Author: Dr Brighton Chireka
Founder and Medical Director, DOCBEECEE Leadership Academy

Date: 12 March 2026

Suggested citation
Chireka B. Dare to Care: Reclaiming Leadership through Hunhu and Dare in African
Health and Social Care. DOCBEECEE Leadership Academy Insight Paper No. 1.

Dare to Care: Reclaiming Leadership through Hunhu and Dare in African Health and Social Care

Why African leadership must be rooted in dignity, participation and fair belonging

Executive summary

Leadership in African health and social care is often taught in borrowed language. It is frequently presented through imported managerial concepts that may be useful in some respects, yet still feel detached from the lived moral worlds of the people expected to lead. This paper argues that African leadership, and Zimbabwean leadership in particular, does not need to remain conceptually homeless. We already possess deep moral and social resources for leadership in our own cultural traditions. Among the Shona, two of the richest are Hunhu and dare.

Hunhu offers a moral foundation rooted in dignity, reciprocity, accountability, service and shared humanity. Dare offers a process of leadership grounded in hearing people, creating space for voice, reasoning together and making decisions in ways that are publicly recognisable as fair. As Van Breda argues, ubuntu is not just a cultural slogan but a serious African theory for practice. In a similar way, Jaure and colleagues show that dare is not merely a meeting place, but a participatory way of hearing, reasoning and deciding together.

Read together, these concepts point towards a different kind of leadership: one that is not defined first by title, visibility or control, but by conduct, legitimacy, participation and the ability to protect dignity in community.

This paper introduces Dare to Care as a leadership framework for African health and social care. It argues that leadership must be reclaimed not only from imported language, but also from narrow and uncritical readings of tradition. True leadership is not just about belonging, but about fair belonging. It is not just about preserving community, but about shaping communities in which dignity, justice and inclusion are visible. That is why this paper insists that African leadership must be relational, ethical, participatory and critically inclusive.

The goal of this paper is not merely to offer a concept. It is to strengthen a movement. It is to help leaders, educators, coaches and institutions think differently about what leadership means, how it is taught, and how it is embodied in the everyday work of care.

1. Why this paper, and why now?

There is a gap in the way leadership is being taught, discussed and practised in African health and social care. Leadership is constantly called for. We speak about leadership in quality improvement, in patient experience, in team culture, in safeguarding, in service redesign and in community trust. Yet when many people are trained in leadership, they are still introduced to it as though it arrives from somewhere else. The language is often polished, technical and imported. It may sound impressive, but it does not always feel rooted.

That matters because leadership is not just a set of tools. Leadership is a moral and social activity. It shapes how power is used, how people are heard, how decisions are made and how dignity is protected. In health and social care, those questions are not theoretical. They are lived every day by patients, families, staff, students and communities.

This is why this paper matters now. African health and social care needs leadership that is not only effective, but also recognisable, humane and culturally grounded. We need leadership language that speaks to our people without sounding foreign. We need frameworks that help us lead with both competence and moral depth. We need concepts that can be taught, embodied and used in real life.

Among the Shona, we already have such resources. We have Hunhu, which teaches that our humanity is proved in how we treat one another. And we have dare, which reminds us that leadership is not simply about deciding for people, but about hearing people, gathering wisdom and making fairness visible.

This paper is therefore an act of reclamation. It says that leadership in African health and social care should not remain conceptually dependent on language that was never designed with our realities at its centre. It should be able to grow from our own moral soil. Zimbabwe’s Constitution, together with Chigwata’s work on traditional leadership, reminds us that indigenous leadership is not merely historical memory; it still carries public meaning and social legitimacy in contemporary life.

2. The problem with borrowed leadership language

Borrowed leadership language is not always wrong. It can be useful, and some of it offers helpful tools. The problem is deeper. The problem is that when leadership is framed only through imported categories, it can become detached from the ways people already understand dignity, legitimacy, wisdom, responsibility and communal life.

