On November 4, 2008, world history was made. I say world history because this victory doesn’t just belong to the Democratic Party, African Americans, or the American people alone. This victory belongs to all those who have given up on hope. In a world full of suffering, exploitation, corruption, mass murder, genocide, and violence, this election gives people a reason to for optimism. Conflicts in Darfur, the DRC, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Tibet, Colombia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan (to name a few) have dampened the hopes and dreams of peace for many. But the election of Barack Obama, to the US Presidency, should show those living in rough situations, that anything is possible.
Seven months ago, there were not many who believed the Obama had a chance to become President; even less would have guessed that he would win the election so decisively. But the unexpected happened, Obama won, and proved to the world that it is possible to achieve dreams previously perceived as unachievable.
However, I am of the opinion that people are linking the hope that President Obama has brought to the world, with what he actually will do as President and this is a mistake. What people need to see is that President Obama has a very difficult road ahead of him. As President, he has to try and reverse eight years of the damaging policies of the soon to leave President Bush. Bush has unprecedented powers while in office and leaves behind a stack of problems for Obama to solve. Some of which being the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a larger US deficit, an economy in crisis, a social security system in shambles, poor health and education systems, and the continued marginalization of minorities in the so called “land of freedom.”
In addition to this, if people have been listening to the actual content of Obama’s speeches, instead of just his ‘yes we can’ idioms, they would realize that he is what he is, a democrat. He does not have magic cures to certain problems and many of his proposed policies are in my opinion very weak. For example, he will still provide Israel with the military support it shouldn’t be having, he would still maintain wrongful economic sanctions on Zimbabwe and Cuba, he still believes in that the US should rely on insurance companies for the provision of health care in the US, and his energy policies are not realistic. Not saying John McCain was any better, but Obama is still a US politician and because of that he will always be limited in what he can do. It is crucial that people understand this because it seems that there is such a joy in the election of the first black man to the US Presidency that people are beginning to put him on a platform where he isn’t suppose to be and hope for things that should not be hoped for.
All that said, we are living in very exciting times ladies and gentlemen. President Obama has given the world hope. During his Berlin Speech, he reached out to the world as a citizen of America but appealed to the people of the world to come together to create a better world. He is the right person, at the right moment in time, with the right message to inspire confidence and hope to the world during these dark times.
It is my hope, that Africans who believed that seeing a United States of Africa was foolish and not possible, would look at Obama’s victory and take hope. For Israelis and Palestinians locked in a seemingly hopeless struggle, let them look at Obama and take hope. For women who have been marginalized and oppressed (physically, socially, and psychologically) all over the world, take heart in the phrase ‘yes we can.’ That young black men who have made wrong and damaging decisions with their lives can look at the highest office in the country, see a black face and decide that they can do better with their lives and be whatever they want to be. That the black children in the US asked which doll was ugly, filthy and dirty between the white doll and black doll, answer neither, instead of the black doll or white doll. And that people everywhere, who have a dream or hope for something better, can look at Obama and see that even though the road is tough, it can be done!
The African continent needs to look at what Obama has done and take notes on how Obama succeeded. The United States is a multicultural society with vast differences between its citizens. By appealing to a higher standard and the strength of what it means to Obama to be an American citizen, he was able to attract voters from all across the racial, religious, and gender spectrum. Contrary to some popular belief, Americans are fundamentally different from each other. Throughout US history this has been the case but what brought them together was this concept of America and how great it was. Africa needs a similar philosophy because one of the biggest problems facing regional stability, that also hinders the larger unity of the continent, is the vast differences between the tribes and ethnic groups of the continent.
In West Africa alone there are thousands of different dialects and language groups that were forced together into a country because of colonialism. While state formation on the African continent did indeed occur, the presently constituted situation was brought about more from European colonialism than by a natural development towards state formation.
So although the social structure and differences between most Americans is not the same as the social structure and differences between the peoples of Africa, there are parallels and in order for Africa to achieve both a political, as well as economic unity, we need to learn from the strategies of Obama. We need to appeal to an all encompassing vision that both unites the different peoples of the continent and gives them a reason for doing so. A coalition between the different African peoples needs to be formed in order to achieve the idea of African unity in the economic as well as political sense. If this can be accomplished, then perhaps we can take a step closer to realizing the United States of Africa. As President Obama said, “Yes we can, yes we can!” I wish to say, “Yes we must and yes we will!”
Kwame Nkrumah wrote in his book, "Africa Must Unite", that each African country when its independence is achieved must do its utmost to develop as rapidly as possible. This is an important step on the road to achieving African unity because African countries with stronger economies are better able to control their own natural resources and if their leaders are believers in African nationalism they will link up with other African countries and further control their sources of income. In addition to this, I have been disturbed at the constant negative images that flood the western media about Africa. It is full of negative images and stories and it seems that outside of South Africa, Kenya and Egypt, there are no successful African nations. Today, I would like to focus on one such country, my own (!!), and briefly illustrate its successes while not running away from its failures.
