Lost Dream – Analysis: Africa's Ailments: Focus -South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya Are the walls come tumbling down?
Preview: The promise and hope of the 1960s independence seems gone with the wind. The prevailing hopeful winds of independence once blowing through the length and the breadth of the continent, has given way to prevailing winds of violence, busted dreams, misrule, dictatorship, social injustice, economical and political meltdown. The emerging post colonial states once shooting for heights and idealism, freedom and liberty, have given way to basket case, regressive and despotic states.
The hope of a self-sufficient and politically independent states has changed into weak, parasitic mini states that are just prototypes of their colonial powers. The indigenous public that have made so much sacrifice for the struggle for independence became strangers in their own countries.The dreams of Dr. Kwama Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba have changed into nightmare.
Africa is crying for radical economical, political and structural, economical, and social reconfiguration including economical Marshall plans, accelerated educational revolution, construction of social justice institutions, border realignments and territorial adjustments. Africa needs huge input from its Diaspora that have long ago shelved anything that is related to the continent.This may sound extreme but extreme situations need drastic remedies and reactions. leaving the status quo as it is, will not resolve anything. Africa needs peaceful revolutionaries. The time for transformational leadership to step into the plate is now. With the absence of radical actions in the 21st century, the future of this continent will be in the balance.The continent will face a bleak future. If the last 40 years is a witness, things will even go further down hill. If the destructive forces that have been at play for the good part of the past 40 years are not reversed.You are talking about a continent in a very serious crisis ranging from massive human migrations, chronic and intractable conflicts, endless civil wars, devastating famines, water shortage with the scale never seen before, environment devastation, seismic political upheavals and chaos. Some of the above-mentioned are already happening.
This article will revolve around the answers to three questions which are as follows:
"Neither the questions nor their answers are scientific" but just a personal attempt to answer a long lingering riddle.
1. What happened to the illustrators history of the diverse people of this vast continent?
2. What had happened to the heroes of this potentially rich continent?
3. What had happened to the promise of independence?
Before I try to answer the three questions I would like to start with a moving song (Huhoy Afrikay Hurday" (translation, OH! sleeping Africa) by the legendary "Zaynab Haji Ali Bahsan"
"Huhay Afrikay Horiday, Duli Lama Hilaabtii Away Hanada daadii" (Translation OH! sleeping Africa, shake off the indignity, where are your heroes"
Brief answers to the questions
1. In this piece I will attempt to address the answers to the three above-named provocative questions. It is a historical fact that Africa has a celebrated ancient history. There were several ancient civilizations around the continent. Among many other civilizations, the Great Zimbabwe Civilization in Southern Africa, the Adel Empire (Somaliland) in the Horn of Africa, the Songhay, and Dahomey civilizations in the West Africa were high lighted. There was also great civilizations in North Africa or "Almaghreb) such as Carthage (AlQardajana)-modern Tunisia, the Berber and the Muslim civilizations, following the lighting conquest of the area by the Muslim armies led by the legendary Muslim warrior, Amir Ibna Al-As (Omar Ibna-Al-As). The ruins of some of those history can be seen in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria (Al Jasayir) and Morocco.These ancient civilizations left behind a huge body of knowledge, impressive ruins and scholarship.
These treasure trophies were largely neglected by Africans.Those ancient African histories can be well-matched if not better than the much publicized and extensively written about European civilizations such as, the Roman, Byzantine, and the Hapsburg Empires, the Phoenicians, Napoleon and others.The difference between the later and the former, is simple, the later were well researched, documented and written about, while the former still lays as ruins all over the continent.The European colonial powers portrayed Africa as a place which has no written history, and populated by sub human savages. But the bulk of the blame of what had happened to such an illustrious history will go to people of the continent. The heritage, history and past glories of nations must be documented by its people.That responsibility has eluded both the indigenous inhabitants of the continent and their diaspora.
2. This thought provoking question regarding as to what has happened to Africa's heroes, is a persistent question, all those concerned about the ills and aliments of Africa often ask. What they are trying to say is, how come? some body, some where such as a traditional elder, local leader, religious personality or what have you can not come forward, and intervene to stop the endless conflicts and dysfunction going on around the continent. It crystal clear the post colonial regional and international organizations such as the AU and United Nations and their agencies have miserably failed. Tootless organizations that have outlived their usefulness can not and will not solve their problems. These organizations failed miserably to resolve any major problem in the continent. In some cases they exacerbate problems. Look closely when ever a challenge faces an African nation, they call for a meeting. In these gatherings they formulate empty press releases and immediately pass the problem to the United Nations which is another failed bureaucracy. The point here is Africans need to resolve their own problems, because there is nobody else out there who can revolve their conflicts.
