By: Chris Agbiti

November 4th, 2008 will, undoubtedly go down in world history as epoch making.

It was a day that signposted the final internment of the age-long divisive philosophy that held one race superior to another (apology to the legend, Bob Marley); it was a day the entire world came together, irrespective of creed and religion, to recite Dune Dimitis (however, not with long faces) for the monster of racial discrimination that had for long defined the political climate of America but now chased away; it was the day Barack Hussein Obama won in landslide, the U.S Presidential election.

The U.S. Presidential Election has come and gone but the echoes of it continue to reverberate in every nook and cranny of Africa especially in Kenya where Obama traces his patrilineal descent from. The euphoria of Obama’s victory will for long continue its ripples in the Negroid race of Africa.

However, the point is worth making that for the Americans, the euphoria of joy sweeping through its entire nation is understandable: That, at last, someone who has a clear vision and a good grasp of the issues that need to be addressed to restore U.S. lost glory, consequent upon the lacklustre performance of the out-going president, was not held back from realizing that ambition by prejudices. But for Africans, what other reason beside the sentimental consideration that a fellow brother African now becomes President of U.S., can we adduce to bedrocks our own euphoria at the election of Obama?

If one may ask, what business do African countries, together with their stinking leaders, have in rejoicing over Obama’s victory at the U.S. poll when we know in our hearts of hearts that we will never allow the kind of system that has produced Obama in U.S. election to be replicated in our own land?

Or, are we under a delusion that, with Obama’s presidency, African countries shall wake up one morning, like the fabled Alice in Wonderland, and find all the good things of life in sufficiency for all as obtain in the western world, even while our leaders and people continue in their culture of greed, corruption, ethnic hostilities and all such practices antithetical to the dictate of modern civilization?

It bears repeating to state here that it borders on crass hypocrisy for African countries such as Zambia, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, et al, to rejoice at Obama’s victory even when they are all still involved in various acts of prejudices, this time around, not even against a coloured person but against their own black brothers.

We have witnessed instances in Zambia where the first post independent Kenneth Kaunda had his citizenship withdrawn on the allegation that his ancestry is somewhere in another African country! Similar acts have played out in Ivory Coast and Nigeria (Shugaba’s case). The xenophobic hostilities in South Africa and Zimbabwe are all still fresh in our memories. Africans must be reminded not to expect too much from the presidency of Obama any more than they expected from the presidency of Bill Clinton.

Our only obvious claim to Obama is his blood ties to his Kenyan father. But we must call to memory that, for all the time the elder Obama lived, his conduct in juxtaposition to what Obama Jr. is and stands for today shows, in very lucid details, those sad commentaries of a pure bred African man. The elder Obama came to America and deceitfully led Obama’s mother into marriage, even while he was already married to another Kenya woman back home.

He was to later abandon Obama’s mother and returned to Kenya, leaving young Obama in the care of his maternal grandparents in America. It was recorded that he died drunk-driving. Should Obama’s father were to be alive, one imagines that he too may be rejoicing just like the other African leaders are hypocritically doing.

We must stop deceiving ourselves. It is high time we told ourselves a few home truths. Whatever Obama is today or stands for, he owes it all to the American society.

If he were to be brought up in Kenya, his fatherland, with all his seeming immeasurable grace of intelligence, he would have ended up, at best, as a very brilliant but frustrated university don holed up somewhere in one of our glorified secondary schools, called university, like many other frustrated Obamas in our African society today. The American society that shaped Obama to become what he is to day places a higher premium of kinship of ideas over and above that of blood.

That explains the acceptance of Obama’s candidature across the racial divides. If Obama were not of the rare breed of mankind (who recreates themselves independent of genetic force), he would not even be identifying his African root. It is only for Obama’s high sense of humility and decency that he does so and I commend him for it. Africans must be reminded that as we cheer Obama’s victory, we must cast away that extra baggage of hypocrisy and begin to reflect on the need for us to home-grow a system similar to what sustains in the U.S. that has made possible the Obama phenomenon.

The world today is ruled by ideas. It is not enough for us bank on blood kinship to Obama and think that alone will be the open sesame to our El Dorado.

