African rulers are like magicians when it comes to surprises even wonders. My apologies for using the word “rulers” in lieu of leaders. My my belief is, Africa is currently ruled and ruined by rulers, not led by leaders as we dreamed at the time we acquired our political independence.
If one asks me the rationale of this take, I’ll ask him or her to show me any exemplary leadership that those rulers have ever shown or displayed? How could they be leaders whilst Africa is becoming poorer and poorer under their bro-card, not to mention being haughtier than it was soon after independence?
If anything, many African rulers will lapse the year 2010 in style if not braggadocios. The curtain raiser is president of South Africa Mr Jacob Zuma who recently sued cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro and The Sunday Times newspaper demanding the redress at the tune of $ 731, 000. Zuma conceived and delivered this after two years. The cartoon in question was published on 7th September 2008, depicting Zuma with his henchmen pegging down a lady as a symbol of denying her justice after being raped by Zuma. This scandal brought a lot of brouhahas in South Africa before the court miraculously exonerated Zuma.
Zuma shocked the world even the accused persons. Sunday Times attorney Eric van der Berg, when asked to comment on the matter, he was quoted as thus: “We are surprised to receive this almost two years down the track. That is all we have to say at this stage.” Shapiro on his side, when asked to comment was quoted as thus: “I will not allow the president to intimidate me.”
Going back to Zuma the survivalist, among reasons that enabled him to survive this purge is Zulu polygamous culture, fanaticism, political machinations plus hatred against his predecessor Thabo Mbeki who was regarded, by then, as being aloof, out of touch and arrogant.
The second performer in this spree of shocking the world is president Abdulaye Wade of Senegal. He caused doctor Mame Mary Faye to be fined $1,000 for alleging that the aging president is sick, and thus, cannot stand come 2012’s elections. Before this happened, I did not know that speculating on the mortal person is a crime. Anyway, given that the subject is president, may be, just may be, Senegalese laws, just like other African countries know president is immortal. Who knows if the same is infallible?
This time west Africa scored high. Ghana’s president, also a professor himself, John Evans Fifii Atta Mills was gasping with drug trafficking anathema thanks to wikileaks report. He went as far as demanding his entourage being screened to see if some of his inner sanctum members carry this stuff with them. Four months after ascending to power , according to UK customs official, Roland O’Hagan, told US diplomats that Mills wanted his own entourage screened before leaving the country. “According to O’Hagan, Mills wants these officials to be checked in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs.” Wikileaks said.
Why being searched in privacy if this is not whitewashing in the first place? Anyway, this is the African way of solving chronic problems like drug trafficking by the high and mighty. Who knows if the victim of all this would be even the first lady or any close kith and kin? The big man has to precautionary deal with this, fearing this given that he knows his people.
East Africa did not want to be left abaft. Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki surprised many when he stood by post-elections ‘Ocampo Six’! Being the core of all this despite being a survivalist, many thought at least he’d show and exercise leadership. When Luis Moreno Ocampo dropped the bombshell, Kibaki was quoted as thus: “Calls for action to be taken against them are therefore prejudicial, preemptive and against the rules of natural justice.” The guru of economics did not end up thither. He added: “In the meantime I wish to state that the government is fully committed to the establishment of a local tribunal to deal with those behind the post election violence, in accordance with stipulations of the new constitution.”
Crucial question is when did Kibaki and the like see the light if at all? They are the ones and same that frustrated all efforts of forming local tribune to look into post-election mayhem? Refer to the shameful pulling of Kenya out of ICC as it was ratified by the parliament. This means, politicians in the whole especially MPs are behind the post-election mayhem.
Anyway, when water is spilled nobody can scoop it. “Too little too late”… so to speak. “Pole sana bwana rais.”
Yoweri Museveni is the man who conquers everywhere and every time, though in different manners and styles. Today I am not going to talk about his rap mastery. When he was quizzed on his fear of being brought down by Libyan strongman Muamar Gadaffi as it was blown out by Wikileaks, he had this to say: “Take for example, this issue of shooting down my plane. If we think that is a problem, I didn’t have to travel. I can stay here comfortably. You know I am very comfortable. Don’t you see even here in Mbale I am very comfortable? What would I be looking for outside.” Was and is he really comfortable or just the matter of metaphors? Anyway, this is Africa where politicians can fool everybody including themselves.
Jongwe Robert Mugabe is the guy that nary succumb to age and time. Differently from other African rulers who were termed as weak be it sexually or politically, he was commended by Americans in their Wikileaks chronicles as a “superb debater, always looking for proof”. Americans added that he is “fit, mentally sharp, and charming.”!!!! From the days of yore it is said give the diablo its due. Look at their assessment of Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe PM : “a flawed figure, indecisive with questionable judgment.” Can Americans be serious and sincere please?
