could afford to invest in European education and sent him off to a private school in Edinburgh, Scotland as an international student.
Politics
In the wake of finishing high school in Scotland, in 1978, Master Masiyiwa returned to Africa to join the freedom fighters. However, “One of the senior officers told me,” he recalls, “’Look, we’re about to win anyway, and what we really need is people like you to help rebuild the country.'”[4] With that he returned to Britain to study engineering, and would later lead “a new African revolution–in telecommunications.”[5]
Strive would finally graduate from the University of Wales in 1983 with a degree in electrical engineering. After a stint in the computer industry in England he returned to Zimbabwe the next year hoping to aid the post universal franchise elections country recover from the Rhodesian Bush War.[6]
Entrepreneurship
When Masiyiwa returned home to Zimbabwe after a 17-year hiatus, he initially worked briefly as a telecoms engineer for the state-owned telephone company before quitting to start up his own electrical engineering business using his monthly salary savings and a Barclays bank loan.
Later he would grow large in his entrepreneurial expedition and diversify into telecoms, with the emergence of mobile cellular telephony, eventually establishing Econet Wireless after much strife with the Zimbabwean government which initially refused to give him a licence to operate. That was a five-year legal battle (1993-1998) which went all the way to the highest court of the land and reportedly took him to the brink of bankruptcy. Strive’s strife was against a crippling cocktail of corruption and cronyism. In the end, his victory was not for himself alone, for it led to the removal of the state monopoly in telecommunications, and is regarded as one of the key milestones in opening the African telecommunications sector to private capital.[7]
Dual Blessing of Southern and South Africa
In 2000 Masiyiwa left Zimbabwe with his family to go to South Africa for a season. “Part of the reason it would be unwise for him to return is almost certainly linked with a decision he took that same year to make a personal loan to the owners of Zimbabwe’s three independent newspapers, including the Daily News, which was later shut down by Mugabe’s regime.”[8] While this was his second refuge in his native southern African region—having been once a refugee in Zambia as a young lad—Masiyiwa maintains that the real reason he moved to South Africa was to realise his dream of creating a truly multinational African business.[9] Hear him: “This is the space we have been trying to fill, to pioneer the development of African companies that have a global outlook. South Africa was the only place where there was an outlook about building businesses that go to other countries.”[10]
SUCCESS
Continental Leadership
Strive Masiyiwa’s company’s first cell phone subscriber was connected to the new network in 1998,[11] the same year in which he listed Econet Wireless Zimbabwe on the local stock exchange as a gesture of thanks to reward the thousands of ordinary people who supported him during his long legal battles against the Zimbabwean government.[12]
Today, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has gone on to become a major business that dominates the Zimbabwean economy. Fifteen years into operation, in 2013, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) awarded Econet Wireless Zimbabwe with a Lifetime Award in the ICT sector, in recognition of the investment the company had made into the country. The said investment included a $1.2 billion injection, certainly responsible for the business outcome of rapidly moving Zimbabwe from low penetration levels of below 15% in 2009 to one of the fastest growing telecoms markets in the world with a penetration rate of almost 100%.[13]
At the turn of the millennium, sub-Saharan Africa had just one phone line for every 70 people, in contrast to almost one per person in the U.S. and Europe.[14] In just six years, between 1996 and 2002, Africa jumped from 2 million to 35 million mobile connections.[15] Today, the number of smartphone subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa is over 415 million and is expected to reach 689 million by 2028.[16] Strive has been part of the leadership that has made the continent leapfrog the ‘landlines’ stage in development, with Africa even leading the world today in cell phone innovations in fintech like mobile money (MPESA in Kenya and MoMo in Ghana). Talk of vision, at the start of Econet when Strive had proposed a joint venture and reached out to the national telecoms company, his former employers, the cataractic bosses were adamant and categorically stated that there was no call for mobile telephones in Zimbabwe.[17]
Global Impact
Econet Wireless International, Econet Global, Mascom Wireless Botswana, Econet Wireless Nigeria (now Airtel Nigeria), Econet Satellite Services, Lesotho Telecom, Econet Wireless Burundi, Rwanda Telecom, Econet Wireless South Africa, Solarway, and Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) are all key Strive Masiyiwa businesses established with partners. Mr. Masiyiwa’s operations and investments run across Africa and the United Kingdom, Europe, US, Latin America, and New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, and China.[18]
Strive Masiyiwa’s entrepreneurial and leadership success has had its financial payoffs, even on a personal level. For instance, he owns two adjacent apartments atop the 29-storey Eldorado Tower at 300 Central Park in New York City, bought for US$24.5 million in 2016.[19] On 7 July 2022, Masiyiwa became the first black billionaire to enter the Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of £1.6 billion.[20]
As a brand that values integrity, we cannot help but reproduce one of our favourite Masiyiwa quotes on the issue: “Integrity is better capital than money. You can accumulate it just like money, and you can use it just like money, but it goes further, and is enduring.”[21] A related Masiyiwa quote is: “If we tackle corruption, no child would sleep hungry, there would be no injustice, every child would be in school. The most powerful force against corruption is one person saying “no”.” You may find these, along with eight other powerful quotes of his, in a brief Forbes article.
Family
If indeed “true success is when those who know you the best, love you the most” (John Maxwell) then Strive is successful on that count. Strive is married to a queen of philanthropy, Tsitsi, with whom he has six biological children: Elizabeth, Sarah, Vimbai, Moses (the only male), Joanna and Esther. Their oldest is now thirty-two. The family resides in London, England.
SIGNIFICANCE
At PELÉ, we are convinced that individual success must lead to societal significance. Well, the man once picked by Time magazine as one of its 15 “global influentials” has been mentioned in the same breadth as greats like Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan, both of the African soil with global impact.
Philanthropy
Strive runs a non-profit organisation, Higherlife foundation, together with his wife, Tsitsi Masiyiwa. The Zimbabwean billionaire couple’s NGO empowers vulnerable children through education and creates opportunities for highly talented young people. They run one of the largest support programmes for feeding and educating orphans on the continent through this family foundation.[22] As part of the The Giving Pledge, a commitment to philanthropy by the world’s wealthiest individuals, it appears Masiyiwa “spends nearly as much time and money giving back as he does growing Econet Wireless.”[23]
As a down-to-earth man of the people for the people, Masiyiwa still maintains a public Facebook page through which he primarily mentors budding African entrepreneurs and all who have ears to hear what he has to say about success in life, leadership, integrity, family, faith and entrepreneurship. This page currently has 5.7 million followers.
