In a post dated 4th June 2008, the Blog Admin at politics.nationmedia.com asked: Barack Obama, by clinching the US Democratic ticket, has moved closer to the White House. What would his presidency portend for Africa, given his Kenyan roots?
I thought it was a good question, so I posted the following comment:
Obama, like Mandela and Kofi Annan -- but, sadly, no other leader here (in Kenya or Africa as a whole) right now -- will be a catalytic role model for a new generation of Africans thoroughly disillusioned by the current crop of self-seeking and mean-spirited leaders in Africa.
I hope that, by sheer example emanating from the genuineness and strength of his character, Obama will also jolt at least some of our leaders out of their cocoons of mischief, Machiavellian self-centeredness and sheer bad behaviour -- so that they can at last begin genuinely to serve in the public interest.
In Obama's victory is the essential message that really good guys can finish first. You don't have to break the rules to win -- which is what Hillary (a true "Kenyan politician")tried to do!
Let me add to this post, as I conclude, that Obama represents a new kind of Kenyan -- and American -- politician. The fact that his veins flow with Kenyan blood means that the quality of character he has displayed (may he never lose it!) is not unattainable here. It should not be something that is possible only in America. What has derailed us here is greed and double-speak. We have crooks for heroes -- who have turned our politics into private business. And yet, as Obama says, "Yes we can!" We can have "change we can believe in" -- real, people-focused change.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Barack Obama: Presumptive Presidential Nominee of the Democratic Party
Yesterday, 3rd June 2008, was a truly historic day on many accounts in the United States -- and in Kenya. Dare I add Africa and the world at large? Circumspection, alone, holds me back -- but not my [My! My! My!] exclamation! Since we are hours ahead of America here in Kenya, that moment of glory, when Obama reached and then passed the pivotal total of 2118 pledged delegates and superdelegates, a moment which will be etched indelibly (dare I say for eons?) in the annals of at least two great countries, actually occurred very early this morning -- June 4th. A son of Kenya (for that he is) -- alright, a son of America and Kenya both -- had won a presidential marathon in that same America in which Kenyan runners are so used to winning marathons; and in which Americans are so used to seeing, and cheering, them! Cheers, America! And cheers Jatelo!
While in neighbouring Tanzania on that momentous night, Jesse Jackson aptly noted on CNN (I believe I heard him correctly) that Obama's veins flow with the blood of two continents! And I think he thinks -- as Obama and millions of Democrats and Independents and even some Republicans think -- that the time has, this time, come; come for the dream deferred to be at last lived.
Here in Kenya, where the average political leader is a crook of one kind or another (and/or ring-fenced by crooks with a till to loot), where party primaries (if they are held at all)are typically "won" by those who pay the largest monetary tribute to the leader (under the guise of the party), and where local and national elections are habitually rigged(stress habit), with impunity, in favour of those who have thus won the party leader's favour, is it any wonder that millions of us have been so enthralled by, so suspensefully glued to, Obama's indomitable quest -- first as an underdog and then as the much-maligned front-runner -- and are now so thrilled by his present victory, and the victory which (we see) is to come?
To Kenyans, the most important lesson of Obama's primary victory is this: you can be a successful politician without being a crook. Conversely, crookedness is not at all "genetically" (inescapably) programmed into political forms of life. Nor is mean-spiritedness. And self-centeredness, which invariably breeds self-aggrandizement, should not be a feature, let alone the defining feature, of political ambitions or public life generally.
Crookedness may be the way things are, concretely, here and now in Kenya (and elsewhere); but it is not the way things must be. Nor the only way these things can be. It is not that politicians cannot help themselves, but must lie, cheat and steal. All too often, what is read -- indeed, misread -- as typical is only that which we have refused or failed to check, and have instead irrationally accepted as rational; that is, rationalized. Impunity thrives on such rationalization, even as it sucks out all the creative energies in our field of play.
