London Letter: Africa’s Miracle - Richard Dowden’s Labour of Love

Richard Dowden, a life-long journalist, used to work for UK’s Independent Newspaper in the early 1990s. I think he was the editor responsible for African news and features. The Independent used to have wonderful centre-spread pictorial stories and in around 1993 they had done this moving pictorial of the great Muhammad Ali with children in Soweto. The great-man had his gentle arms wrapped around the shoulders of the slain Chris Hani’s children (Hani was the leader of the ANC’s armed wing and was set for greatness in a free Azania … but those who wanted him out of the way organized his assassination). The next centre-spread that the Independent did was a giant map of Africa with each country graded out of 10 for “democracy”.

President Jawara’s Gambia was probably the only Africa country graded 10/10 (I think this was influenced by the holding of regular multi-party elections). In 1997, on a lecture trip to the many posh schools in West Sussex, I stopped at the deposed ex-President Jawara’s Haywarths Heath home and gave him a laminated copy of the Independent’s African democracy centre-spread. When I reminded ex-President Jawara of this at the State Opening of Parliament in Banjul in December 2007, he said he still had it. The next day I put President Jammeh and ex-President Jawara on the front-page of the Daily Observer and wrote a rather sentimental editorial titled “Welcome My Uncle” - about the “Father of the Nation” and the “Father of the July 22 Revolution”.

Our very own great Chinua Achebe, on whose “Things Fall Apart” we were weaned as school children even in East Africa, gives a short introduction to Dowden’s book and states that “… Dowden delves into Africa’s struggle with corruption, poor leadership, poverty and disease … without fear, sentimentality or condescension”. It has to be said Dowden does “delve” with a lot of compassion for the African continent and its people. It is not often that Brits write such a moving book about Africa (the late great Basil Davidson was another such writer) for it is very difficult for outsiders to understand Africa if their mind – and heart - is not fully open to fellowship and understanding of the struggles and hopes of the people they are writing about. The meaning of that word, hope, runs throughout Dowden’s book – and that is what he refers to as the “miracle”. The fact that all the horrors that people go through in Rwanda, Sierra Leone or South Africa cannot extinguish the hope and humanity that beats in the African heart is indeed a miracle. Someone once asked me why the African-Americans survived slavery and racism in the USA, but the Native Peoples (the so-called “Red Indians”) did not. My answer was to advice the questioner to visit any of the great African-American churches in the USA, be it the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) or the Baptists. There, I said to the man, you will hear songs of hope sang with passion and compassion every Sunday. I know the educated Western/westernized elite is skeptical of the hope given to ordinary people by the message of God, but for most of Africa therein lies the hope – that is why religion is dying in UK and mushrooming in Africa today.

Writes Dowden: “Visitors are welcomed and cared for in Africa. If you go you will find most Africans friendly, gentle and indefinitely polite … it is the prize that Africans offer the rest of the world: humanity”. True, indeed, but as we also know from our history, the European world arrived in Africa and offered us inhumanity in return. As Kenyatta once said “We had our land. When Europeans arrived we welcomed them and gave them a piece of land to build a church. They invited us for prayers and we closed our eyes to pray. When we opened our eyes they had taken our land and given us their bible”. Kenyatta’s “terrorist” organization, the Mau Mau, was officially called the Land and Freedom Army. Africa’s kindness was seldom repaid with kindness. In this inspirational book Dowden does repay the kindness and inspiration Africa has offered him personally over the years: “Africa always has hope. I find more hopelessness in London than in the whole of Africa”, he writes.

