6 THE STANDARD STYLE / MAN / FASHION <strong>June</strong> <strong>22</strong> to 28 <strong>2014</strong>
<strong>June</strong> <strong>22</strong> to 28 <strong>2014</strong> THE STANDARD STYLE / MAN / PROFILE 7 ABrightSpark Dalumuzi Mhlanga Resolve: I decided to value myself based on the contributions that I could make to society Tsitsi Mangosho In a post-modern world that is increasingly self-centred, Dalumuzi Mhlanga encapsulates the very heart of humanity. An astute and resourceful young man, Dalumuzi is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Lead Us Today, a non-profit organisation that mobilises Zimbabwean youth to be socially responsible citizens. At 25, he has achieved a significance that many are not able to achieve in a lifetime. His brand of altruism is steeped in lived reality which motivated him to come up with projects that make real, significant contributions to young people no matter what their circumstances are. Lead Us Today equips Zimbabwean youth with the skills to directly address pressing community needs through its consolidated package of leadership training, community service and internship programmes. Since its founding in May 2010, Lead Us Today has trained over 2 000 students who have designed and implemented dozens of community development projects including permaculture gardens, recycling programmes and a night school for drop outs. More broadly, Dalumuzi has experience developing youth leadership programmes spanning eight years during which he has started 16 serviceoriented youth clubs in Zimbabwe and Swaziland. In those eight years, he has designed and directly delivered tailored leadership training programmes to young people in Bhutan, Swaziland, United States of America, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe. As such, Dalumuzi has developed a crisp understanding of the peculiarities of youth development work across national and sociocultural boundaries. Dalumuzi holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Social Studies from Harvard University and is currently studying towards a Masters in African Studies at the University of Oxford as a 2013 Rhodes Scholar. “Studying at the world’s top universities has been such a humbling experience in many ways. I have come to realise how smart people can be, and even then, how they don’t always have to make sure everybody knows the fact,” he said. One thing he always tells people is that some of the busiest professors at Harvard would be happy to make time to talk to a first-year undergraduate student for half-an-hour, sometimes, even an hour. For such accomplished professors to make time for the least experienced students really speaks to how imparting knowledge is cherished in these environments. <strong>The</strong> key lesson for him, from this experience, has been t o always be open to sharing what he knows with others and to always be eager to learn -- even from the most unexpected places or people. Beyond the humility of many incredibly smart and accomplished people, he has also been inspired b y their curiosity and rigour. In these contexts, people ask really intelligent questions and let them linger in their minds instead of quickly and prematurely arriving at answers. In engaging with those questions, people in these contexts do not cut corners as sometimes happens. This combination of humility in the face of the world’s complexity, curiosity and rigour has really shaped how Dalumuzi approaches some of the key challenges he hopes to resolve. “My passion is developing the potential for young people to contribute to their communities and make real, sustained impact. I feel most alive when I share knowledge with others that helps them see themselves differently and as people with the potential and ability to make a difference in their own lives and those of their communities,” he says. With such passion, Dalumuzi has worked with an amazing team to build an organisation that helps students to design and implement high-impact, innovative and sustainable community development projects. His work has allowed him to meet all kinds of people, all over the world. “I have had the real privilege to meet some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential individuals. I have been equally privileged to engage with many people who are struggling to make ends meet on an everyday basis. With whoever I meet, my greatest pleasure is to connect with them at a human level and to learn from them, their experiences and their worldviews,” he adds. <strong>The</strong> inspiration of founding Lead Us Today came from Dalumuzi’s teenage years. As a teenager, he came of age in a middle class neighbourhood when his family struggled to make ends meet. At that age, he couldn’t help comparing himself with other teenagers who came from families that fared better than his. “<strong>The</strong>y had nice clothes to wear; the latest phones, MP3 players and Play Stations – they were the cool kids. I wasn’t. It got to me until one day when, alone, in my bedroom I snapped out of comparing myself with them and assigning value to myself based on the clothes that I owned. From that day, I decided to value myself based on the contributions that I could make to society,” he recalls. He soon realised that he wasn’t the only one faced with feelings of inadequacy because of things that cannot be controlled. Those things beyond our control could range from the families we were born in, our looks or the kinds of talents we were blessed with. Lead Us Today provides real opportunities for young people to not simply believe in themselves but for them to also develop their skills in making the impact they envision. “That way, we believe that Zimbabwe and Africa, will enjoy the benefits of a generation of engaged and socially responsible citizens,” he says. Last year, Dalumuzi co-founded Africa LEAD, an organisation that innovates, designs and delivers robust learning experiences in leadership and entrepreneurship that build connections among promising entrepreneurs, local executives, global business leaders and investors. Africa LEAD’s flagship initiative is the Africa Business Leadership Summit that is organised every year in Harare. Last year, the Business Leadership Summit brought incredibly accomplished speakers such as Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former Chair of Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo-American plc; Prof. Eric Werker, from Harvard Business School and Nothando Ndebele, who heads Africa Research for Renaissance Capital. Dalumuzi also sits on the board of the Waterford School Trust, which raises funds to support scholarships for underprivileged students admitted to his alma mater, Waterford Kamhlaba United World College in Swaziland. He also spends a lot of time mentoring many budding social entrepreneurs in different parts of Africa, many of whom are studying abroad and aim to make an impact in their home countries. Dalumuzi comes from an incredibly loving and supportive family. His father is hard working and his mother has devoted much of her life in making sure that her children grew up to be morally grounded adults with a real commitment to serving others. What he misses most about home is sadza, muriwo nenyama. Dalumuzi is deeply committed to his country and rooted in it and looks forward to returning full-time to continue giving his best to our collective advancement. He indeed is the bright spark, and Zimbabwe needs many more young people like him going forward.
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