Boards
Masiyiwa’s international appointments and board memberships over the years, both for profit and non-profit, include: Unilever (board member), Netflix (board member), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (trustee),[24] the National Geographic Society (trustee), Bank of America (Global Advisory Council), UN Commission on Adaptation (former Commissioner), Generation Africa (co-founder), Pathways for Prosperity Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development (co-chair), The Rockefeller Foundation (former board member),[25] and the US Council on Foreign Relations (former Global Advisory Board 2012-2023).
Mr. Strive Masiyiwa has also served the Asia Society (former board member), Stanford University (Global Advisory Board), the Africa Progress Panel, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (chair, now Chair Emeritus), The Micronutrient Initiative of Canada (former board member), Grow Africa, the African Union‘s Ebola Fund (co-founder), Morehouse College (former Trustee), the African Academy of Sciences (Honorary Fellow) and the Pan African Strategic Institute. A couple of years ago, Strive was involved in helping to organise the Global Africa Business Initiative launched in New York in 2022. He is the only African member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum‘s Committee on Conscience. Masiyiwa has also served on a couple of UN Advisory Panels.
Faith
Masiyiwa is a practising Christian.[26] It was during the five-year legal strife with his home government that when his wife invited him to church he would realise that “I did not know Him [Jesus Christ]; I only knew of Him.” That moment changed everything for Strive. He borrowed a second-hand Bible, and read the entire book in two weeks, committing his life (and business) fully to Christ.[27] “Christianity is a value system that calls on me to be compassionate, it calls on me to help the weak,” he says. “I generate a lot of money for me and my shareholders and people who have been associated with me, but that cannot be an end in itself.”[28]
Strive is the co-founder of the Capernaum Trust, a Christian charity that sponsors the education of over 28,000 Zimbabwean orphans, and co-founded with Sir Richard Branson the environmental group the Carbon War Room. As noted above Mr. Masiyiwa sits on countless boards, from Grow Africa to organisations leading the charge against evils like HIV/AIDS, Ebola and genocide. He joined forces with Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, to tackle the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, raising $35 million to stem the tide and bolster the economies of affected countries.[29]
CONCLUSION
Strive Masiyiwa has striven and succeeded, by all standards, be it in entrepreneurship, leadership, politics, philanthropy, family or faith. Britain’s first Black billionaire is a blessed Prince of Africa, for just like the Semitic patriarch who wrestled with a mysterious man until daybreak when he was eventually blessed by the divine, in prophetically naming him ‘Strive’ his Zimbabwean parents must have had a hunch that he too will strive with God and with humans, and win.[30] He has. Hands down.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/
[2] https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/
[3] Out of Zimbabwe, a telecoms boss means serious business in Africa”. The Guardian. 30 July 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
[4] Robinson, Simon (2 December 2002). “Strive Masiyiwa: Founder of Econet Wireless”. Time.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Arlidge, John. “How Strive Masiyiwa became Britain’s first black billionaire”. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
[7] Out of Zimbabwe, a telecoms boss means serious business in Africa”. The Guardian. 30 July 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
[8] Out of Zimbabwe, a telecoms boss means serious business in Africa”. The Guardian. 30 July 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Robinson, Simon (2 December 2002). “Strive Masiyiwa: Founder of Econet Wireless”. Time.
[12] https://nehandaradio.com/2014/06/16/story-masiyiwa-story-raised-money-part-3/ (from Strive’s own blog). Retrieved January 11, 2023.
[13] https://www.techzim.co.zw/2013/11/investment-zimbabwe-earns-econet-wireless-zia-lifetime-award/
[14] Robinson, Simon (2 December 2002). “Strive Masiyiwa: Founder of Econet Wireless”. Time.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Taylor, Petroc (18 July, 2023). Smartphone subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa 2011-2028. Statista.
[17] The Economist. (8 October, 1998). Judgment Day. This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the same headline. Last retrieved January 15, 2024.
[18] Leach, Anna (18 August 2014). “Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless and the making of Africa’s first cashless society”. The Guardian.
[19] Ojekunle, Aderemi (1 April 2019). “A peek into the life and business empire of Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwe’s first billionaire”. Pulse Nigeria. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
[20] Watts, Robert. “Strive Masiyiwa: the first black billionaire to make the Rich List. This is his story”. The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
[21] Nsehe, Mfonobong. (Jul 6, 2014). “10 Inspirational Quotes From Zimbabwe’s Richest Man, Strive Masiyiwa.” Forbes. Last retrieved January 16, 2024.
[22] Ojekunle, Aderemi. (4 January, 2019). A peek into the life and business empire of Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwe’s first billionaire. Pulse Nigeria.
[23] https://www.arrowleadership.org/blog/general-leadership/the-faith-of-strive-masiyiwa/ Last retrieved January 15, 2024
[24] Kulish, Nicholas (26 January 2022). “Three New Faces to Help Steer the Gates Foundation”. The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
[25] “Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees-Strive-Masiyiwa”. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
[26] https://www.arrowleadership.org/blog/general-leadership/the-faith-of-strive-masiyiwa/ Last retrieved January 15, 2024
[27] Ibid
[28] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/30/strive-masiwiya-zimbabwe-telecoms
[29] Ojekunle, Aderemi. (4 January, 2019). A peek into the life and business empire of Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwe’s first billionaire. Pulse Nigeria.
[30] The Holy Bible. Genesis 32:27-28
50 Inspiring Living Leaders
This 50 Inspiring Living Leaders series highlights current influencers who are succeeding in leadership, integrity, family or entrepreneurship in whatever field and exhibit most, if not all, of our values of PELÉ. We value people, growth, particularity, excellence, success, authenticity and significance. These stories are largely written in terms of growth, success and significance in leadership, integrity, family and entrepreneurship. While we do our best to receive personal references about each leader, most of our research and writing is based on literature review of publicly-available information. As authorities in leadership, we are fully aware that there is no such thing as a perfect leader, and leaders may have their flaws, but we choose to celebrate these inspiring living leaders for their achievements outlined in our series. Having said that, should you happen to have any incontrovertible evidence that any of our featured leaders does not fit our bill of an authentic leader, please write to us at info@perbiexecutive.com. Our vision at PELÉ is a flourishing global ecosystem of authentic leaders characterised by healthy growth, holistic success and lasting significance.
