Opinion =

growing income and welfare gap between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the developing world, is in itself a positive development and sign of a turning point. This turning point is occurring at a critical moment, and probably reflects the convergence of individual memories of Africans around the globe towards a uniform space of collective memory in the face of culture and history, politics and economics. After all, regardless of their current economic fortune or misfortune, the collective memory of Africans in the unified historical space is largely dominated by the institutions of slavery and colonialism. The constant battle to transcend the entrenched culture of prejudice established under these institutional settings has persisted over the years. The latest outburst of Dr. James Watson, the 1962 Nobel Laureate in Medicine on the presumed lower intelligence of blacks in 2007 is yet another illustration of continuity of prejudice in the time space. This convergence of individual memory into a unified space of collective memory in the face of history is indeed a very positive

development, which has allowed Africans globally to welcome and embrace wholeheartedly the exceptional contributions made by Oprah in her attempt to strengthen the foundations of African Renaissance, advance the ideals of African dignity and global humanism. This convergence of individual memory at the global level is the sine qua none condition to enter an irreversible path of effective development the way other successful nations and communities have done over the years because it creates a collective awareness and awakening of minds; for as Booker T. Washington, another legend in the collective history of Africans, once said “No race can accomplish anything till its mind is awakened”. Looking forward, the challenge lies in sustaining the frequency of major development initiatives benefiting the majority of Africans and boosting their collective selfesteem, year after year. Fortunately, Oprah, through these two noble and pertinent initiatives – The Leadership Academy for Girls and The Great

Debaters – might have just set Africans on that right steady development path, a nontrivial task, especially in a world where the constant quest for economic gains driven by the invisible hand has allowed personal interests to overshadow the collective memory, and thus delayed the needed collective awakening of minds. On the basis of a historical yardstick set by Whitney Moore Young – “The test of what makes a Negro leader is not who shouts the loudest or gets the angriest, but who gets the most results” – Oprah will unquestionably emerge as the African Leader. And the humane face of Africa, and more generally of the global community at large, would improve even more rapidly if her culture of compassionate philanthropy were to inspire and guide the growing number of development experts and philanthropists concerned about results and the impact of their actions. g NA (Dr. Hippolyte Fofack is a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and founder of the Nelson Mandela Institution. He can be reached via email at hfofack@nmiscience.org)

62n NEW AFRICAN February 2008
Kenya The people’s will should prevail

Oheneba K. K. Busia writes about the sad events in Kenya and says it’s no longer about Kenyans alone but us all: African governments, opposition parties, the progressive civil society, the AU, UN, Western countries, and above all the African people.

Except for President Kibaki and his Party of National Unity (PNU), there seems to be a general consensus that Kenya’s presidential election was characterised by irregularities, a diplomatic euphemism for rigging. Therefore, a re-run under international supervision is in the interests of everybody. Kenya will not be the same. And we all have a duty to ensure that the status quo is changed to usher in fairness. A watershed is entered in African politics. Possibly we are about to cross the Rubicon in electoral politics in Africa. For Kibaki’s party, a re-run should be in its interest if it really believes that it won. A re-run will confer the desperately-needed legitimacy on Kibaki, something which is conspicuously lacking now. Other incumbents are wary; this is understandable, especially incumbents with no plans of rigging. No genuinely elected government need to fear a re-run of elections. The argument gaining currency is that some opposition groups that genuinely lose elections may exploit the Kenyan example to destabilise their countries. But imperfections in new democracies should be expected. For example, when Raila Odinga went to the polling station in Langata on 27 December, his name was not on the voters’ roll. Curiously, Nyanza-sounding names had vanished from the register. Once rectified, there was no people’s anger at the level we have seen. It was taken as an oversight, that is imperfection. Prior to the recent elections, every single opinion poll put Odinga ahead of Kibaki, hovering between a 5-10% lead. The govern

Raila Odinga ODM wants to reduce the powers of the presidency

ment’s own intelligence report was leaked and published in the Mail and Guardian of South Africa in September 2007, showing that Raila may win with over 60% of the votes. All these built a momentum for some form of expectation. There was, therefore, uneasiness when the electoral commission went quiet over the presidential results for two days, up until 29 December. Then came the now disgraced chair of the electoral commission stating publicly that he could not get hold of his returning officers because their phones had been switched off. World viewers were then treated to a drama where a returning officer for the Molo constituency – a Kibaki stronghold – challenged the chair of the electoral commission for declaring figures he did not furnish him with.

In as many as 39 constituencies, the results announced by the commission were different from those furnished by the returning officers and ODM agents. In some constituencies, there were more votes counted than registered voters. Small wonder that five electoral commissioners, in a sworn affidavit, state that the elections were rigged! If Africans help to bring justice to Kenya, they will set a useful precedent for our democratic struggles. The principle that has to come out of Kenya is that when an incumbent rigs his way to office, his “victory” can be reversed. The African Union (AU) has a duty under the Constitutive Act 2002, not to recognise a government that has come to power through unconstitutional means. Togo is still fresh in our minds when the young Eyadema was forced out of office to seek his people’s mandate in 2005. Why not Kibaki, if the authoritative view of the Kenyan Law Society and the government’s own Human Rights Commission is anything to go by? Western countries create doubts in many an African mind that they really care about the democracy they talk so much about when it comes to Africa. If that were not the case, how come in Kenya, where there is incontrovertible evidence of rigging, the West is dilly dallying and talking about dialogue. Dialogue over what? In Zimbabwe where the AU and SADC stated categorically that the 2005 elections were free and fair, the West nevertheless went ahead and imposed economic and other sanctions on the government. Yet in Kenya where there is a rare consensus of national, regional, and international actors that the elections were rigged, one does not see the Western resolve shown on Zimbabwe. It needs to be stated in passing that the resistance to an ODM and Odinga government has to do with the fact that their electoral programme is scary for those who are clinging to the old Kenya mode of governance. They are not leftist revolutionaries but serious radical reformers who want devolution of power (Majiboism). Related to this, the ODM has put all Kenyans on notice that stolen wealth should be returned gently lest prosecution may be instituted. More interesting, the power of the presidency is to be reduced and shared with a prime minister in a constitutional reform to follow 100 days of an ODM government. These are the progressive reformist ventures Kibaki and his friends are afraid of but what the overwhelming majority of Kenyans voted for, and whose will should prevail. g NA

February 2008 NEW AFRICAN n 63