I once had a extended argument with a fellow African who vehemently
supported the invasion of Iraq by the United States of America and its
allies. Not only that, he was a George
W. Bush aficionado. He liked the gung-ho ‘you are either with us or against us’
foreign policy that the then American government was pursuing.
When Obama was elected he was a bit more muted, but somewhat
going along with the global admiration of the American political system that
could against many odds choose a black person as president. But he stuck to the idea of a rapacious
America that where and when it chose, it would militarily annihilate its
enemies.
I tried to find the source of his admiration of the military
might of the USA. It turned out, like for many of us Africans, to be embedded
in the images and representations of that society in movies, television, music,
computers and other cultural products (clothes, religion and the like).
And true enough, as Africans we rarely view the USA from
ideological or even honestly analytical lenses.
In fact we rarely view the global north with an intention to objectively
critique it. Not that we don’t have
opinions on what happens in America or Western Europe.
They are however opinions that are more inclined to
admiration, envy, entertainment and tragically to viewing those countries as
the ‘promised land’. This ‘promise land’ view also explains why the Mediterranean
has become a watery grave for so many of us Africans. It is also the reason
why Europe and North America are voting for those that promise to keep not only
us as Africans out, but also those from the Middle East, Latin America and South
East Asia.
In dealing with these complexities we also turn to our
comrades in the global north to help us understand what it is that is going on
with their global superpower governments and systems. As a leftist, I have also sought explanation
from my fellow ideologues in the USA, the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. Asking for example, why would ‘Brexit’ happen?
Or how the USA’s president-elect could
have possibly won a free and fair election?
I however don’t ask my questions in admiration. I ask with ideological
empathy, with the full knowledge that the election of Donald Trump is
indicative of how progressive ideas are on the back foot when they are
subjected to popular democracy in both North America and Western Europe. The
not so new nationalisms that are emerging there and acquiring power on the
regressive basis of discrimination and exclusion of the non-white other are
evidently a global concern. They hark
back to what Africans that are conscious of their continent’s colonial history have
said ‘never again’.
And this is the key lesson for us as Africans to draw from
the political events and trends in the global north.
While what happens in North America and Western Europe
affects us politically and economically in relation to those regions’ foreign
policies, we need to learn that we should not always mimic their domestic
politics or political cultures.
We don’t have to anticipate the emergence of a candidate
similar to Donald Trump and call it a democratic process if they win an
election on what are arguably racist, sexist and pretentious grounds. Nor
should we allow our media to be captured by the elite few who seek more to
believe their won lies than hold those that seek political power to
account.
And we should always undertake our politics with an honesty
that understands that good, progressive ideas do not always move the majority
of our citizens if they are not accompanied by organic mobilisation and
actions. As Amilcar Cabral once wrote, ‘no matter how hot the water from your
well is, it will not cook your rice’.
Nor should we be in the habit of shunning those that we
think are on the periphery of our political systems. Or those that we think are
either ignorant or malleable to our views without either engaging them or
seeking to take their views into political account. And this relates in the greater parts of our continent
to our rural citizens who are treated in part as though they are still colonial
subjects. Both by way of the attitudes
of our political elites and the remnants of colonial administrative infrastructure.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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