The conundrum of servant-leadership

I spoke to an American pastor friend of mine, we spoke of how he tries to teach young pastors to be both a leader and a servant. For a Rwandan that is a total contradiction, we have a very hierarchical view to leadership and everybody knows their position; you have leaders, then sub-leaders, sub-sub leaders, all the way down until the common man. In typical African style leaders are aloof, to be feared and listened to at all times. There is another type of leadership, where you are still respected, and listened to but still part of normal society. I saw this first hand when I made a contribution to a church in Mutara but asked the church to help clear the land ready for planting. The church-goers sweated in the scorching sun while their pastors sat on the side ordering endless cups of tea, they all had brand-new shining bicycles, those ridiculous pointy “congomani” shoes, and a high-handed attitude. None of the leaders even ventured out of the shade to direct their minions and supervise, for this reason it took three days instead of one to clear the land. One Pastor was in the latrine while his followers waited patiently outside, when he walked out he went straight to shake my hand, I refused to shake it and caused a scene, they said that the pastor can cure cholera with prayer. What I saw was a sea-change in how Rwandan society is oriented, the old power structures within society are being replaced by new structures, and a man can be barefoot and poor but can jump to be the head of society. These pastors often follow a simplistic version of faith, preying on the ignorance of their followers, and they do little to fight this ignorance. When I tried to join the farm workers to show that even I can get my hands dirty, I was told to keep my distance because the workers would not respect me. I found that when I got familiar with the workers they started to slack and got lazy. That is the catch, horizontal management only works when people are respected, equal, but follow their responsibilities. At Google, which is the richest company in the world, workers all wear what they want, come in when they want, go when they want, listen to music but they each know what their responsibilities are and the search engine works fine. There needs to be a redefinition of leadership, we are trying to promote accountability and reduce impunity. For that to happen we need to change how we view leaders and how leaders view their followers. For that we need to see leaders as servants, not in a demeaning way but it can be an honour to serve. A good (our) president works up to 16 hours a day, most citizens work half that time. So who is the boss? The man working 16 hours or the one working 8 hours? To be a true leader, you must be a servant to your people. Ends