{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Hakuna matata: We elect to see no evil and hear no evil, till it - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Africa-Hakuna-Matata/-/434750/2710764/-/5hdy7s/-/index.html

Hakuna matata: We elect to see no evil and hear no evil, till it

The idea that stories dealing with issues of strife are pandering to Western stereotypes of Africa has been gaining popularity in journalistic and literary circles lately. Exponents of this idea argue that journalists should write positive stories, the Africa-Rising kind.

Creative writers too are chastised about dwelling on wars, tyranny or famine, and are told to write happy stories — the Africa-Hakuna-Matata kind (no problems in Africa). But, alas, the reality of Africa keeps subverting this "Happy Valley" vision.

In Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza is hell-bent on getting his illegal third term, even if, as is increasingly looking to be the case, the country descends into another round of genocidal strife.

During Nkurunziza's 10 years in power, Burundi has remained a fragile country both economically and socially. His leadership has neither brought the kind of national purpose and growing social cohesion, nor engendered development like Paul Kagame's has in neighbouring Rwanda.

So, is it not the responsible story for journalists to write that another dictator is ready to see his country disintegrate in order to continue a purposeless rule?

Should African journalists refuse to see the tragedy of Africans risking their lives at sea trying to get to the "promised land" of Europe?

If there is one thing that should stop every African demagogue in his/her rhetorical tracks, it has to be this act of pure tragedy; this almost unfathomable desperation of people willing to risk terrible deaths at sea rather than continue to live in countries that, we are told, according to the new reporting philosophy, are recording impressive growth rates.

In South Africa, they are hacking foreign Africans to death. During another round of xenophobic killings in 2008, our humanity was violated by a picture showing South Africans standing by laughing as an African foreigner in flames screams in agony.

The photographer could have chosen to show pictures of Soweto or the reed dance. Alternatively, he could have chosen to write about the mythical humanistic philosophy of Ubuntu, which purports that Africans so love each other naturally, that an individual's life has meaning only in the context of other lives.

Should we not show these pictures and tell the real stories so that, we can, first, expose the limitations of the conceptual framework with which we analyse our realities, and, second, ask ourselves the hard questions?

While condemning the horrific killings, Jacob Zuma did ask such a question: Why are these Africans so afraid of going back to their own countries? That is the kind of question the Africa Hakuna Matata ideologues hate to contend with because it implies responsibilities and accountability, and, therefore, hard work to solve the underlying problems.

For a long time, the severity of the Boko Haram problem was ignored by the African Union and African journalists, until the jihadists started large-scale kidnappings of children and to capture weapons and territory from the Nigerian army.

The prospect of Nigeria descending into chaotic violence had already alarmed foreign powers. Yet here we were, talking about how to shield African heads of state from the evil ICC. Nothing excites us so thoroughly, it seems, than narratives of a moral African David struggling against the machinations of an evil European Goliath.

And while we are preoccupied with such debates, jihadists gain strength in Africa, or bad leadership in the Central African Republic spawns religious genocide, or Joseph Kabila's inept rule results in a lawless state, where, as in the east of that tragic country, human life is worth nothing.

We choose not to see growing tyranny in Eritrea. We pretend not to see that Yahya Jammeh's buffoonery will very likely lead to a violent disintegration of The Gambia, just as we refused to expose Blaise Compaore's rotten rule until he almost caused a civil war.

‎We cheer a delusional 90-year-old who, despite deadly proof to the contrary, insists he has something to offer Zimbabwe and Africa.

And Museveni's rot in Uganda? We have elected to hear no evil and see no evil. But that will only be until evil catches up with us.

Tee Ngugi is a political and social commentator based in Nairobi.

Hakuna matata: We elect to see no evil and hear no evil, till it - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Africa-Hakuna-Matata/-/434750/2710764/-/5hdy7s/-/index.html

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