Just a short stroll from Nelson Mandela's modest country house in the Transkei is the even more humble village where he was born. The round thatched huts of Qunu have no running water or electricity, and shy herdboys wielding sticks tend the skinny cattle the same way young Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela did almost 70 years ago. Walking across the green hills above the village one morning not long ago, Mandela recalled a lesson he learned as a boy. "When you want to get a herd to move in a certain direction," he said, "you stand at the back with a stick. Then a few of the more energetic cattle move to the front and the rest of the cattle follow. You are really guiding them from behind." He paused before saying with a smile, "That is how a leader should do his work."
No one would suggest that so charismatic a figure as Nelson Mandela, a doughty and energetic 75, leads from behind. But Mandela has always made his authority felt on two levels: by standing at the head of the African National Congress as symbol and standard bearer and by forming strategy from behind by suggestion, pressure, indirection. During his career as a politician -- a word he proudly uses to describe himself -- he has at times moved out ahead of his colleagues and audaciously created policy, while at other times he has been content to plant the seed of an idea that bears fruit only many years later.
Next week Mandela will become the President of the country whose government he fought against for so long. Leading a liberation struggle is a task fundamentally different from heading a government; Mandela will no longer seek to bring a system down but to build one up. Yet his style of leadership is suited to his new task, for he is a practiced seeker of unity and consensus.
Mandela witnessed the dynamic of leadership early on. Several times a year, his guardian, Chief Jongintaba, the regent of the Thembu tribe, presided over what were essentially tribal town meetings. People came from far and wide to Chief Jongintaba's royal seat, the Great Place at Mqekezweni. These meetings lasted days, and did not end until everyone had had a chance to speak his , mind. Rolihlahla sat on the fringes and watched as his guardian listened in thoughtful silence. Only at the end would Chief Jongintaba speak, and then it was to nurture a consensus. A leader, Mandela learned, does not impose a decision. He molds one.
The lessons of the Great Place apply today when Mandela chairs meetings of the National Executive Committee, the ruling body of the A.N.C. His face becomes a mask as he notes each person's views and registers the course of the discussion and argument. He knows the weight of his opinion and holds it in reserve until it is deemed necessary. If there is a deadlock he attempts to resolve it. Otherwise he tries to steer the argument toward consensus.