Big Events are Overrated, Trust Process.
“Trust the process” has become cliché. Yet many don’t understand it, let alone mean it. In fact, most people are more attracted to big events and striking occasions but the aim of this article is to show that these are overrated. We are attracted to the big bang, amazing testimonies, the one time lottery win, that miracle… all of which are good but in the long term, those are not the things that sustain societies, grow businesses or deeply transform us long term. It is process, process, process.
MENTORING AND THE LAW OF PROCESS THEN
These thoughts have been coming to mind over the last couple of weeks because of two recent incidents, one in the church and one in the corporate setting. Regarding the former, l led part of an annual discipleship capacity building workshop for my local church at the University of Ghana. Discipleship is the word Christians use for spiritual mentorship. I inquired what they would do if they were God and came on Earth in the person of Jesus Christ (as Christians believe) to do an effectual job of changing the world. What would they do?
Well, many would go head-on and prioritize filling stadia with people (and there were stadia in the time of Jesus) or fill the plains like where he fed 5,000 then 4,000 (not counting women and children) day after day, as the rule not the exception. Some would constantly go to the royal palace and do some leadership workshops for Herod and his ilk etc. But the Rabbi did none of that routinely. First of all, He took 30 years to prepare Himself from conception through childhood to turbulent youth years to adulthood. He came as a foetus, endured nine months of pregnancy and went through a 30-year process of learning–of obeying His parents, of apprenticing to be a carpenter like His earthly dad, of learning the Torah like other children of His day etc. Yes, all of that. Process.
Eventually when it was time to launch His ministry at 30 (phew! finally!) what does He do? Nothing prime-time TV worthy (oh, of course apart from His spectacular baptism). The baptism in the Jordan by Cousin John was a big event. But the rest, again, process. After all-night prayer, He goes around town and handpicks 12 people, just a dozen, and decides to walk with them, life-on-life, for three-and-a-half years. As Professor Robert Coleman points out in his magnum opus, His method of training was His life itself, it wasn’t just “read this book.” No! Process, day by day by day by day by day for nearly as long as we have to wait for the next Olympics or World Cup tournament.
Only a few years down the line these ordinary fisherfolk so got Him that each was martyred for what they had come to see and taste and know. In a few years, it was reported of His followers, “the people that have turned the world upside down.” Two thousand years later, what do we see? There are 2. 3 billion Christ followers on every continent and in every country and geopolitical space today. Yet the original leader Himself never travelled beyond 50-100 km radius of where he was born. The farthest he went to was Egypt, in His childhood, when his family temporarily migrated to Africa as refugees. Why this impact? How? The law of process.
He knew if he took 12, focused on the few and worked on them life-on-life for years, that the few would bring another few who would bring a few more, who would mentor a few, who would bring a few and over years this kind of impact would happen. Deep transformation doesn’t happen in rows, like we sit in events, but in circles. It happens in circles, small groups, day by day, week after week, month after month.
MENTORING AND THE LAW OF PROCESS NOW
At the said workshop at the University of Ghana, I showed the attendees a simulation: if one person who comes has a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ decides to disciple another person, just one person per year, life on life, week by week, studying scriptures, eating together, praying together, travelling to places together etc. Just a person a year. At the end of the first year, there would be only two disciples of Jesus. The original then instructs the ‘graduating’ disciple to do same for another, just as Paul admonished Timothy: “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2 , NKJV).
At the end of the second year what happens? You still mentor a second person so there are two of you. But the original person you discipled in the first year has now also discipled somebody else, thus there are four of you. First year it was just addition, the second year there was multiplication. By the third year and onwards, there isn’t just multiplication but exponential multiplication. And if it continues like that, just one person each annually, by the end of the tenth year, you would be over a 1000 people (quantitatively impressive) deeply transformed (qualitatively impactful). You’ve gotten the mass that you wanted, yes, a thousand people you would have wanted to fill an auditorium with to impact all at once (but would leave the program and achieve nothing). Now you’ve gotten that same 1,000 people after a decade but they would be solid movers and shaker.. It may seem inefficient at first but it is deeply effective and with time it becomes powerfully efficient as well. Within 10 years, you would have a 1000 people who are deeply transformed and now you also have the numbers. That’s the law of process.
MONEY AND THE LAW OF PROCESS NOW & THEN
Then, about the training for the core leadership team at Perbi Cubs we talked about how leadership is built day in and day out and not in a day. John Maxwell talks about that as the fourth ‘irrefutable law’ in his New York bestselling book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I have been teaching this book for over 20 years now. “Leadership is built daily and not in a day,” Dr. Maxwell says. So is anything else of enduring value. Daily; not in a day.
To illustrate, I actually showed the EdTech leaders an investment chart I created a couple of decades ago in my book Financial Whizzdom, comparing a youth who starts investing at 20 and his uncle who starts investing at 30. Both invest the same amount (say GHS 2,000) at the same annual interest rate of 10% p.a. The lad invests for 10 years, stops investing but leaves the money to keep growing. The uncle who started at 30 doesn’t stop and continues putting in GHS, 2,000 every year till the age of 65. At the age of 65, this boy who started and stopped and just let his money keep growing would have more money, about GHS 200,000 more, than his uncle. All because the young man started earlier and got the Law of Process working for him a whole decade prior.
CONCLUSION
Process works. It gives sure and deep and lasting results. Don’t skip processes. Build your leadership daily. Build your spiritual life daily. Build your health daily. Build your intellectual capacity with a little reading everyday rather than just binging once or twice a year. Something you are doing everyday is determining your future. Or as Tag Short put it, “the secret of success is found in your daily agenda.” A related Chinese proverb really intrigues me. Here’s my paraphrase: “Do not fear growing slowly, what you should fear is standing still, not growing at all.” Trust the process. Truly, trust process. Process would beat big events and one-time shiny experiences any day, all day, long-term. It’s a timeless, universal truth. Trust it.
Tribute to Tim of my Table ~ Timothy Keller (1950-2023).
We first met on a table near the Table Mountain; I hope we meet again, in eternity, at a wedding table on a holy mountain.
In an emerging leader-affirming move, typical of The Lausanne Movement, my 32-year old self was appointed a table head at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa. Imagine that. This was a gathering of the crème de la crème of Christian leaders from around the world, even described by some as “the most representative gathering of Christian leaders in the 2,000 year history of the Christian movement” (Christianity Today).
