AFRICA AND ITS STOMACHS OF ELEPHANTS

Botswana holds lessons for Africa, writes Okello Oculi

On March 30, 2018, news agencies reported three interesting events jumping out of Africa. In Egypt an election in which only 40 per cent of potential voters cast their ballots, the incumbent military-civilian ruler, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, was re-elected with 92 per cent of those votes. A day before votes were cast, a massive bomb explosion hit Alexandria, a major city on the Mediterranean coast. The military were fighting ‘’terrorists’’ in the Sinai Peninsula. The election itself took place over the grave of an earlier election which had put Mohammed Morsi in power by a popular vote. In Africa silence often feeds on blood.

In Ethiopia, Dr Abby Ahmed, of the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organisation faction of the ruling EPRDF coalition, was elected as the next Prime Minister. The symbolic value of a son of ‘’the wretched of the earth’’ in the country’s history assuming power is enormous for the legitimacy of the country’s democracy. The use of the gun to ‘’serve the people’’ –as Meles Zenawe once put it – has brought reward to sustained massive demonstrations as Oromia people demanded ‘’dividends of democracy’’. A key demand is protecting their land from being arbitrarily seized for the expansion of Addis Ababa, the country’’ s capital.

From Botswana came the delicious story of Ian Khama, son of the first president of the country, former head of the army and out-going president after serving two terms in office, was on a farewell tour of the country, was given various farewell gifts, including :‘’three cars worth $300,000’’, 1000 cattle, over 500 chickens and 200 sheep. Most strangely – for African politics – ‘’some especially generous members of the Opposition handed him shares in Botswana’s main telecoms company’’.

Of the three countries, Botswana has been noted for having a traditional ruling elite which is committed to Consensus electoral politics; and the use of power for serving the interests of people who are regarded as members of ‘’one family’’. Consultation with local communities over policy issues has received utmost priority. President Khama’s father, Seretse Khama, had by his decision to marry a white English girl, sent shock waves across the British empire from West Africa to the Caribbean, from India to Southern Africa. Racist rulers in South Africa were threatened by an example of inter-racial marriage whose long term demographic consequences would diminish the white population.

It is probable that the desire to show that black people can govern with integrity, lack of greed, democratic virtues and service to the people, was regarded by Seretse Khama as the best weapon against the racist ideology in Namibia, Southern and Northern Rhodesia and South Africa; and it has continued to motivate political leaders in Botswana. Writing about ancient China, Martin Jacques notes that ‘’the state was resistant to excessive income, differentiation and marked display of extravagance, which were seen as inimical to Confucian values of harmony’’. There is no reason to doubt that ancient values of community welfare and harmony have been the primary indigenous beacons guiding governance in post-colonial Botswana.

In Britain, the regicide which chopped off the head of King Charles 1, tamed the commercial greed of the monarch and the aristocracy around him so that businessmen could thrive and drive local and maritime commerce. In China, the Communist Party under Mao Zedung slaughtered greedy rural feudal lords and used the Cultural Revolution to prevent Euro-American educated bureaucrats and their families from amassing wealth. In Japan, leaders of the 1868 Meiji Revolution, decimated the Tokugawa ruling class and built national power against Euro-American imposition of an unjust commercial treaty imposed by Americans and their European allies.

The Meiji rulers, however, adapted the cultural tenets of the SAMURAI warrior class to drive development. The notion of devotion to intensively trained skills was channelled into industrial production. The notion of Familyhood has guided branches of corporations to own ‘’shares of each other’’; while and their management teams met daily to review performances and set goals. Government, as the family’s ‘’guardian’’, collected savings from the public and gave them out as capital to companies to support their industrial or commercial success. The Bank of Japan ensured patriotic use of these funds.

The idea of always working to perfect one’s knowledge through scholarship and practical work; one’s relationship with other people in economic, social and political activities and humility were directed into public administration and politics. Despite vigorous efforts by American officials ‘- who ruled Japan after the 1938-1945 war – to destroy the use of these traditional values, Japanese elites succeeded in using them to achieve their ‘’economic miracle’’ and world power status.

It is not clear if elites ruling Botswana have travelled along this Japanese road of combining ideas borrowed from Euro-America yet insisting on creating Their Own peculiar ‘’Kiswana’’ road to development. For over 80 years, its male youth were compelled to work in gold and diamond mines of South Africa, thereby blocking the country’s normal population growth. Its wealth in diamonds, sunshine, territorial size, and wild life offer inducement for thinking big ideas. Muamar Gaddafi’s plan of mobilising the imagination of Traditional Rulers, all across Africa, to crown him as ’King of Kings Africana’, is one it could explore.

Botswana could broadcast to Africa’s Traditional Rulers/ Elders nutritious KISWANA – NIPON Intellectual juices for creative governance. That would replace empty regalia with countering foreign looters of Africa.

BOTSWANA HAS BEEN NOTED FOR HAVING A TRADITIONAL RULING ELITE WHICH IS COMMITTED TO CONSENSUS ELECTORAL POLITICS; AND THE USE OF POWER FOR SERVING THE INTERESTS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE REGARDED AS MEMBERS OF ‘ONE FAMILY’