{UAH} Dead men’s bones won’t hurt you out here in Africa - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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Dead men's bones won't hurt you out here in Africa - Comment
From the long-suffering Democratic Republic of Congo, last Thursday we had a story that was not about war, rape, plunder, child sacrifice, corruption, or Lingala music.
Instead, President Joseph Kabila announced that his government was going to repatriate the remains of former dictator and thief Mobutu Sese Seko, and the colourful and troublesome former prime minister Moïse Tshombe.
The happy-go-lucky former president Laurent Kabila (Joseph's father, whom he succeeded after his 2001 assassination), led the rebellion that ousted Mobutu in May 1997.
For good measure, Kabila Junior also announced that he would form a government of national unity that includes the opposition and civil society activists.
This is both bold and wise of Kabila, and if he continues in this vein he could well pull back his country from the edge of hell.
His actions, however, could have far-reaching consequences because Kabila has done something significant — he has entered the political market in exhuming and bringing home, or reburying with honours, former leaders.
It is a good business and safe. Mobutu is dead, and will not try to run for election or demand to be made minister. And because of Africans' complex relationship with the dead, there will be political points to be gained from honouring even long-dead dictators' bones.
When Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni arch-foe, former president Milton Obote, died in his Zambian exile in December 2005, Museveni did a 360° turn on him. Having once threatened to have Obote shot on sight the day he set foot in Uganda, Museveni had nothing but sweet words for Obote. He even put on a state burial for him, allowing the elder politician's body to lie in parliament for some hours.
That started the reversal of Museveni's fortunes in Obote strongholds in the north. In a region where Museveni and his ruling National Resistance Movement used to be walloped by the opposition, in 2011 he was able to give his rivals a black eye there.
When former military dictator Idi Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003, Museveni again cashed in by bringing his body home for a burial.
Amin himself was a pioneer in this returning-dead-potentates home industry. A few months after his coup in 1971, he obtained the return of the body of Buganda king Freddie Mutesa, who was chased into exile in London by the Obote government in 1966. Mutesa died in 1969. His political standing soared in Buganda, until he overplayed his hand and killed a few too many Ugandans.
There are pitfalls, though. The game has to be played cleverly. In 2003, overzealous Kenyan politicians eager to recapture the glory of the Mau Mau revolt against British colonialism, brought home from Ethiopia the famed General Stanley Mathenge, a hero of the struggle. The country was giddy, and the elderly Mathenge was treated like a king.
It turned out though that the particular Mathenge was actually an Ethiopian peasant who didn't speak even a single Kenyan language. Kenya broke the first rule of the dead heroes and villains trade; never try and bring them back from the dead. Keep strictly to the truly dead ones.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Dead-men-bones-will-not-hurt-you-out-here-in-Africa-/-/434750/2047804/-/154h2e7/-/index.html
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