Nevertheless, Dowden does not give us a false rosy picture. The hope of Africa is born out of the tragedy we have suffered – afterall, if you hit rock bottom the only way is up. There are some horrific things happening routinely in our beautiful continent, even in a country like Uganda where God himself has created a Garden of Eden with food, and banana plants everywhere. Uganda has so much bananas that no one really needs to even buy them, and yet Dowden writes “… a man who had stolen bananas from the school plantation had been caught. The students had joined in beating the man to death, and laughed and joked about it”. At Nairobi bus station, someone pointing at you and shouting “thief” would be sentencing you to instant death … similarly in Johannesburgh. We do have a lot of hoping to do. Still, however horrific it sounds, we can comfort ourselves with he thought that it is no worse than the homicides in Maryland, the gang-war in LA, the senseless stabbings in London or the drug-related shootings in Manchester.

Dowden is now director of the Royal African Society here in London (The R.A.S. exists to argue Africa’s case with policy-makers, says Dowden). In this excellent book, Dowden re-visits his time in Africa and all the key episodes that have happened there in the last forty years. From his time as a rookie teacher in Uganda in 1971, where he falls in love with one of those beautiful Ugandan girls only to sadly leave her behind when chased out by the brutal Idi Amin in 1972, through to the tragedy of Rwanda (where he pleads guilty for not blowing the whistle on the impending genocide when he was in Kigali 4 months earlier), Dowden has witnessed and chronicled as a journalist key episodes that have shaped Africa’s recent history, such as the end of Mobutu’s rule in Zaire and the end of Apartheid in South Africa. He has chronicled it all for us with much love and affection for our continent.

The chapter on Zimbabwe deals with the start of Mugabe’s presidency and the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the years. It is only here that I found a divergence of views with Dowden. He writes: “…the expulsion of whites received almost more publicity than the rest of Africa put together”. The publicity was intended to force the World, and South Africa in particular, to take action against Robert Mugabe. But Thabo Mbeki, the then President of South Africa, would have none of it: “… Mugabe was a hero of the liberation war … he (Mbeki) was not going to be seen to be doing it on behalf of Western powers … Mugabe is just too bloody popular in South Africa … just as the whites in Britain and the USA had sympathized with the Rhodesian whites, regarding them as kith and kin, bounded by ties of blood, so Mbeki spoke of “our African brethren” in Zimbabwe … Mbeki was prepared to risk the relationship with Britain and the USA rather than be seen as the West’s policeman in Southern Africa”. I don’t infact think Dowden and I disagree over the main facts (see my book Freedom Essays). We just disagree on where to put the blame for the tragedy that has befallen Zimbabwe. For me, Tony Blair and his cabinet, which included ex-Rhodesian white Jack Straw as Foreign Minister, were just as guilty as Mugabe in the destruction of Zimbabwe … and they did it for the most reprehensible of reasons: white tribalism. Dowden may not agree with me on that.

The excellent chapter on the Congo deals with Mobutu’s dictatorship and looting of the country and the involvement of 11 countries, including Zimbabwe, in what became Africa’s biggest war. “Congo is the heart of Africa, and Africa can’t be fixed until the heart is fixed”, says Dowden. The chapter on Sudan delves into the tragedy of Africa’s biggest country (such a huge country is so easy to divide up that one wonders why the World allowed it to just be cobbled together). Sudan could easily become three countries – Darfur, the Arab North and the Christian Black South – and they would all have land so big that they still wouldn’t know what to do with it!

In Chapter 5 Dowden asks “Somalia – Amazing but is it Africa?” Well, who is African I ask? I remember The Gambia’s Dr. Taal, my predecessor as MD of the Daily Observer, arguing that the African Union HQ should be moved from Addis Ababa “because Ethiopians don’t consider themselves black”! I never replied to that but I could ask here “who is black”? Most of us Africans, including our ex-slave brethrens in the Diaspora, refuse to categorise themselves in terms of colour. Kunta Kinte would never have called himself “black”. He is a Mandinka with a thousand year history. My Fula family in The Gambia have a history which goes back to the Futa Jallon and the mighty Fulani Empire. Why should they call themselves “black”? Ethiopians’ have an illustrious history, and with Haile Selassie, played an admirable role in the freeing of our continent from colonialism. So why should the Ethiopians accept the vacuous term “black” to describe themselves? I think Dr. Taal wrote his piece to provoke me, unsuccessfully, before I took his job, so back to Dowden: “Somalis know who they are; they are born with self-respect. I never saw any Somali who showed any fear of death. Somalis are turbo-charged. Hyper-driven with life force”. Dowden was there in Somalia when in 1992 the USA sent in the marines whose fate is depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down. Dowden describes “…a young Somali dressed in a T-shirt, sandals  and the traditional wrap-around cloth firing an AK47 while running at an American armoured Humvee. The Somali was cut to shreds by the Humvee’s fire-power … 10 out of 10 to the Somail for bravery”. Others may say 0 out of 10 for madness!

