Leading through a Medicinal Plant: Transforming-Servant-Leadership among African Women in Portland, Oregon

Abstract

Transforminpf-servant-leadership is an African leadership philosophy rooted in the Abouré worldview. ¹ The Abouré people have a deep connection with the forest where they farm and harvest medicinal plants. During my childhood, my great-grandmother used medicinal plants to treat my illnesses. In this chapter I am using the medicinal plant as a metaphor to describe a leadership philosophy that emerged from my family, thus revealing my positionality as a researcher (Chavez 2008). I also use the first person “I” here because I adhere to the position of several feminist researchers like Letherby (2003, 5) who invited the use of the “I” form, which places the investigator in the research conceptualization and argues that “no one can separate themselves from the world, from their values and opinion.”. When we write in the first person, we assume responsibility for what we write (Letherby 2003, 7). I write about the transforming-servant-leadership I witnessed in Côte d’Ivoire and in Portland, Oregon, and present a conceptual model of leadership. First, I introduce the source of transforming-servant-leadership, its characteristics, and its application in a school environment.

This chapter is dedicated to Monseigneur Blaise Anoh, who entered eternal life on February 1, 2014, a transforming-servant-leader in Côte d’Ivoire who gave his life by serving as a teacher, a priest, an administrator, and a mentor.