3. The third question is by far the most painful and difficult question many Africans want to digest, dissect, analyze and are eager to understand, what had happened to the independence promise? It is a concrete fact the African people gallantly and courageously ejected the recalcitrant colonial powers from their land. Those masses who gave their blood and treasure for the independence, freedom and liberty of the continent never enjoyed the fruits of that huge sacrifice. During the hasty departure from the continent, the colonial powers have tricked the African masses, by placing their friends in the highest positions of power at the expense of the general public. These dark skinned selected leaders look dark but Europeans in their thinking and mind set. For the last 40 years, the continent was misruled by an unholy alliance of European appointed African despots and their former colonial masters. Those African dictators were, what the famed African revolutionary Francis Fannon called" Black Skins, White Minds" in his famous novel, "The wretched of the Earth". That is the process that brought horrible leaders such as Mugabe, Milton Obete, Siyaka Stevens, Omar Bongo, Nimandi Ajeki and others.
The shaky post colonial artificial constructs are in trouble. The world is at the dawn of the 21st century. Some developing countries who more or less achieved their Independence the same time as Africa are doing very well. Countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia, and others have achieved huge development in many departments ranging from education, business, manufacturing capacity, technology, health care and the like. They have already achieved several developmental index markers. But in Africa the situation is different. Many Africans, Why there is no single viable country in the continent? This may be a very provocative question but it is the reality. The post colonial artificial states in Africa started with huge structural problems. The colonial powers who hastily exited from the continent never prepared these structural deficient states to become normal countries.There was no gradual transfer of power.They never prepared them for elections. The colonial powers never allowed well-grounded political parties based on political philosophy to flourish. The colonial times was basically an era of autocracy and dictatorship. Some of the European powers may have democracy in their native countries. But in their colonies and foreign possessions there was a completely different story.
Soon after the so-called independence of 1960, many indigenous Africans felt their government are not representative governments.That was one of the reasons military coups happen in Nigeria, Ghana and some other countries. Again the military governments were never successful in Africa.The military governments happen to became more repressive, autocratic, cracked down on the media, banned political parties and can not tolerate any kind of dissent. As a matter of fact, these early coups which later on became an epidemic stifled the infant defective states to grow. The rudimentary democratic forces emerging in post independence years, have been smothered by the autocratic military government. Typically the democratic forces have been uprooted soon after birth. That is why Africa went through a very long winter of military government coups.The illegitimate and unpopular African regimes spent so much money to maintain their survival.
They earmarked a huge chunk of the meager resources on the police and the military. Another very dangerous thing they did was they polarized their nations. They divided their people into different sectors based on ethnicity, tribalism and clannism. They compounded the existing difference between the people.This policy of divide and rule directly copied from the colonial play book was excessively used. This is a policy that prolonged the life spans of horrible regimes. another important components that prolonged despotic regimes was the cold war. The two bitterly competing superpowers at the the time, the united States and the Soviet Union cut huge checks for the illegal dictators in Africa. Terrible depots like Mobutu, Haile Selassie, Bokassa, Eddi Amin and others have been allowed to destroy their countries and nations.
The cumulative effect of the sustained polarization perpetrated by heartless and short sighted dictators, the difficulty to remove them from power because they completely shut down all the peaceful political process, that have let bad leaders to cling to power for a long time. They have banned political parties, stifled the media. There was a time every African country has only one TV/Radio Station and one news paper and all of those were pedaling the government line. Dissent was tolerated. The accumulated grievance and the difficulty to rectify it have moved many African communities in to a state of despair and apathy. Some of that apathy has manifested itself in the form of rebel groups led by bad actors, and other types of violence. Charles Taylor of Liberia, Sanku of Sierra Leone, Zinewi of Ethiopia, Afwargus of Eritrea, Lorraine Kabila of Congo and others will come to mind. At the present African communities are in state of resignation and hopelessness.
