Matthew Hahn
(Senior Lecturer of Drama and Applied Theatre, at St Mary’s University, London)
is leading a team of practitioners who has put together workshops to explore
the theme of Ethical Leadership with young people through the works of William
Shakespeare as well as verbatim interviews with former political prisoners on
Robben Island.
The Ethical
Leadership Workshop based on The Robben Island Bible play
had it pilot at the South West Gauteng College in Soweto, South Africa in
August 2014. It ran over two weeks and
delivered a presentation / performance of Shakespeare, monologues from the
former political prisoners’ interviews as well as new pieces of writing created
by the college students. The students
examined the current leadership situation on a personal, local & national
level. They also examined and reflected
on their responsibility as young leaders as well as future leaders within South
Africa.
These
workshops have been inspired by South African Sonny Venkatrathnam,
a former political prisoner on Robben Island and critic of the current
political state of affairs within South Africa
and utilizing his copy of ‘William Shakespeare’s Complete Works,’[1] the team has come together over a
shared believe that there is a dearth of ethical leadership in today’s
world. As inspirational
as many of the chosen quotes were about leadership, according to Sonny, many of
the men who chose these quotes whilst in prison and who are now currently in
politics or business within South Africa have not lived up to such inspiration
and have caused great harm to this young democratic country.
But unethical leadership is not unique to South Africa. From dictatorships that pockmark Africa, to a Nobel Prize winning
president who condone the use of drones to drop bombs on countries thousands of
miles away, to the abandonment of a green agenda in the United Kingdom, many
world leaders are driven by short-term goals and personal wealth creation
rather than true – ethical –
leadership. The
Ethical Leadership Workshop has been set up as a direct response to
such difficulties found in South Africa as well as the rest of the world by
examining ethical leadership whilst young people are still in education.
Shakespeare’s
characters portray this wide range of ethical leaders. From Richard III and Macbeth whose inner
demons drove them to the height of leadership at any cost to Henry IV who seeks
to lead from the middle through consultation with his men before going into
battle.
Political
prisoners, like Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’, sought to learn from each other the
foundation of ethical leadership whist on Robben Island. From interviews, many of the men describe
their time Robben Island as a ‘University’ where the men taught and learned
from each other using the literature of Shakespeare, Sophocles and Marx amongst
others. Twenty years into a South
African democracy, these men also reflect on how far they have come and how far
they still have to go before true democracy is achieved for the masses and
whether or not it was all worth it.
The Ethical Leadership Workshop is very flexible
in it delivery. It can consist of
drama workshops, seminars and academic courses that would examine Shakespearean
texts aimed at young people in schools, colleges or universities. The students
examine what lessons can be learned and applied by today’s and tomorrow’s
leaders. Shakespeare's texts have been
used in the past to explore how a good leader is formed, applies his or her
vision and beliefs, behaves and manages the people and situations around him or
her. We want to build on this work,
using interviews that Hahn conducted with men who were imprisoned on Robben
Island to focus the minds and hearts of tomorrow’s leaders on the price one
pays for truly transformational, inspired, ethical and sustainable leadership. From a dramatist’s perspective, we would
explore use of voice, space & body to highlight how a leader might be a
source of inspiration to others.
The aim or the
workshop is to benefit the students through being inspired to be better leaders
through the words of Shakespeare & the former political prisoners and to
create a pathway to future leadership.
If possible and of benefit, Hahn would be interested in working with
local teachers to help shape & develop it in ways in which they think is
best for their students. He would be
keen to work with them to finely develop the workshops. The project is quite flexible in terms of
deliverability.
For more
information about the lead facilitator, Matthew Hahn, please visit:
uk.linkedin.com/in/hahnmatthew1
[1] Sonny
Venkatrathnam, political prisoner on Robben Island during the 1970’s, had a
copy of ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare’ whilst on the island. The
book’s ‘fame’ resides in the fact that Venkatrathnam passed it to a number of
his fellow political prisoners in the Leadership Section on Robben Island. Each
of them marked his favourite passage in the ‘Complete Works’ and signed it with
the date. It contains thirty-two signatures, including those of Walter Sisulu,
Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada and Mac Maharaj, all luminaries in
the struggle for a democratic South Africa.
See www.RobbenIslandBible.co.uk for further
details.