In the south west corner of Africa, the country of Namibia sits relatively unknown to the world. In this nation of slightly over two millions souls, a new model for African development appears to have the potential of emerging. Winning independence on March 21, 1990 from Apartheid South Africa, Namibia seems to be one of the few African countries on the right track towards economic, social, and political development. Although there is still a long way to go, I believe that there are many positive signs that Namibia is showing on its road to progress.
Namibia is a country rich in natural resources and is one of the world’s leading exporters of diamonds (gem-quality), uranium, copper, and fish. Namibia also has a booming tourism industry that employs thousands of Namibians and of all the previously mentioned revenue makers for the country, offers the most potential for further growth in Namibia.
Although the presence of these natural resources has contributed greatly to Namibia’s current achievements, there is another item that was and still is vital to its success, good leadership. Under the guidance of the SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organization) party, Namibia has managed its independence much better than other African countries. SWAPO was founded in 1960 and was the party that fought for the independence of Namibia from the Apartheid regime of South Africa. SWAPO won the 1990 elections under UN supervision and Dr. Sam Nujoma, President of the party was ascended to the Presidency.
Under the leadership of President Sam Nujoma, Namibia was set on the right path towards development and learned from the mistakes made by other newly independent African nations and avoided them.
For example, unlike other African political parties that came to power, when SWAPO won the first free and fair elections ever held in Namibia, they did not replace the white experts in the country with inexperienced Namibians. Instead, SWAPO left many whites in the previous positions they held and installed black people as their deputies and assistants so that Namibians could learn how to run certain institutions such as the water and electricity stations. This was very unpopular amongst some Namibians after independence as many still harbored a hatred for the white people who only a few months before were shamelessly exploiting and oppressing them. But the correct decision was made and because of this, there was not an immediate collapse of certain important industries and infrastructural agencies within the country. In addition, this helped heal the wounds of Apartheid in the country and promote forgiveness and reconciliation, not hatred of white people.
Furthermore, Namibia did not fall into the trap of accumulating loans from institutions like the IMF and World Bank. This problem has plagued so many other African countries but thankfully Namibia did not fall into that trap. Because of this, Namibia has a very small international debt and international organizations which are controlled by the west do not have the power to dictate how Namibia is to be run. The Namibian government as the representative of the people makes its own decisions and does not dance to the song of the west as some of our other African brothers and sisters sadly do.
Another important decision made by SWAPO was the declaration of all national resources, which includes, water, power, diamonds and uranium (to name a few), stay under national control. There can be no majority private ownership of these resources in Namibia. Government owns at least 51% of a particular industry and the private sector owns the rest. This guarantees that not too much foreign influence can be exerted over these strategic resources and it makes sure that what is produced by Namibians stays in the control of Namibians.
However, although Namibia has a lot of pluses in terms of potential for development there are many problems that face this fledging nation. Firstly, although Namibia has not fallen to the infections of corrupt government, it has fallen to the hiccups of the sometimes ignorant government. An example of this is that Namibia, over the years has tried to empower black Namibians by accelerating their promotion to positions of power. The problem with this is that some of the people put in these positions are not qualified to be ‘Minister of this’ or ‘GM of that.’ They have done honorable things in their past but what they have done has not enabled them to do what has to be done now. This has lead to some uninformed decisions in the management of some industries and ministries within the nation.
Thirdly, there is approximately a 30% HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Namibia which has lead to the near crippling of the working population in Namibia. Because Namibia barely has two million people and our workforce is around 660,000, this death rate does hold Namibia back and is decimating an already small work-force. In order to try and counter-act this, the Namibian government spends millions of Namibian dollars for HIV/AIDS medication and prevention.
Fourthly, Namibia has a high unemployment rate of around 40% and a large discrepancy between the incomes of the rich and the poor. In conjunction with this, Namibia has a large poverty rate which has lead to an increase in crime in Namibia.
All in all, even though there are many challenges for Namibia to overcome, the potential for development is there. Moreover, Namibia has good international relations and through mutual agreement and a recognition that Namibia has potential for good economic growth, countries such as China, Denmark, South Africa and Germany, to name a few, have invested millions into helping Namibia develop. So, although Africa as a whole is possibly seen as this place where everything is bad and HIV/AIDS, poverty, civil war, and corruption reign supreme, there are countries such as Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Mali, and others who have some of the above mentioned problems, but are fighting to solve these problems and continue on with developing their nation.