In many African health and social care contexts, this creates a quiet tension. Leaders may be taught frameworks that speak fluently about strategy, performance, influence and systems, yet leave too little space for the deeper moral questions that communities often care about most: Can I trust this leader? Does this leader hear people? Does this leader act fairly? Does this leader protect dignity? Does this leader serve the people, or merely occupy office?

The result is that leadership may become technically competent but emotionally thin, structurally organised but socially distant, visible in title but weak in moral authority. That is one of the reasons some leadership training inspires briefly but does not always transform culture. It can teach methods without fully addressing moral imagination. Johnson and colleagues, writing about Sub-Saharan Africa, and Phillipson and colleagues, reviewing healthcare leadership training more broadly, point to similar concerns: many programmes remain unclear in theory, weakly grounded in context and inconsistent in evaluation.

This is not a call to reject everything external. It is a call to stop treating African ideas as though they can only decorate leadership, never define it. We do not need leadership language that merely sounds modern. We need leadership language that can carry truth, trust and transformation.

3. Reclaiming leadership through Hunhu

Hunhu is more than kindness. It is more than politeness. It is more than culture used as decoration. Hunhu is a moral discipline. It is a way of being human that insists that our character is seen in how we relate to others. Van Breda’s work is especially helpful here because he treats ubuntu as a serious African theory for practice rather than as a vague moral slogan.

In a health and social care context, Hunhu means that leadership cannot be reduced to targets, supervision or authority. A leader may be efficient and still fail morally. A leader may hold office and still diminish people. A leader may speak the language of values and still lead without justice. Hunhu asks a harder question: what kind of human being is this leader becoming in the way they exercise responsibility?

That is why leadership in a Hunhu framework must be defined by conduct, not title. A person is not a true leader simply because they are in charge. They are a leader if they carry responsibility with fairness, humility, integrity, accountability and service. They are a leader if they protect dignity. They are a leader if their presence makes trust more possible, not less.

Hunhu also stretches leadership beyond the present moment. It is not only about being nice today. It is about stewardship, memory, responsibility and legacy. It asks what kind of future a leader is shaping. In health and social care, that matters deeply. A leader does not only affect current staff and patients. They shape future cultures, future habits, future trainees and future standards of care.

So when we say leadership must be rooted in Hunhu, we are saying something profound. We are saying that leadership must be ethical before it is technical. We are saying that no amount of authority should excuse the failure to treat people with dignity. We are saying that leadership is not a performance of importance, but a discipline of responsibility.

4. Reclaiming leadership through dare

If Hunhu gives us the moral foundation, dare gives us the process. Dare is not simply a place where people gather. It is a way of gathering. It is a way of hearing, weighing, discussing and arriving at decisions that people can recognise as fair. Jaure and colleagues describe dare as a democratised process of hearing and shared knowledge, and that description has important leadership implications.

This matters because many leadership cultures still assume that strong leadership means fast leadership, closed leadership or heavily individual leadership. Dare suggests something different. It suggests that legitimacy grows when people are heard, when reasoning is visible, and when decisions are not experienced as arbitrary impositions.

In that sense, dare teaches one of the most important leadership lessons of all: hearing before directing.

That lesson is especially powerful in health and social care. People do not only need instructions. They need to know that their realities matter. Teams need leaders who can hear concern without defensiveness. Patients and families need leaders who understand that good care is not only about correct treatment, but about whether they were respected in the process. Staff need leaders who do not confuse silence with agreement.

Dare therefore offers a process of leadership that is participatory without being weak, consultative without being indecisive, and inclusive without losing direction. It does not remove leadership responsibility. It makes that responsibility more accountable.

5. Not just belonging, but fair belonging

One of the greatest dangers in talking about African leadership is romanticism. We can speak of community, togetherness and harmony in ways that sound beautiful while leaving injustice untouched.

That is why this paper insists on a stronger idea: not just belonging, but fair belonging.

