They will be Africa’s deliverance and salvation
Last time I mentioned that on his [GPS] program a couple weeks ago, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria discussed how the world would fare if more women were in national political leadership positions.
It’s an interesting notion to ponder, just because except for a few countries the world for far too long has been led by an unbroken parade of white projecting and implementing their testosterone-induced agenda on the international landscape.
It’s no wonder, then, that the world is currently in the tumultuous state it is; too many men have been vested with political power for too long and have simply ran out of ideas. They need to be relieved of their duties – in a peaceful way of course, not the usual, what I refer to as “the man’s way.” That way of doing humanity’s the work has run its course. Political men need to be relieved.
Right now I’m thinking about, and continuing with, the African political landscape. More than any other continent on the planet, Africa needs, in fact is long overdue for, a radical political transformation, from that history of political paternalism to maternal political leadership.
Since emerging from (post)colonialism, men have had more than sufficient (their ample) time to run – and reshape – the continent and bring it into the 21st century. But there’s much more work left to be done. And it’s time African men step aside and allow women to step up. Change can be refreshing…
From my vantage point of garnering information as it relates to the continent, I see that things are in flux, incrementally, sometimes rapidly. Sudan is a case in point.
In the last ten years or so it has been a place in the news; names like Janjaweed, Black Arabs, South Sudan, Omar al-Bashir received daily mention, for all the wrong reasons. A conflict in which al-Bashir was among the primary players, so much so that his name was ultimately brought to the ICC in the Hague for “crimes against humanity.” He had “blood on his hands,” according to the court and relatives of his victims.
Nevertheless, he remained a free man, but his movement (places he could travel to outside his country) was limited.
Incidentally, in shedding some light on Africa on episode of GPS the beginning of 2019, Zakaria listed some of the things that will impact the continent going forward. One was the [male] “leaders for life” phenomenon in the political landscape. He also spoke of the gradual transformation to democracy as citizens demand fixed term limits for political leaders. He continues that Africa still doesn’t have much global clout now, but it is “trending towards democracy…” because people are thirsting for it. But warlords and conflict continue to hamper national, and by extension continental development.
Most importantly, he notes is the continent’s growing population; by 2050 1/4 of the global population will be on the African continent, which augurs well for the semblance of democracy taking root in various countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Congo and so on. The economic returns are there to prove it. Watch the BBC’s In Business Africa every weekend.
Maybe it’s that thirst for democracy and economic opportunity that fuelled those people in the streets of Khartoum in March-April to rise against the regime of Omar al-Bashir, another African president who outlived his welcome, roughly thirty years of his mismanagement. Even the army that kept him in power for decades eventually tired of the old dictator who, like most African leaders went way beyond his ‘best before’ political expiry date.
The good news is that with his downfall, we all learned more about African leaders’ obsession with power; it’s the money. According to reports, Omar al-Bashir had a stash of over $100 million (probably US) in his personal bank – his residence.
Here’s hoping some of that money, which belongs to the state, the people… will be used to support the women who were front and center in organizing the movement that successfully managed to free the northeast African country from another corrupt African dictator.
My interest is in seeing political change seeded in genuine democracy coupled with good governance on the continent; that’s my perpetual point of discussion.
So bring on African women to take the political helm of Africa and take it into the future and prepare Africans, especially the hundreds of millions of young ones, to help build the continent’s future and take its place on the global stage. The rest of the world needs Africa, especially its strategic Earthly position and minerals that the rest of the Earth family ravages to maintain their (global) dominance of – Africa.
