How African is the Arab revolution?
The belief that countries need strong dictators runs deep in Africa,
but Kenya, Namibia and South Sudan point to a freer future
Khaled Diab
Monday March 28 2011
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/28/african-arab-revolution-kenya-namibiaThough the current revolutionary wave started in north Africa, most
debate has focused on how far it will spread in the Arab world: but
what about the rest of the African continent?
When I visited Kenya this month, it seemed that pretty much everyone I
came across wanted to talk about the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia,
and the tragedy in Libya.
As soon as I touched down, the first person I came across ? David, a
Namibian public official who shared a taxi with me from the airport
into town ? confessed how compulsively he had been watching events
unfold in Egypt, and how the north African revolutions evoked in his
mind and those of other Namibians an excitement they had not felt
since the fall of apartheid.
I was surprised that, on the other side of the continent, in a country
with almost no political, economic, cultural or historical ties with
Egypt, the Egyptian revolution could resonate so intensely. But
perhaps I shouldn't have been, as there is something universally
appealing about people braving oppression to defeat tyranny.
Besides, as one Kenyan NGO worker put it, millions of Africans are
cursed with dictators and tyrants, and so the fact that some of the
longest-serving leaders on the continent have been ousted or are on
their way out ? and all this through the unleashed power of ordinary
people ? is inspirational to marginalised and disenfranchised citizens
across the continent.
So, could the spirit of the Arab revolution spread south into sub-
Saharan Africa? Some people I met are hopeful that it will, citing the
fact that many African countries share similar social, economic and
demographic realities with Egypt and Tunisia, and that young Africans
are waking up to their potential.
This "youthquake" certainly appears to be a factor in Nigeria. "As
Nigerians prepare for presidential elections next month, what is
happening, much less dramatically than in north Africa but with
perhaps as much long-term significance, is that the youth is finally
awake," Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote recently [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/16/nigerian-revolution-young-people-democracy"
title="guardian.co.uk: A Nigerian revolution].
Others are of the opinion that events up north will have little impact
further south. "Many Africans see these revolutions as an 'Arab' thing
and do not really see themselves as part of these events," said
Marion, a Kenyan social activist. And the failure of Zimbabwean
activists [
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/03/01/zimbabwe-virtually-no-revolution/" title="globalspin.blogs.time.com: Zimbabwe:
Virtually No Revolution] to mount a Cairo-style "million citizen
march" in Harare's very own Tahrir Square lends some credence to this
view.
Some also cited the more fractured and fragile nature of many African
societies, and how tribalism and other divisions, as well as poor
communication infrastructure, would make it difficult to mobilise the
population as a whole to rally round a single agenda.
When I mentioned that this feared tribalism had not stopped Libyans of
diverse backgrounds from uniting against Muammar Gaddafi, Sarah, who
cut a fearsome matriarchal figure, predicted in no uncertain terms
that she expected the Libyan dictator to emerge victorious ? an
outcome she favoured immensely. "In Africa, we need strong men to hold
our societies together, otherwise we will have civil war, as Libya is
proving," she asserted defiantly, unleashing a storm of protest from
her colleagues ? who, like me, pointed out that the civil strife in
Libya is entirely of the Gaddafi family's making. I was shocked that
she could speak of the Libyan leader, who had ordered air strikes and
declared war on his own people, with such abandon and apparent
infatuation.
"And where will the rest of Africa be without Gaddafi? Forgotten and
neglected," she said, expressing her expectation that the new crop of
north African regimes would not be nearly as generous or involved in
the African scene as Africa's self-crowned "king of kings [http://
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1165858/Im-king-kings-Gaddafi-storms-Arab-summit-labels-Saudi-king-British-product.html"
title="dailymail.co.uk: I'm the king of kings:]" was.
These assertions drove home to me how many Africans share ? along with
Arabs, at least, until the revolution changed attitudes ? a belief in
the apparent futility of freedom. The legacy of colonial oppression
and exploitation, followed by postcolonial despotism and corporatism,
has left many Africans disillusioned and sceptical that they can
become masters of their own destiny.
But despite this negative self-image and the outside world's view of
Africa as a hopeless, benighted continent, an under-remarked
revolution, or perhaps evolution, has been unfolding in many parts of
the continent.
Kenya is a good example. Despite large income inequalities and a
relatively high crime rate, clean and green Nairobi exudes prosperity
and self-confidence. Though the city does not have much of a past, it
exhibits a hope in the future and the power of freedom and knowledge.
In fact, education seems to be a national obsession in Kenya, with
some newspapers even leading with their education section.
Politically, Kenya has already had its own "revolution", when its
former dictator, Daniel arap Moi, was forced to step down [http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_arap_Moi" title="wikipedia.org: Daniel
arap Moi] in 2002, and his anointed successor, who also happened to be
the son of Kenya's founding father, was hammered at the ballot box.
Things have soured somewhat. Kenya's current president, Mwai Kibaki
[
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mwai_Kibaki" title="wikipedia.org: Mwai
Kibaki], has exhibited psuedo-dictatorial tendencies and managed to
hold on to power in 2007 amid accusations of vote-rigging, which
sparked a wave of protests [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_Kenyan_crisis" title="wikipedia.org: 20072008 Kenyan
crisis] and violence that rocked the country.
"In Kenya, we take 10 steps forward and 12 steps back," one Kenyan
joked. My personal impression is that, despite numerous setbacks, the
country is advancing. For example, Kenya's new constitution [http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Kenya" title="wikipedia.org:
Constitution of Kenya 2010], despite delays in its implementation,
will limit the power of the presidency, boost the transparency and
authority of the judiciary, and empower women.
From Kenya's maturing democracy to Namibia's successful post-apartheid
multiparty democracy to South Sudan's peaceful divorce from the north,
Africans are slowly and gradually charting a course towards a brighter
and freer future that is far removed from the images of conflict and
destruction with which the outside world is most familiar.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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