If Obama should win in November, I think certain politicians, with an attitude and bad habits, here in Kenya (and let me say elsewhere in Africa) will begin to notice that the unrequited public attention and adulation which they have for long enjoyed will begin rapidly to wane. You see, there will be another (more electrifying) standard and standard-bearer to be measured against. There will be another Jatelo whose wholesomeness of character will put a glaring spotlight on the blemishes in these other characters. May he win, then, in November! And may he never deviate from the promise that he has become; the promise that his electorate, and we here, have come to see in him!
Last night Hillary refused to concede, but that's OK. She will, still. What would be obscene, and utterly unacceptable, would be to trade (or to seek to trade) her concession for the Vice Presidency. I have remarked upon her unsuitability in another blog. What transpired last night only reinforces that view.
I know, though, that a trade of that kind(widely hailed as the only escape from civil war) occurred right here in Kenya just a few months ago, following a disputed presidential election which degenerated into widespread inter-ethnic violence. Many observers believe that the violence was in part instigated or encouraged by political leaders, too used to double-speak for our own good, who doubled up as underground warlords. In the latest issue of The East African, a weekly newspaper, there is, instructively, a chilling account of serious arms-smuggling, as late as last March (which was after the February signing of the peace accord between PNU and ODM) from Somalia into Kenya (and into the hands of an unnamed militia group here). AU (Ugandan) peace-keeping forces in Somalia are, disappointingly, implicated in this smuggling. The point here is that this is the very antithesis of Obama's brand of politics, to which the world is now going to have to pay attention. But does Hillary want to emulate Kenyan politicians, having recently made reference to Mugabe's bad ways?
While in neighbouring Tanzania on that momentous night, Jesse Jackson aptly noted on CNN (I believe I heard him correctly) that Obama's veins flow with the blood of two continents! And I think he thinks -- as Obama and millions of Democrats and Independents and even some Republicans think -- that the time has, this time, come; come for the dream deferred to be at last lived.
Here in Kenya, where the average political leader is a crook of one kind or another (and/or ring-fenced by crooks with a till to loot), where party primaries (if they are held at all)are typically "won" by those who pay the largest monetary tribute to the leader (under the guise of the party), and where local and national elections are habitually rigged(stress habit), with impunity, in favour of those who have thus won the party leader's favour, is it any wonder that millions of us have been so enthralled by, so suspensefully glued to, Obama's indomitable quest -- first as an underdog and then as the much-maligned front-runner -- and are now so thrilled by his present victory, and the victory which (we see) is to come?
To Kenyans, the most important lesson of Obama's primary victory is this: you can be a successful politician without being a crook. Conversely, crookedness is not at all "genetically" (inescapably) programmed into political forms of life. Nor is mean-spiritedness. And self-centeredness, which invariably breeds self-aggrandizement, should not be a feature, let alone the defining feature, of political ambitions or public life generally.
Crookedness may be the way things are, concretely, here and now in Kenya (and elsewhere); but it is not the way things must be. Nor the only way these things can be. It is not that politicians cannot help themselves, but must lie, cheat and steal. All too often, what is read -- indeed, misread -- as typical is only that which we have refused or failed to check, and have instead irrationally accepted as rational; that is, rationalized. Impunity thrives on such rationalization, even as it sucks out all the creative energies in our field of play.
If Obama should win in November, I think certain politicians, with an attitude and bad habits, here in Kenya (and let me say elsewhere in Africa) will begin to notice that the unrequited public attention and adulation which they have for long enjoyed will begin rapidly to wane. You see, there will be another (more electrifying) standard and standard-bearer to be measured against. There will be another Jatelo whose wholesomeness of character will put a glaring spotlight on the blemishes in these other characters. May he win, then, in November! And may he never deviate from the promise that he has become; the promise that his electorate, and we here, have come to see in him!
