Tue, 16 Jan 2018 12:57:41 +0000
By Kelvin Chungu
This past week we witnessed the level of African unity that is rarely seen in modern times. Unified in condemnation, whether it was in Botswana, in South Africa, whether it was in Ghana or Nigeria and yes whether it was in Zambia, there was only one trending topic or question. Trump or What do you think of Trump’s comments on Africa?
The patriotism across the various African Nations this past week was so self-evident on social media and this was a phenomenon that perhaps only Mr. Trump can indirectly generate. But it was not just the citizenry in Africa, various governments in Africa and multi-lateral organisations were responding to this.
Botswana in a statement noted that it had accepted United States citizens within her borders over the years and continues to host United States guests and senior government officials, including a Congressional delegation that will come to Botswana at the end of this month in January 2018. “That is why we view the utterances by the current American President as highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist’, and we demand that the Southern African Development Community, the African Union and “all other progressive nations across the world should take a stand against Trump’s statements, the statement went on.
In the United States, the Washington Post reported on the reaction from the United Nations human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, who described the remark as “racist”. “There is no other word one can use but ‘racist,’ you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘sh*tholes,’ whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”
Former Ghanaian President John Dhlamini Mahama posed a question on Twitter “Africans and Haitians come from ‘sh*thole’ countries? Isn’t Trump demonstrating that he’s nothing but a racist and pursuing a policy of ‘Make America White Again’? I congratulate Botswana for showing the way. Our African Union President must respond strongly to this insult.”
The African Union Ambassadors to the United Nations expressed its outrage, disappointment, and distaste over the comments describing the remarks as dishonouring the celebrated American creed and respect for diversity and human dignity, in a statement. They also pointed out that the relationship between Africa and the United States should be from the point of equality and mutual respect based on accepted international principles of respect for the basic human dignity of all, while demanding a retraction of the comments and an apology from the U.S. leader.
But think about this? In June 2016, Reuters carried a story based on Ipsos opinion poll that Supporters of ‘United States presidential candidate’ Donald Trump were more likely to describe African Americans as “criminals,” “unintelligent,” “lazy” and “violent” than voters who had backed some Republican rivals in the primaries or who had supported Democratic contender Hillary Clinton.
So it is not surprising that Mr. Trump would publicly voice those comments. In fact, there is a large, but diminishing minority of individuals particularly in the remote areas of the United States and the United Kingdom that share those similar views and therefore this was to be expected from the current President of the U.S., given his campaign platform.
Yet still, there are a few Africans that were in agreement with Mr. Trump through social media posts and WhatsApp video. Interesting right?
But perhaps what caught my attention was Andrew Klavan’s article writing in the City Journal, a publication of Manhattan Institute, in relation to Trump’s comments, when he wrote “Let’s state the obvious. Some countries are sh*tholes. To claim that this is ‘racist’ is racist. They are not sh*tholes because of the colour of the populace, but because of bad ideas, corrupt governance, false religion and broken culture. Further, most of the problems in these countries are generated at the top. Plenty of rank-and-file immigrants from such ruined venues ultimately make good Americans—witness those who came from 1840s potato-famine Ireland, a shithole if ever there was one! It takes caution and skill to separate the good from the bad.”
Feeling angry yet? Don’t, there are a lot more people that do not think that you deserve the air you breathe, nor the care or your thoughts. But isn’t it welcome when it comes out publicly because you can then know what to do about it?
Last week, I wrote about a UK Telegraph story in 2001, which reported a breaking news story about remarks from a Mr. Mel Lastman who was the Mayor of Toronto at the time. Toronto had been one of three cities competing for the 2008 Olympics and Mr. Lastman had told a freelance Canadian journalist that he did not want to go to a meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa in Mombasa Kenya held in May 2001 because he and his wife, Marilyn, feared snakes.
