Is This The Most Important Year Of All?

Good morning

I sat down to write a different letter. It was meant to reflect on Columbia Business School Professor, Rita McGrath’s book on strategy, Seeing Around Corners. Yet, as I wrote, a different letter unfolded.

Over this week I, like you, watched the pain of systematic, systemic, and violent oppression flow into an outpouring of rightful resistance and protest across the US and other parts of the world, including here in South Africa. It is this, that has led to today’s letter.

We are fundamentally social beings. Thousands of us traverse city streets every day, hardly ever bumping into each other. Like the ants, bees, and antelope that we so often marvel at, we move in concert. It follows then that when so many of us are in pain – whether we know it or not – we are all in pain.

/ Strategy

Thabo Mbeki was South Africa’s second democratically elected president. He undoubtedly had failings as a leader. Yet equally he is one of the world’s most intelligent orators with a deep grasp of the fundamental levers of strategic transformation.

He has known pain. In 1964, as a 21-year-old he addressed a delegation of the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, whilst his father and others faced a possible death sentence in the Rivonia Trial.

He said, “For our part, if the butchers will have their way, we shall draw strength even from the little crosses that the kind may put at the head of their graves. In that process, we shall learn. We shall learn to hate evil even more, and in the same intensity we shall seek to destroy it. We shall learn to be brave and unconscious of anything but this noblest of struggles”.

The week prompted a memory of his speech, 34 years later when as then South Africa’s deputy president, he opened a National Assembly debate on reconciliation and nation-building. It became known as his “Two Nations” address.

Much of what he said that day remains relevant both for South Africa and the world.
He reflected on a “reality of two nations (one white, the other black), underwritten by the perpetuation of racial, gender and spatial disparities born of a very long period of colonial and apartheid white minority domination”.

In this speech, he says that ‘tangible progress in the creation of a new material base’ and whether ‘we are all…behaving in a manner which promotes the objective of reconciliation and nation-building’ are both critical to creating the world in which all can participate equally.

He noted that “no solution to current problems can be found unless we understand their historical origins”.

He closed his speech saying, “I am convinced that we are faced with the danger of a mounting rage to which we must respond seriously”.

The understanding of the reality of a world divided must be confronted by all of us serious about building a sustainable future for all who live in it. The demonstration, through action, of driving change is essential.

/ Self

All transformative journeys start with oneself.

Toni Morrison said, “Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind”. This together with Steve Biko’s words in I Write What I Like, “the problem is white racism and it rests squarely on the laps of white society” have led me to offer the following resources to those who, like me, occupy a place of white privilege in the world.

This week Coursera made this collection of incredible courses on race, inequality and social justice free to audit. In other words, you can do them without paying to access the material.

Ndivhudzannyi Mphephu, a Cape Town based yoga teacher and counsellor, has generously compiled this resource on racial justice. Importantly she includes organisations that one can actively support.

Ozy, one of a new-batch of media companies, who are reinventing and reclaiming journalism, describe their mission as being to “help curious people see the world more broadly and more boldly” published this must-read article “Five Voices Who Are Resetting America”.

/ Soul

Thabo Mbeki ended his speech by referencing a line from Langston Hughes’ poem, Harlem. Here it is in full.

“What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?”

To close, I discovered this Leslie Dwight poem thanks to this Instagram post from the talented visual artist Trevor Stuurman.

“What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?
What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?
A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw — that it finally forces us to grow,
A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber.
A year we finally accept the need for change.
Declare change. Work for change. Become the change.
A year we finally band together, instead of pushing each other further apart.
2020 isn’t cancelled, but rather the most important year of them all.”

The sadness in writing this letter is holding the consciousness of the centuries of pain that underlie this moment. Yes, with significant improvements along the way, but still we act to oppress each other and thus deny ourselves true humanity. Perhaps we can make this the most important year of all. It really is down to us, no-one else.

If today’s letter struck a chord with you, please share it with others and let me know what you think. I learn so much from the mails that I receive each week.

Karl

PS If you were sent this letter by a friend and you’d like to subscribe, you can do so here. You can find out more about my coaching practice here.

(This letter was first published on 7 June 2020)