•Sunday, October 01, 2006
by Charles Onyango Obbo (Daily Nation 28 Sept)
Africa has really changed for the better – at least in a few respects. Some years ago, as a young journalist who was still a little wet behind the ears, a colleague and I arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi’s commercial capital.
Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, The Ngwazi (the great lion), was still running the place with an iron fist. Malawi was hell for journalists, and nearly everyone else. A story is told of a foreign journalist who was accorded a rare interview with Banda. A minister escorted him into the interview room.
After they had taken a few steps towards the president, the journalist looked towards the minister, only to find he had “disappeared”. His puzzlement ended quickly when he looked down, and there was the minister moving on all fours like a dog toward the Ngwazi.
The Ngwazi had been abroad, and returned home two days before our arrival in Lilongwe. The day was declared a national holiday. Supporters of Kamuzu’s ruling Malawi Congress Party turned out in their tens of thousands to welcome the great lion. From early morning, state radio began a live report on the atmosphere ahead of the Ngwazi’s arrival.
On arrival, there was a blow by blow account of his procession from the airport into Lilongwe; and later his departure for the capital, Blantyre, and then his arrival there. By that time, it was about 5pm. And that was all the radio had been covering. With the explosion of FM stations, state broadcasters struggling to survive wouldn’t dare serve up such madness today.
For all Banda’s cult rule, there were surprising oversights. The MCP women who lined up the roads and danced for the Ngwazi were all in clothes emblazoned with the big man’s portrait. Now you would have expected that the dresses would be made in such a way that Banda’s head was not on the women’s behinds. The fact that it wasn’t meant that whenever the women sat down, they actually sat on the dictator.
It’s doubtful that most of the people who turned out to greet Banda cared for him. The renowned Malawian academic, Thandika Mkandawire, who lived in exile during Banda’s rule, tells of his experience with his father. Thandika was a critic of Banda, and was always upset that his father was an MCP member. He would send messages to his son, and tell him he wanted money for paying for his MCP subscription.
After Banda fell, Thandika was able to return to Malawi for the first time in over 20 years. A few days after he arrived at his parents’ home, his father called hi, and led him quietly to a house in his compound. He moved the furniture aside, dug the floor, and pulled out a metal trunk. When he opened it, it was full of the MCP cards and paraphernalia he had bought for decades. It was then that reality dawned on Thandika. He had spent many fruitless days arguing with his old man about the MCP. The geezer was never a supporter. He did to keep the government off his back.
The authoritarian politics of the likes of Banda, which was the rule in most of Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, also gave rise to another irritating feature of African politics – the long speech. A speaker needs to take his audience for granted – or to hold them to a degree of fear – for him to bludgeon them with a dull speech for hours without protest.
Not too long ago, I investigated this matter and it formed a chapter in a little book I wrote, Uganda’s Poorly Kept Secrets. The chapter, headed “Forever My Ramble”, reported that in August 1997, Uganda’s vice-president Specioza Kazibwe had delivered a “sort and good speech”, that was enough to make her the “centre of attraction” at a workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In other words a short speech was so unusual that by delivering one, Kazibwe surprised everyone and became a star.
Not so her boss, President Yoweri Museveni. At the Global Knowledge Conference in June, the same year, Canada’s shy and unassuming minister of Internal Trade, Ms Diane Marleau, was chairing a session at which Museveni was speaking.
Speakers were given a few minutes. As Museveni rambled on past his allotted time, Ms Marleau had the difficult task of trying to stop him. Museveni told her that he didn’t travel for a whole day and night to come and just clear his throat.
Another notorious rambler used to be Ghana’s military ruler Jerry Rawlings, who later repackaged himself as an elected leader and actually stepped down from office. When Rawlings was talking revolution, there was no stopping him. His mindset at that time partly explains why he thought it was his right to harangue the world. I was told of an incident when an Amnesty International delegation went to talk to Rawlings about human rights abuses.
As they waited in the lounge of his office, the TV was turned on. It showed a very bloody film of lions chasing down some hapless small animals and tearing them up furiously. The delegation thought it was just another nature documentary. When they went in to meet Rawlings and complained about torture and arbitrary detentions by his government, he looked them straight in the eyes and asked if they had watched the film on the TV in the lounge.
“Yes,” they replied.
“Well, that’s what happens in the real world. The strong animals eat the weak ones”.
Last week, there was Africa’s International Media Summit in this same Ghana, now a relatively stable multiparty democracy. Ghana’s minister of Information and “National Guidance” Mrs Obashie Sai Cofie, and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, minister of Tourism and “Diaspora Relations” (these good people have serious titles), spoke on the opening day.
Before we could settle in our seats properly, Mrs Cofie had finished her piece. Then in the space of time it took to open a glass of mineral water and fill a glass, Mr Lamptey was done. Coming from East Africa, we were surprised, but quite pleased.
Then there was a banquet to honour living famous Africans. The guest of honour was Ghana’s vice-president, Alhaji Aliu Mahama. He broke the record-he spoke barely two minutes.
It’s almost miraculous what the march of democracy can do some politician’s tongues.
Mr Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s managing editor for Convergence and New Products.
