Someone, I think Femi, argued that bold, iconoclastic leadership must be wedded to movements. In other words, they should be institutionalized. I agree. This is one way to ensure that the gains of good leadership endure, are not merely the fleeting outcomes of one individual's selflessness, and are harnessed into a long term program of economic and political liberation from the global neoliberal hegemony that has become, in the narrative of some, the big elephant in this discursive room.
Finally, let me propose something controversial and essentialist, and which contradicts most of my own ontological postulations: for the most part, African peoples are oriented towards subservience to authority. To put it crudely, our people tend, perhaps more than other peoples, to take their actionable and discursive cues from the tones set by their leadership. This is a burden and an opportunity. A burden because it engenders docility in the face of authoritarian excess. An opportunity because leadership virtues can trickle down from the leadership to the citizenry/followership faster than they do in other climes, ensuring that the imitative gestures of citizens normalize and internalize programs and reforms that are selfless, egalitarian, and revolutionary. In other words, the dividend of good leadership as a transformative agent and an institutional catalyst are magnified in Africa because of this preexisting politico-cultural dynamic. So, when some of us appear to be lionizing good leadership, we're not merely advancing the fleeting competences of individual leaders and bureaucrats but also the ways in which these competences can permeate society and engineer enduring transformations that are both physical and ideological.
On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 7:57 AM, Elias Bongmba <bongmba@rice.edu> wrote:
Dear Ken,
This is vintage Pius! always brings a good punch (for lack of a better word or idea). Brief remarks! Many of us have followed these conversations from the sideline. Without being reductionist, here is what I have picked up. Some participants in the conversation see African issues from a historical perspective and emphasize the injustices perpetrated on Africans. One cannot deny that. Others emphasize systems that have been harnessed to keep Africa in crisis, hence the criticism of neo liberalism (which I must say as an aside without developing it fully that I am often amazed at what academics who thrive in universities that depend or are funded by money and an economy "grown" in a neo liberal economic system. but that is a different concern which I cannot address here).
The other perspective see resemblances to what is happening in Africa to what goes on in the West and in the United States of America. I think this perspective reminds us that capitalism thrives on greed and "taking care of one's business" because no one will do it for you. It also reminds us that political corruption is an equal opportunity employer, hence the many corrupt politicians we have in the US that are sometimes tried and convicted. Many of them are often caught through an FBI sting operation-an interesting concept in jurisprudence. However, the comparison in these conversations seem to ignore a strong caveat here. "Taking care of business" in the American context many times involves lengthy legislative debates about and on appropriations; a process which draws inspiration from what Tip O'neal once said: "all politics is local." When that dictum is writ large on the global state, it goes by the doctrine of "our national security interest." My point is that the comparisons of current America practices with what goes on in some African countries does not hold.
Finally there are those who argue in these exchanges that African leaders, or Africans should accept responsibility for our problems. I share that position. Without defending myself, the only thing I should add here is that such a position is a footnote to Fanon's Wretched of the Earth, Soyinka's Dance of the Forests, the work of Achebe, Ngugi, Thabo Mbeki, and many of the luminaries of CORDESRIA, who articulated Africa's problems very clearly, but ironically also fought viciously about who was a better representative or messenger of the African crisis and who was a sell out to the West.
Africa needs leaders with a political will that would focus on Africa and mobilize the members of the political community to do same.
Thank you
Elias K. Bongmba
kenneth harrow said the following on 12/19/2010 10:07 PM:
dear pius
a shocking image indeed.
on the other hand...
i live in a district in which our representative uses things like roads extending from the highway to campus as "cash" for the voters. and there is plenty of that everywhere.
what have our congresspersons, senators, brought to our states? who doesn't know some of this?
what tax break has my president just given me? oh, 2% of my income from social security. hmmm; i should vote for him.
and at the same time, why should i, or any of us, listen to those foreigners who cluck their tongues at us?
who is the "us" anyway? i see the picture of the lamidi right in front of my eyes. i respond to an unknown, but large number of readers on this list, each of whom has an opinion, a "vote" in the global elections.
and the local event has now taken hold of thousands of us, literally.
influences peddled locally get moved onto international networks instaneously, and, lo and behold a wikileak shakes up the lamidi and his followers. or don't you think they see us looking at them? are we the only ones to own computers?
i don't know how things get changed, but i am pretty certain that our little narration of this story has leaked out, that it cannot be contained to your and my screen.
so, who is the "us" here?
ken
On 12/19/10 10:31 PM, Pius Adesanmi wrote:
Ken, Moses, Bode, Femi, Ehiedu:
Look at this picture of Lamidi Adedibu distributing cash to followers, 'citizens', and party faithfuls just before an election in 2007:
Adedibu
Why should the people waiting for that cash listen to us and our high-wire disourses and not the gestural "discourse" of Adedibu? How do we reconcile the Africa of our discourses with the Africa known and lived on entirely different wavelengths by Lamidi Adedibu's audience? I am just trying to water down the rarefied trajectory of this thread...