What they did to Tsvangirai is no different from what they did to Rwandan strong man Paul Kagame. They linked him with terrorists. I am not saying that but they were quoted as thus: “that closer U.S. ties with Rwanda would be a mistake.” To perfect the art they added: “(Judge Burguiere ) one of the leading players in the French fight against terrorism, and a leading world expert in terrorism.” Mind you, Judge Burguiere is the guy that Kagame despises more than anybody when it comes to his allegations and warrants.
All big men did their abracadabra, the rib breaker of all was none other than Botswana’s 57-year old senior bachelor, Khama Ian Khama. Guess what? The gentleman in power was and still is looking for a beauty to make a wife provided she’d not break the presidential bed! This is totally un-African so to speak. In Africa, wealth and power go with protruded tummies and fat ladies.
Though not president herself, Grace Mugabe, too, took the spirit of Zuma by suing Wikileaks for leaking the unclad and stinking truth of her all time border-line wealth.
Anyway, that’s how African strong men and rulers wound the year 2010 up.
Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.
I am glad to see you wading through the WikkiLeaks material and checking for matters relating to Africa.
I have to disagree with you on a few matters.
Neither Zuma of South Africa or Khama of Botswana can be called “Strongmen” as the term implies that they ascended to power through a coup or some other non democratic means. Zuma’s attacks on the “free press” are despicable. However Zuma’s rise to power came because the ANC’s neo-libera l politics under Mbecki have neglected the Black poor of the “New South Africa”. Mbecki’s HIV denialism was less about true principle and more about not spending money on human needs. Zuma is facing challenges because he has not made the changes that South Africans have desperately needed. Too many
Americans have praised Mugabe because contrary to propaganda they see him as an adversary with principles. Morgan Tsvangiri has been disliked by American government officials since his compromise has frustrated their efforts to continue strangling Zimbabwe’s economy and further diminish Zimbabwe’s independence.
Although Kagame has done much for Rwanda that can be admired he is fast becoming a strong man. His attempted assassination of one of his former generals in South Africa is a harbinger of future brutality.
Nkwazi Mhango:
There is going to be a referendum this month in South Sudan on whether they should secede or not and I bet the Arabized Northeneners and their Islamist bretheren are now plotting to commit violence and terrorize the different black tribes that are spread out in the region.
The rest of Africa is asleep as usual, always oblivious to what is taking place on the continent, especially, when it is not pertaining to them.
In this age of communication and the internet, I cannot understand the level of ignorance and the lack of connection that exists among Africans.
On the other hand, blacks in the West(especially in the U.S.) only criticize atrocities against blacks/Africans when whites are the perpetrators.
Somehow their radars go dead and just don’t work, and their sense of morality becomes impaired when the bad guys are Muslims,Africans andWestern blacks.
Sadly, the only people who are keeping an eagle eye on South Sudan are non-black and non-Muslim people.
I tell you, it is a sad day indeed when it looks like non-blacks are more interested in protecting black lives on the continent of Africa.
I have news for black people: No people on this earth are inmune to Genocide.
It is our environment in america it is a constant onslaught of every -ism from the majority in “america” while in the homeland we are the majority and more of us are in power positions. We would have to teach eachother to do what you noted that we do not do now. Agree?
This article is very accurate and perceptive of the Africa “strong” men. It made me smile and sad as, unfortunately, you spoke about the sad truth of the continents. The tragedy is that the average Africans take the brunt of this tragic comedy.
I agree with Ana comments. She sees it like it is.
Ana;
The BBC, CNN and not even Al Jazeera can not be expected to tell the African story. You can’t assume that just because African leaders are not quoted by these news agencies as being supportive of Southern Sudan that they are in fact not supportive of the right of self determination of the people Southern Sudan.
Google the names of any of the presidents of the neighboring African nations and you will see that they are supportive of the impending new nation of Southern Sudan.
Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has supported the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army militarily before the recent peace agreement and has voiced Uganda’s support for the people of Southern Sudan if they choose succession. President Kikwete of Tanzania has vowed support for Southern Sudan if the referendum supports succession. President Kagame of Rwanda has placed statements on the record in support of Southern Sudan if they choose succession. These are a few but there are many more.
It is true that African nations tread carefully with respect to Sudan primarily because they do not want to encourage succession in other African nations.
In addition to the stand of the individual African nations, the African Union has peace keeping troops in Sudan (AMISOM).
I know Sudanese individuals on both sides of the referendum issue. Those supporting unity believe that this is an attempt by the West to capture the oil found in the South. Although I agree that this is most likely the motivation for the actions of Westerners, the blatant and illogical racism of those in the North and their reneging on past agreements providing for Southern autonomy make succession inevitable.
Sayeed2k:
I don’t know where you get that I feel CNN,BBC or Al Jazeera should tell African stories.
