Good motivation behind the book, however more is needed

Reviewer:  By Giyani Baloi.
Author: Thebe Ikalafeng 
Title: Rooted and Rising: Reclaiming our Culture and Redefining our Global Influence
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers

 This book written by Thebeetsile Kgosi Ikalafeng, seeks to brand African culture and heritage on a global stage. But the question is, how so? 

If reading was a religion, I would be one of those who belong to that religion. But it is a hobby that I embrace like many others. I read all kinds of books. Political, memoirs, biographies, spiritual, business, and more, as long as I have time. 

So, reading Ikalafeng’s book, Rooted and Rising:  Reclaiming our Culture and Redefining our Global Influence, I thought, wow, let’s see what is in there. The first chapters talk about Africans who contributed positively to Africa and the world, like Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Aliko Dangote, and others. He talks about the importance of developing pride in our African culture, heritage and identity, among other things.

However, there is another, perhaps new writing style of blending, say sports team’s success formula and the business strategy behind the sports team’s success. There are books like Eddie Jones’ titled Leadership, Lessons from My life in Rugby, among other books. That works well, but you need to be able to marry the success strategy and the right business formula behind it. Otherwise, you will mix okra, meat, spaghetti, rice, salt, sugar and other things.  

Ikalafeng claims to have travelled all 54 African countries. Which I think is a great thing. There is a lot of African culture and ways of life that he might have probably seen. I think he should have used that to blend and make his point. Unless if his travels were more business trips or touring. That way, you do not get to see much. 

Another challenge generally for white collar professionals, such as marketing people, lawyers, doctors and accountants for example, is that they are like straight jacket professionals, whose orientation tends be disposed towards thinking in a linear fashion. So, it’s not easy to drift from that and be able to write something impactful on a different subject matter, other than what they have learned at college.

May be it’s the divergence of views, say,that of an artist versus a corporate person. Honestly speaking, in this book, there is nothing wrong with the writing itself, such as in grammar or the general motivation for example. But I just found everything not speaking to each other. You can’t have, Thabo Mbeki, Sadio Mane, Fela Kuti, Kwame Nkrumah, Trevor Noah, Donald Trump and Jacob Zuma in one line presenting the same order of thinking.