Each table had about half a dozen members. One of mine was Tim Keller. At the time, I had no clue who he was and quite frankly, couldn’t be bothered. Everyone was somebody. He wasn’t always at the table and even when he was there, he wasn’t quite there.
The Congress was over and everyone received their beautiful certificates of participation. Tim wasn’t there. Again. Apparently he had left back to the United States earlier. So I decided to travel back to Canada with his certificate, do an internet search of his whereabouts and mail his certificate to him in the States.
THAT is when I found out to my shock what a tall figure of a man this was! I eventually did get to speak with a staff and mail his memento to the right address (I would hope) in New York City. Rev. Dr. Tim Keller, founder and lifelong pastor of the 5,000-member Redeemer Presbyterian Church, was über brilliant and very deep—in head and heart. So deep that he had decided not to write any book till he was in his fifties. “Writing a book in your 50s will go twice as fast and be twice as good as if you try the same book in your 30s. It’s just good stewardship to wait,” he told The Gospel Coalition, which he was co-founder and Vice President of.
The other dimension I admired most about Keller was how ambidextrous he was in elucidating the gospel and engaging the culture, simultaneously! Stupendous! That, to me, was epitomized in his invitation to speak on his obviously Christian worldview book, ‘The Meaning of Marriage,’ at Google in Silicon Valley. Check out his presentation and responses to their questions and comments. Dr. Keller mentored many, near and far, in-person, in spirit and via media. Those around the world who were directly mentored through his Redeemer City to City should count themselves fortunate, blessed. I just spotted on Facebook a touching tribute from a pastor friend of mine from Brazil who recently planted a church in Rome, inspired and equipped by Rev. Keller.
As a latter day follower of Tim on Twitter, I admired the way he vulnerably yet resolvedly faced his imminent death, having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer since 2020, a sequel to his 2002 thyroid cancer battle. All the while incarnationally demonstrating ‘The Meaning of Marriage’ through the dynamics with his wife of nearly 50 years, Kathy Kristy. Tim transitioned into glory on Friday the nineteenth (of May), 2023.
Dr. Tim Keller’s influence on the church and the world for Christ is deep and wide. I hope we share a table, again, at the grand, imminent marriage feast of the Lamb in eternity. Till then, Rest in Peace, champ! #Maranatha!
THE PRESENCE ~ Part 2 (of 3)
All you need is in THE PRESENCE. (Photo credit: Northstar Church)
17When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. … 20After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. 21By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. (Exodus 13)
THE PRESENCE FROM EGYPT
God will not necessarily lead you through the shortest routes in 2022 but the best routes, according to His good, pleasing and perfect will. God was Israel’s captain as they exited Egypt to possess the Promised Land. A captain is a commanding officer of a ship, someone in command or a leader of a group (like a football team). This captainship is clearly captured in phrases like “God did not lead them…” (v. 17); “So God led the people…” (v. 18); “By day the LORD went ahead of them… to guide them” (v. 21); “…in front of the people” (v. 22).
And they were many, an estimated 2 million of them! It is no wonder they are described as a host (like stars or a vast army). A host is “a multitude or great number of persons or things.” God was the General, Guard & GPS of this ginormous group, host!
THE PRESENCE IN ENGLAND
It is this amazing story in Exodus 13 that captured the imagination of Charles Wesley (1707-1777), the brother of the founder of Methodism (John Wesley) to pen those words in 1762 (the original words are in bold, my brief commentary is in italics):
Captain of Israel’s host, and Guide
Of all who seek the land above,
The same God who was Captain of the Israelites exiting Egypt to the Promised Land called Canaan is the Guide of those of us who eventually want to exit Earth to the Promised Land above we call Heaven;
He can be the General of those of us exiting 2021 and wanting to enter the Promised Land called 2022. For he is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Beneath Thy shadow we abide,
The cloud of Thy protecting love;
The shadow, cloud, pillar of fire—these are all metaphors of THE PRESENCE.
Will you abide (John 15) in THE PRESENCE for intimacy (love), protection, provision, piloting (guidance), production (fruitfulness)…
Our strength, Thy grace, our rule, Thy Word;
Jesus Himself says, “my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness in 2022” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
What laws or constitution or playbook will you live by in 2022? How about the Basic Information Before Leaving Earth (Bible), which itself is already saturated with THE PRESENCE?
Our end, the glory of the Lord.
Is God’s glory the purpose and end goal of your life or your own idea of what is cool and successful? God’s own glory is God’s mission!
It is no greatness if it brings God no glory!
A WORD ABOUT GOD’S GLORY IN UNEXPECTED PLACES & WAYS
God’s glory can show up in ways and places that are strange to the human mind. Think about it: one day in John 9, “As [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God [or the glory of God] might be displayed in him.” But blindness?!
How about when Jesus says to Peter (John 21), “Very truly I tell you [Jesus says to Peter], when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” A death that glorifies God? Come on! JUST FOLLOW THE PRESENCE.
THE PRESENCE is powerful; even in the valley of the shadow of death, according to twenty-third Psalm, I fear no evil for you are with me (THE PRESENCE). In Genesis 39, “…while Joseph was there in the prison, 21the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.” THE PRESENCE in prison; glory through prison. Unstoppable God; unboundable PRESENCE!
BACK TO EXODUS
We’re told in the ninth chapter of the book of Numbers that:
17Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. 18At the Lord’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s order and did not set out. 20Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the Lord’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. 21Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. 22Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. 23At the Lord’s command [captain of the host!] they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out. They obeyed the Lord’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses.
The second verse of Wesley’s hymn continues…
By Thine unerring Spirit led,
We shall not in the desert stray
THE PRESENCE makes no mistakes—He is the omniscient (all-knowing) One to steer us aright from missing our way yet if we sin and stubbornly deviate He also is the gracious omniponent (all-powerful) One to, like a GPD does, re-route us, even if it takes 40 years in the wilderness! Re-calculating… Re-calculating…
We shan’t be lost in 2022, amen!
Just move when God moves; stop when He does; stay when he stays.
We shall not full direction need
It was reprinted in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), where John Wesley altered this line 3 of verse 2 from, ‘The light of man’s direction need’ to ‘We shall not full direction need’.