What did I refer to, ” the lack of connection that exists among Africans.” Are CNN, Al Jazeera and the BBC Africans? Who really believes that Africans need Al Jazzeera, the BBC, or CNN ?Why are you bringing in outsiders who have no whistle to blow here?
I believe Africans should be more interested in hearing African stories. I want Africans to tell their stories, but to each other; to just show more concern and interest in each other because this could lead to an end to the vast truncation and destruction of African lives.
I am not too interested in hearing what African leaders have to say. I am more interested in listening to farmers, students,women, children and workers.
Why must so many Africans have to pay a heavy price by dying before their time, right in front of our eyes?
Southern Sudan and North Sudan need to spearate because they are different in ancestry, religion, history and agenda. There are many different national groups forced to reside together as one nation who should separate.
There is no divine law or human law that says we have to be joined together with people who hate or are different from us.
Right now I am only interesed in protecting the lives of the people of Southern Sudan, and being aligned with the North is not in the best interest of the South.
I also don’t believe that at this historical juncture the West could be worst than the forces in the North. I have moved away from the madness that the West is an enemy, when there are so many other enemies and pressing problems nearby that are worst and killing people and thus decimating the African population.
This is one of the biggest mistake that black people are making today. Enemies are never perpetual, they come and go.
I remember on the other thread, I believe you were the one who said that” the United States is the greatest puveyor of violence .”
Since we are not eternal, and life and history are a continuation of stories and events, no one, or nation is ever or will ever hold the title as the greatest purveyor of violence.This is not a title for life.
Too many have forgotten that at some historical point Spain once was considered violent and then Great Britain and so many other nations held this title.
The holders of this dreadful title will come and go. Our enemies will also come and go.
The most important goal at this historical juncture is supposed to be solving our problems.
Ana;
“I am not too interested in hearing what African leaders have to say. I am more interested in listening to farmers, students,women, children and workers.”
African heads of State are Africans and their support for the self determination of Southern Sudan and the prior support of some nations such as Uganda for the armed struggle of the SPLA refutes your initial statement that “Africans are asleep as usual….”
In the case of Uganda, the fact that the opposition leader, Kizza Besigye echoes the incumbent president’s line on Southern Sudan demonstrates that the high level of support that position has in the country.
If you are interested in what farmers, students and workers are saying then news wires such as http://www.Pambuzka.org and http://www.Afrol.com are decent sources
Your statement about enemies not being permanent has some truth. Clearly it is in the interest of African people for not to be oppressed by arabized Africans in the North of Sudan. Equally obvious is the interest of the West in the oil in the South. The convergence of interest should work in the best interest of the Sudanese people.
Martin Luther King recognized that the United States was the largest world wide empire in his day. It is much more an empire today. In the face of the United States’ simultaneous involvement in 5 wars, only two of which are openly acknowledged( wars in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia barely discussed), not to mention the fact that the sum of all other nations’ arms spending doesn’t come close to American spending on warfare it is either willful blindness or naivety to argue that other nations are equally as violent.
Sayeed2k:
With all due respect, I disagree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with that analysis. And I hope no one labels me an enemy for disagreeing with Dr. King. LOL.
For you to comprehend where I am coming from, I will also say I do not believe Muhamad Ali is the greatest either.
We need to be careful using the term greatest. There is no greatest anything, or anyone on this planet.
My definition of violence may be different from yours:
Poverty is violence
Hunger is violence
Injustice is violence
Racial/Ethnic/Religious Discrimination is violence
Ignorance is violence.
Backwardness is violence
War is violence
Sickness without the proper medical attention is violence
Lack of sanitary conditions is violence
Lack of safe drinking water is violence
Discrimination against women is violence
Cultural Misogynism is violence
Illiteracy is violence
Female genital mutilation is violence
Laws that keep women backward and illiterate are violence
Lack of opportunity to work is violence
Lack of land for farming is violence
Small children not having food on their table is violence
Girls being denied education is violence
Small children not having access to education is violence
And I could go on and on with what violence represents to me. Many of these problems can be fixed.
Regarding the U.S. as the greatest violent nation, I will disagree with you on that one, because many poor nations are dependent on this country for survival .
Nothing is stopping Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan from getting themselves together.
All three of these nations suffer from the violent diseases of backwardness and cultural misogynism.
I find it very ridiculous to blame the United States for cultural practices that hinder and obstruct development.
All these three nations need to do is empower and educate their women, stop forcing little girls to marry and have children before their time, and we will see them(Yemen,Somalia and Pakistan) climbing out of the hole they have dug themselves in.
One of the biggest problem that leads to zero development /growth is the disempowerment of women.
Thanks for the links.
As an aside, recently on a comedy show(I like to laugh sometimes) an Arab stand up comedian was trying to explain to his Arabs compatriots and others in attendance how Arabs and African Americans are very close in cultural practices.
