Interview with a visionary Xhosa Chief

VISIONARY LEADER … Chief Ngwenyathi Dumalisile of Shixini Great Place (second, from right), leader of the Amajingqi Traditional Council in the Willowvale area, former Transkei, visited NMMU recently to discuss projects in his area supported by the university. He is joined by (from left) Vice-Chancellor Prof Derrick Swartz, Centre for Community Technology’s Prof Darelle van Greunen and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Engagement and Research Prof Thoko Mayekiso.

By Guest Blogger (Nicky Willemse)

I'M a city girl. Besides my place of birth (the small town of Bindura in Zimbabwe), I’ve always lived and worked in cities – sometimes massive ones, including London, Istanbul and Cairo.

But one of the things I’ve noticed about cities is that the people who live there often think they’re a cut above those who live in “dorpies” or villages in more rural areas. They think they’re more sophisticated, cleverer, that they know better. They sometimes forget the rich values, the sense of Ubuntu, the togetherness that is usually more prevalent in places where communities are more tight-knit. They forget that one of the world’s greatest leaders came from the small village of Qunu.

At the end of October, I had the privilege of interviewing Chief Ngwenyathi Dumalisile of Shixini Great Place, a leader within the Xhosa Royal Kingdom and of the Amajingqi Traditional Council Chief, which oversees 22 villages in the Willowvale area in the former Transkei.

You can hardly get more rural than this. The nearest bank is 90 minutes away and you can only access this area by 4x4.

I had heard the Chief was a visionary, but I was in absolute awe of what he has managed to achieve.

He is determined to make his people part of the global village – and is doing this through a visionary plan for “rural-based industrialisation”.

It is not industrialisation in the urban sense (there won’t be any factories going up) – but rather getting the 22 villages wired up to the latest technology, boosting education in the one high and seven primary schools and harnessing the area’s potential for tourism.

It’s a long-term plan, and he’s partnering with a number of stakeholders to do so, including government, parastatals and NGOs. A key partner is Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), with whom he has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for research and engagement opportunities.

The result of this partnership has been the establishment of the area’s first ICT Resource Centre. It has 14 tablet PCs, all online, and computer literacy training has been introduced at the eight schools in the area. The Chief’s parents are learning how to do their banking online and the Chief himself conducts meetings on Skype on his tablet.

Thirty teachers in the area have also received skills upgrades in maths and science from NMMU’s Govan Mbeki Mathematics Development Unit, which has developed a high-tech teaching and learning model, available on laptops for teachers and tablets for learners.

There’s even been a careers exhibition (hosted by NMMU), which was attended by 900 pupils in the area – and the Chief’s son is a student at NMMU.

It’s no secret that he values education. In fact, he says: “Education is the engine of true liberation.”

There are other projects too, including the investigation of natural resources in the area and the potential for tourism development (and, most recently, the development of a mobile tourism app), the establishment of a website to highlight the history of the area and also a beading project, to be marketed on line.

He has managed to achieve great things in a place most of us have never heard of. He’s achieving what many would have considered impossible. He is sowing into his people, building them up.

I have met few urban leaders as sophisticated, clever or visionary as Chief Dumalisile – and can only wish that more people like him would emerge in both rural and urban areas throughout our country.

Imagine the change – in values, in education, in everything.

TRADITIONAL DRESS … Some of the elders who accompanied him on his visit.