Osagyefo Kwabena:
Afrinhyia Pa oo! I like the spirit in which you handled the youngest MP's story. I also laughed when I saw where you sounded like Idi Amin Dada: "that this has not happened in Europe yet"! Does anyone remember when Idi Amin Dada outragiously asked three or four Uganda-based Whites (maybe, his friends) to carry him in a massive chair, with the caption underneath reading: "The Whiteman's burden in Uganda Today"? Many people fell out laughing at the lunatic behavior of the man, who reportedly told his Uganda Central Bank: "If we don't have money, just print more. No printing machine in Uganda...?"
I also like the youngish age issue because I still remember that several African countries, in the 1960s, advertsied job openings with the caveat that "applicants must not be less than 50 years old..." I still recall, with laughter, the time that an uncle, aged about 45 years old had to borrow an over-sized suit so that he would dress up to look old enough to interview for a Public Relations Officer job in the mid-1966s in Accra, Ghana. The applicants, as stipulated at the time, must be over 50 years old to put in an application, the advretisement cautioned or demanded.
Osagyefo Ampim Oseadeeye Kwabena, many thanks for your great posting! Now, you ame me agree that birds of the same feathers flock together!
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 4:13 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman
Nana AB:
Afrihyia Pa. I like to massage academic buttons so bear with me in rethinking this piece. Well, the London-based Independent's account may not be "neocolonial," as you cast the caveat, but it certainly has all the webs of the Western media's hegemony over it. The Independent did the right thing by identifying the challenges of "ageism and sexism" that the young lady MP is likely to face, which at any rate can be universalized. One problem is that there is an underlying Africanization of decrepit aging male politicians which may be true, but the inconvenient comparative truth is that all over Europe we have aging male politicians dominating politics. Thus the African experience is not an exception. Absolutely, this does not mean that it is a good thing. More importantly, I expect the Independent to herald the election of a 20-year old lady MP as a major Ugandan achievement, indeed a great turning point, on the pathways of Africans' domestication of Western "democratic tradition," and arguably, this has not happened in Europe yet.
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 12:36 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: Wahab, Hassan; mannan20@hotmail.com; nwahab1@yahoo.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Africa's youngest MP is 20 and a woman
Brothers and Sisters:
Below is a true story, not just a neo-colonial piece! Please, scroll down and enjoy it.
A.B.
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