Indigenous African Wisdom and its Orientation to the Common Good: Responsible Leadership and Principled Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This chapter explores African indigenous wisdom and its orientation to the common good in the practices that characterise responsible leadership and entrepreneurship. Traditionally, a wise leader was grown from the community and steeped in its communitarian traditions which led the leader to apply practical wisdom in seeking the collective good. These considerations of such wise practices are central to responsible management. Based on a qualitative literature review that is complemented with a micro-study (semi-structured interviews) of African sages and on the analysis of wisdom found by chapter contributors to this volume, insights indigenous to Africa are presented and then discussed. The countries referenced across the two studies are Kenya and Uganda (Eastern Africa), Ghana and Nigeria (Western Africa), Egypt (Northern Africa) and South Africa (Southern Africa), thereby providing some geographical spread though far from being exhaustive.

Citation

Ogunyemi, K., Ogunyemi, O. and Anozie, A. (2022), "Indigenous African Wisdom and its Orientation to the Common Good: Responsible Leadership and Principled Entrepreneurship", Ogunyemi, K., Ogunyemi, O. and Anozie, A. (Ed.) Responsible Management in Africa, Volume 1: Traditions of Principled Entrepreneurship, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-437-320221001