About Ubuntu, unifying leadership and a new world. Is it a coincidence that recent leaders have African roots? Charismatic people like Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Paul Kagame and Barack Obama have been praised for their knowledge, vision, skills, unifying ability and their thoroughness. These are leaders who focus on vision, courage, passion and compassion. They are builders, peacemakers and campaigners for equal rights. A substantial part of this leadership style is the African philosophy of Ubuntu. Ubuntu means simply 'I exist because of we.' Connecting is central. You cannot function as a human being without being part of a greater whole. Africans apply this humanistic philosophy to every sector of society, from politics, law and religion, to healthcare, education and the economy. In The Power of African Thinking, Leontine van Hooft convincingly demonstrates that Ubuntu is the answer to contemporary western issues. With her own company as an example, she shows you how to integrate Ubuntu into your own organisation, and be ready for tomorrow's inevitable problems. Leontine van Hooft and her husband are joint owners of GreenDreamCompany BV. The company works from a clear vision of People, Planet, Profit, Passion and Pleasure with particular regard to Africa, using tourism as a tool for development. Leontine is a corporate anthropologist, and has more than fifteen years experience as a trainer/coach in the field of inter-cultural management.

This book outlines perspectives of emerging and established African scholars on what one could describe as the debate on leadership and the articulation of the life of the mind in Africa's socio-economic, political and cultural life from the time of independence to date. The papers contained in the book cover the following thematic areas: Alternative Leadership Paradigm for Africa's Advancement; African Perspectives on Globalisation and international relations; Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance; Scientific, Technological and Cultural Dimensions of African Development. The first section deals with alternative leadership paradigms for Africa's advancement. It also debates the 'thin line' separating management studies from leadership studies and untangles the hermeneutic complexities in the term 'leadership'. Section two examines among other things, the crucial challenge of globalisation and public ethics and others African perspectives. The section also interrogates the current complexities and credibility deficits in the global governance of trade and towards the end engages philosophical questions about conscience and consciousness in African development and progress. The debates in section three continue to section four and focus on the overall issues of language and liberation, the significance of Multi-, Inter and Trans-Disciplinary Approaches in the analysis of the African continent, appropriate indigenous paradigms for promoting the African renaissance as well as a series of debates on the meaning and prospects of regional integration in Africa's renewal. This provides just a snapshot of a very wide ranging and interesting debate contained in the publication.

Do you wish you had a better understanding of the issues and questions African Christians face as they seek to live out their faith in their cultural context? Do you wonder how Africans themselves frame these questions and their answers? Would you like access to actual research that can confirm your own experience or bring new information to your attention that would deepen and broaden your understanding? This unique book, the product of a multiyear study and survey sponsored by the Tyndale House Foundation, offers insights into all these questions and more. Featuring input from over 8,000 African survey participants and 57 in-depth interviews, it provides invaluable insight and concise analysis of the dynamics of the development of African Christian leaders today. For more information about the study project visit www.africaleadershipstudy.org.

The dominant global discourse in higher education now focuses on world-class universities inevitably located predominantly in North America, Europe and, increasingly, East Asia. The rest of the world, including Africa, is left to play catch-up. But that discourse should focus rather on the tensions, even contradictions, between excellence and engagement with which all universities must grapple. Here the African experience has much to offer the high-participation and generously resourced systems of the so-called developed world. This book offers a critical review of that experience, and so makes a major contribution to our understanding of higher education.

The much-heralded economic benefits of the neo-liberal free market economy have not materialised. Instead we see across the world, among others, growing inequality in terms of the distribution of wealth and income, which has led to such popular responses as the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US and the antiausterity demonstrations in Europe. And indeed neo-liberal deregulation to create a ‘free market’ for the financial institutions led to the world financial and economic crisis which started in the US in 2008 – the worst global economic crisis since the 1929 Depression, again in the US. Given all the foregoing, what is called for are alternative and progressive voices which are able to offer different interpretations and readings of the fastunfolding events and processes, and are also capable of questioning the prevailing assumptions and underlying logic of the Western ‘liberal order’. This is the same order that must bear much of the responsibility for the current state of despair, hopelessness, and cynicism in international relations. These alternative and progressive voices are especially important for us as Africans, given the reality that Africa remains marginalised in terms of helping to fashion these relations, despite their direct impact on the lives and destiny of the one billion Africans. This is further compounded by the weakness of the African voice even about African developments.

"Time" magazine editor Stengel, who collaborated with Mandela on his bestselling autobiography, distills Mandela's wisdom into 15 vital life lessons that have the power to deepen lives.