Since Obama's election as the 44th President of the United States (of America, not the World), and indeed in the months before that, there's been this refrain in certain predictable circles in Kenya and abroad: Don't expect anything from Obama.
It's been as if to say: He's American, you know -- not an African, not a Kenyan, and certainly not a Jaluo Jeuri! He's not one of us! You're hoping against hope! Get real!
But who says we're expecting anything from him? We're expecting everything!
Against the background of all the dysfunctional leadership we have around, bar none -- and after four decades plus of cruel acts of betrayal and selfish narrow-mindedness by our succession of leaders we elected to mind the store -- certainly we in Kenya will not allow ourselves to expect anything less. There's much time -- too much time, even -- to make up for with this sudden turn of Ebony Fortune.
The irony is that those who swear that we, "the people we've been waiting for", will get nothing are not embarrased to hear themselves complain why electric power and a graded road are only now reaching Kogelo. They can't stand a comedian's joke that Dholuo is going to be the language of choice at the US embassy in Nairobi. They can't stand the simple fact that Obama is not from somewhere else.
The point -- in all of this "Great Expectation", all of this "Audacity of Hope" -- is this: It's all right to hope again -- 'cause Obama, a citizen of the world, sez so! Human and fallible though he is, everyone expects everything from him -- and that's all right.
In the end, everyone will settle for whatever he, of the genuine heart, will deliver. That'll be all right too; for who said we, the very same pieces, can't pick up the pieces from there?
It's all right, once again, to be audacious. Obama says. And so do we!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Laurent Nkunda: The Rogue that Africa Does not Need
Nkunda terrorizes Eastern Congo like a spoilt brat who thinks the world owes him -- owes him something he knows deep down he cannot say in front of grown men ; grown men who will not hesitate to tell him what they think. Obasanjo is such a man. Obasanjo says he does not know what Nkunda really wants, and has gone to Eastern Congo to find out. Let Nkunda not waffle, and let Obasanjo not let him get away with it!
Of course, Nkunda knows what he really wants, but he dare not speak its name lest he and whoever his godfather(s) are be publicly exposed at long last for what they really are (and have been): self-aggrandizing plunderers disguised as the region's conscience, and using as their calculated cover the world's enduring sense of guilt regarding the Rwanda genocide of 1994. But the world, it seems, is gradually turning around to the view that Kigali itself (like Nairobi) is providing spirited cover for one or two of the genocide culprits.
What Nkunda really wants, most discerning observers believe, is this and more of this: Click here. But that wealth belongs to DRC, which no "hot pursuit" excuses can detract from.
I think before they left Nairobi last week, the African leaders gathered here should have asked President Kagame point blank what he really wants in Eastern Congo. They did not invite him here for nothing. They should have proceeded to tell him, as diplomatically as possible, that neither he nor Nkunda will get it. They should have told him that DRC has its owners, the people of the Congo -- disorganized and demoralized as they may presently be. He is not one of them! They should have told him that a peaceful and prosperous DRC (a "lung of the earth") would be more consequential to Africa's future prosperity than Rwanda will ever be -- much as we love Rwanda.
What Obasanjo should tell Nkunda to his face, after he hears what is likely to be a fudged answer, is to get out of the Congo and to behave himself. Perhaps only he, an ex-military man, can tell off Nkunda in that fashion -- and get him back to common sense.
Of course, Nkunda knows what he really wants, but he dare not speak its name lest he and whoever his godfather(s) are be publicly exposed at long last for what they really are (and have been): self-aggrandizing plunderers disguised as the region's conscience, and using as their calculated cover the world's enduring sense of guilt regarding the Rwanda genocide of 1994. But the world, it seems, is gradually turning around to the view that Kigali itself (like Nairobi) is providing spirited cover for one or two of the genocide culprits.
What Nkunda really wants, most discerning observers believe, is this and more of this: Click here. But that wealth belongs to DRC, which no "hot pursuit" excuses can detract from.
I think before they left Nairobi last week, the African leaders gathered here should have asked President Kagame point blank what he really wants in Eastern Congo. They did not invite him here for nothing. They should have proceeded to tell him, as diplomatically as possible, that neither he nor Nkunda will get it. They should have told him that DRC has its owners, the people of the Congo -- disorganized and demoralized as they may presently be. He is not one of them! They should have told him that a peaceful and prosperous DRC (a "lung of the earth") would be more consequential to Africa's future prosperity than Rwanda will ever be -- much as we love Rwanda.
What Obasanjo should tell Nkunda to his face, after he hears what is likely to be a fudged answer, is to get out of the Congo and to behave himself. Perhaps only he, an ex-military man, can tell off Nkunda in that fashion -- and get him back to common sense.
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