Leadership Quality from CowHerding

There was a furore recently about a national beef project, which was said to be not achieving its set target. The media was abuzz with allegations of misuse etc. Growing up in a traditional village in 1960s, cows were part of my life. Our family house was built on stilts and our cows were penned under the house. The 'aroma' of cow dung was surely unbearable to townsfolk but we didn't bat an eyelid over that.

When I was 12 (in standard six), my father 'instructed' me to take care of a cow. And my 6-year old brother its calf. My father's instruction was very simple. By 6 pm when the cows should be home i. e. under our house, their respective bellies should be full. If not my brother and i were in for some kind of punishment.

Every morning, come rain or shine, my brother and I wakes up at six and lead our cows to the grazing area about half-a-kilometer from our home. The area was in fact a large tract of land with thick secondary jungle. We have to lead our cows silently in the darkness of early morning to the grazing area and 'anchor' them there. The morning was too dark, there was not a single human around at that time except my brother and I and our two cows walking silently. We trudged the riverbank and after a short distance turned a bit upland where we should leave our cows to graze. My brother and I didn't make any conversation other than occasional words of enquiry about something durign our early morning trips there. Stories of tiger sightings and python crossing were always in our minds but we had no choice other than to carry out father's instruction. After school we went for the Qur'an reciting classes at the quranic teacher's home. After the quranic class we went to the river for our afternoon revelry. For me and my brother, a brief check on our cows' bellies determine the available time for our sojourn in the river. If the cows were almost full, my brother and I can spend longer time in the river. If not, we have to tend to the cows first by ensuring them have enough grasses before dusk.

Despite our preoccupation with playing my brother and I never get any punishment from father. We always ensure our cows were full by the time for them to be brought home. Cows being cows, sometimes they scooted off to neighbouring plots of planted area and savoured the vegetables. Facing the angry owners whose plants were devoured by our cows is not easy. And there is no recourse to our father as we would surely eb punished for such carelessness.

The task of herding the cows teaches us good things about life. Firstly, indirectly we were given a common mission: to tend to our cows and ensure their growth. Secondly, we learn how to be patient in adversaries and persevere in our tasks. Controlling our cows on our way home imbue in us the art of treading on critical grounds. The lessons gained from the task of raising our cows came in handy in my career later in my life.I am not sure if I should recommend cowherding as a training ground for kids nowadays but politicians should learn a thing or two about tending to cows in their career.