The Latest in Kenya
I’m sure you’ll all agree with me if I say that the current situation in Kenya is pretty troubling. Several countries, including the UK and Australia, have issued severe travel warnings, strongly discouraging any non-essential travel to Kenya, in particular to the most troubled areas of Mombasa and Nairobi.
It was only 18 months ago that I travelled to Kenya, and this brings me back to the night before I flew out. I decided to visit the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs website, and found that there were similar travel warnings in place. In particular, the Department warned against visiting any sites of national or military significance. I decided not to mention this to my family, because not only was I getting ready to fly to Kenya, the hotel I was staying in was in the heart of Nairobi, right near the major military monuments.
Any sort of major conflict, anywhere, is obviously troubling. But the current strife in Kenya just seems that little bit worse. For starters, we’re talking ethnic cleansing here. Basically it’s one political party trying to wipe out the entire tribe of his opponent. Secondly, Kenya just seemed to me to be a country slowly pulling itself out of it’s past troubles. When I visited, I was so impressed with the amount of anti-corruption advertising around, just everywhere. It was on the radio, television, and on massive billboards. The idea was that Kenya would not tolerate corruption, especially in the political arena, and that any suspected corruption must be reported and would be immediately investigated.
It just seemed to me that Kenya was rising above the troubles still facing large parts of Africa. What a shame this has had to happen now.
A friend of mine in Kenya (the brother of my sponsored child, with whom I exchange emails while he’s at university) foreshadowed this drama. He recently said that his country was experiencing a lot of turmoil because of the upcoming election.
I hope they’re all ok.
Your comments are, as always, welcome.
Let’s (sort of) stay on topic and find out some more about the environment. ‘Til next time…
March 4th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Dear Stacey,
The thing that concerns me the most when dealing with African issues is this….
TRIBALISM….and the conflict that this holdover from the past creates…
Kenya is yet another example of an African country that was once stable, and now, practically overnight…it isn’t.
Western Colonization is no longer in charge of the furture of Kenya, and other countries like it….Why is it that Africans themselves have no ability to run their own affairs in a manner that does not come to blows at some stage. Short answer….their own irreconcileable tribalism…..
SUDAN….ETHIOPIA….RWANDA….IVORY COAST..UGANDA….LIBERIA…the list goes on…and it does not ever end. When one country solves it’s tribal differences, another country takes up the same problem.
Africans have more than enough resources to run their own lives, and to be stable economies. Foriegn companies move in and exploit these resources, with all the goodwill in the world, but tribalism interfears with these arrangements every time, spoiling what could be a good deal, and reducing it all to the level of exploitation by their own people against themselves.
When Africa lets go of it’s tribal past, and starts to bring together it’s many groups under one banner, whatever that may be, then we will not need to offer any support, financially or otherwise, to continually patch up the selfimposed problems of groups that simply cannot co-operate as AFRICANS, who insist on letting old tribal groups and differences rule their affairs..
For as much as I am sympathetic to the plight of the people caught in the middle of this mess we call Africa, I still fail to understand exactly what their problem IS. I can only put it down to the natural exploitation of one tribal group over another, and for resons that often the protaggonists themselves have forgotten or do not understand…
I say again, Africa has more than enough natural wealth to run it’s own affairs.
If they could put aside their tribalism and become 21st century people, than most of these petty ethnic squabbles could stay on that level…..it is their own failure to do this, to cling to tradition for the sake of tradition that is the downfall of it all, and results in appeals for help from people unable to control the mess that results from this basic flaw in their own affairs…
I have no intention of contributing anything except sympathy to people that cannot begin to live in the present, and cannot or will not run their own affairs in an orderly manner…
As westerners, we are often told by Africans that this situation is the fault of Africa’s colonial past….but, tribalism existed long before we turned up, and it still exists to pull these people apart today…
The ANC is on the right track, but suffers from the same lack of appreciation that Africa must let go of it’s tribal past. I suggest that they scrap all borders, and find something that unites them all as AFRICAN….rather than Hutus, Tutsis, Kakwas etc.
