ABSTRACT
Nelson Mandela has been an archetypal transformational and charismatic leader because South Africa’s relatively peaceful transition from the oppressive system of apartheid to democracy can be attributed directly to his leadership. If we recall that a defining characteristic of transformational leadership is the effect that a leader has on followers, then, undeniably, Nelson Mandela had a profound influence – both on followers and on representatives of the apartheid system. A tyrannical head of the Robben Island prison who was dismissed after Mandela’s protests said on his departure: ‘I just want to wish you people good luck’ – reflecting this transforming influence.1 Mandela saw the prison wardens as brutalized by the apartheid system and he ‘could see beyond the brutalities, to the insecurities and psychological deformities of the wardens because he was already seeing the prison as a microcosm of a future South Africa, where reconciliation would be essential to survival’.2 It was ultimately the combination of a clear vision grounded in a profound moral conviction that gave him the power to transform opponents. Mandela projected his own personal needs and aspirations onto those of a social group, sacrificing his domestic role as a father to become a symbolic father of first a nation and then of oppressed peoples everywhere.