Africa's artificial states are falling apart one by one
Like many other African countries, Kenya is an artificial creation. The British basically jumbled together about 40 tribes, who have their own subcultures, languages, territory and way of living. These colonial-created countries called nation states never addressed the concerns and special needs of these disparate communities. New countries have created and no nation building to bridge the natural gulf between these tribes was never done. The British was forced to leave and when they were leaving, they never prepared these new countries how to deal with the existing inherent problems. The despicable images from Kenya, you have recently seen around the world is a volcanic eruption relating to the huge structural problems the British left behind. These problems were largely left unaddressed by the new African leaders. Those African leaders never cared to address those inherent problems, related to the structural configuration of the new countries.
That is why you have huge problems and underdevelopment in most of Africa. The post independence African leaders were prototypes of their colonial masters. The colonial masters left Africa with their hand picked men in charge. These men called Africa's big men or presidents for life failed to address to monumental problems they inherited from the British. These men became very busy to secure their positions. They have created government and machinery geared for their life long misrule of these artificial states. Therefore, what one can see in Kenya today is not that unpredictable. Some are wondering how come? it did n't happen sooner than this. The carnage in Kenya is neither strange nor the last problem to be seen in the sorrow African scene. The regional African organizations such as the AU are also a carbon copy of the despicable African rulers.
This process's of disintegration, deconstruction, devolution will continue for a long time to come. Countries taking the Somalia route will be on the rise. All the indications are pointing to that bitter reality. if you look about the kinds of leaders that still dominate the African landscape plus economic difficulties, impending environment problems, pandemic disease, collapsing infra structure, non existent public survive, meager health care and health care facilities, the African Continent is heading to cataclysmic disaster in the 20 century. A massive well-organized movement that may make radical structural configuration can save this sorrow continent.
Rwanda and Darfur genocide happened in their watch. They did nothing about the carnage, chaos and wanton loss of life in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad and many other places. The above named are the most difficult conflict that are not completely resolved. There are so many other brewing conflicts all over Africa which may flare up at any time. For the last month we have witnessed the carnage, burning people alive and impending ethnic cleansing, which may degenerate into a full-fledged into civil war which eventually lead into a genocide.
Zimbabwe
The disputed election is Zimbabwe also indicate the emerging pattern in Africa. Like Kenya, in Zimbabwe another president for life dictator is tenuously clinging to power, after loosing election. What is happening in Zimbabwe is a carbon copy of what had recently happened in Kenya. The 84 years old Robert Mugabe party already lost the parliamentary elections. They have conceded about their lost of the parliament. But he is still hanging on the power to the presidency, which he had already lost. Dictators do are not visionary. His days of iron rule has expired in Zimbabwe. There is a silent revolution going in Africa and the world at large. There is a genuine movement of change sweeping through out the globe. The upheaval in Tibet is also part of this movement of change and hope. Baraka Obama is may the leader of this international movement of change, which may as large if not larger than the anti-colonial movement that started, following World War II.
What is happening in Zimbabwe is disgraceful. It is a despicable thing a vicious dictator is doing in that country. That dictator is Robert Mugabe, a so-called war hero, a revolutionary who chased the repressive, minority racist regime of the former Rhodesia. Ironically these days, the Zimbabwe of 2008, led by Robert Mugabe is worse off than than Ian Smith's Rhodesia in every developmental indicator. A potentially rich country, the economy is in ruins. There is a severe shortage of food, in a country which has the potential to base the basket of all Southern Africa. It is now close to a month since the presidential elections have taken place last month.
Every body failed here. The regional leaders fall short of interfering Robert Mugabe mess in Zimbabwe. The so-called African Union miserably failed.This is a useless club of post colonial gangs. They have a long tract record of not properly resolving a single crisis around the continent. The AU is not more than a den of dictators. This is a for live presidents club where is done. The United Nations is another good for nothing organization which outlived their usefulness. This another secretive club organized by the victors of World War 11. Most of those victors are were colonial powers who were at the time on the verge of loosing all their colonies.
Kenya
What you have recently seen in Kenya, the darling of the west is a case in point. At the time that country appeared to be drifting to an uncontrollable violence. Just about ago this was a country regarded and widely known in the west as a bastion of peace, democracy, rule of law and what have you in a sea of chaos, mayhem, dysfunction and dictatorship. This is a country which is the regional hub for numerous international organizations. Nairobi is the financial center for East and Central Africa. Kenya also is the recipient of huge western aid. But to some observers Kenya may superficially fit the above picture. The real picture is far different than the picture the west has been painting about Kenya. Kenya is a country run by a high corrupt government. Kenya is a country where the majority people live in abject poverty. There are only few people who became extremely rich on the backs of the ordinary Kenya. meanwhile, Kenya is a country primarily dominated by one major tribe-the Kikuyu, which is the tribe of the current president who was accused of rigging the elections Mr. kibaki.