Nor miss our providential way;
Just as He gives us our daily bread, let us look to Him for daily direction. There is no grace for tomorrow; only today. We don’t need the full direction! Sometimes we don’t even need direction in our heads or hearts; he just orders our steps, like Simeon!
As far from danger as from fear,
While Love, almighty Love, is near.
God is Love, and the Bible says “perfect love drives out fear.” Fear and God cannot co-exist. In 2022, God will keep us far from danger just as He will keep us far from fear, as long as THE PRESENCE is near!
Hallelujah! Finally, in Part 3, we’ll end with Moses’ craving of THE PRESENCE and why we should too–abiding angels and promised properties, even flowing milk and honey, just won’t do. I share five practical tips on maximizing THE PRESENCE.
From One Legendary Leader in the Evening to Another One in the Morning–a Tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The beloved late Desmond Tutu (photo: Yaw Perbi does not own the rights to the picture and owner is unknown).
I was emailed this incredible tribute by a mentor of mine in the Lausanne Movement, Dr. Michael Cassidy, to his late friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu, that I just had to share as a student of leadership. What impresses you most? May many Cassidies and Tutus be raised in our generation!
Tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu
from
Michael Cassidy
Founder, African Enterprise
Honorary Chair, The Lausanne Movement
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of South Africa’s greatest ever luminaries, both ecclesiastical & national, has gone to be with His Lord. People from every race, sector & background will mourn his passing, because he was a man for all who stood without fear or favour for the human rights of all.
Perhaps it is as an almost unequalled African champion for human rights that he will be most fondly & universally remembered. And it was for this that he justly became a Nobel Laureate.
In South Africa his immensely courageous fight against Apartheid earned him the fearsome opprobrium of the National Party Government, the settled hostility of most whites, but the thankful adoration of all people of colour, as well as more liberal whites. In fact, from the church, his voice during those dread years, was by far the most audible, & his persona by far the most visible. This audibility & visibility constituted a true achievement of note & contributed powerfully to the final fall of Apartheid.
As far as we were concerned in African Enterprise, Desmond was a friend to our work & contributed powerfully to conferences we organized or helped organize such as SACLA (South African Christian Leadership Assembly), the NIR (National Initiative for Reconciliation), & The Rustenburg Conference which represented the whole church spectrum & spoke to the whole range of political leadership from far left to far right.
At a personal level I also counted Desmond a good friend. He commended numbers of my books, including my recent Memoirs, & wrote the Foreword to my book The Politics of Love. We also shared in significant ministry together in African Enterprise’s city-wide mission to Kigali, Rwanda, a year after the genocide. That was very moving. I especially remember ministering with him in terrifying cells of pitifully jammed together prisoners. And then being with him as he collapsed in tears in one church filled with skeletal remains of murdered victims. There I saw his profound compassion poured out. Even as we tried to hold him up. Such shared moments one can never forget, culminating in our sharing the evangelistic preaching to a packed stadium in our final service.
And all this Desmond could do in spite of the fact that we had strong theological differences on certain issues such as Universalism & Gay Marriage. But he never allowed those to damage our friendship. And neither did I.
Thankfully in our recently produced documentary, The Threatened Miracle of South Africa’s Democracy, Desmond features strongly, both during the Apartheid years, but even afterwards when he severely scolded the ANC of Zuma’s time saying, “I’m warning you; I’m WARNING you; you are a disgrace!” No one else had that truly prophetic courage, credibility & ability to speak to all sides, all the time, AND be heard!
Yes, we will miss him… “the Arch”, as he was affectionately known, even by the media. But his legacy of prophetic witness will live on wherever South Africa’s story is told, & wherever racial justice & the Human Rights struggle are in purview.
To his dear, always supportive wife Leah, to his family, to his ministry colleagues, especially in the Anglican Church, we in African Enterprise world-wide extend our deepest sympathies, & assurances of heart-felt prayers at this time.
Dear Desmond — Beloved Arch — thank you for blessing us with your life. Au revoir. We will see you in the Morning.
Michael Cassidy
Founder of African Enterprise
Relax. Religion isn’t going anywhere.
Although Pew’s projection of the Christian numbers is disputed by many, like the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (that it should be much higher)), the point being made in this article is still clear: the majority of the world has and will continue to be religious.
I’m very excited to begin my doctorate in global leadership this week. Having been a student of leadership for the last 25 years plus and acquired a Master’s degree in it a few years ago, I’ve felt it’s time to do the whole nine yards, not so much for the title (after all I’m already a doctor) but to go deeper and be even better-seasoned in my darling subject (or is it object?).
In going this doctorate route, I opted for a seminary environment because faith matters immensely to me, and indeed to the majority people in the world. The increased secularization of a formerly mainly ‘Christian’ Europe and certain sections of American society seems like an overwhelming flood to many only because it is a sharp deviation from the not-so-distant past when there was hardly any division between church and state; but also because the West disproportionately fills the media space. Only last week the German national broadcaster shared that a recent poll showed “most Germans find religion unimportant.” Yet the fact remains that the majority of the world has and practices a faith of sorts. In 2025, 90% of the world will be religious, my friends who run Operation World say; and by 2050, at least 87% of the world will still be religious, according to Pew Research.
The mid-twentieth-century secularization theory—that an increase in modernity means a decrease in religion— has been largely debunked by the likes of Berger (2014). According to Todd Johnson, who I just exchanged emails with, an astute associate professor of Global Christianity and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “Despite increased modernity the world has in fact become more religious; 80.8% of the global population self-identified with a religion in 1970, rising to 88.1% in 2010 and with a projected increase to 91.5% by 2050,” higher than Pew’s projected 87% cited in the previous paragraph! Even the ‘unaffiliated’ doesn’t mean they aren’t religious; it often means they choose not to be identified with any ‘institutionalized’ religion. Just as humans have a physical, social and mental components that cannot be denied, so is there a spiritual capacity that we cannot run away from. French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal put it succinctly, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator,” and in his experience and exposure, “by God the creator made know through Jesus Christ.”
By the way, I use the world ‘religion’ generally (and maybe even generously) because as an insider of the Christian faith I wouldn’t call Christianity a religion per se. Religion connotes man in search of God while in the Christian faith it is actually God in search of man. Not only that, religion tends to paint a picture of rigorous rules and rituals while true Christianity is more of a relationship with the Divine than a set of rituals or rules per se. That being said, for the purpose of this article faith, spirituality, divine relationship and religion are all being treated as ‘religion.’
