2008 Tutu Fellow Siza Majola makes the case in an essay written for African Business that stakeholder relationships could be managed in an African manner using practices from the Bafokeng.  They survived the negative effects of colonialism and apartheid and have emerged into the 21st century with a brighter future as the owners of vast mineral-rich land holdings.

The land they own and occupy was bought communally through German missionaries in the 1800s at a time when black people were not allowed to buy land in South Africa. Their story qualifies as among the oldest African investment cases around land acquisition.

In the piece, Majola spells out the governance structure of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, a traditional monarchical community, and methods of accountability and dispute resolution. The detail and governance around critical matters such as financial management and land allocation and how these are managed in the community qualifies the Bafokeng as a case worth studying to better understand stakeholder management in African traditional settings. Within the plethora of stakeholder management literature, there is no clear documented evidence that connects Western theoretical stakeholder management approaches to daily practice in a traditional setting like the Bafokeng.

The entire essay, which was published in December 2017, can be read at African Business.