Four leaders gain insights for their leadership

 

What difference does it make for four Black leaders from Spokane to step out of their busy lives and join a 16-day journey—from Feb. 16 to March 4—to South Africa with 26 other Black leaders from Seattle, Tacoma, Snohomish and Tri-Cities?

In previous years, the Black Future Co-op Fund, a Seattle philanthropy advancing Black-led solutions to strengthen Black generational wealth, health and wellbeing, has taken groups to Ghana. This was their first journey to South Africa, introducing leaders to African historical roots, giving them a chance to learn about the culture and providing time away from their routines to rest and reflect in order to reinvigorate their leadership.

What did they experience as they went to the continent where Black ancestors were enslaved? What were their reflections as they visited another setting in which Black people experienced political, social and economic injustice? What did they find in people who told about their treatment and trauma as political prisoners? What did they experience with the indigenous African spiritual traditions?

The Spokane participants, Lisa Gardner, Anna Franklin, Kitara Johnson-Jones and Michael Bethley, are still processing such questions and the implications of their experiences on their lives and work.

Lisa is NAACP Spokane's president and works as director of communication and community engagement with the City of Spokane.

She went to learn about her role as a community leader as part of the global African diaspora and to understand parallels between the leadership of Nelson Mandela, a political dissident and political prisoner who became the first Black president of South Africa, and U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anna, who has worked 34 years in health care data to understand inequities, has traveled for seven years to consult with Providence Health Systems. She has founded Maji Rising to address the healthcare desert of East Central Spokane by building a 72-unit garden-style, mixed use, affordable inclusive housing community focused on meeting health care, early learning, financial and other needs of families. It will open in 2028.

She sought connections to learn about indigenous and modern ways of healing there. She expects to incorporate ideas from South African indigenous healing, including music, drums and singing, and the power of healing touch, smells and sounds.

Kitara is a community systems strategist and the founder of Gabriel's Challenge, a community-driven initiative focused on closing gaps across behavioral health, substance use, and youth and young adults systems of care.

She has held executive leadership roles in behavioral health—including as chief resources/people officer at Excelsior Wellness—and has contributed to state and national efforts focused on workforce strategy, organizational culture and inclusion.

After her 24-year-old son died of a fentanyl overdose in March 2025, she founded Gabriel's Challenge Community Coalition to honor him by strengthening coordinated care for youth and young adults with substance use and behavioral health challenges.

Kitara pointed out that during the Civil Rights movement, the Black church was not just comfort but brought opportunities for organizing, strategizing, meeting, planning and resisting. In South Africa, as in the U.S., she saw that faith is not passive but is "an active infrastructure for change."

Michael, who has worked for local TV, now runs B & B Pro Video to create digital video commercials, vignettes, testimonials, stories and documentaries for nonprofits. He serves on the boards of The Black Lens, Spokane Word, Holy Temple Church of God in Christ Trustees, the Juneteenth Coalition and Step Back Bobby Jack Foundation.

He saw similarities with how Black people were treated under apartheid in South Africa and how they were treated from slavery through the Jim Crow era, as well as today in the U.S.

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation and discrimination under white minority rule in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. It restricted the rights of non-white citizens with pass laws—to control movement, employment and housing—homelands and social inequality. It ended when President F.W. de Klerk repealed apartheid laws in the early 1990s because of global pressure and boycotts. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after 27 years and was elected president in 1994.

Lisa observed that 30 years after apartheid, social, economic, educational and healthcare inequities continue.

"The civil rights movement happened before I was born. My generation experienced access to education, employment and opportunities, not segregation," Lisa said. "In South Africa, people still struggle for access."

Michael wrestled with seeing that in South Africa, as in the U.S., "some humans have the audacity to disregard other humans, in some cases in the name of Christianity or with the assumption of superiority," he said.

"In the U.S., how the majority tries to suppress minorities seems similar to how the minority in South Africa suppressed the majority," he said, concerned by the spread of hate in America.

"Coming to understand what happened there opened my eyes to know we have a long way to go," Michael added. "From my perspective, it's about money. People have power because of how much money they have. How do we stop them?"

He learned what South Africa, with the world's solidarity, did to help end apartheid by boycotting oil companies.

Kitara also recognized how religion throughout history has been misused by people in power.

"Many traditions, including Christianity, have been distorted at times, but that distortion is not doctrine. Misuse of Scriptures is not Scripture. Abuse in God's name is not God," she said, affirming her faith that Jesus is the Messiah does not dishonor her respect of the Jewish faith or any other faith.

At times, when invited to participate in an African spiritual ritual, she declined, "aware that Black history is layered and spiritually diverse. When I stood in my faith, I was not rejecting my African heritage but affirming the conviction that formed me."

For Kitara, being in South Africa was a reminder of the powerful role that faith played in the resistance there and here.

"Clergy stood with the oppressed. Leaders like Archbishop Desmond Tutu modeled courage rooted in conviction," she said. "He said, 'It's only one race, the human race.'"

That led her to affirm that her faith is not abstract.

"It sustained my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother. It carried generations of Black Americans through injustice and oppression," she said.

When the group visited Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned, Lisa said she was angry at "the oppressive, unjust treatment of Black people across the world just because of the color of our skin."

Michael, who was two years old 40 years ago, said their guide, Mr. Bishop, had been a political prisoner there.

"He took us through the prison cells and spaces where he had been traumatized, done hard work and endured discomforts. What a gesture of resilience and recovery," said Michael who felt the weight of history as Mr. Bishop handed him a key to hold.

When they visited the women's side of Constitution Hill, another prison, Mama Lillian took them to her cell. Michael said, "It took courage for her to share her story and relive her experiences."

"Mandela risked his life to end apartheid. He lost his freedom to gain freedom," said Lisa. "We who are leaders must continue to push in the face of adversity. Leaders often sacrifice to improve the lives of those they serve."

Lisa remembers watching TV with her grandfather when Mandela walked out of prison, and she remembers when he became president. She has a photo on her wall of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Mandela.

"Having seen what Mandela meant to South Africa and the world, to be in his country was indescribable," she said. "To see injustice in another country gives me perspective on experiences of racism and discrimination in the U.S. Both countries still have disparities in education and poverty."

Anna experienced Robben Island as a sacred site where Mandela endured trauma but persevered. She shared in prayer, song and music there. She felt healing power from the traumatic energy there, because of Mandela's spiritual and mental wellbeing.

"As leaders, we must put the good of the community first," said Lisa, whose leadership is empowered by leaders who came before her in Spokane—Carl Maxey, Happy Watkins, Sandy Williams and her own grandmother Sarah Gardner.

"We need to be mindful of their leadership as we move the community forward into the future," Lisa said. "History shows that if we come together, we will be more powerful than those who try to tear us apart."

For information, email president@spokanenaacp.org, maji1619@outlook.com, kitarajohnson@gabrielschallenge.org or michael@bbpvideo.com.