According to him, among both groups, women have babies very early. Instead of laughing,the folks in the audience including myself cringed when we heard his analysis.
It is so easy for many to skirt from their own problems and sef righteously blame others for things they should be working and correcting , pero ya pronto.
Sis. Ana… dropping serious wisdom here also. I concur with your definitions of violence… much more global perspective.
You studiously avoid the points I make and you argue against what I never said that all evil comes from the USA focus please. Nor have I said that everyone the USA fights is good.
The United States is an empire and it takes massive amounts of violence to maintain that status. I believe that we are both educated so it is easy enough for us to call a spade a spade. No nation is as violent period! It is the Greatest bar none. The existence of other evils does not negate this fact.
The USA is not at war with any nation to free women, stop genital mutilation or bring development. It is at war only to weaken its enemies and to maintain its power.
Oh by the way
Black teen pregnancy has been on a dramatic decline (50%) for the last twenty years but we are still being moralized about this.
Greetings! Ana and Sayeed2K: I’m just a tiny bit nervous! 😀 This is a nervous smile. LOL
Greetings Anna Renee
No need for the nervous smile. Actually Ana and I agree on most points on the issue of Southern Sudan.
Saludos Anna Renee:.
Sayeed2k and I agree on the most important part, we both care about the future of the people of Africa.
Sayeed2k: I am not ignorant of the atrocities and the troublemaking of the United States of America.
I am a Panamanian national who was born and grew up in an area called the Canal Zone, which was governed by the United States when they controlled the Panama Canal.
My father worked over 37 years for the Panama canal Company which at that time was considered a a private organization belonging to the U.S. government.
There were so many U.S. military bases in Panama when I was a child that I don’t think we really knew the right amount.
Finally the bases went down to fourteen, which was still a great number in a small country with a population of roughly 3 million.
There were instances when U.S. soldiers used violence against Panamanians and even students. We celebrate martyr day on January 9th because Americans gunned down students from a prestigious high school in Panama city because they razed a Panamanian flag right beside the American one on the Canal Zone which Americans considered U.S. soil.
I remember vividly when a young man in my community was killed by a young white American girl who struck him with her car while driving drunk. She was never charged or arrested but was whisked off to the states immediately.
The young man’s mother mourned him for the rest of her life, black became her every day attire and clothing. Usually in the Catholic tradition, they mourn for about 40 days, but she never stopped mourning her beloved son.
Don’t even talk about violent crime commited by Americans. Americans(mostly whites) living in Panama were arrogant and the laws of the Canal Zone were modeled after those of the state of Lousiana, we were told
Panama took its case to the U.N. and the O.A.S., the issue was over its sovereignty and a treaty signed in 1903 (the date when the U.S. orquestrated Panama’s secession from Colombia )without one single Panamanian signature that granted the U.S. full control of the canal and the land adyacent in perpetuity.
A new treaty was later signed in 1978 granting Panama full control of the canal and the canal zone by 1999;and about ten years before its stipulated date,in 1989, the U.S. invaded Panama killing many innocent people, destroying its army, arresting its leader( General Noriega was a crook, but our crook, nonetheless), creating chaos and instability.
When 1999 came, Americans went home and their 14 military bases were dismantled.Today Panama has full control of both the canal and land, but Americans are flocking there like crazy people without a home, calling it Paradise.Lord have mercy.
I believe the U.S. is a whole lot of things, I will be the first to say that, but I will not give it the greatest of anything , not even on violence.
I know for sure that the U.S. has an uncanny ability of manufacturing enemies.
After all is said and done, I believe if nations take care of their business and problems, then all its enemies, part time, full time, wannabees and even those hoping to be in the future, would just run far away because there would not be an environment or place for them to flourish and pick trouble.
@Ana and Sayeed2K!
Wonderful! My relieved smile! 😀
It’s wonderful when we can hash it out in a positive way, with our strong opinions and still know all the while that we all have the same ultimate interest for our people of Africa and the Diaspora.
Carry ON!!
Dear All,
I did not want to get into the discussion of my own article. But sister Ana’s contribution indeed blew my cover up so as to surrender.
I fully concur with her especially when I read her analysis of violence. She has brought something that would have taken me a life time to reach as a conclusion. Thanks a million sister Ana for such spiffy in-puts.
Let me go back to my cocoon so as to let other dissect my views.
Again, I have to thank all that spared their time to chip in my way of looking at things. Wrong as I may be, I am always happy to read your wisdom.
Thanks ad infinitum.
Ana
We’ll agree that we disagree on the US and violence.
One bit of self revelation deserves another:
I am expatriate African American who has been living in the Middle East for the past seven years. I am one of the small number of African Americans here not working for the US military. I have been active in several grass roots black nationalist organizations and a few not so grassroots organizations including Tran-Africa.