The Kikuyu dominated the finance, education, the military. The most violent gangs in Kenya the Mungigi is also predominately belong to the Kikuyu tribe.The irony here is Kenya, which seemed to be the beloved child of the west itself has monumental structural problems just like its contemporary African countries. These problems are across the board problems which are not unique to a particular country. Lately they popped up in Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, South Africa and other places. Earlier these are the pathologies that have devastated Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and many other states.
South Africa
Shame on South Africa, the on going mass murder of defenseless immigrants will leave an inedible stain on the name of their beleaguered nation. Shame on the government of South Africa.The carnage in South Africa will stain the name of that country for generations to come.The callousness, malignancy and ferocity of the unprovoked attacks against the helpless is unprecedented. These attacks are even more ferocious than brutal fascist attacks against the supporters of Chile's elected president Dr. Salvador Allende in 1973. At the time, thousands of Allende sympathizers were herded in an open soccer stadium and butchered in mass. The magnitude and the scale of mass murder have crossed all the boundaries of humanity. These types of acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The government of South Africa has flagrantly violated the "1949″ Geneva Convention for refugees. Of all governments in the world, this government has been built from the ashes of the former apartheid minority regime of South Africa. It is mind bugling how such government miserably failed to protect the poor, down trodden and the dispossessed who fled the ravages of Africa's most notorious dictators, the likes of Robert Mugabe, Zinewi, Siyad Barre, Charles Taylor, Eddi Amin and many other myopic despots around the continent. The government of South Africa has virtually disappeared from the streets where brutal mobs committed heinous crimes against immigrants.
They are missing in action. Where is the president of that country? S. African police watched passively when innocent people have been hacked to death, burned alive and cold bloodedly killed with impunity. South Africans have been welcomed around the world for many years. S. Africans have been helped during their hour of need. But what is happening now through S. Africa is a shameful behavior.This is unprecedented and such barbaric actions had never been committed any where around the world, since the days of the Rwanda genocide. What is happening in South Africa just sounds and smells like another genocide along the long lines of the Rwanda genocide in the making.These uncontrollable killers seems to be on a roll. They appear to be on to a new round of another carnage, with a magnitude never witnessed in Africa. Mobocracy seem to be taking grip of South Africa. The current rampage appears to be calculated and premeditated violence which may not be only confined to the poor immigrants only. This may be a prelude of very long and nasty summer for South Africa.The intensity of this large scale attack against immigrants, may the beginning of a devastating civil war and the collapse of law and order in South Africa. The country appears to be drifting into lawlessness and chaos. The last hope of Africa may be edging towards chronic violence and chaos.
Analysis
What you are seeing through the continent is chickens coming back to roast. There is no single stable, cohesive, democratic country around the whole vast continent. The problems are diverse, multifaceted, and some are more acute in certain countries than others. But there is a one sad under laying theme, the underdevelopment, the political and economical mess and across the board failing states is all the same. Even South Africa which was once seen as the savior of the continent, in the late nineties is lately spiraling out of control. As of now, full fledged violence is going on in many South Africa major cities. few days ago, the military of that country was mobilized to stem the violence against foreigners.
Before the eruption of the recent spate of vitriolic xenophobia and violence against immigrants, South Africa's murder rate was the highest in the world. The AIDS pandemic is devastating in South Africa, nearly five million South Africans have the virus that causes AIDS.This is a sad and gloomy picture in a potentially rich country. Apparently the African continent has been left behind in the 20th century, while the rest of the world has transitioned into the 21st century. Africa needs visionary leadership that may extracts her from the 20th century mess of desperation, underdevelopment, shaky, autocratic, failed, failed and failing regimes.
You can see those former colonial constructs were not economically viable countries.Those were artificial constructs which were arbitrarily curved regardless of ethnicity, culture, and religion. The former OAU aggravated the situation in 1963 when they unanimously legalized the colonial borders. The problems, political stalemates, violence, under development, huge refugees problems, armed resistances and rebel groups, is in part due to the defective artificial states they inherited from the former oppressive colonial powers.