FAITH AND WORK, FAITH @ WORK
Without God, and my faith in Him, I do not have a reason for being, a raison d’être. Neither do I have sustainable passion for my doings because all of it feels like, in the words of the wisest and wealthiest monarch ever, “vanity of vanity, it’s all vanity.” I have observed with grave concern the increasing divorce of faith from the work space, treating it like the plague or some highly contagious disease. Even on work-centric social media like LinkedIn, one cannot help but get the feeling that the mention of God in posts ‘spoils the atmosphere,’ which is riddled with human achievements, of brain and brawn (mainly the former), simply singing of how great we are.
But statistically, 90% and over of the people on LinkedIn are religious. There are myriads like me who know we wouldn’t be as excellent professionally but for our faith. Meanwhile, all who have an active religious affiliation yet act at work as if they have no faith are walking on the dangerous ground of inauthenticity. It is not integrous to want to, or have to, hide such an important part of one’s life as spirituality or faith in a space that easily takes up a third to half of our waking hours: work!
This week, a Muslim mate of mine from medical school, now a neurosurgeon, posted on our year group’s WhatsApp platform a screenshot of a heartfelt social media post someone had made about Dr. Aba Folson, one of our Christian colleagues who is now a cardiologist. This person who made the post, a nurse, starts by saying, “I have been blessed in my journey in the Nursing/Healthcare space to be working with amazing, highly religious health workers. One of such awesome ladies is Dr Aba Folson. She is a Cardiologist.”
She goes on to describe “her humility, assertiveness, excellence and brilliance” and how Aba has “broken protocols to help save my very critically ill patients.” The protocols she speaks of, I believe, were put in place to save patients in the first place, but there are situations where one has to do the unusual and even unconventional at great risk, which separates humans from machines and even artificial intelligence. The wisdom and courage to make such calls, Dr. Folson will say, I know for sure, comes from above. The writer of the text seems to be enamoured by the fact that Aba is “an astute Christian and sings in the choir.”
A screenshot of the said message praising Dr. Aba Folson on social media
ALL WE NEED IS RESPECT
I still remember zooming down the corridor between the ER and the blood bank to fetch blood for a critically ill child. This was during my days as a medical officer at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. We usually had junior staff who would do that but no, this young doctor run in his white coat. The child’s mother gathered the energy to attempt to run alongside me. Barely catching up and hardly catching her breath she managed to say these words, which I shall never forget, “Doctor, doctor I can tell you are a Christian.” She must’ve known that for a Christ-follower the Pauline admonition about work is clear and strong: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
What is needed, indeed all that is needed, is for respectful co-existence in a pluralistic workplace, which is a microcosm of a really pluralistic world. The fight for diversity and inclusion in the workplace must not, and indeed cannot, be limited to ethnicity, age, gender, (dis)ability and such alone but faith as well. The majority of us wouldn’t be present at work with purpose and perform with passion and excellence without it, and none of us will be authentic in the workplace pretending we didn’t have it.
Faith works. Let your religion work at work—faith, love and hope at work. Your faith should make you a better professional; not worse. If your faith doesn’t make you better at work—which is all about service to humankind made in the image and likeness of God—it’s not worth following. Change it. Let’s see faith at work working, doing good works that bring God glory and bring about the good society—that’s the way it ought to be.
Post Script.
Right after I posted this blog, I came across a photo and headline on LinkedIn that said, “South African doctor: Professor “Mashudu Tshifularo” just became the first surgeon on earth to successfully perform surgery [with 3D technology] to cure deafness. He is also a pastor.” Ahem. Point nailed!
Nothing to Prove, Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Lose
“Nomination To Receive The Honorary Doctorate Degree” letter I received on April 14, 2021
Recently I received an email (partly screenshot above) announcing my nomination to receive an honorary doctorate degree. It is is possible that I would have felt more flattered and been more tempted to go after this fake degree from these fictitious institutions had I not already been a “Dr.” (medical). Coming from a family in which my grandfather was an emeritus professor and where my mother and father-in-law are PhDs in history and economics respectively, these titles don’t exactly faze us. Yet those who offer them know they are toying with very powerful human emotions, motivations and identity issues at the core of our being and have made a good business of it. As my best friend said when I forwarded the said email to him, “this has nothing to do with you; it has everything to do with business.”
Some however, including many Christian leaders, have taken the bait and gotten decorated with very dubious degrees and titles. Recently, there was a huge brouhaha over a popular Ghanaian musician based in London who was alleged to have amassed three degrees, including a PhD, within four months! Perhaps if he had even shut up, none of this would’ve become an issue of investigation and castigation setting social media abuzz but he was flaunting it and ‘praising God’ for the fake feat. The desire to flaunt it itself reveals the very identity and emotional challenges he might have that perhaps led to him to go for those inauthentic accolades in the first place.
Popular gospel singer, Sonnie Badu, has now supposedly earned the title ‘Dr’ after bagging a doctorate in Musicology and being awarded two more degrees.
The above picture of Sonnie, whose giftedness is unquestionable but his academic credentials are, was uploaded by himself on social media touting his feat. I have met Sonnie. He is a fine young man and anointed. But I can also tell you he is far from perfect; just like you and me. Speaking of Sonnie and musicology, incidentally, my grandfather was a celebrated ethnomusicologist. His work earned him many accolades including several honorary doctorates but he never used the title “Dr.” because although he had done enough original research work to deserve ten doctorates he never really formally pursued a PhD per se. Interestingly, he shot straight from ‘mister’ to ‘professor’ and was ’emeritus professor’ for the last three decades or so of his life.
This degree brouhaha touches on at least three issues: identity, purpose and authenticity.
IDENTITY
There was once a programme organized by a friend of mine. The MC got on stage and introduced a certain pastor to come up and offer a prayer. He inadvertently introduced him, with no malice, as Mr. XYZ. XYZ comes up, grabs the mic and makes a correction, “I’m not Mister, I’m Pastor.” That wasn’t all; it gets worse. Later he clears his throat and amends his correction saying something like, “In fact, I’m not Pastor, I am Reverend.” Ahem. Wow! What a shock, what a shame.
But lest I come across as holier than thou, remember I told you that the people offering fake degrees know exactly what they are massaging in us: the ego. I can tell you that as a medical doctor myself there are many times when people address me in speech or in writing as ‘Mr.’ and I have a natural gut reaction to get offended, said in my head something like “do you know who you’re talking to?” and yearned to correct them. There’s a part of me that even justifies it thus: “mehn, but you earned it.” That, my friend, is not the authentic self.