Black Hawk Down is American propaganda, as Dowden tells us: “In the film of the incident, Black Hawk Down, the Rangers are shown protecting the Somali woman. She told a different story. The US soldiers had seized her and her children and held them infront of them with guns to their heads as human shields to try to escape”. So next time the Americans tell you that they killed Afghan women and children “by mistake” because the Taliban are using them as “human shields” be sure that the Americans do know what they are talking about.

The pride and bravery of the Somalis described above is also the reason why for the last 18 years Somalia has been the World’s one totally failed state. As school kids growing up in neighbouring Kenya, we envied the peaceful and developing Somalia. We envied them because they have what every sub-saharan African country apart from Somalia and Botswana lack: a country unified by a single people, with a single religion, a single language and a single culture. And yet … Somalia descended into the chaos and bloodshed that it has. The Somali’s sense of pride, self-respect and family/clan loyalty meant that when “insulted” the Somalis became “Hyper-driven” … with death force. And yet, those of us who have known Somalis in the Diaspora and at home across Africa know them to be a most respectable people and excellent generous friends – someone you can trust with your life. Dowden writes that Somalis and our religious friends in Senegal are the most trustworthy people in Africa – and these two groups send back much remittance home to their respective countries informally. A contract for thousands of dollars can be sealed with a simple shake of the hand.

“God, trust and trade” is Chapter 10 in the book and it is about Senegal. It begins with the story of Cheikh Amadu Bamba Mbacke in 1895. Defying French exile to Gabon, the Cheikh “walked on water” back to Senegal and “founded a global trading company founded on Islamic principles”. I have a feeling that President Jammeh in The Gambia is trying to establish something similar with his Kanilai Trading Group and the many farms, but he has one major problem: lack of trust! I have lost count of the number of times thieves from Kanilai have been jailed – and as I write the former Presidential Guards Commander has just pleaded guilty to theft from Kanilai Group and got sentenced to two years in jail. The Touba/Senegalese traders are called the Mourides. The one commodity they possess above everyone else is called TRUST – whether they are trading in Touba, Senegal, in Spain or in the streets of New York from where they send much money back home – through unofficial hand-shake channels. Bamba’s followers today number about 3 million and the city he founded is Touba, the holy city of Senegal, “a state within a state”. When I was in Senegal during May/June 2009, I learnt much about this. Firstly, I noticed that my westernized friend, who schooled in France, had plenty of Marabouts staring at us in her posh westernized Dakar apartment. Secondly, every Clando mini-bus (called “gele-gele” in Gambia and “matatu” in Kenya) that I jumped onto had its own Marabouts’ photographs hanging prominently in the vehicle. Thirdly, my guest drove me to a part of Dakar and as we approached the area explained that this is a cigarette and alcohol free part of Dakar. Why? I asked. Because the elders and the Marabout ruled so, came the reply. I loved my time in Dakar, and as I traveled in all parts of the city on the crowded local transport, and sometimes well past mid-night, I found it to be a most peaceful and safe city. An African city Dowden would classify as “Open Window”, i.e. you can drive around with your car window open.

