Osman and Hussen practiced a distinct democratic statesmanship leadership type

Evidence

I argue that Africa’s first democrats offered the type of leadership that can best be characterized as that of democratic statespeople. They practiced such leadership by respecting the spirit and word of the democratic constitution and the divisions of power embedded in it, and they partially succeeded in transforming the colonial public apparatus into an accountable administration. Unlike the quality of leadership detailed in Personal Rule in Black Africa, these leaders tamed their personal temptations. Both President Aden Abdulle Osman and Prime Minister Abdirazak H. Hussen exuded some of the inspirational qualities attributed to political Prophets, but the evidence clearly shows that they were mindful of the soft underbelly of being a political Prophet or worse. For example, Osman observed the downside of Nkrumah’s prophetic leadership during Osman’s state visit to Ghana in October 1961: Our last day in Accra! — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 113

Categorization

• XREF: Engages Robert Jackson and Carl Rosberg’s Personal Rule in Black Africa typology of African leadership (Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant).