Women's Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders Review

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Women's Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders ReviewWomen's Spiritual Leadership in Africa documents the unique challenges of African women in leadership positions. It reflects a critical, yet often overlooked, area of both leadership and feminist studies. Faith Ngunjiri's approach is particularly unique because she chooses to focus on how the women are able to overcome their trails, rather than simply critiquing the structural, patriarchal and social difficulties they face. As an active reader of both feminist and leadership scholarly works, I was fascinated by the blended perspective she developed throughout the book. Of the 18 women she interviewed she chose four to analyze deeply against her philosophical outlook on women in leadership. She choose to focus on women who she describes as "tempered radicals, servant leaders, and deeply spiritual." After giving both brief and detailed snapshots of the women, she describes the legitimacy of these definitions in the context of their lives.
Tempered Radicalism is defined early as a being the most desirable characteristic among female African leaders. Furthermore, Ngunjiri clarifies that she has no interest in documenting women who lead in the same manner as men. She argues that for real change to occur, women must develop their own style of leading, and tempered radicalism is one effective method. She makes the claim that African women as leaders all share a sense of radicalism, yet also understand the necessity of "working within the system." The four primary case studies show a diversity of positions, from a Financial Director to a Lawyer. One factor that united their leadership styles is their desire to change the status quo despite their inability to fully assimilate themselves. Ngunjiri describes a variety of tools the women use in order to achieve this goal; choosing battles wisely, quiet resistance, turning threats into opportunities, and broadening impact through negotiation. She then brings the reader back to her original portraits and shows how the women have found success by employing these strategies.
The three themes described intersect to show the full spectrum of leadership abilities the women display. Spiritualism has one of the most fascinating impacts of the leadership styles of the women. During their interviews the women described their motivations to succeed and persevere as being religious in nature. They described God as being a driving force and some claim they would have never tolerated the many challenges without church and prayer. This spiritualism also serves as a moral tool for the women and keeps them grounded as they traverse areas of corruption, power and dishonesty. Although it fails to be noted by the author, it seems that this same spiritualism allows for the women to tolerate the alienation associated with their success as well. One of the leaders claims, "Divorce is the only option for many of us." The women describe immense pain and loneliness that is uniquely relieved by their faith.
The final theme, servant leadership, is a concept that has had growing attention in western leadership studies, particularly in non-profits and social service organizations. It was thus very interesting to see the way it was enacted within a different cultural context. Nguniri attributes the emergence of this leadership style to the growing influence of women within traditionally male professions. Moreover, by seeing the impact of women's emergence in African politics, we may be able to attribute the same impact of women within the Western world who also refuse to simply "lead as a man would." Overall, the author shows how the previous two themes have blended to develop servant leadership as a primary link among spirited, tempered radicals.
Nguniri's work is critical for those who have an interest not only in studying feminism, but also how to take action and create societal change with feminist goals in mind. Although the author doesn't specifically define her study as tool for feminism, the theme is woven throughout the narratives and the analysis. Even in the developed world, women can learn from the advances Nguniri describes in Kenya and beyond. It is possible that if more western women and men were to institute the philosophies described then we could better uncover and promote goals that are commonly shared around the globe.
Most importantly, as she warns in the introduction, she was primarily interested in analyzing women's success. At times this causes her to overlook the common burdens that all the women describe; marriage expectations, institutional patriarchy, domestic violence, poverty, and many others. At first I felt disappointed that these issues were not discussed in detail, however, I recognize the value in refusing to define these women through their relationships with men. I understand Nguniri's motivation in this decision and respect her ability to bring out the greatest qualities that are shared among these "tempered radicals" and recognize their remarkable ability to triumph over adversity rather than passively ponder their inequalities.Women's Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders Overview

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