Mzansi Afrika: Afmalesy

I have not yet identified the source of the strain in African leaders that makes them go awry, that makes them want to hang onto the reins of power despite evidence that they should not do so. This is often at the expense of their country and their country-people. I do not intend, however, to dedicate such behaviour only to African men, first because other continents have known the same fate, albeit to a much lesser degree, and secondly because African leaders have exclusively been men. Who knows how African women leaders would have turned out?

Here's a quick exercise to do right this minute. Get an atlas. We'll wait for you.

One theory I back is that the African family structure has seeped into politics. At home, the father is all powerful, and his word is carved in stone. The mother and the children are his subjects, literally. Let me quickly point out here that I in no way intend to dedicate this pathology to black, African male leaders only. The Afrikaner has it, too, although not of the same origin. His is tinted with religious overtures, whereas the black African male's has a traditional bent. But, indeed, the woman is treated not in a better way by the Afrikaner, and that fact shows in the way he handles politics.

Got that atlas now? Ok, open it to a political map of Africa. Shut your eyes. Place a finger on the map and move it about for the sake of randomness. Now, open your eyes. Your finger will rarely fall on a country that has not known the African Male Leader Syndrome. Call it AFMALESY for short, and for the fact that it sounds like the disease that it is. Alternatively, do this other exercise: listen to African news on the radio, as I did this morning. What do you hear? So what do you think gives?

Another theory is based on the fact that to date, African leaders have largely been freedom fighters. Put "freedom" in inverted commas for some of those. The result is that you end up with all these heads of government whose main skill is toting a machine-gun and rallying people to fight. In the long run that's exactly what most of them do as heads of government. The bush did not teach them about health insurance and about how to curb unemployment. It taught them how to subjugate others. No wonder they run their countries into the ground. Lech Walesa was a bad president because he was such a good something else, having learned and mastered the art of bugging a regime. President Lech Walesa had absolutely no regime to bug.

I rather like the idea of having a charismatic freedom fighter run the country she's helped liberate, for a term or so. I rather liked seeing Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa for a while, and I liked seeing him leave the political arena to politicians. Okay, the country's free now, I can go back to doing what I do best. Who can I bug into submission? The same thing happended in Lesotho when Ntsu Mokhehle led the country for a term, following the first free elections in that country, then stepped down and handed the reins to more agile politicians.

Yesterday was Women's Day. It would be good if we used it to remember that there are only 11 female heads of government in the entire world, that Africa has just 1 (one out of 52 countries), and only since November 2005; that numbers for women approach 50% within badly paid sectors of the job market, but remain low in other sectors; that in the Arab world, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Venezuela, Argentina and other places, men still commit what they call honour crimes and killings.

June 2006