The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
This is not just because he is one of the country’s traditional leaders — those men and women who are born to lead by blood. Born Mbusi Bekithemba Dakamela 29 years ago, Chief Dakamela is not an imposing figure merely because of the position that he holds.
Simply put, the Nkayi traditional leader is a very tall man. Highly conspicuous because of his height, Chief Dakamela is a man who is very difficult to miss when he enters a room. During Government or traditional functions, he towers above most guests, exuding an air of authority merely by his physical presence. It is the same aura he carries when he attends social and cultural functions in Bulawayo.
On such occasions, it is not only his height that grabs people’s attention. When he attends events such as the recent Comedy Roast of Sandra Ndebele, many are gobsmacked by the sight of one of the traditional leaders at an event where the mood and tone are carefree and casual.
In the City of Kings, royalty has always been revered. However, despite the respect that it is accorded, the institution of traditional leadership has always been associated with what some might feel is, “old-fashioned” formality.
The people, even those now resident in urban areas, have great affection for their chiefs but sometimes they feel like they are distant beings, cloaked in layers of tradition and custom.
Therefore, events like comedy roasts, with the raucous atmosphere that they bring, are not something one would associate with chiefs. Yet Chief Dakamela was there, towering over a room that was flooded by laughter as comedians told rib-cracking joke after joke.
For Chief Dakamela, who took the reins at only 24 years old, there was nothing amiss about his attendance at that and other events. He was simply where he was meant to be — with the people.
His humility, he believes, is because he grew up “normally”, without the pressure of living up to the expectations of a young chief in the making.
“I lost my father at a very tender age when I was in Grade 2,” he told Sunday Life in an interview.
“I then lost my mother in 2015 and these things made me believe that in as much as we say we love learning from people who mentor us, sometimes we learn more from such occurrences. The world is the best teacher. For me, growing up with others, growing up normally helped me a lot. I did my primary school in Cowdray Park and my secondary or high school in South Africa Joburg and was raised by my mother.”
Chief Dakamela believes this upbringing has brought him closer to the people he leads.
“When you grow up normally, you then understand the needs of the people. You understand what makes people tick and you understand people’s patterns and behaviour. You then understand a human being. So, the thinking that a chief must be raised and taught a certain way, has been a mistake because we are not in touch with people and how they have behaved and why they behave the way they do. So growing up with people and living with them helps you understand a lot of things.
Even if everything is not perfect, at least you have a better understanding of them. So, for me, that was the best way to learn,” he said.
To some, chiefs who took up their roles at a tender age are a breath of fresh air, bringing fresh ideas to traditional leadership in the country. While he acknowledges this, Chief Dakamela also accepts that his age made some less accepting of his leadership, especially in the beginning.
“They say the greatness of the ocean is that it lies below the rivers. That’s why the river finds itself towards it because it accepts all. It’s not because the ocean positioned itself there. It could have been an accident but then the ocean became great because of that. What I am saying is that because I was young when I got the chieftainship, it made me humble and ready to accept to learn and accept being coached by elders. What this means is that I was at the lowest level, where I was just absorbing teachings from my elders. After you have absorbed all that, you squeeze out all that you have learnt onto others.
“For me, there might be challenges of people who hold me in contempt or say you are too young and you can’t take up that position but it hasn’t been much of a challenge. This is because I always had a vision way before I became a chief. So, for me, it was all about positioning myself and learning what I needed to learn. The skill that I needed was knowing what to take and what not to take from the advice I was receiving from both the elders and my age mates,” he said.
A believer in innovation, Chief Dakamela last year founded Chief Dakamela’s Appreciation Awards, which are set for their second edition in Nkayi on 5 and 6 April. The awards, he said, were meant to inspire others to come up with ground-breaking concepts that benefit the community.
“The awards are something inspired by the good deeds of people who have been doing things unconsciously or consciously to make communities better. A lot of times, we see people who have done great only get recognised during their funerals.
We want all those people that are doing great things to be finally honoured while they are still with us,” he said.
With all roads leading to Nkayi next weekend, the awards are just the latest example of the spirit of innovation that Chief Dakamela believes drives him. It is this same spirit that has seen some of the young artists and personalities flock to him, a traditional leader, something that is rare and almost unheard of.
“It is not up to me to say why they are taking a liking to Chief Dakamela. It is up to them to say why they take a liking towards the leadership qualities and personality of Chief Dakamela. For me, I will just remain humble and not take too much credit for why all these young people are gravitating towards working with me. What I can say is that we strive to inspire and create an environment where creatives, academia and other progressive thinkers can work. If I can be that platform I think that can be the reason why they feel like our vision is aligned.
“The future is in the youth. We can also learn from the old generation but the future is with the youth. What would we be if we did not work with young creatives, academia and everyone who shares the vision to uplift and unite the nation? The vision is that we should develop culturally and creatively. Anyone who aligns with that will always have an ally in me. They say like-minds attract and I think all these young people feel that is the case when it comes to them. It may also be my youthful and artistic nature which draws them to me,” he said.
While some might be tempted to say Chief Dakamela and other traditional leaders are bringing modernity to traditional leadership, he does not believe this is the case. Instead, he believes he and others of like mind are merely bringing traditional values to all things modern.
“As young leaders, I don’t think we are modernising the institution of traditional leadership, I say we are bringing culture to the modern because we should never stray from the path of culture. We might be modern in age but we are in a traditional institution. The culture is our roots as black people, so for us to modernise culture would be wrong. We can only bring culture to what is modern because everyone seems to be in a rush to modernise,” he said.
