From: Charles Banda

By Alexactus T Kaure

I’M not writing about the now widely-known Big Brother television show
here. I have something else in mind.

What I have in mind is the belief that one single country or even a
number of them can provide the political leadership in Africa. Writing
two weeks ago in: ‘Towards an African foreign policy system with a
global perspective’, Alfredo Hengari, argued with reference to human
rights and democracy broadly, that: “A loose alliance of states with
South Africa at the centre can take leadership in the pursuit of these
ends”. He further argued that given the country’s domestic capital and
continental leadership role it can pursue such an agenda through an
informal coalition of big and small states.

That line of reasoning and argumentation has a familiar ring to it
among a number of scholars and commentators. And it is precisely
premised on the fact that South Africa, or even Nigeria, has a bigger
economy and relatively well-developed infrastructure compared to other
countries not only in the region, but also in most of Africa. I have
no problem with that kind of logic. My problem is the empirical
evidence to support what appears to be evident truth. The point is
that since the multi-racial elections and majority rule of South
Africa in 1994 there have been a number of political problems in the
region or in SADC [Southern African Development Community] to be
specific.

In the late ’90s South Africa tried unsuccessfully to solve issues in
Lesotho, a country which it completely surrounds. Then we have had the
case of Madagascar where an elected leader was ousted in a coup
d’état. But the most intractable problem for SADC has been Zimbabwe
where President Robert Mugabe has been breaking most of the SADC
Protocols on Democratic Elections and also defies the rulings of the
now toothless SADC Tribunal. In all earnest SA with some other SADC
member’s states tried their best. But, of course, Mugabe wouldn’t
listen to anyone. I say some countries because a country like Namibia
doesn’t seem to have problems with Mugabe’s style of politics. Also in
the context of the DRC the same development played itself out. But at
least SA did not intervene militarily like Angola, Namibia and
Zimbabwe where they were basically defeated by one of the smallest
countries in Africa – Rwanda and their rebel forces. The three
‘successfully’ managed to install President Laurent Kabila but then he
was assassinated under their very noses. And, of course in Eastern
DRC, a theatre of war is still continuing as it has then.

Don’t get me wrong and conclude that perhaps I’m just singling out SA.
Other countries like Nigeria have tried to play the role of a ‘big
brother’, in the West African context and also Tanzania in East
Africa, but with minimal success. Thus it is not just the individual
countries which failed but more broadly also the various regional
groupings. Start with the regional structures from SADC, COMESA, EAC
and ECOWAS not to mention what is supposed to be the continental
flagship – the African Union. All these organisations have had little
to no success in resolving many of Africa’s political problems. And
the problems abound. We have the virtually collapsed state of Somalia,
which has been a cause of instability in the region. Then there are
the on-and-off skirmishes between Sudan and its new neighbour, South
Sudan, over border disputes and oil revenue. Another territorial
dispute between Malawi and Tanzania reignited by prospects of oil
there is far from being resolved. We have already alluded to the
seemingly unending conflict in the DRC where Rwanda and Uganda are
said to be supporting M23 rebels to cause political havoc and economic
destruction.

The problems seem to be piling up, with political turmoil in Mali and
Guinea where coups have taken place in recent months and, of course,
the thorny case of Madagascar. In Namibia we have political prisoners
who have been detained for ‘high treason’ for more than 10 years and
are now dying in detention one by one. And in Nigeria the on-going
violence there has pitted Muslim and Christian communities. In Egypt
and Libya people are trying to rebuild new political institutions
after the violent overthrow of the previous regimes. How successful
that process of rebuilding will be is hard to tell at this stage.

I know I have somewhat been anecdotal here for a number of reasons.
First I wanted to underline the enormity and scale of the problems
besetting the continent. Secondly, there seems to be a return from
political opening to closure if the current coups and inter-state
conflicts are anything to go by. Thus we are seeing the reversal of
the limited democratic gains of the 1990s and early 2000s. Thirdly,
and given the scale of the problems, I don’t realistically see any
individual country successfully playing the role of ‘big brother’ in
Africa. If the continental body and the regional organisations have
failed to play any meaningful role how can a single country do it?

—
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com