Will Africa's "mess" or problems be half solved the day the folks in this photo can relate to how we narrate them?
Pius
--- On *Sun, 19/12/10, Olabode Ibironke /<ibironke@msu.edu>/* wrote:
From: Olabode Ibironke <ibironke@msu.edu>
Subject: RE: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in
such a mess?
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Sunday, 19 December, 2010, 21:09
I agree with Kwame and Jaye totally. I differ with Ehiedu only in
a few
places:
1. "much of what we say and debate will be side-tracked by the
outcome of
'actual African history in the making'" This presupposes that the
reality of
which he speaks has a logic of its own separate from the
"familiar lazy
constructions of Africa in terms of 'corruption', 'poverty' and
'incapacity'". I prefer to think about this in terms of how
historical
reality and discourses reproduce one another in a mobile
exchange. Certain
discursive constructions create and perpetuate certain realities.
2. systems are not essentially negative and restrictive, they enable,
empower and sustain. So, when we talk about global, I prefer the term
"general", systemic determinations, we are not simply talking about
constraints.
3. it is indeed true that the global system is a prison house for
many. We
must see ourselves jail breaking when we seek fundamental
transformations of
the system.
The overall point is that AFRICA IS NOT AN EXCEPTION. I believe
that Ken
Harrow was preempting the question that usually follows "why is
Africa in
such a mess?" It very often leads to a criticism of leadership,
which is a
mask for questioning the inherent humanity of Africans based on a
characteristic existential situation. He is asking us via Mamdani
to look
beyond Africa to see similar mechanisms re/produce the exact same
situation
time and again. Once we understand those general mechanisms or
apparatuses,
we can set at a purposeful and meaningful program of reconstruction.
Bode
-----Original Message-----
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com</mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of
eiwerieb@hunter.cuny.edu </mc/compose?to=eiwerieb@hunter.cuny.edu>
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2010 9:15 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com</mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com> </mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com></mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in
such a mess?
Is Africa in a mess?
This discussion has gone on for quite sometime and like so much
of such
discussions about Africa it threatens to reduce to the listing of
Africa as
incapacitated and bounded by nothing but constraints. But this
discussion
also provokes several questions.
In what sense is Africa in a mess? Which Africa? All 54
countries? Some
Countries? Are African countries actually where they where 40-50
years ago?
What is actually on the ground that was not there 50 years? What
is actually
missing in terms of Africa's capacity for self-propulsion?
2. It is true that in one way or another there has always being a
world
system much as there is national, regional, state, provincial, town,
village, neighborhood and family systems. People and societies
operate
within and without the bounds of these systems.
3.Historically development has always been about consciousness,
vision,
goals, organization, opportunities, constraints and choice.
4. There is no question that any power that emerges, past and
present will
try to organize the world to its advantage just as China and
India are
trying to do today. The same will apply to any serious African
country that
emerges as a global power. In short, it has always been the
practice and
business of old and emergent powers to organize the world to
their benefit.
There is nothing new about this. What is perhaps new is that the
present
world system due to the advances in transport and telecommunication
technologies is much tighter.
5. But this does not make the world or global system a prison-house.
6. Leaders and peoples even in Africa are quite capable of achieving
breakthroughs as effective economic and social actors and makers
of the
system to the extent that they are driven by a a fairly clear
understanding
of the global system, a consciouness of its potential and actual
constraints
on them, and are willing to mobilize and deploy national
psychological
resources to the project of self-transformation.
7. It is true that Africa has experienced the loss of its
autochtonous
spiritual, religious, linguistic anchors as the animating motive
force of
its self-direction; but his loss is not total and at that this
stage the
lamentation of this loss is neither here nor there.
8. The point is, what will Africa as a unit and its countries do to
participate in this world system as effective self-directed
societies that
relentelessly pursue national and continental objectives with
little regard
to the the constraints of the present global system. Or how can the
continent or more correctly its key and potential vanguard countries
organize to become makers of the global system.
9. Finally, however much we debate "Africa" from the distant or
even from
within, if the terms of our perception and description are
derived from the
defective conceptual simplifications of the world system; and not
from the
ideological and political and practical complexity of "actually
existing
Africa" much of what we say and debate will be side-tracked by
the outcome
of "actual African history in the making" that is not reducible
to the
familiar lazy constructions of Africa in terms of "corruption",
"poverty"
and "incapacity".
Ehiedu Iweriebor
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--
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
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