Courage vs Leadership

I believe leadership begins with courage. These are qualities that bring out your inner spirit and show your true personality. Leadreship would take you far in life, but you would have to be positive in your thinking and brave in standing up for what you believe in.

For me leadership is to be a leader, a person who has a principle part in something and a person who’s example is followed. On the other side courage in my opinion is bravery and the ability to control fear during difficult times. Not every person is a leader but we could all have the courage to become one, it might be in school, in our community or for our country. I have an eye opening story that might explian to you what a true leader is and courage in one’s heart.

It started in 1983 when I witnessed a number of people being beaten by the police at the elections in Lenasia. This was when I gained the courage to fight for our rights. We protested a number of marches . one of our marches took place in Lenasia , there were +- 25 people marching (nobody else wanted to join), I was leading the march. When the police came everybody ran away and hid. I tried to hide with a friend in the car but the police found us. That day I had to do the golden chair infront of ten policemen and they laughed at me when I started to shake. It was a very humiliating experience. It nearly killed my pride but luckily I had the courage to go on.

Courage and leadership go hand in hand. If you have the courage , the bravery and the ability to fight for what you believe in, you then have the ability to become a leader. Like me, when I gained the courage to fight for my rights and not be afraid, I started marching and even became part of the Transvaal Indian Congress and Lenasia youth league. Later on I even became Ameer of the M.S.A.

The lessons I learnt and would like to teach you are things that you should ponder on and hopefully change you views. You should never be afraid to fight for what you believe in. you must never be shy or afraid to speak up and become a leader. Like the Prophet (S.A.W.) said “two kinds of people will never learn, a shy person and an arrogant person.”

The morals I learnt from the apartheid regime are that you should always treat people fairly and the way you want to be treated. Don’t be afraid to be a leader, you will learn and teach others many things. Leadership some have and some don’t, make an effort and be one of those who are!