“THE PROBLEM OF AFRICA” AND OTHER DELUSIONS

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There are many people-some Black Africans- that would have us believe that the institutional and nation-building failures we face across the continent are uniquely African. That there is something particularly and inherently wrong with black people or our cultures that simply does not allow us to look beyond selfish aggrandisement, sectarianism and zero-sum politicking.Often times, it isn’t stated that explicitly. When discussing politics on the continent with friends though, I often hear it in incomplete musings. “I don’t know what is wrong with (us) Africans,” one will say, before going on and on about how institutions work in Europe and not in Africa. This line of thought is not new. One of Gen. Museveni’s most famous quote is that “the problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people, but leaders who want to overstay in power.” The insinuation here being that African leaders are particularly prone to overstaying their welcome at the helm in ways that others (presumably from the West) are not.

In his 2015 Address to the African Union, Obama too warned that Africa’s democratic progress is endangered by leaders who refuse to leave power when their terms end. In several of the Whatsapp groups I’m in, discussions about African politics almost invariably end with someone suggesting we should simply agree to being colonised again. And if I am to be completely honest, I myself have sometimes let this proposition linger in my mind a little longer than it ought.

If nothing else disabuses me of this line of thinking however, the second Trump presidency does. In just 12 months, we have witnessed an American leader rule with the kind of iron fist that would make most African presidents envious. Untethered and unrestricted by Congress, he has gone on a one-man campaign of terror, completely crushing any dissent or, when that fails, dismissing it/them as enemies of progress. World leaders, afraid and unsure of the repercussions of calling him out, have gone to extraordinary lengths to praise him publicly, even while privately loathing him. Trump has engaged in unilateral military action against Iran, renamed several places in the UK after himself, invaded Venezuela and arrested a head of state of a sovereign nation. His campaign against illegal immigrants has seen ICE agents use such brutal force that supporters of African strongmen (and, lest we leave out our Tanzanian neighbours, strongwomen) now genuinely feel vindicated. Any criticism of excessive force by an African country’s police or armed forces is now greeted with footage of ICE in action, followed by bold comparisons. “If you think we are so bad, go to America and experience what it means to be in the land of the free and home of the brave” they say.

And for me, that’s kind of the point.

America today is proof that what we face in many parts of Africa is not down to the colour of our skin. In truth, what it tells us, is that any society with enough anger, some partisan division and a deficit of moral courage can sink into authoritarianism and partisan chaos. It is of course possible to argue that even in its present chaos, United State’s institutions are holding up in ways most African countries’ don’t. But to say so would be to woefully miss the point. If Trump could have his way, he would rule for life. And there is enough evidence now to suggest that there are enough people in the US that are open to this idea to make the chances of it happening move from impossible to improbable. And we are only in year one of four of the second reign of the emperor.

If a superpower with centuries-old institutions and democratic legacy can be that prone to institutional collapse, what hope did countries like Uganda; formed just 60 years ago by a combination of historical accidents and colonial interests have?

The point here is not that we are doomed to be a failed continent, even though there are some that would make that argument with compelling evidence. It is that if we are to avoid failure, we as Africans, particularly black Africans, need to rid ourselves of the notion that there is something inherently wrong with us. Our failures are a result of historical anger, partisan (ethnic, religious, political) divisions and an unhealthy deficit of moral courage among both the leaders and the led. And as is currently being evidenced in the land of the free and home of the brave, that is not unique to us. And if it is not unique to us, nor is institutionalism unique to them.

The only question we need to answer, is not whether we can do it, but whether we want it enough to do it. That question will remain until either we perish or we answer in the affirmative. We must answer the call for our generation to be great, or perish and have those that come after us do so.

No shortcuts, no alternatives.

Written by

Ganzi Isharaza

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