Until this state of affairs is remedied, Africa and Africans will always exploit eachother along these lines, and problems will reccur, at the expence of the poorest majority, and the profit of a few Africans who have woken up to the fact that ill-educated people are easily lead into poverty once again…
Sponsoring children is a bandaid measure….we should be sponsoring something quite different….something that unifys the entire continenet….what that is is up to Africans themselves….
When you and they both realize exactly what that unfiying “thing” or idea is to be, I will be happy to support it financially…
Otherwise, I have very little synpathy for people that will not allow themselves to be ruled in an efficient manner BY THEMSELVES..
Colonialism is dead…..and a lot of Africans are paying for it with their lives. Many look back on colonial rule as something to be proud of…..
March 4th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Quick sugesstion for Africans themselves…
SCRAP ALL BORDERS
POOL RESOURCES
THROW OUT FORIEGN “INVESTMENT”
SPEND RESOURCES TO EDUCATE IN TECHNOLOGY (they will need our help for that)
UNIFY UNDER ONE ECONOMIC BANNER (rather in the manner of the EEC)
GRADUALLY SPREAD THIS DOCTRINE
SCRAP TRIBES…CALL EVERYONE “AFRICAN”
Simple plan…complex execution…will need lots of help in re-education to 21st century values….let the natural “want” to improve their own live be the driving force for change, rather in the manner that capitalist countries do, by using collective media resources to point out what they can all have as AFRICANS if they simply get down to working to this end….
We must work with Africans to solve this basic dilemma of education….the rest they can and will do for themselves…
It was difficult for Europe to reach this stage, but not impossible….Africa can do it. Their ancestry is OUR ancestry…..We can help change ATITTUDES, rather than simply throwing money at the problem..
Africans must find what unifys them as Africans…it could be something very simple…ideas change the world, and Africans, being as human as we are, should be able to achieve this begore the 21st century is done. Encourage Africans to sort their own differences out…thats the hard nit….the rest should follow as a natural desire to “WANT” some of the things that we already take for granted here….Capitalism is not such a bad thing after all, but people must be aware that not all can be super-rich, and only the most EDUCATED among them will rise to this level….
But, they must do this THEMSELVES….We cannot, as Westerners, change the MINDS of AFRICANS, only EDUCATE and let their natural humanity rise above the petty TRIBALISM that splits them all at present.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Just to give you a small example of Africans simply going through the motions at their own expence….
I once knew a co-worker, from Rhodesia. He told me once of a Tribal African, a local who wanted to get himself a wife (LOBOLA).
The TRADITIONAL way was to pay for his wife in CATTLE. He told my friend that his prospective spouse’s father had made him an offer…..5,000 RAND or 30 head of cattle.
The Tribal man wanted to pay his lobola in the TRADITIONAL manner, by delivering 30 head of cattle…My friend said to him that this would cost FAR MORE than 5,000 rand (I can’t remeber how much), but the tribal man was so set with this tradition, that, for the SAKE of tradition, he would deliver the 30 head of cattle as agreed.
This story illustrates Africa’s woes IN A NUTSHELL….people with tradition hanging onto those traditons simply for the sake of traditon, ……and at great personal cost.
As western educated people, we just shook our heads…..this small story illustrates exactly WHY Africans cannot allow themselves to run their own affairs….TRIBALISM and TRADITION for it’s own sake….
Education is the key….then, these unfortunate people will be able to move into the 21st century, and hold their heads up high, and be proud to be AFRICANS.
I hope this has illustrated to you the true nature of the problems…..
As we educate, we can make it plain to them that they are not “stupid”….AND we will be letting the wheel of time come full circle, when the first Africans migrated northward, to become something quite different to the traditions and people they left behind….WESTERNERS….
THIS MUCH we OWE….nothing more…It is our historic duty, as a tribute and “payment” for those brave souls that had the courage to leave Africa behind, all those thousands of years ago…
I thankyou….