S. Ige
Preview: The promise and hope of the 1960s independence seems gone with the wind. The prevailing hopeful winds of independence once blowing through the length and the breadth of the continent, has given way to prevailing winds of violence, busted dreams, misrule, dictatorship, social injustice, economical and political meltdown. The emerging post colonial states once shooting for heights and idealism, freedom and liberty, have given way to basket case, regressive and despotic states.
The hope of a self-sufficient and politically independent states has changed into weak, parasitic mini states that are just prototypes of their colonial powers. The indigenous public that have made so much sacrifice for the struggle for independence became strangers in their own countries.The dreams of Dr. Kwama Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba have changed into nightmare.
Africa is crying for radical economical, political and structural, economical, and social reconfiguration including economical Marshall plans, accelerated educational revolution, construction of social justice institutions, border realignments and territorial adjustments. Africa needs huge input from its Diaspora that have long ago shelved anything that is related to the continent.This may sound extreme but extreme situations need drastic remedies and reactions. leaving the status quo as it is, will not resolve anything. Africa needs peaceful revolutionaries. The time for transformational leadership to step into the plate is now. With the absence of radical actions in the 21st century, the future of this continent will be in the balance.The continent will face a bleak future. If the last 40 years is a witness, things will even go further down hill. If the destructive forces that have been at play for the good part of the past 40 years are not reversed.You are talking about a continent in a very serious crisis ranging from massive human migrations, chronic and intractable conflicts, endless civil wars, devastating famines, water shortage with the scale never seen before, environment devastation, seismic political upheavals and chaos. Some of the above-mentioned are already happening.
This article will revolve around the answers to three questions which are as follows:
"Neither the questions nor their answers are scientific" but just a personal attempt to answer a long lingering riddle.
1. What happened to the illustrators history of the diverse people of this vast continent?
2. What had happened to the heroes of this potentially rich continent?
3. What had happened to the promise of independence?
Before I try to answer the three questions I would like to start with a moving song (Huhoy Afrikay Hurday" (translation, OH! sleeping Africa) by the legendary "Zaynab Haji Ali Bahsan"
"Huhay Afrikay Horiday, Duli Lama Hilaabtii Away Hanada daadii" (Translation OH! sleeping Africa, shake off the indignity, where are your heroes"
Brief answers to the questions
1. In this piece I will attempt to address the answers to the three above-named provocative questions. It is a historical fact that Africa has a celebrated ancient history. There were several ancient civilizations around the continent. Among many other civilizations, the Great Zimbabwe Civilization in Southern Africa, the Adel Empire (Somaliland) in the Horn of Africa, the Songhay, and Dahomey civilizations in the West Africa were high lighted. There was also great civilizations in North Africa or "Almaghreb) such as Carthage (AlQardajana)-modern Tunisia, the Berber and the Muslim civilizations, following the lighting conquest of the area by the Muslim armies led by the legendary Muslim warrior, Amir Ibna Al-As (Omar Ibna-Al-As). The ruins of some of those history can be seen in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria (Al Jasayir) and Morocco.These ancient civilizations left behind a huge body of knowledge, impressive ruins and scholarship.
These treasure trophies were largely neglected by Africans.Those ancient African histories can be well-matched if not better than the much publicized and extensively written about European civilizations such as, the Roman, Byzantine, and the Hapsburg Empires, the Phoenicians, Napoleon and others.The difference between the later and the former, is simple, the later were well researched, documented and written about, while the former still lays as ruins all over the continent.The European colonial powers portrayed Africa as a place which has no written history, and populated by sub human savages. But the bulk of the blame of what had happened to such an illustrious history will go to people of the continent. The heritage, history and past glories of nations must be documented by its people.That responsibility has eluded both the indigenous inhabitants of the continent and their diaspora.
2. This thought provoking question regarding as to what has happened to Africa's heroes, is a persistent question, all those concerned about the ills and aliments of Africa often ask. What they are trying to say is, how come? some body, some where such as a traditional elder, local leader, religious personality or what have you can not come forward, and intervene to stop the endless conflicts and dysfunction going on around the continent. It crystal clear the post colonial regional and international organizations such as the AU and United Nations and their agencies have miserably failed. Tootless organizations that have outlived their usefulness can not and will not solve their problems. These organizations failed miserably to resolve any major problem in the continent. In some cases they exacerbate problems. Look closely when ever a challenge faces an African nation, they call for a meeting. In these gatherings they formulate empty press releases and immediately pass the problem to the United Nations which is another failed bureaucracy. The point here is Africans need to resolve their own problems, because there is nobody else out there who can revolve their conflicts.
