Synodality as a model of leadership and governance in our times

By Precious Nihorowa* CSSp

Recent world history, especially African political history, indicates that people always opt for a different system of government and a different leader when the leader and the system at hand does not meet and satisfy their needs. To put this in context, during the transition from the colonial era to self-rule, the main bone of contention was that the colonialists had subjected the local people to inhumane treatment, giving them little or no opportunity to have a say in the running of government. This conviction, among many other equally important ones, fuelled the revolution for independence. This truly resulted in the independence of many African states in the 1960s. Being ruled by one of the locals seemed to be a solution to proper political leadership and governance. 

After experiencing the dictatorship and one-party system of government, however, many Africans found it wanting and lacking in many aspects. In Malawi, for instance, a majority of people felt that under the leadership of Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, there was no freedom of speech, there was a lot of censorship over what people said about the state of affairs in the country and other similar reasons. Again, people were brought to a conviction that this was not the way that things were supposed to be especially as they had dreamt of at independence. 

This, again, led to the collapse of dictatorship and subsequently the ushering in of democracy as a system of governance. According to the American political scientist and political economist, Francis Fukuyama, in discussing the motivation of the people to switch from one political system to…Read more in The Lamp magazine by simply subscribing online

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