Africa has really changed for the better – at least in a few respects. Some years ago, as a young journalist who was still a little wet behind the ears, a colleague and I arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi’s commercial capital.
Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, The Ngwazi (the great lion), was still running the place with an iron fist. Malawi was hell for journalists, and nearly everyone else. A story is told of a foreign journalist who was accorded a rare interview with Banda. A minister escorted him into the interview room.
After they had taken a few steps towards the president, the journalist looked towards the minister, only to find he had “disappeared”. His puzzlement ended quickly when he looked down, and there was the minister moving on all fours like a dog toward the Ngwazi.
The Ngwazi had been abroad, and returned home two days before our arrival in Lilongwe. The day was declared a national holiday. Supporters of Kamuzu’s ruling Malawi Congress Party turned out in their tens of thousands to welcome the great lion. From early morning, state radio began a live report on the atmosphere ahead of the Ngwazi’s arrival.
On arrival, there was a blow by blow account of his procession from the airport into Lilongwe; and later his departure for the capital, Blantyre, and then his arrival there. By that time, it was about 5pm. And that was all the radio had been covering. With the explosion of FM stations, state broadcasters struggling to survive wouldn’t dare serve up such madness today.
For all Banda’s cult rule, there were surprising oversights. The MCP women who lined up the roads and danced for the Ngwazi were all in clothes emblazoned with the big man’s portrait. Now you would have expected that the dresses would be made in such a way that Banda’s head was not on the women’s behinds. The fact that it wasn’t meant that whenever the women sat down, they actually sat on the dictator.
It’s doubtful that most of the people who turned out to greet Banda cared for him. The renowned Malawian academic, Thandika Mkandawire, who lived in exile during Banda’s rule, tells of his experience with his father. Thandika was a critic of Banda, and was always upset that his father was an MCP member. He would send messages to his son, and tell him he wanted money for paying for his MCP subscription.
After Banda fell, Thandika was able to return to Malawi for the first time in over 20 years. A few days after he arrived at his parents’ home, his father called hi, and led him quietly to a house in his compound. He moved the furniture aside, dug the floor, and pulled out a metal trunk. When he opened it, it was full of the MCP cards and paraphernalia he had bought for decades. It was then that reality dawned on Thandika. He had spent many fruitless days arguing with his old man about the MCP. The geezer was never a supporter. He did to keep the government off his back.
The authoritarian politics of the likes of Banda, which was the rule in most of Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, also gave rise to another irritating feature of African politics – the long speech. A speaker needs to take his audience for granted – or to hold them to a degree of fear – for him to bludgeon them with a dull speech for hours without protest.
Not too long ago, I investigated this matter and it formed a chapter in a little book I wrote, Uganda’s Poorly Kept Secrets. The chapter, headed “Forever My Ramble”, reported that in August 1997, Uganda’s vice-president Specioza Kazibwe had delivered a “sort and good speech”, that was enough to make her the “centre of attraction” at a workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In other words a short speech was so unusual that by delivering one, Kazibwe surprised everyone and became a star.
Not so her boss, President Yoweri Museveni. At the Global Knowledge Conference in June, the same year, Canada’s shy and unassuming minister of Internal Trade, Ms Diane Marleau, was chairing a session at which Museveni was speaking.
Speakers were given a few minutes. As Museveni rambled on past his allotted time, Ms Marleau had the difficult task of trying to stop him. Museveni told her that he didn’t travel for a whole day and night to come and just clear his throat.
Another notorious rambler used to be Ghana’s military ruler Jerry Rawlings, who later repackaged himself as an elected leader and actually stepped down from office. When Rawlings was talking revolution, there was no stopping him. His mindset at that time partly explains why he thought it was his right to harangue the world. I was told of an incident when an Amnesty International delegation went to talk to Rawlings about human rights abuses.
As they waited in the lounge of his office, the TV was turned on. It showed a very bloody film of lions chasing down some hapless small animals and tearing them up furiously. The delegation thought it was just another nature documentary. When they went in to meet Rawlings and complained about torture and arbitrary detentions by his government, he looked them straight in the eyes and asked if they had watched the film on the TV in the lounge.
“Yes,” they replied.
“Well, that’s what happens in the real world. The strong animals eat the weak ones”.
Last week, there was Africa’s International Media Summit in this same Ghana, now a relatively stable multiparty democracy. Ghana’s minister of Information and “National Guidance” Mrs Obashie Sai Cofie, and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, minister of Tourism and “Diaspora Relations” (these good people have serious titles), spoke on the opening day.
Before we could settle in our seats properly, Mrs Cofie had finished her piece. Then in the space of time it took to open a glass of mineral water and fill a glass, Mr Lamptey was done. Coming from East Africa, we were surprised, but quite pleased.
Then there was a banquet to honour living famous Africans. The guest of honour was Ghana’s vice-president, Alhaji Aliu Mahama. He broke the record-he spoke barely two minutes.
It’s almost miraculous what the march of democracy can do some politician’s tongues.
Mr Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s managing editor for Convergence and New Products.
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2 comments:
very interesting article..
hi kabinti, its a trully nice article