3. The third question is by far the most painful and difficult question many Africans want to digest, dissect, analyze and are eager to understand, what had happened to the independence promise? It is a concrete fact the African people gallantly and courageously ejected the recalcitrant colonial powers from their land. Those masses who gave their blood and treasure for the independence, freedom and liberty of the continent never enjoyed the fruits of that huge sacrifice. During the hasty departure from the continent, the colonial powers have tricked the African masses, by placing their friends in the highest positions of power at the expense of the general public. These dark skinned selected leaders look dark but Europeans in their thinking and mind set. For the last 40 years, the continent was misruled by an unholy alliance of European appointed African despots and their former colonial masters. Those African dictators were, what the famed African revolutionary Francis Fannon called" Black Skins, White Minds" in his famous novel, "The wretched of the Earth". That is the process that brought horrible leaders such as Mugabe, Milton Obete, Siyaka Stevens, Omar Bongo, Nimandi Ajeki and others.
The shaky post colonial artificial constructs are in trouble. The world is at the dawn of the 21st century. Some developing countries who more or less achieved their Independence the same time as Africa are doing very well. Countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia, and others have achieved huge development in many departments ranging from education, business, manufacturing capacity, technology, health care and the like. They have already achieved several developmental index markers. But in Africa the situation is different. Many Africans, Why there is no single viable country in the continent? This may be a very provocative question but it is the reality. The post colonial artificial states in Africa started with huge structural problems. The colonial powers who hastily exited from the continent never prepared these structural deficient states to become normal countries.There was no gradual transfer of power.They never prepared them for elections. The colonial powers never allowed well-grounded political parties based on political philosophy to flourish. The colonial times was basically an era of autocracy and dictatorship. Some of the European powers may have democracy in their native countries. But in their colonies and foreign possessions there was a completely different story.
Soon after the so-called independence of 1960, many indigenous Africans felt their government are not representative governments.That was one of the reasons military coups happen in Nigeria, Ghana and some other countries. Again the military governments were never successful in Africa.The military governments happen to became more repressive, autocratic, cracked down on the media, banned political parties and can not tolerate any kind of dissent. As a matter of fact, these early coups which later on became an epidemic stifled the infant defective states to grow. The rudimentary democratic forces emerging in post independence years, have been smothered by the autocratic military government. Typically the democratic forces have been uprooted soon after birth. That is why Africa went through a very long winter of military government coups.The illegitimate and unpopular African regimes spent so much money to maintain their survival.
They earmarked a huge chunk of the meager resources on the police and the military. Another very dangerous thing they did was they polarized their nations. They divided their people into different sectors based on ethnicity, tribalism and clannism. They compounded the existing difference between the people.This policy of divide and rule directly copied from the colonial play book was excessively used. This is a policy that prolonged the life spans of horrible regimes. another important components that prolonged despotic regimes was the cold war. The two bitterly competing superpowers at the the time, the united States and the Soviet Union cut huge checks for the illegal dictators in Africa. Terrible depots like Mobutu, Haile Selassie, Bokassa, Eddi Amin and others have been allowed to destroy their countries and nations.
The cumulative effect of the sustained polarization perpetrated by heartless and short sighted dictators, the difficulty to remove them from power because they completely shut down all the peaceful political process, that have let bad leaders to cling to power for a long time. They have banned political parties, stifled the media. There was a time every African country has only one TV/Radio Station and one news paper and all of those were pedaling the government line. Dissent was tolerated. The accumulated grievance and the difficulty to rectify it have moved many African communities in to a state of despair and apathy. Some of that apathy has manifested itself in the form of rebel groups led by bad actors, and other types of violence. Charles Taylor of Liberia, Sanku of Sierra Leone, Zinewi of Ethiopia, Afwargus of Eritrea, Lorraine Kabila of Congo and others will come to mind. At the present African communities are in state of resignation and hopelessness.