Last night Hillary refused to concede, but that's OK. She will, still. What would be obscene, and utterly unacceptable, would be to trade (or to seek to trade) her concession for the Vice Presidency. I have remarked upon her unsuitability in another blog. What transpired last night only reinforces that view.
I know, though, that a trade of that kind(widely hailed as the only escape from civil war) occurred right here in Kenya just a few months ago, following a disputed presidential election which degenerated into widespread inter-ethnic violence. Many observers believe that the violence was in part instigated or encouraged by political leaders, too used to double-speak for our own good, who doubled up as underground warlords. In the latest issue of The East African, a weekly newspaper, there is, instructively, a chilling account of serious arms-smuggling, as late as last March (which was after the February signing of the peace accord between PNU and ODM) from Somalia into Kenya (and into the hands of an unnamed militia group here). AU (Ugandan) peace-keeping forces in Somalia are, disappointingly, implicated in this smuggling. The point here is that this is the very antithesis of Obama's brand of politics, to which the world is now going to have to pay attention. But does Hillary want to emulate Kenyan politicians, having recently made reference to Mugabe's bad ways?
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Kenya's Vernacular Radio Stations: To Ban Or Not To Ban?
Kenya’s ex-President, Daniel Arap Moi, wants the Government to ban the country’s “mushrooming” crop of vernacular radio stations, according to Saturday Nation of May 31, 2008. His reasons for this are that they are giving rise to “tribal chiefs”, and are fanning ethnic animosity by serving as vehicles for divisive politics. He justifies his call with the example of Rwanda in the early nineties, when broadcasts from such stations prompted anarchy and a genocidal orgy. The catalytic factor there, however, was not the existence of the stations per se but rather the assassination of the Rwandese President, Juvenal Habyarimana, when his plane was downed as it approached Kigali. The culprits remain at large still; as well camouflaged now, perhaps, as when they carried out their murderous act in 1994.
Still, the ex-President has a valid example. This is reinforced by Kenya’s own experience in January and February of 2008, particularly in the expansive Rift Valley. Protests against the announced presidential election results quickly took a violent turn. The violence then quickly became inter-ethnic because, in the eyes of ODM supporters in the Rift Valley and parts of Western Province, the “stolen presidential election” meant that there was not going to be a resolution of the land issue this time either. There was not going to be a resolution, just as there had not been during the 24-year presidency of Arap Moi, himself a son of the Rift Valley -- a 24-year reign during which Moi was, indeed, l’état.
The land issue – precisely who (or which ethnic community) really was entitled to the land that colonial farmers left behind at independence, or soon thereafter? -- had remained unresolved for much longer than the 24 years, in fact; that is, since independence on December 12, 1963. During the 2007 campaign, ODM supporters had been promised by their political leaders, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, that this time around the issue would at last be resolved, upon the much-anticipated victory of ODM’s presidential and parliamentary candidates. This time, the justice that Moi had failed or neglected to dispense for 24 years would e dispensed, with finality.
Needless to say, then, the inter-ethnic violence in Kenya was triggered by a disputed presidential election result, and by adverse message it signaled vis-à-vis the land issue, not by the existence of the radio stations as such. There have been claims, to be sure, that certain radio stations in the Rift Valley and elsewhere did prompt their listeners to xenophobic pillage and murder – and revenge. In Rwanda, fortunately, such urgings were recorded by those who would subsequently prosecute the perpetrators. I am not aware that similar recordings exist in Kenya to serve as evidence for the prosecution – perhaps I have not paid sufficient attention to the adduced evidence. If such recordings exist, they should be used in court without fear or favour.
The said Saturday Nation issue reminds the reader that Moi made a similar but unsuccessful banning call in August 2000, when he was still president, arguing that radio stations should broadcast only in English and Kiswahili – Kenya’s official and national languages, respectively. But his own Minister for Information at the time, Mr. Johnstone Makau, would hear none of it, arguing that “vernacular is part of the Kenyan culture.” It is intriguing that Moi allowed his minister to win that particular argument.