The UK Telegraph had quoted him as saying “What the hell would I want to go to a place like Mombasa, Kenya for? Snakes just scare the hell out of me. I’m sort of scared of going, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me.”
So we must not be angry, but pick up the lessons we must learn from this. My general view is that the only hostile comments that I care to respond to, are those from people that I respect, maybe for what they represent or other reasons. Any other, I take the view that we can take a dismissive stand rather than one communicates sentiments that we care what he thinks.
I particlarly liked the response from Ms. Zoe Kelland in an article on Global Citizens on 12 January 2018, when she wrote that ‘there are 15 Reasons African Countries Aren’t ‘Sh*tholes. Ms. Kelland is a Digital Campaigner and Designer for Global Citizen, a social action platform for a global generation that wants to solve the world’s biggest challenges such as extreme poverty. She is currently based in Kenya.
Here is what Ms. Kelland had to say in response to Trump’s comments, “The African continent boasts several of the world’s fastest-growing economies. One in three Africans are defined as ‘middle class’, and whilst many Western economies are in crisis, Africa’s economy continues to grow. Did you know that 6 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are African?”
“Before I first visited the continent, I never thought about Africa having parties, bars or clubs. I presumed they just didn’t exist, but boy was I wrong! Having spent 5 years of my life working with an NGO in Kenya, let me tell you that most of my Kenyan friends know how to party hard. And by partying I don’t just mean pubs and clubs – I mean finding a reason to sing, dance and celebrate at any time of day!” She went on.
I chose to share Ms. Kelland’s comments because they demonstrate one thing. That most adverse comments on Africa tend to come from those that have yet to visit or are yet to do a research on it. Once they do, a lot tend to change their minds, just as Ms. Kelland did. I personally have a lot of perfectly rational friends from Canada or United States that expressed similar sentiments to Ms. Kelland at the outset and changed their perspective, once they had a bit of background on Africa. A couple friends of mine were wowed upon their visit to South Africa some six years ago. They never expected the development they found.
What does this mean?
Simply that there is a knowledge gap and that knowledge gap often translates into policies. You may think this does not matter to you, but it does. Think about this.
When we negotiate trade agreements similar to the goat export agreement that is currently been spearheaded by the government, our western trading partners will put a lot of difficult conditions, some of them driven from a knowledge gap of the technocrats behind those agreements. Those conditions, in turn, drive the exports to be less profitable and in turn generate lower multiplier effect for the citizenry.
If we agree that there is a knowledge gap, then there are lessons for all of us. Firstly, we can all do something to educate our western friends including President Trump about Africa. For the general citizenry, it matters what you post on social media, for the Politicians, it matters when you talk about corruption that you identify perpetrators and engage the law enforcement agencies. What we say about Zambia has the capacity to drive this country forward or slow down the oil of progress.
Secondly, we need to stop our obsessive focus on politics and engage more on vigorously challenging the government on policy choices or their mode of policy implementation. In that way we are likely to positively impact the attainment of the policies, we seek and drive a better narrative to those external to Africa.
Our constant focus on the next election or the idea of trying to make election come sooner after the last one ended, generates only one thing, it makes those government to be distracted and it subtracting from citizen their right of proper representation. Instead of a singular focus on implementing policies that drives Zambia’s progression, the focus on the next election means we are not providing checks and balances to the government policy choices. It means that our country is stuck generating the sort of news that makes more western ‘Trumplite’ conversions.
We owe it to ourselves to extricate us from the hostage mentality that seems to expect that politician will change our individual livelihood, they will not.
At best, a politician with the right sort of support can enable an environment that helps us excel when we apply yourselves. There must be a time when our criticisms must be policy driven, otherwise, our constant focus on the next election, our singular emphasis on politics will constantly drive the Mr. Trump narrative that we are sh*tholes.
We heard it for ourselves, but we have a choice about what we learn from this.
About the Author
Kelvin Chungu is an Assurance and Advisory professional and can be contacted on +260-976377484.