Africa's artificial states are falling apart one by one
Like many other African countries, Kenya is an artificial creation. The British basically jumbled together about 40 tribes, who have their own subcultures, languages, territory and way of living. These colonial-created countries called nation states never addressed the concerns and special needs of these disparate communities. New countries have created and no nation building to bridge the natural gulf between these tribes was never done. The British was forced to leave and when they were leaving, they never prepared these new countries how to deal with the existing inherent problems. The despicable images from Kenya, you have recently seen around the world is a volcanic eruption relating to the huge structural problems the British left behind. These problems were largely left unaddressed by the new African leaders. Those African leaders never cared to address those inherent problems, related to the structural configuration of the new countries.
That is why you have huge problems and underdevelopment in most of Africa. The post independence African leaders were prototypes of their colonial masters. The colonial masters left Africa with their hand picked men in charge. These men called Africa's big men or presidents for life failed to address to monumental problems they inherited from the British. These men became very busy to secure their positions. They have created government and machinery geared for their life long misrule of these artificial states. Therefore, what one can see in Kenya today is not that unpredictable. Some are wondering how come? it did n't happen sooner than this. The carnage in Kenya is neither strange nor the last problem to be seen in the sorrow African scene. The regional African organizations such as the AU are also a carbon copy of the despicable African rulers.
This process's of disintegration, deconstruction, devolution will continue for a long time to come. Countries taking the Somalia route will be on the rise. All the indications are pointing to that bitter reality. if you look about the kinds of leaders that still dominate the African landscape plus economic difficulties, impending environment problems, pandemic disease, collapsing infra structure, non existent public survive, meager health care and health care facilities, the African Continent is heading to cataclysmic disaster in the 20 century. A massive well-organized movement that may make radical structural configuration can save this sorrow continent.
Rwanda and Darfur genocide happened in their watch. They did nothing about the carnage, chaos and wanton loss of life in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad and many other places. The above named are the most difficult conflict that are not completely resolved. There are so many other brewing conflicts all over Africa which may flare up at any time. For the last month we have witnessed the carnage, burning people alive and impending ethnic cleansing, which may degenerate into a full-fledged into civil war which eventually lead into a genocide.
Zimbabwe
The disputed election is Zimbabwe also indicate the emerging pattern in Africa. Like Kenya, in Zimbabwe another president for life dictator is tenuously clinging to power, after loosing election. What is happening in Zimbabwe is a carbon copy of what had recently happened in Kenya. The 84 years old Robert Mugabe party already lost the parliamentary elections. They have conceded about their lost of the parliament. But he is still hanging on the power to the presidency, which he had already lost. Dictators do are not visionary. His days of iron rule has expired in Zimbabwe. There is a silent revolution going in Africa and the world at large. There is a genuine movement of change sweeping through out the globe. The upheaval in Tibet is also part of this movement of change and hope. Baraka Obama is may the leader of this international movement of change, which may as large if not larger than the anti-colonial movement that started, following World War II.
What is happening in Zimbabwe is disgraceful. It is a despicable thing a vicious dictator is doing in that country. That dictator is Robert Mugabe, a so-called war hero, a revolutionary who chased the repressive, minority racist regime of the former Rhodesia. Ironically these days, the Zimbabwe of 2008, led by Robert Mugabe is worse off than than Ian Smith's Rhodesia in every developmental indicator. A potentially rich country, the economy is in ruins. There is a severe shortage of food, in a country which has the potential to base the basket of all Southern Africa. It is now close to a month since the presidential elections have taken place last month.
Every body failed here. The regional leaders fall short of interfering Robert Mugabe mess in Zimbabwe. The so-called African Union miserably failed.This is a useless club of post colonial gangs. They have a long tract record of not properly resolving a single crisis around the continent. The AU is not more than a den of dictators. This is a for live presidents club where is done. The United Nations is another good for nothing organization which outlived their usefulness. This another secretive club organized by the victors of World War 11. Most of those victors are were colonial powers who were at the time on the verge of loosing all their colonies.
Kenya
What you have recently seen in Kenya, the darling of the west is a case in point. At the time that country appeared to be drifting to an uncontrollable violence. Just about ago this was a country regarded and widely known in the west as a bastion of peace, democracy, rule of law and what have you in a sea of chaos, mayhem, dysfunction and dictatorship. This is a country which is the regional hub for numerous international organizations. Nairobi is the financial center for East and Central Africa. Kenya also is the recipient of huge western aid. But to some observers Kenya may superficially fit the above picture. The real picture is far different than the picture the west has been painting about Kenya. Kenya is a country run by a high corrupt government. Kenya is a country where the majority people live in abject poverty. There are only few people who became extremely rich on the backs of the ordinary Kenya. meanwhile, Kenya is a country primarily dominated by one major tribe-the Kikuyu, which is the tribe of the current president who was accused of rigging the elections Mr. kibaki.
