IF TRUMP’S UNFILTERED SPEECHES HURTS WHAT ABOUT AFRICAN LEADERS’ LEADERSHIP?
IF TRUMP’S UNFILTERED SPEECHES HURTS WHAT ABOUT AFRICAN LEADERS’ LEADERSHIP?
By: Omar M. Farah OAM
Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America, is the most offensively honest American politician that I have ever seen or heard. Surely, what he says is not all true and it is hurtful but there is some truth in it, and it is a truth that most world leaders are reluctant to say, at least publically, because of political correctness. Unfortunately or fortunately, depends on which side of the equation you are on, the president of United States of America is lacking the filtering mechanism to make a political speech that is acceptable in the twenty first century, a century that has been dominated by practices of hypocrisy and the avoidance to offend someone. However, the president’s attitude towards Africans and using the term shit-hole countries is derogatory and unacceptable and it shows his knowledge, or lack thereof, of recent African history.
Nevertheless, Africans should welcome this demeaning language as it may serve to help African leaders to wake up from their deep sleep to change the dwindling status of their continent. In fact, African leaders do not need placating and political body massage. Instead, they need a true and sincere message to change the dire condition of their citizens. So having a leader who is politically naïve, as well as having a malfunctioning speech filter can be useful for the continent.
What went wrong in Africa?
Africa was divided into small patches by colonial powers in 1884; its geography and ethnic lines were changed to suit the colonial agenda. After gaining their independence, Western powers propped up dictators, equipping them militarily and keeping them in power for decades. Through the dictators’ draconian rules the masses were denied the rights to progress socially and economically in their own way. There has never been any recorded technology transfer from the West, or any viable practices of governance system that respects the rule of law in all aspects.
Moreover, the beginning of the Cold war between the West led by USA and the East led by the Soviet Union had drastically impacted the emergence of the politically immature African governments whereby the African leaders are either brought under the umbrella of the Western or Eastern block with some conditional support.
Ultimately, after the end of the cold war and the disappearance of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) only one power prevailed – The Western Block. Now with confidence the only remaining power gave Africa particularly the Horn of African countries (Horn of Africans consist of Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti which situated geographically in the most strategically important areas in East Africa) a notice to change their respected countries politically and socially as soon as possible. To make the changes they were instructed by Western powers to hold free and fair elections, practice democratic systems; allow the formation of multiparty system and improve the transparency and good governance. African leaders of the time did not fully understand these newly devised political terminologies and how to apply them, so they collapsed one after the other in a miserable fashion. This is why in 1991, many migrants from these countries started seeking refuge in several western countries, including Australia. Later on, the floods of African migrants from many parts of Africa become the norm.
However, these facts were unfortunately not available to Donald Trump, or at least were not considered by him. He doesn’t seem to understand why African young migrants are knocking the Western doors and seeking help. He cannot understand that these young African migrants are not criminals but they are running away from the mess that American-led western countries have made to their respected countries. Also Trump doesn’t understand that most of the high-ranking politicians who were obviously working with the Western and Eastern powers are now comfortably living in the West. Allegedly, these guys took with them the last saving of their nation’s treasury, and the new migrants are just following the footsteps of those individuals who were well connected to the countries in question including USA.
Never the less, these above-mentioned historical realities should not be permanent and un-breakable. Many nations, specifically the Asian nations who were colonized by the West and were imposed the same conditions, have managed successfully to overcome the past obstacles and broke the shackles of the colonial powers in an effort to move on.
Therefore, Donald Trump’s derogatory language is mainly as a result of his limited knowledge of African history and most probably his habit to deliver unrefined statements without analyzing them prior. Surely, this attitude is not commonly share with him by many Americans and the first entity to disagree with the President about his policy on refugee migrants has been his Justice Department. Obviously, the American congress, dominated by republicans, are reluctant to act against Donald Trump to ease the tension and modify his speeches and his refugee policy because they do not want to upset his supporters and ultimately run the risk to lose their vote. Unfortunately, this is where democracy becomes captive to the voters, regardless of its importance to the fabric of western democracy and the world in general.
However, African leaders need to listen carefully what Trump is saying and why to them and not others. Ultimately, it is the sole responsibility of the African leaders to devise a viable system that can work for their people. Additionally, African leaders have to depart from personal enrichment mentality to national building. If they fail to do so more insults will come on the surface and many countries will close their doors and keep the Africans out. The choice is yours.
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