A group can feel united and still be unjust. A team can look cohesive and still silence junior people. A community can appeal to tradition and still exclude women from meaningful influence. A leadership culture can speak warmly of values and still allow people to feel unseen, unsafe or disposable.

Fair belonging asks a different question. It asks whether the community we are protecting is actually worthy of being protected in its present form. It asks whether voice is shared fairly. It asks whether dignity is visible. It asks whether people belong only symbolically, or whether they are also heard and respected.

This is why leadership rooted in Hunhu must also be critically inclusive. It must be anti-othering. It must be anti-patriarchal. It must be willing to honour tradition while also testing tradition by justice. Manyonganise’s reflections on ubuntu are especially important here because they remind us that African moral language can be used in liberating ways, but also in oppressive ways, if gender and power are ignored.

That is not a betrayal of our culture. It is part of what keeps culture morally alive.

6. The Dare to Care framework

Dare to Care is the name this paper gives to a reclaimed leadership framework rooted in Hunhu and dare.

It rests on five convictions:

6.1 Leadership is ethical before it is technical

Competence matters, but character matters first. Leadership must be judged by dignity, fairness, accountability and service.

6.2 Leadership is relational before it is positional

Leadership is not proved first by office. It is proved in relationship: how people are treated, how trust is built, and how responsibility is carried.

6.3 Leadership hears before it directs

Dare reminds us that leadership gains legitimacy when it creates space for voice, shared reasoning and visible fairness.

6.4 Leadership is proven by conduct, not title

A person is not a leader because they occupy a seat. They are a leader when their conduct makes dignity, fairness and trust more possible.

6.5 Leadership must create fair belonging

Leadership must not simply gather people. It must help shape communities and institutions in which belonging is just, inclusive and morally credible.

7. What this means for leaders, educators and institutions

For leaders, this means rethinking leadership as a moral practice, not only a managerial one.

For educators, this means teaching leadership in ways that are not detached from African moral language and lived realities. Matahela and Ngwenya’s work in nursing education, together with Zimbabwean curricular and professional ethics materials, suggests that this is not only possible, but increasingly necessary.

For institutions, this means recognising that culture is shaped not only by policies and structures, but by how leaders listen, decide, include and carry power.

For health and social care, this means understanding that leadership is not just about performance. It is about the human atmosphere of care. It is about whether patients feel respected, whether teams feel heard, whether communities feel trust, and whether institutions deserve moral credibility. That is one reason the ubuntu-informed work emerging in nursing, HIV care and primary health care is so important: it brings care, ethics and leadership back into the same conversation.

8. Conclusion

African leadership does not need to remain conceptually homeless. We do not need to keep speaking about leadership as though it only becomes valid when framed in borrowed language. We already possess deep resources for leadership in our own traditions. Among the Shona, Hunhu and dare offer two of the richest.

Hunhu reminds us that leadership begins with dignity, responsibility and shared humanity. Dare reminds us that leadership must be visible in hearing, participation and fair process. Together, they offer a framework for leadership that is not only culturally rooted, but morally demanding.

That is the challenge of Dare to Care. It is not simply to admire African values, but to embody them. It is not simply to celebrate belonging, but to build fair belonging. It is not simply to talk about leadership, but to reclaim it.

About DOCBEECEE Leadership Academy

DOCBEECEE Leadership Academy exists to transform health and social care professionals into effective leaders and change agents. The Academy is committed to developing leaders who are not only competent, but also compassionate, self-aware, contextually grounded and equipped to shape culture, influence systems and improve the human experience of care.

Through teaching, coaching, thought leadership and practical leadership development, DOCBEECEE Leadership Academy seeks to raise a generation of leaders who can think clearly, act courageously and serve with dignity. This insight paper forms part of that wider mission.

Publication note

This paper is published as part of the DOCBEECEE Leadership Academy Insight Paper Series, a platform for advancing practical, reflective and contextually grounded leadership thinking for health and social care.

Selected references

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