The Kikuyu dominated the finance, education, the military. The most violent gangs in Kenya the Mungigi is also predominately belong to the Kikuyu tribe.The irony here is Kenya, which seemed to be the beloved child of the west itself has monumental structural problems just like its contemporary African countries. These problems are across the board problems which are not unique to a particular country. Lately they popped up in Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, South Africa and other places. Earlier these are the pathologies that have devastated Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and many other states.
South Africa
Shame on South Africa, the on going mass murder of defenseless immigrants will leave an inedible stain on the name of their beleaguered nation. Shame on the government of South Africa.The carnage in South Africa will stain the name of that country for generations to come.The callousness, malignancy and ferocity of the unprovoked attacks against the helpless is unprecedented. These attacks are even more ferocious than brutal fascist attacks against the supporters of Chile's elected president Dr. Salvador Allende in 1973. At the time, thousands of Allende sympathizers were herded in an open soccer stadium and butchered in mass. The magnitude and the scale of mass murder have crossed all the boundaries of humanity. These types of acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The government of South Africa has flagrantly violated the "1949″ Geneva Convention for refugees. Of all governments in the world, this government has been built from the ashes of the former apartheid minority regime of South Africa. It is mind bugling how such government miserably failed to protect the poor, down trodden and the dispossessed who fled the ravages of Africa's most notorious dictators, the likes of Robert Mugabe, Zinewi, Siyad Barre, Charles Taylor, Eddi Amin and many other myopic despots around the continent. The government of South Africa has virtually disappeared from the streets where brutal mobs committed heinous crimes against immigrants.
They are missing in action. Where is the president of that country? S. African police watched passively when innocent people have been hacked to death, burned alive and cold bloodedly killed with impunity. South Africans have been welcomed around the world for many years. S. Africans have been helped during their hour of need. But what is happening now through S. Africa is a shameful behavior.This is unprecedented and such barbaric actions had never been committed any where around the world, since the days of the Rwanda genocide. What is happening in South Africa just sounds and smells like another genocide along the long lines of the Rwanda genocide in the making.These uncontrollable killers seems to be on a roll. They appear to be on to a new round of another carnage, with a magnitude never witnessed in Africa. Mobocracy seem to be taking grip of South Africa. The current rampage appears to be calculated and premeditated violence which may not be only confined to the poor immigrants only. This may be a prelude of very long and nasty summer for South Africa.The intensity of this large scale attack against immigrants, may the beginning of a devastating civil war and the collapse of law and order in South Africa. The country appears to be drifting into lawlessness and chaos. The last hope of Africa may be edging towards chronic violence and chaos.
Analysis
What you are seeing through the continent is chickens coming back to roast. There is no single stable, cohesive, democratic country around the whole vast continent. The problems are diverse, multifaceted, and some are more acute in certain countries than others. But there is a one sad under laying theme, the underdevelopment, the political and economical mess and across the board failing states is all the same. Even South Africa which was once seen as the savior of the continent, in the late nineties is lately spiraling out of control. As of now, full fledged violence is going on in many South Africa major cities. few days ago, the military of that country was mobilized to stem the violence against foreigners.
Before the eruption of the recent spate of vitriolic xenophobia and violence against immigrants, South Africa's murder rate was the highest in the world. The AIDS pandemic is devastating in South Africa, nearly five million South Africans have the virus that causes AIDS.This is a sad and gloomy picture in a potentially rich country. Apparently the African continent has been left behind in the 20th century, while the rest of the world has transitioned into the 21st century. Africa needs visionary leadership that may extracts her from the 20th century mess of desperation, underdevelopment, shaky, autocratic, failed, failed and failing regimes.
You can see those former colonial constructs were not economically viable countries.Those were artificial constructs which were arbitrarily curved regardless of ethnicity, culture, and religion. The former OAU aggravated the situation in 1963 when they unanimously legalized the colonial borders. The problems, political stalemates, violence, under development, huge refugees problems, armed resistances and rebel groups, is in part due to the defective artificial states they inherited from the former oppressive colonial powers.
S. Ige
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