At a time when democracy has lost its cache all around the world including in America, Zimbabwe today blinked a glimmer of freedom. We’re all on pins and needles wondering if that blink will flicker or flourish.
One week from today thirty years of Zimbabwe could be discarded and a new age for this beautiful, resource-rich country could begin. Or not.
A week from today is the first election in more than thirty years with a serious potential of being free and fair. Even so, the brainwashed generation-plus of Zimbabweans who have never enjoyed being free might be too scared to try it, now. And then there’s the army. Will they allow free results that diminish their power?
Look to the Dark Continent for light at the end of the tunnel. Cautiously.
There are a few parts of Africa falling even deeper into the abyss, but several important countries are coming out of their “Trumpian” eras. Understanding the difference might show the rest of us the way out.
The “American nation [is] complicit in the demise of its own democratic well-being,” writes South African Ebrahim Rasool today.
There’s a sense in the American progressive media that the worst may be over, that Mueller’s investigation heralds an imminent victory, and that it’s time to get off the streets and begin electing those midterm Democrats. Rasool disagrees: Extremists in the west have harnessed “the power of the state… to unleash its dread on people … and sanctioning, if not fomenting, war.”
Rasool is not talking about the Syrian civil war. The war he fears is global. Dare we call it the nuclear apocalypse? A few more Democrats in The House isn’t going to stop it.
After all their hard, creative and persistent efforts it’s heartbreaking watching Kenyans now destroy their beautiful society. Then again the heartbreak feels the same when I think of what Trumpism is doing to America.
The Kenyan government defies court orders to turn the country’s TV stations back on. The Trump government defies laws passed by an overwhelming vote in Congress to impose Russian sanctions. Yes, there is protest and outrage but not enough so both governments prevail in their anti-democratic slaughter of freedom and liberty.
Hopefully the remarkably stupid Kenyan government has learned its lesson, but it remains to be seen.
Today Kenyan courts ungagged the country’s three major TV networks. Tuesday the government pulled the plug on the networks for covering the mock swearing-in ceremony of the loser in the recent national election.
As you’d expect the first moments’ back-on-air was a press conference of the mock government and faux president who would never have drawn this amount of attention had the government not gagged the TVs in the first place.
Raila Odinga’s unexpectedly short mock swearing-in ceremony as Kenya’s “Peoples President” in central Nairobi today marked the end to his long struggle for power. Not even his designated vice president showed up.
Many thousands of supporters filled Nairobi’s central park clearly hoping for the start of a prolonged if violent struggle but dispersed quietly after Odinga hopped into his car and sped away hardly a half hour after he had arrived. By late afternoon it was business as usual in downtown Nairobi, and the real government was suddenly more stable and powerful than ever.
To my colleagues and friends in Africa:
We’re very, very sorry.
Trump’s denigrating, vulgar remarks yesterday do not reflect the vast majority of us Americans. We apologize for them and we’re horribly, unthinkably ashamed. Unfortunately a small very radical minority currently controls America. So, unfortunately, at this moment in time those remarks do represent “America” and it makes most of us Americans sick to the stomach. Ashamed isn’t a strong enough word.
Most Americans feel as aggrieved as you must.
“The West’s loss of moral authority… has created a vacuum,” says Nairobi’s Daily Nation today. “The rise of far-right movements… and the election of President Donald Trump… has buoyed the anti-democratic forces in Africa.”
Digital and financial connections were developed in the west. Free speech and aggressive, daringly imaginative entrepreneurship was born here. Emerging nations were attracted by these bold opportunities. Africans especially loved everything western. Now that’s changing.
Winter’s coming: Fatigue in the blood-shot eyes of the activist. The man who couldn’t stop jumping for joy when Mugabe resigned. Grandma endlessly flapping her flag after the court annulled Kenya’s election.
Mothers pushing baby strollers at the Womens’ March. Old people in wheelchairs storming a Congress trying to rescind Obamacare. Tribalism strangles Africa. Now it’s gripped its evil tentacles around America. Please take heed.
Germany’s Nazi party was one of the craftiest, most patient political apparatuses ever created. Unable to win a federal election outright it concentrated locally, slowly and assuredly consolidating national power until it was in complete control of Germany by 1933.
Nazis masterfully used democracy to end it. What’s happening today in America, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and many other places is a version of this with one critically important difference. The consequences of not recognizing this are as dire as they come.
Racism has been affirmed and strengthened by democracy. This morning Kenya is controlled by Kikuyus and their allied tribes, as it has been for 300 years. Fires still burn, several people have been shot, and Kenya’s non-Kikuyu cities are ghost towns. It could have been much worse.
I am supposed to guide in Kenya in a few months. Should I go? Yes. Why? Because it will be safe for my clients, because we will only travel into Kikuyu and allied lands. What about other places? Probably in a year. I’ve seen it before. The Kikuyus will be benevolent if not wholly fair, and the country will settle into an uncomfortable peace.
Watch Kenya. What is happening right now in Kenya could very well be what happens in America in 2020. At the time of this posting two hours remain before the polls close in Kenya’s rerun national election. So far the turnout seems to be around 25%. (The turnout in the August 8 election which was annulled by the Supreme Court was 80%.)
There’s widespread violence in the west of the country and in parts of Nairobi’s slums. The official announcement of winners could take a week. Incumbents and opposition alike know what the outcome will be: the rerun election will affirm the results of the original election. So 2 out of 3 citizens are not voting.
Democracy is alive and well in Kenya! Violence has already begun. Tear gas wafts through the city centers of Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa, the three largest cities. The main opposition party has told supporters to clear off the streets because continued police brutality has so far killed 33 protestors.
All this portends serious death and destruction starting about a week from tomorrow and continuing as it did almost exactly a decade ago for several months before slowly and painfully settling into another chapter of nervous peace, the country then more scarred than ever. Why can’t this remarkably educated, progressively developed country get it right? Tribalism.
Ultimately it’s a matter of whether the people in power are good or bad. Doesn’t really matter whether they won an election or ascended a throne, whether they’re an elected judge or an appointed one. They’re either good or bad.
But as multiple African countries show, today, there’s a lot of bad running democracies. Listen quick: I’m not saying authoritarian regimes are better than democracies. I’m just saying there can be just as much badness in democracy as in authoritarianism.