Dangers of an African (Un)Consciousness in Trump et al Era

 By Takura Zhangazha*

As an African, I tend to wear my consciousness on my sleeve. By consciousness I mean my own sense of self-worth and political placement as, you guessed it, a black African from Zimbabwe (in Africa).  This is despite the many years of being influenced by global western and eastern dominant cultural trends as a result of the onset of colonialism, the apex of the Cold War (global capitalism vs socialism) and African liberation struggles that led to various forms of what we now refer to as national independence, in its various guises.

My consciousness as a black African is essentially liberatory because it functions outside of the specific pursuit of recognition as an ‘other’.  By dint of both historical and/or contemporary racism.

So when the current president of the United States of America , Donald Trump was reported to have referred to African countries as ‘s###oles.  I was not angry.  He does not define what it means for me to be an African.    Let alone how I view my physical and human geographical surroundings.  Even at the worst of African times. 

But his influence obviously transcends my own personal sense of  (stubborn) African self worth.  His statement stirred up a mini African diplomatic furore whose significance goes beyond the domestic American uproar.

The African Union, following the lead of one of its member states Botswana and others (which summoned the US Ambassador to explain) condemned the alleged statement(s).  Zimbabwe’s new regime, precarious in international relations legitimacy as it is,  also issued a statement condemning the same. 

Such condemnation of the statements attributed to Trump was only necessary but in sync with a general global (media) outcry.  Not least because of the latter’s political correctness but also because it is fundamentally unacceptable for any political leader to say such things about the peoples of other countries.  Particularly those who still suffer the long duree effects of what was colonialism and in some cases what remains as contemporary political and economic global apartheid.

But as it is, it is almost inevitable that Trump's unpalatable statement(s) will turn out only to be a diplomatic incident.  At least from an African perspective.  And his government will ensure it does not go beyond that.  Especially by reminding African leaders of how much they need aid and military support from the United States. Or threatening the rest of the world at the United Nations General Assembly with aid cuts over a vote on Jerusalem (and Israel,  a state that we, as Africans, have felt acutely well to be far from how it is portrayed in the bible or in history.) 

The greater challenge from this ongoing debacle is how ordinary Africans have reacted to it.

Mainly via social media, a lot of us, have taken to either initial (and in my view) correct condemnation of the evidently racist statements. 

As time has lapsed, others have sought to analyse its full import by claiming that it is as expected and therefore not surprising from an American president who has been viewed as not only bigoted but also insensitive to global equality and progress.

Others have gone further to argue in favour of Trump’s alleged perception of the continent. Their main argument being that indeed African countries are so backward and laden with corruption, inefficiency and youth unemployment to the extent that it becomes affirmative to their being ‘sh##tholes’. 

It is specifically the last two above cited arguments that posit that it is to be expected of Trump to say such things or that the parlous state of African societies is true to his potential views that point to a tragic ‘un’consciousness of being African in contemporary times.

These arguments tend, deliberately or by default, to blur the lines of our own complicity in the denigration of our humanity, as Africans, in the eyes of  (at least) the politically powerful and those that elect them in the Global North.  Couched in the language of ‘real talk’ and ‘blunt honesty’, they reinforce the preferred assumption that the African migrant is leaving home solely for the 'promised land' (global north)  that would be found via  the treacherous journeys that are for example those undertaken across the Sahel through to the watery graves of the Mediterranean seas. 

In this we must come to terms with the fact that when an American president refers to African countries in the way this current one reportedly has, its an uphill battle to recapture a consciousness that defies his views not only by word of mouth but by way of historically grounded contemporary African action and thought.  Whether through our own African governments' actions but also our own inability as ordinary Africans to defy a de-humanizing social media discourse that has the end effect of ensuring we rarely consider ourselves as our own definers, describers of self,  country and continent.  Or a social media discourse that seeks to perpetually have in our sub-conscious a debilitating awareness of the 'white man's' racist gaze with us still willing 'him' to (please) change his mind so that we, once again, feel validated.  Again, by 'him'.  

So we could argue non-end via social media as to how Trump's comments were racist or try and place justification or even accusations as to why they may have a tinge of truth to them.  But it essentially points to a dying Pan Africanist perception of ourselves that it would require that statement from the president of he United States for us to find or remember an intention for us to be perpetually be placed on a global back foot.  Merely because we are African.   

We must therefore be careful about what we expect to hear, want to hear and how we hear when it comes to the not so new 'white' nationalist and in some cases racist perceptions of us as Africans or our countries by political leaders in powerful countries such as the USA.   Talk back in anger and  condemnation of such views we must.  Lapping  up these debates without understanding that in the final analysis they will always 'other' us will be a clear sign yet of our own loss of a necessary and liberatory Pan African consciousness.  Even on social media.  

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)