We need not, and indeed should not, root our identity in external things like what we wear, how much we earn, what degrees or title(s) we have acquired. Anything that man can give you, man can take away. Let’s not root our identity in any such thing. And you would think that supposed men and women of God would know better and root their identity in nothing less than Christ himself.
PURPOSE
You may have ‘more degrees than a thermometer’ and still not accomplish your God-given purpose. There are some without degrees at all and yet have made much more impact in the world than those with many letters behind their names. Your purpose in life determines the vehicles and tools you need to use. It’s strange to make the acquisition of vehicles and tools our primary objective when one hasn’t first sat down to evaluate if that is what they need to get done the job they came on earth to accomplish. It’s about dreams, not diplomas and degrees.
Did you read about the recent brouhaha over the apparent insistence of Jill Biden, wife of the current U.S. president, to be called “Dr” ? It’s really been going on for at least a decade now: “Hi, I’m Jill. Jill Biden. But please, call me Dr. Biden.” The December 2020 op-ed by Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal implored Jill Biden to “think about dropping the honorific, which feels fraudulent, even comic.” Personally, I think the essence of what Epstein was trying to say became lost in what became an embroilment in sexism. The real question should be: does being ‘Dr.’ make Jill a better educator (that she’s been for decades) or not? Everything else is secondary; even tertiary.
AUTHENTICITY
This degree saga leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to authentic leadership. It speaks to the core of authenticity. Authentic leaders have:
- nothing to prove–a matter of humility (not try to project self worth)
- nothing to hide–a question of integrity (no playing of games but totally transparent)
- nothing to lose–a matter of simplicity (not strive for social image or popularity).
As you might have noticed, humility, integrity and simplicity as an acronym spell HIS. This is particularly instructive to Christian leaders. Those of us at the Third Lausanne Congress on world Evangelization in Cape Town in 2010 were passionately exhorted by theologian Chris Wright to be God’s saints, Christ’s people, HIS people of humility, integrity and simplicity.
NOT SO WITH YOU
Again, especially for Christian leaders, the primary power base of an authentic (wo)man of God is spiritual power—not positional or personal power. Others may go that route but Jesus was very clear to his followers who would be leaders: “not so with you.” In May 2020, I wrote quite extensively on that here. We need to lead different. This issue just won’t go away until Christians really chose to be H.I.S. people.
CONCLUSION
In light of the recent brouhaha about fake degrees, Friends, BE WARNED. Don’t allow your ego to be stroked and stoked, making your false self acquiesce to receiving fake degrees from fictitious institutions. If you want a degree, go to school and study for one! In any case, one doesn’t necessarily need a degree to succeed in life! Hopefully your going for a diploma or degree would only be because you have observed It will a good vehicle or tool towards your dream. Again, the thing is: You can have ‘more degrees than a thermometer’ and still not fulfill your God-given purpose in life.
I have a mentor who likes to say, “the thing about titles is that if you’re good you don’t need them; if you’re not they won’t help you.” Heaven help us!
Black History Month | Africa Leads the World
There is no talk of Black History without faith, especially the Christian faith. PBS recently released a fascinating Henry Louis Gates Jr. documentary on the Black Church. What some dubious people tried to oppress and suppress black people with became the very thing that liberated us and is now giving us a global leading edge.
Send Africa is an evolving missions network whose DNA and launch YAW PERBI is privileged to help shape and midwife
Africa is the most Christian continent in the world today. The year 2018 was the first in history where there were more Christians in Africa than on any other continent in the entire world! (Johnson 2018) THIS IS A BIG DEAL!—this is a one-thousand year record held by Europe that has been broken by Africa in our lifetime. That makes me super excited about Black History Month this year because history is being made right now. As you read this, a number of continental Africans and those of African descent in the diaspora have synergized to birth a new network known as Send Africa to promote further faith formation among ‘unreached people groups’ around the world.
At the formal launch of this Send Africa Network online on February 24-25 during this 2021 Black History Month, my Kenyan friend, Sam Ngugi, and I will be launching a ground-breaking book entitled Africa to the Rest to celebrate this huge feat of Africa becoming a leading global force of faith to the rest of the world. This book is to “celebrate this momentous occasion in world history that has been inadequately highlighted by mainstream missions and missions. It traces some of God’s goodness to Africa in the Bible and throughout history until now to make clear that Africa and Africans have been central to God’s missional purposes; not an afterthought.” You may register for the Send Africa Summit here.
CAPTURED & DISTORTED HISTORY
Of course Africa features in the Bible from start to finish. There were actually two black guys (among the five) that played hands on the apostle Paul and commissioned him on his missionary journeys (Acts 13). Africa is the cradle of monasteries and ecumenicsm. The term Trinity came from Tertullian the Tunisian. St. Augustine was from Algeria, and not a European as we were made to believe growing up in Africa.
As Sam and I state in our book, “People consider Christianity as the white man’s religion to oppress the African due to the last 500 years of Euro-American missionary activity mixed with colonialism without realizing that the first 500 years A.D., Africa was so synonymous with Christianity that one of the most common terms for Christians in Arabic sources is afariqa–indicating a significant degree to which “Christian” and “African” were synonymous concepts (Merrills 2004, 303).”
In fact, the subtitle of our book is “from mission field to mission force (again)“ because Africa(ns) as a mission force first impacted Europe with the Gospel! That notion that Africa first evangelized Europe is the essence of Thomas Oden’s book titled How Africa Shaped the European Mind. “My core hypothesis,” Oden himself says, “is that much intellectual history flowed south to north: from Mumidia to Sicily to France and Italy. It flowed from the Nile to the Euphrates and the Danube. It flowed from Pelusium to Gaza to Cappadocia. …There is ample evidence available that the seeds of African orthodoxy have been lifted by high winds to distant northern climes. Only much later have they returned to Africa in a Western guise.”