All of which contrasts sharply with the horror stories of corruption and violence from Africa’s three giant Anglophile economies. South Africa Chapter 14, Kenya Chapter 15, and Nigeria Chapter 16. Here the author describes the main cities as “Close Window Cities” – i.e. close your car window as you drive. Personally, I have never liked cities where I cannot go wherever I want safely, and at anytime of the day, but I found that I could not walk around Nairobi safely, even during the day. Banjul and Dakar are a delightful total contrast. But Dowden’s chapters on the history of these three countries is superb. Apartheid is well covered – as is the post-Apartheid ANC rule. In Kenya, the Chapter’s title is simple and to the point: “Eating in Kenya”! “Eating” is the word for corruption in Kenya. Whereas others may eat to live, in Kenya the educated professional and politicians live to eat. You have got to be a professional “Eater” in Kenya, you have got to have a PhD in “Eating” and you must be totally dedicated to it, like a revolutionary: in Kenya we have had an “Eating Revolution” for the last 40 years or so – and Kenyans are bllody good at it! Unfortunately, “Eating” is the only ideology in modern Kenya … and the elite will fight to eat at any costs. Corruption has also finally got Kenya described as a “Failed State”. Very sad … if education would save any nation it should have saved Kenya. Instead education became a tool of deception and looting.

Dowden also offers us an in-dept look at what the Western media has termed the “Asian Invasion” of the continent, led by China and India. While taking cognizance of the Chinese impact on the economies of oil-rich Sudan and Angola, the mineral rich Congo and South Africa, Dowden will not join the doom merchants of the Western media in their condemnation of Asia’s role in Africa: “Those who portray Africa as the weak victim of Chinese colonialism do not know there own history in Africa”. He goes on to ask which Western country has ever invited and got 50 African Leaders to a single gathering us China did in 2007? It is quite clear that China is absolutely determined to treat their African partners as equals and treat them with respect – until at least China becomes the next Super-Power. Once China becomes the next Super-Power - and replaces the USA - then the predatory Law of Nature will, naturally, apply. The same Law of Nature also means that Africa would colonize China and the USA – if Africa was to become a Super-Power. So-called “African Humanity” has not prevented us Africans from behaving appallingly to our fellow human-beings once we had power. By the way, Dowden tells us, the USA is watching China’s moves in Africa closely and has responded militarily: the USA have established AFRICOM and should China attempt to blow the US economically out of Africa, the US might attempt to blow China militarily out of Africa. Look at what is going on in Sudan. China has got in there and grabbed the oil, and the USA in response is going to support the Southern Sudanese to cut the country in two (much of the oil just happens to be in Southern Sudan).

The most depressing but a must read chapter is the one on HIV/AIDS. Even the democratic and un-corrupted jewel of Africa, Botswana, is ravaged by aids (apparently up to 40% of the population may be living with the HIV/AIDS virus). When I was in Kenya in 1999, government departments were losing staff regularly (people were attending funerals more than they were attending weddings or naming ceremonies). Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Congo and South Africa are similarly ravaged by HIV/AIDS.

There are other chapters on Burundi and Rwanda, the twin lands of genocides. The 1994 genocide was not the first and was not the last.Tragic. The chapter on Nigeria confirms all the stereotypes and horrors we have all heard about Nigeria, recounted here first hand. I too have made jokes about counting my fingers whenever I shake hands with a Nigerian brother, and about Lagos being the only African city I would not go to even if I was offered free first-class travel and a 5-star hotel. So Nigeria does deservedly have a very bad reputation all over the world.

But, says Dowden, this happened in Lagos too:

“A few minutes later I am interrupted by a young man who offers me a wallet – my wallet – asking if it is mine. I must have dropped it. Inside all my credit cards and 500 dollars were untouched. He doesn’t even wait to be thanked. My Nigerian friends do not believe this story. Not even they see how Nigeria is changing”.

Typical Dowden, ending on a hopeful note.

Dowden’s 550pages are superb and extremely good value for money (a mere ten pounds). The book is a must for those of us who wish to understand our difficult but beloved continent – enjoy the read.