That “vernacular is part of the Kenyan culture” is precisely the point, but we can say more: These radio stations are the only viable, nearly always-on and commute-free channels of contact with the world beyond the confines of the village for a wide cross-section of Kenya’s rural communities, where English and Kiswahili remain at the margin of daily life. They are an indispensable source of broadcasts rich in locally relevant content: news (local, regional and national), announcements (including funeral announcements, the occasional obituary and visits by dignitaries and government officials), entertainment (particularly music, comedy and story-telling), radio-evangelism, language-teaching (particularly of urban youth, since many of these broadcasts reach urban areas as well) and the growth of the vernaculars themselves, as broadcasters struggle to domesticate new concepts or standardize usages arising from day-to-day local living or from farther afield. Lately, mobile phones (some 13 million Kenyans have them now, out of a population of 35 million) have emphatically arrived to challenge the vernacular radio stations as channels of communication, but not in the domain of impersonal or mass communication.
Vernacular radio stations are tailor-made avenues for reaching members of local communities during emergencies and disaster situations, and should be recognized as such in emergencies, scenario-building and disaster plans. When easily accessible and trusted information sources, and easily understood messages are at a premium, vernacular radio stations are an asset, not a liability.
What is more, these stations already offer sustainable jobs to more Kenyans than, I believe, are employed abroad in our embassies and high commissions. They also extend marketing and advertising channels to parts of the Kenyan market which manufacturers and service providers, usually based in the cities, would find it harder to reach than they now do. Viewed thus, they are an essential component of wealth-creation in the country. Demand for their services grows demand for radios and batteries, thereby further sustaining local industries and jobs, to the extent that these are not undercut by subsidized or cheaper imports.
The foregoing suggests that the use of vernacular radio stations in ways that subvert the national good tends to coincide with the onset of transitional periods, or periods of high anxiety that cut across ethnicities and regions to engulf a whole country – such as during general elections. If that is the case, then the challenge to policy-makers is how to put in place measures that effectively monitor and punish, early enough, errant stations in their specificities – during those periods of great risk. The policy solution should not be unimaginative and too unself-critical. We should not impose blanket punishment against vernacular radio stations as a generic category, in the mistaken calculation that one offender implicates and damns all. During periods of normalcy, live and let live is clearly the norm across the country – and should be the catch-phrase.
In conclusion, it needs to be said that to ban vernacular radio stations would be to ban the future, or certainly to attempt to do so. In the sense that these radio stations are almost by definition, given their foregoing characterization, an integral part of the African renaissance -- which several thinkers have been calling for or endeavouring to realize, in our time. That is, moreover, if one defines the African renaissance as the simultaneous re-flowering and re-configuration – indeed, the elevation (or levitation?) to a distinctly higher plane – of the African way of life, and of the associated modes of expressing it.
Still, the ex-President has a valid example. This is reinforced by Kenya’s own experience in January and February of 2008, particularly in the expansive Rift Valley. Protests against the announced presidential election results quickly took a violent turn. The violence then quickly became inter-ethnic because, in the eyes of ODM supporters in the Rift Valley and parts of Western Province, the “stolen presidential election” meant that there was not going to be a resolution of the land issue this time either. There was not going to be a resolution, just as there had not been during the 24-year presidency of Arap Moi, himself a son of the Rift Valley -- a 24-year reign during which Moi was, indeed, l’état.
The land issue – precisely who (or which ethnic community) really was entitled to the land that colonial farmers left behind at independence, or soon thereafter? -- had remained unresolved for much longer than the 24 years, in fact; that is, since independence on December 12, 1963. During the 2007 campaign, ODM supporters had been promised by their political leaders, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, that this time around the issue would at last be resolved, upon the much-anticipated victory of ODM’s presidential and parliamentary candidates. This time, the justice that Moi had failed or neglected to dispense for 24 years would e dispensed, with finality.
