Grounded on what recently transpired in Uganda under what we all were told was democratic elections and what is in the making in the Kenya where two sides of political divide are at work for the same in 2021, today, I want to allude to western democracy. I am doing this to help other not to put much premium on it if it does not offer answers to their problems. Considering how some of Ugandans were killed or suffered, was there anything worth to waste such money and lives while the results were known even before embarking on this ‘democratic elections’? When the so-called rad Western domocrazy was accidentally invented in Athens–––if indeed, it was invented there or birthplace–––many thought it’d be a magic bullet to man’s, if not all, problems at the time though it has never been. I say if it were indisputably invented there because there are some historical traces in Egypt and Mesopotamia millions of years before this Greek sixth century concept of democracy. Thanks to chauvinistic nature of the west, the two harbingers of democracy have never been given any credit or precedency since they’re not white enough to whitewash our systems and the world. To prove even more, whereas democracy has been adopted by many languages, the word vote or kura in Swahili, for example, is not new. This signifies the existence of democracy in African societies before the western one’s conceived though with different ambiance. Do you get me? Cool, if you do, please note and underline it.
Up until now, democracy has never provided right answers many wrongly thought it’d. Naturally, this is how manmade things tend to act and behave. Experience shows that democracy can be a very toxic mix if it isn’t handled well and with care. Well, well. Our politicos need to hold onto this ‘nugget of wisdom’ to avoid carelessly and selfishly exploit and use democracy for the destruction of their countries. I heard many narratives and nuances being impelled into the wananchi about the so-called dynasties and hustler nation. Are these what Kenyans need really? Despite the lies and toxicity behind such self-seekers who poses as liberators, they still go around sowing the seeds of destruction in the name of democracy. Is this democracy or democrazy if not demoncrazy?
I’m saying this about democracy not just because I despise or hate democracy. Nay, just like anybody, I love and need it. However, to the contrary, I don’t expect much from it. To me, democracy is and will never be a balle magique to solve all and every problem[s] be they economic, political or social. As any human invented concept, always will’ve and retain its shortfalls and strengths altogether. Therefore, whoever wants to enjoy democracy must underscore its idiosyncrasies and inadequacies. That’s because we’re neither the first nor the last to have used democracy in our political dispensations despite the fact that this new and western one has neither addressed nor solved our endemic problems such as corruption, tribalism, myopia, self-destruction and the like. Mea culpa, mea culpa so to speak. Instead, it seems to have succeeded to paralyse us so as to overlook our collective needs by buying into individual needs such as those of the dynasties and hustler nation that have never existed anywhere except in the narratives and schemes of those propounding them.
First of all, demoncrazy, the western one, has its baggage. This sugarcoated creature of the west is crazy when it comes to kura ya kula. Its inventors were geared by their environs and problems but not ours. They sought to address and arrest their problems for their own benefits not for ours. That’s why they always insist that we use their model of democracy but not ours nor do they admit the existence and preeminence ours. This said, Africa, under Ubuntu, namely “you’re because we’re” has more meaningful and practical democracy than western democrazy. We’d our own brand of democracy. Refer to how we governed ourselves healthily so as to not have any World War just like our gurus of democracy. Mwl. Julius Nyerere (Tanzania’s first president) once said that “we, in Africa, have no more need of being ‘converted’ to socialism than we have of being ‘taught’ democracy…They’re rooted in our past, in the traditional society which produced us.” Why’s it always been possible for the west to teach others democracy while the experience of colonialism shows that they’ve neither experience nor moral high ground grounded in democracy? There’s no way a camel can teach the fish how to live in the water neither the latter can teach the former how to live in the desert. They both have their distinct ways of life.
Secondly, western democracy is a business that many imperialist and predatory states use to either bully, cower or exploit others by just superimposing it on them. It is like a certain married couple to force or want another couple to live their marriage by following its script even if it is faulty and nugatory when it comes to practically address and solve our problems.
Thirdly, western democracy’s very expensive and unfit for poor countries. For, it turns them into beggars of the gurus of democracy. If anything, it is used by rich countries to choose proxy leaders for the benefit of the west if not to provoke misunderstanding as is in the case of fake dynasties and hustler nation. Whoever pays the piper calls the tune; and there’s neither free meal nor free ride, mainly to a capitalist world. Swahili has it that it is kula na kulipa namely you eat and pay. There’s neither free lunch nor free ride here to be precise. Knowing this stark reality speaks to the fact that what we deem to be democracy isn’t. for, it depends on aid from the west that normally aimed at imbedding democracy in our society as a free meal. No way countries can use their people’s taxes to finance our democracy without expecting any return. This is not a kind of nudum-pactum or anything like it.
Fourth, western democracy is knotty just like other human systems of governance. Winston Churchill, former British PM puts it that “many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” What we myopically and wrongly deem to be perfect, apart from being imperfect, is but an experiment that helped the west to dominate others. How many of us–––who off the wall–––view democracy as such?
Further, Nyerere once said that “democracy is not a bottle of Coca-Cola which you can import. Democracy should develop according to that particular country.” Those who want us to devour western democracy without thinking about it or considering our own environment need to think twice before we dread them like leprosy.
No doubt at all. We need democracy in a fecund but not a foolish way. Yea, we need the one that fits in our milieus, narratives, and nuances as it serves our interests first as opposed to the one that saves those of the others. The sage has it that “to the conqueror go the spoils and praises.” Those doubting this narrative about democracy and the way it serves the interests of the west must remind themselves of how former Zimbabwe strongman, Robert Mugabe was reprimanded when he proposed sending election observers to the US the same way the west’s always done to African countries whenever they’ve elections. If there’s anything underhand, is why does the west send its observers to Africa that can’t equally reciprocate? We need to be watchful instead of being the witnesses of the cataclysm in the making. Let’s separate the best from the worst. Won’t we? Let’s revisit democracy as far as Africa is concerned.
