My name is Daniel Kamanga and am the CEO and Chairman of GILGAL. I started my career as a journalist, rising to become an Associate Business Editor at Kenya’s most influential newspaper, the Nation. Although I was only 26 at the time, I had worked in Kenya’s media, both at the Standard and the now defunct Kenya Times. I share this only because it demonstrates my ability – as a journalist is required – to think on my feet. I’ve also sharped my ability to synthesize large amounts of information and to focus on what is most critical.
After doing my MBA at the Durham Business School in the UK, I moved to South Africa, where I have been for over 20 years. I worked in the media, financial services, telcoms and agriculture. This multi-disciplinary exposure and experience led me to my current interest in leadership. Am leveraging my experience to address Africa’s widespread failures in leadership through the African Leadership Transformation (ALT) Foundation. We are doing this by ensuring African universities have IP-free access to the Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership, an Ontological/Phenomenological Course, which has led to the training of over 200 leaders and more than 20 course instructors.
Under my leadership, GILGAL has brought together a multi-disciplinary arsenal of professionals, draw from several African countries. We have two mandates: First, to publish books on African leadership and second, to focus on transition leadership.
With regard to the first mandate, people like the late Wangari Maathai regularly spoke about the need to restore Africa’s foundations of integrity. The late Thomas Sankara, who named Burkina Faso “the country of upright men,” reminds us that – contrary to Western media perspectives – that Africa is not inherently corrupt. The current and future generations must be reminded of the leadership of Patrick Lumumba, Kwame Nkurumah, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta, Nelson Mandela and many others.
With regard to the second mandate, I have witnessed the high cost of lack of or poor transition leadership throughout my multi-sectoral career in Africa’s private sector (media, telecoms and financial services), as well as the development sector (micro-finance and agriculture). Leadership is about creating a future that would not happen unless it is created.
The paradox is that often, the creation of this future often takes place in the context of great turmoil and uncertainty.
We have assembled an Africa and world-class team that will help individuals and institutions seize the moment and ride on the urgency of creating required momentum during times of transition. Our multi-disciplinary team will help you make a success of your transition, not by merely avoiding failure, but by maximizing opportunities in the uncertainty.
