Sometimes I worry (just a little) that I might be overly cynical or Afro-pessimistic. At the moment, I don't know if it is just me seeking justification for taking up employment in the USA, or if Africa really is sliding yet deeper into the abyss. I have a strong suspicion that the latter is at least 80% of it, as my tune hasn’t really changed much over the years. I have tried hard to sing a positive tune at times, but the accompaniment has invariably floundered after the first bar or two. Am I a cynic, or am I just anti political correctness? Frankly, I think liberal political correctness has a lot to answer for in the lack of accountability that besets Africa.
In my previous posting, I was going to include a few more paragraphs on some of the other pathetic goings-on around the continent. I was going to include a paragraph on Yoweri Museveni’s recent claim to yet another term as president of Uganda (he’s held the title for 25 years already), and how he threw himself a thirteen million dollar inauguration party on top of it.
I was going to write about that pea-brain king of Swaziland, Mswati III, who, together with his fourteen current wives, regards himself as, and lives like an absolute monarch. He is head pea-nut of probably the poorest nation on Earth, and his personal fortune runs into the hundreds of millions of US dollars. This is in addition to the family trust of about ten billion US dollars. Actually, I’m holding thumbs that talk of an April 12 uprising in Swaziland isn’t just a rumour. I’m hoping that at last, the people of Swaziland will discover their spines and send Mswati back to the maize-fields where he belongs. The uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East have more than one despot a little worried down here.
I was going to write about the nation of 419 scamsters, and about.... oh, just put your finger on the map, and there’s a smelly story to be told, but it is boring, and the stories can be read elsewhere.
What is it that causes Africans to remain loyal to “leaders” that have gone so far off course as to drag their countries over the cliff and into oblivion, and only then might the people realise that something is amiss (and then blame it on colonialism)? Obviously a lack of education must be the single biggest cause, but there also seems to be some sort of tribal instinct that prevents the people, the workers, the tax payers, the citizens from questioning the authority of their once elected chief. Some of these “leaders” (I don’t know why they insist on calling them leaders) started out well, like Robert Gabriel Muggalugs, who was once hailed as an educated and intelligent man. For a while, Zimbabwe was seen as the post colonial hope of Africa. Look at it now. Museveni has had it easy. Anyone taking over from the likes of Idi Amin could only be an improvement, but that doesn’t mean that once you’ve got the country more or less on track again, that there aren’t other people more suited to administering it. Surely!
The lust for power and money appears overwhelming among African politicians, and when presidents become dictators, they have no option but to stay in power, because the crime and corruption that they have to use in order to stay in power will land them in jail if they step down. Very clearly, there is a point of no return that is reached by the end of no more than two terms in office, or ten years at the most.
It’s all a great pity, because Africa is beautiful:
No comments:
Post a Comment