In today’s modern world, kinship of ideas, as aforesaid, rather than of blood or ethnicity is one of the driving force of attraction. In doing so, we must remind ourselves that until we jettison that negative attitude that encourages subjugation of fellow man rather than our environment which is what the white man has effectively achieved, we shall continue in our collective grope.

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Chris Agbiti wrote from Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
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Zuma’s Baggage Too Much For South Africa To Bear

Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, may have been left off the hook on a technicality on corruption, fraud and money laundering charges, but it would be better for him to defend himself in court to lift the cloud of allegations of corruption swirling around his head.

On Friday, South Africa’s High Court ruled the fraud and corruption charges against Zuma — the front-runner to succeed South African President Thabo Mbeki next year — were invalid because prosecutors failed to follow proper procedures. Zuma faces 16 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering, including receiving bribes totaling $500,000 from arms dealers. Judge Chris Nicholson ruled that the National Prosecuting Authority should have consulted Zuma before it pressed corruption charges against him in 2007. Importantly, Judge Nicholson emphasized that he was not giving a verdict on whether Zuma was innocent or guilty and said prosecutors were free to bring charges again.

The increased political pressure now likely to come from Zuma’s buoyant backers and the question marks raised about the prosecuting authority’s competency over this, the second procedural lapse in the case, will make it very difficult for them to press on with charges. Nicholson’s decision in the Pietermaritzburg High Court clears a significant hurdle for Zuma, 66, to secure his party’s nomination for president in next general elections.

South African President Thabo Mbeki’s second and final terms ends next year. Such is the African National Congress’s political dominance that whoever is the party’s chosen candidate for South Africa’s presidency is assured victory.

Yet, if Zuma does not answer the allegations fully in court, the lingering questions over his involvement in alleged corruption will continue to paralyze government, erode public confidence and undermine the democracy. A new South African president will need to tackle a pervasive air of public corruption, which will demand honesty.

Judge Nicholson rightly heavily criticised Mbeki and his government for routinely abusing public institutions to launch vendettas against critics. Yet, in his campaign to quash the corruption charges against him, Zuma and his sometimes violent supporters have attacked the judiciary, democratic institutions, the media and his critics to such an extent that the country’s not yet consolidated constitutional system, institutions and values are put at risk in the same way as they were by Mbeki’s previous manipulation of them.

   Jacob Zuma in Traditional Zulu Garb
Zuma may be popular, but there is a considerable opposition from within the ANC against him, a populist, sexist and homophobic leader with controversial views on HIV/Aids. Zuma claimed he could see by the way a women dressed and sat that she was looking for sex and that he should oblige. Furthermore, he said that he thought having a shower after unprotected sex with an HIV positive partner would would help prevent infection. He has urged the police to shoot first and ask questions later to combat high crime levels. He is under fire from his own camp for flip-flopping on economic policy depending on the audience.

The fierce campaign to secure the presidency for Zuma and the equally stiff opposition to it has paralysed the ANC and the government in such a way that making Zuma president of South Africa will not end. Such is the enmity he evokes from those within the ANC who oppose him that his presidency is likely to be prone to log-jams, making it hard to execute policies which would benefit the country’s poor. Zuma has surrounded himself with hardline demagogues. This will make it difficult for him to bring in new talent — so necessary to energize the country — from across the color, ideological and political divides. Others fear Zuma will be held hostage by special interests and partisan factions from both the left and the right who have rallied around him.

South Africa is stuck in a number of interlocking crises: broken families, communities and society; high levels of poverty, unemployment and crime; perceptions of widespread corruption; increasing racial tensions; faltering democratic institutions; rapidly declining public confidence in government’s ability to deliver services; and looming economic problems.

The country must deal with these problems in an increasing complex, dangerous and economically treacherous world. The ANC and South Africa need a less divisive and more unifying leader, with fresh ideas, to give imaginative leadership to the country’s mountain of problems. Zuma is certainly not the answer.

William M. Gumede is Associate Editor at Africa Confidential. He is Research Fellow at the School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He recently released the bestselling book Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC. Close. Other articles by Mr. Gumede — Read Here

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