Name: Hon Liberata Mulamula
Role: Tanzania’s Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation
QN: What does wellness mean to you ?
Wellness to me is a variation of physical health, mental health and one’s attitude towards life.
QN: How does wellness relate to leadership?
Leadership at all levels is tethered to responsibility and expectations. The pressure brought on by the responsibilities and expectation encroaches on one’s mental wellbeing and physical health and the ability to deliver amidst such constraints is where wellness meets leadership.
For a job, more so a leadership role to be done efficiently/successfully, one has to be passionate about it and really love what they do, because that’s what makes all the demands and sacrifice required worth it.
A leader is only as good as their team, and a good leader without a good team cannot make sustainable progress. Taking time to mentor and train the team improves not only their skills but also their confidence levels and this ultimately contributes to how productive they are.
Some of the ingredients that make good leaders include good communication, confidence, authenticity, persistence and consistency.
QN: What has been your biggest lesson/realisation about wellness?
It’s good to have role models you look up to but trying to fill their shoes is setting yourself up for inauthenticity. I have a twin sister and we don’t have the same shoe size. It’s okay and advisable to have role models and follow in their footsteps however on a personal note I think getting there with your own shoes (by being your true self) instead of trying to replicate what your heroes have done under different circumstances is the best approach.
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Biography:
Liberata Mulamula is Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation
Prior to this she served as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation since May 2015. She was also the Tanzanian Ambassador to the United States. She also served as the first Executive Secretary of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
Ambassador Mulamula is the Associate Director for the Institute for African Studies, and a career diplomat with 35 years of experience having served in various capacities at the Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Diplomatic missions in New York (Permanent Mission to the UN), Canada and the USA. She also served as the first Executive Secretary of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region of Africa for Peace, Stability and Development with headquarters in Bujumbura, Burundi. In this position, she oversaw 11 countries from 2006-2011.
Before retirement in April 2016, her other senior posts included the executive ministerial post of Permanent Secretary of the Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs (May to December 2015). She provided managerial and administrative leadership to the Ministry’s staff and Tanzania Diplomatic Envoys abroad. She was also the Tanzania Ambassador to the United States of America and Mexico (July 2013 to May 2015), having served as Special Advisor to His Excellency President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania on all Diplomatic matters (2012-2013).
While at the State House, she successfully coordinated the visits of President Xi Jiping of China and President Barack Obama to Tanzania in July 2013, as well as the visits of other heads of state and high officials. She attended all cabinet meetings and prepared policy briefs for the President, and aided the implementation of cabinet decisions in areas of international partnerships in order to achieve the country’s development goals.
During her tenure in Washington as Tanzania Ambassador to the USA, Ambassador Mulamula participated actively in the preparations for the first U.S.-Africa Summit on the partnership for economic growth. This summit also focused on strengthening mutual cooperation between the countries in areas of investment and trade. She also assisted the implementation of various programs that are funded by U.S. development agencies and institutions including the Millennium Challenge Compact, the Power Africa Initiative, the Feed the Future Program, the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, the U.S President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the President’s Malaria Initiative, maternal and child health care initiatives, among numerous others.
She has attended the successive AU Summits, UN General Assembly sessions in New York and other multilateral gatherings, as well as various regional meetings and initiatives on peace and sustainable development. Ambassador Mulamula is a graduate of St. John’s University in New York where she obtained an M.A. in Government and Politics, as well as a postgraduate diploma in International Law. She received her B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Dar-es Salaam University of Tanzania. She was adjunct lecturer on the “Art of Negotiations” at the Tanzania-Mozambique Center of Diplomatic Studies.
In addition to her role as Associate Director of IAfS, she is also a Visiting Scholar at the George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs. Her primary area of interest is Women and Leadership in Africa. Moreover, she is a member of the Board of Overseers, School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University (New Jersey, USA); Board Member of the Bukoba Development Foundation (BUDEFO); Member of the Advisory Board of Madaktari Africa; Budapest Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the International Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities; Genocide Prevention Advisory Network (GPANet); Member of the Women Mediation Network of the Great Lakes Region; Patron of Miss Tanzania-USA; and more.
Ambassador Mulamula is a Recipient of the Order of the United Republic of Tanzania 2015 Award for Distinguished Public Service. She is married to Mr. George Mulamula and they have two children, Tanya and Alvin.