In nutshell and sum, democracy can be a wee bit fiddlier and needs sagacity; to go about it even when there’s nobody about. Just like what transpired in Uganda and the narratives about the dynasties and hustler nation are, those affected must be watchful to interrogate them and democracy altogether to see if they are for their interests or hidden agendas that make them waste time and resources for nothing.
Up until now, democracy has never provided right answers many wrongly thought it’d. Naturally, this is how manmade things tend to act and behave. Experience shows that democracy can be a very toxic mix if it isn’t handled well and with care. Well, well. Our politicos need to hold onto this ‘nugget of wisdom’ to avoid carelessly and selfishly exploit and use democracy for the destruction of their countries. I heard many narratives and nuances being impelled into the wananchi about the so-called dynasties and hustler nation. Are these what Kenyans need really? Despite the lies and toxicity behind such self-seekers who poses as liberators, they still go around sowing the seeds of destruction in the name of democracy. Is this democracy or democrazy if not demoncrazy?
I’m saying this about democracy not just because I despise or hate democracy. Nay, just like anybody, I love and need it. However, to the contrary, I don’t expect much from it. To me, democracy is and will never be a balle magique to solve all and every problem[s] be they economic, political or social. As any human invented concept, always will’ve and retain its shortfalls and strengths altogether. Therefore, whoever wants to enjoy democracy must underscore its idiosyncrasies and inadequacies. That’s because we’re neither the first nor the last to have used democracy in our political dispensations despite the fact that this new and western one has neither addressed nor solved our endemic problems such as corruption, tribalism, myopia, self-destruction and the like. Mea culpa, mea culpa so to speak. Instead, it seems to have succeeded to paralyse us so as to overlook our collective needs by buying into individual needs such as those of the dynasties and hustler nation that have never existed anywhere except in the narratives and schemes of those propounding them.
First of all, demoncrazy, the western one, has its baggage. This sugarcoated creature of the west is crazy when it comes to kura ya kula. Its inventors were geared by their environs and problems but not ours. They sought to address and arrest their problems for their own benefits not for ours. That’s why they always insist that we use their model of democracy but not ours nor do they admit the existence and preeminence ours. This said, Africa, under Ubuntu, namely “you’re because we’re” has more meaningful and practical democracy than western democrazy. We’d our own brand of democracy. Refer to how we governed ourselves healthily so as to not have any World War just like our gurus of democracy. Mwl. Julius Nyerere (Tanzania’s first president) once said that “we, in Africa, have no more need of being ‘converted’ to socialism than we have of being ‘taught’ democracy…They’re rooted in our past, in the traditional society which produced us.” Why’s it always been possible for the west to teach others democracy while the experience of colonialism shows that they’ve neither experience nor moral high ground grounded in democracy? There’s no way a camel can teach the fish how to live in the water neither the latter can teach the former how to live in the desert. They both have their distinct ways of life.
Secondly, western democracy is a business that many imperialist and predatory states use to either bully, cower or exploit others by just superimposing it on them. It is like a certain married couple to force or want another couple to live their marriage by following its script even if it is faulty and nugatory when it comes to practically address and solve our problems.
Thirdly, western democracy’s very expensive and unfit for poor countries. For, it turns them into beggars of the gurus of democracy. If anything, it is used by rich countries to choose proxy leaders for the benefit of the west if not to provoke misunderstanding as is in the case of fake dynasties and hustler nation. Whoever pays the piper calls the tune; and there’s neither free meal nor free ride, mainly to a capitalist world. Swahili has it that it is kula na kulipa namely you eat and pay. There’s neither free lunch nor free ride here to be precise. Knowing this stark reality speaks to the fact that what we deem to be democracy isn’t. for, it depends on aid from the west that normally aimed at imbedding democracy in our society as a free meal. No way countries can use their people’s taxes to finance our democracy without expecting any return. This is not a kind of nudum-pactum or anything like it.
Fourth, western democracy is knotty just like other human systems of governance. Winston Churchill, former British PM puts it that “many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” What we myopically and wrongly deem to be perfect, apart from being imperfect, is but an experiment that helped the west to dominate others. How many of us–––who off the wall–––view democracy as such?
Further, Nyerere once said that “democracy is not a bottle of Coca-Cola which you can import. Democracy should develop according to that particular country.” Those who want us to devour western democracy without thinking about it or considering our own environment need to think twice before we dread them like leprosy.
No doubt at all. We need democracy in a fecund but not a foolish way. Yea, we need the one that fits in our milieus, narratives, and nuances as it serves our interests first as opposed to the one that saves those of the others. The sage has it that “to the conqueror go the spoils and praises.” Those doubting this narrative about democracy and the way it serves the interests of the west must remind themselves of how former Zimbabwe strongman, Robert Mugabe was reprimanded when he proposed sending election observers to the US the same way the west’s always done to African countries whenever they’ve elections. If there’s anything underhand, is why does the west send its observers to Africa that can’t equally reciprocate? We need to be watchful instead of being the witnesses of the cataclysm in the making. Let’s separate the best from the worst. Won’t we? Let’s revisit democracy as far as Africa is concerned.
In nutshell and sum, democracy can be a wee bit fiddlier and needs sagacity; to go about it even when there’s nobody about. Just like what transpired in Uganda and the narratives about the dynasties and hustler nation are, those affected must be watchful to interrogate them and democracy altogether to see if they are for their interests or hidden agendas that make them waste time and resources for nothing.
Source: African Executive Magazine today.
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