Needless to say, then, the inter-ethnic violence in Kenya was triggered by a disputed presidential election result, and by adverse message it signaled vis-à-vis the land issue, not by the existence of the radio stations as such. There have been claims, to be sure, that certain radio stations in the Rift Valley and elsewhere did prompt their listeners to xenophobic pillage and murder – and revenge. In Rwanda, fortunately, such urgings were recorded by those who would subsequently prosecute the perpetrators. I am not aware that similar recordings exist in Kenya to serve as evidence for the prosecution – perhaps I have not paid sufficient attention to the adduced evidence. If such recordings exist, they should be used in court without fear or favour.
The said Saturday Nation issue reminds the reader that Moi made a similar but unsuccessful banning call in August 2000, when he was still president, arguing that radio stations should broadcast only in English and Kiswahili – Kenya’s official and national languages, respectively. But his own Minister for Information at the time, Mr. Johnstone Makau, would hear none of it, arguing that “vernacular is part of the Kenyan culture.” It is intriguing that Moi allowed his minister to win that particular argument.
That “vernacular is part of the Kenyan culture” is precisely the point, but we can say more: These radio stations are the only viable, nearly always-on and commute-free channels of contact with the world beyond the confines of the village for a wide cross-section of Kenya’s rural communities, where English and Kiswahili remain at the margin of daily life. They are an indispensable source of broadcasts rich in locally relevant content: news (local, regional and national), announcements (including funeral announcements, the occasional obituary and visits by dignitaries and government officials), entertainment (particularly music, comedy and story-telling), radio-evangelism, language-teaching (particularly of urban youth, since many of these broadcasts reach urban areas as well) and the growth of the vernaculars themselves, as broadcasters struggle to domesticate new concepts or standardize usages arising from day-to-day local living or from farther afield. Lately, mobile phones (some 13 million Kenyans have them now, out of a population of 35 million) have emphatically arrived to challenge the vernacular radio stations as channels of communication, but not in the domain of impersonal or mass communication.
Vernacular radio stations are tailor-made avenues for reaching members of local communities during emergencies and disaster situations, and should be recognized as such in emergencies, scenario-building and disaster plans. When easily accessible and trusted information sources, and easily understood messages are at a premium, vernacular radio stations are an asset, not a liability.
What is more, these stations already offer sustainable jobs to more Kenyans than, I believe, are employed abroad in our embassies and high commissions. They also extend marketing and advertising channels to parts of the Kenyan market which manufacturers and service providers, usually based in the cities, would find it harder to reach than they now do. Viewed thus, they are an essential component of wealth-creation in the country. Demand for their services grows demand for radios and batteries, thereby further sustaining local industries and jobs, to the extent that these are not undercut by subsidized or cheaper imports.
The foregoing suggests that the use of vernacular radio stations in ways that subvert the national good tends to coincide with the onset of transitional periods, or periods of high anxiety that cut across ethnicities and regions to engulf a whole country – such as during general elections. If that is the case, then the challenge to policy-makers is how to put in place measures that effectively monitor and punish, early enough, errant stations in their specificities – during those periods of great risk. The policy solution should not be unimaginative and too unself-critical. We should not impose blanket punishment against vernacular radio stations as a generic category, in the mistaken calculation that one offender implicates and damns all. During periods of normalcy, live and let live is clearly the norm across the country – and should be the catch-phrase.
In conclusion, it needs to be said that to ban vernacular radio stations would be to ban the future, or certainly to attempt to do so. In the sense that these radio stations are almost by definition, given their foregoing characterization, an integral part of the African renaissance -- which several thinkers have been calling for or endeavouring to realize, in our time. That is, moreover, if one defines the African renaissance as the simultaneous re-flowering and re-configuration – indeed, the elevation (or levitation?) to a distinctly higher plane – of the African way of life, and of the associated modes of expressing it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)