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Lovemore Ranga Mataire The Reader

‘In Search of the African Business Renaissance’ is an unusual business book that challenges African countries to harness their cultural creative spirit in order to usher in rapid development in a cutthroat competitive global economy

Written by Zimbabwean Lovemore Mbigi, who is a consultant, entrepreneur, philosopher and academic, the book offers a refreshingly new dimension on how African economies can be resuscitated and become major global players.

His starting point is the cultural and philosophical values embedded in the ancient African wisdom, particularly in the concept of ubuntu or people care.

“I am convinced that the African spirits and their virgin form of creativity, which is psychic visioning, can be applied to give birth to the African Business Renaissance in the areas of industrial espionage and market intelligence gathering, strategy as well as product and service innovation,” says Mbigi.

Highlighting the different stages of human progress, Mbigi says the first step in human progress was inspired by a focus on physical energy in the form of human physical force and fire. The second milestone in human civilisation was achieved through a focus on financial capital which gave birth to a mercantile trade system which enabled the financing of important naval global exploration such as voyages of Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo.

The next critical achievement in human progress was inspired by focusing on intellectual capital that gave birth to both the Industrial Civilisation and Information Age. Mass customisation and world-class manufacturing which inspired the Japanese economic miracle was a result of focusing on social capital mobilisation.

Mbigi gives the example of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle which focused on spiritual capital as the basis for mobilising the peasants to undertake a revolution against colonial rule. The focus on spiritual capital gave birth to an inspiring cultural renaissance and consequently the African Business Renaissance may have to be inspired by a deliberate focus on spiritual capital using the framework of African spirit nature religion.

In the same manner that Charles Handy has used the Greek gods to illustrate key strategic concepts of management in his book called The Gods of Management; the African spirit hierarchy will help to understand spiritual capital in terms of both positive and negative energy which will inspire the creation of genius organisations.

In his model of African spirits, Mbigi lists the following spirits in order of significance;
Mwari    –    God
Gobwa/Shiri    –    Rainmaker spirit
Shavi Reudzimba    –     Hunter’s spirit
Shave    –    Innovation spirit
N’anga/Sangoma    –     Divination spirit
Mudzimu    –    Clan spirit
Jukwa    –     War Spirit
Ngozi    –     Avenging spirit
Mutakati    –     Witch spirit

The African spirit hierarchy is illustrative in understanding the spiritual capital in terms of both positive and negative energy which in Mbigi’s view will create genius organisations. Mbigi says he has always sought spiritual inspiration and psychic visioning from guardian spirits in the areas of product development, business strategy and business intelligence, as well as personal growth and success strategies.

Mbigi argues that Africa needs to enter the global market by its own very innovative way by being inspired by its own cultural heritage.