Only a century ago, at a world missionary conference in Edinburgh, not only was there no continental African there as a delegate, we were described as “heathen” in need of being saved. Today there are more Anglicans in Kenya than in England. At the time, the continent had 9 million Christians while Europe was home to 406 million. Today, Africa has over 630 million Christians, a clear 30 million more than Latin America in second place with Europe in third place with 571 million Christians. And it’s not a nine-day wonder, for by 2050 (Deo volente), there will likely be more Christians in Africa (1.25 billion) than in the next two continents combined! (Johnson 2018)
The all black ‘Africa to the Rest’ team of two writers and an editor on a Zoom call from Canada, the USA and England
UNDENIABLE PRESENT
It is good to know that Africa leads the world in something. There are churches that began in Africa and are in 198 countries now. The largest congregations in Europe are pastored by Africans, like Sunday Adelaja’s in Kieve, Ukraine. The most multinational congregation in the world—108 nationalities—was founded by and pastored by my good friend and mentor in Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Sam Owusu. I could give you a list of about 10 global mission organizations–including the Navigators, SIM, Langham Partners and SIL–currently led by Africans!
Why is all this important? For many reasons but three will suffice for now. First, black people have been part and parcel, even central, to the purpose and mission of God unlike others have tried to make us think. We are equally made in the image and likeness of God as anyone else. We ought to rejoice and while not bragging about ourselves, ‘make our boast in the LORD.’
Secondly, the Christian faith is authentically African. As one scholar put it, Christianity is a beggar looking for clothes in whatever culture it goes into. The fact that it was captured by Europeans and Americans and tailored as a tool of oppression of blacks in slavery, colonialism etc. is simply not right (not the authentic Christian faith) and doesn’t make the faith the preserve of the white man either.
Finally, the business world and other sectors in Africa that are trying to make a mark on the world stage could learn a thing or two from the African Church that leads the world in faith today, hands down.
THE FUTURE HAS COME
I come from a long and rich family history of black (hi)story tellers. My grandfather was an emeritus professor of ethnomusicology and my mother is a professor of history with a specialization in the slave trade. I feel privileged to take my turn to tell stories of African leadership, and in this particular case, leadership in faith, church and missiology.
The assassinated Congolese nationalist leader, luminary and first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, must be smiling in his grave that the day he prophesied is here: “The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations… Africa will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity.” The day has come!
For those of no faith and saying to themselves “who cares if Africa is the most Christian continent?” because we’re yet to see it tell on our socioeconomic indicators or the millennium development goals, just you wait. Works soon follow faith. Unless it’s not true faith; because faith without works is dead.
References
Johnson, Todd M., Gina A. Zurlo, Albert W. Hickman, and Peter F. Crossing. “Christianity 2018: More African Christians and Counting Martyrs.” International Bulletin of Mission Research 42, no. 1 (January 2018): 20. doi:10.1177/2396939317739833.
Merrills, A. (Ed.). (2004). Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa (1st ed.). Routledge, 303. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315235127
Oden, Thomas. 2007. How Africa Shaped the European Mind, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, p.71.
Perbi, Yaw & Sam Ngugi. 2021. Africa to the Rest: from mission field to mission force (again). Forthcoming. Xulon Press.
A Global Gathering: the blessing in the curse.
Leaders from over a dozen countries on all six continents gathering online for an annual CEOs Confab
As you already might know I am the Global CEO of The HuD Group, a faith-based leader development organization that originated from Ghana but now has presence in over 20 countries of the world, on all six continents.
For the last four years, every November we have hosted a HuD CEOs Confab. In 2016 we had two separate CEO gatherings in Accra, Ghana and Montreal, Canada. This was followed by the 2017 Confab in Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt. In 2018 we were in Dubai. Last year, 2019, we met in Abidjan and Bouake, in the Francophone West African nation of La Cote d’Ivoire. In 2020 we had planned a special Confab with our spouses and were supposed to be in Israel but here we are, thanks to COVID-19!
Today was Day 1 of our annual Confab. We met on Zoom. The blessing of that though is that nearly EVERYONE was able to show up (with most spouses present) because there was no hustle getting time off regular work, no financial or ticketing challenges and above all no visa headaches!
Thanks to modern technology, amidst a global pandemic we joined the call from eastern and western Canada, USA, Nepal, Switzerland, Uganda, Ghana, Mexico, Germany, The Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Guatemala, Somalia and Australia. A few of us should join from Nigeria, Liberia, Pakistan and Colombia in the coming days, DV.
Our theme is “LEADING OUT OF THE STRENGTH OF OUR MARRIAGES: The Place of Fulfilling Emotional Needs” and we have an AMAZING Canadian couple to lead us into that.
THE KRAEMER ICING ON THE CAKE
Annual CEOs Confab all online (November 26-28, 2020)
Gerry and Kathy both grew up in Western Canada where they committed their lives to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord during their adolescent years. Immediately after marrying in 1981, God called them in a clear and dramatic fashion to serve Him in the French-speaking province of Quebec, Canada. Ever since, they have been in full-time Christian ministry together, including five years with Campus Crusade for Christ (evangelism and discipleship), 22 years of pastoral ministry and six years as the chaplain of the Montreal Alouettes professional football team.
In 2007, “the gates of hell” unleashed a serious of attacks on the Kraemer’s marriage and they plummeted to the brink of divorce. In the summer of 2008, during a week of intensive counselling with Larry & Lorrie Russell at the SHM Retreat Center in Ontario, Canada, God completely healed, restored and transformed their marriage. Upon returning home, they immediately began to share the amazing story of the miracle of the “resurrection of their marriage” to individuals and groups in their entourage…and God used their story to touch, encourage and heal marriages around them.
The opportunities continued to increase so dramatically that they resigned from their pastoral position in the fall of 2010 in order to dedicate themselves to a full-time ministry of speaking (prevention) and counselling (crisis intervention) to help couples. Today, they speak and teach together at conferences, Bible Camps, retreats, banquets and Bible Schools in both English and French, sharing with thousands of people the tools that can help them experience a healthy and flourishing marriage. Their honesty, practicality and humor make them easy to listen to and the wisdom of their teaching is hard to forget.
Gerry and Kathy reside in Terrebonne, Quebec and they are the parents of three young adults: Timothy, Jessica and Rebecca. In their spare time they enjoy golf, tennis, traveling and spoiling their grandchildren both in Canada and the USA!
CONCLUSION
Wow! What a big blessing amidst the Covid curse. Oh! And today happens to be U.S. Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving!
Gnomic Interview
So these medical students recently caught up with me and did a fun interview. Hope it’s as much a fun read for you as it was hanging out with them! I pray they catch God’s heart for calling them and become missional medics!
Read here, from page 40.
