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AFRICA AND GLOBAL DISORDER |
Nasir Umar, Guest Blogger
It is a universe out of sync indeed. Not since the height of the Cold War has the civilized world witnessed such an evil distemper abroad and a nasty disquiet at home. Something strange and inexplicable is beginning to happen to the post-Cold War order, hinting at a possible reconfiguration of the global order and international relations. As if on cue, Europe has played host to a resurgence of xenophobia and extreme native nationalism which have led to much national unease and dark foreboding in Germany, Austria, Holland, France, Britain, Belgium and Italy. In these civilized and advanced countries, the fear of immigrants and people of colour has become the cornerstone of nascent national wisdom.
The world has never been more polarized and bitterly divided by race, colour and creed. What are the implications of these global concussions and unfolding world disorder so soon after the west thought they got it right with the end of the Cold War? The errant eccentricities of certain nations and historical individuals notwithstanding, they speak to the fact that there is a fundamental rationality embedded in human history which makes periodic restructuring inevitable for the global order and nation-states alike if they are to face new realities. Just as no nation can rule the world in perpetuity, now national ruling bloc can also hold sway forever.
At the turn of the nineties and with the Cold War sprinting to an impossible conclusion aided principally by the implosion of the Soviet Empire, Francis Fukuyama, an American scholar of Japanese extraction, wrote a famous book triumphantly proclaiming the unchallengeable dominion of liberal democracy and the irreversible ascendancy of America as the global law-giver. But with subsequent developments, it is now obvious that Fukuyama might have spoken too soon.
What he saw was not the end of history but history at a particular ending. Fukuyama could not have foreseen the advent of Donald Trump, the human fireball setting ablaze the most brilliant political institutions the modern world has seen, or the rise of primitive tribalism in America for that matter. Donald Trump is a nightmare for America and the rest of the world. It is possible that after four years, America will figure out what to do with this nasty glitch on their system. But the damage to American power and global prestige will be there for a long time. If internal fissures can be mended, external afflictions are not so amenable.
With the Iranians still chafing in ethno-theocratic distemper, with the Koreans threatening a nuclear holocaust, with China confronting the world with a new prototype of the Yellow Peril, with the rise of anti-Western Slavic nationalism in Russia, with Europe gripped by illiberal fear and xenophobia and with Syria reduced by carnage to a vast field of vultures, the combined population of societies under the hammer of anti-democratic hybrids far outweighs the dominion of liberal democracy.
What are the implications of these global ruptures for Africa? Unfortunately, the cradle of human civilization remains rooted in civilizational infancy. As it has been famously noted, although humankind first developed in Africa, it has not continued to do so there. This is a drama of giants and a poor man’s mouth is a cutlass fit only for bush-clearing. African nations do not expect to be taken seriously as long as they remain a net exporter of misery and human afflictions to other nations; as long as the flowers of their youth are absconding and voting with their feet ; as long as its children are openly sold into slavery in the stateless anomie of Libya and as long as they are wantonly butchered by homicidal militias. A demented hen that sucks her best eggs cannot expect global approbation.
Unfortunately, African nations that could make the difference are weighed down by a combination of internal and external factors arising from their historical circumstances. The progressive nations of Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania and Botswana lack the world-scale economy and strategic population that could propel them into continental and global reckoning. Ever since its liberation from the claws of a monstrous racist regimen, South Africa has projected a curious combination of international coyness and lack of self-assertion. The psychological impairment of the past still haunts and hurts. The ascendancy of Cyril Ramaphosa, a former iconic revolutionary turned sedate billionaire businessman, is unlikely to threaten the extant statusquo. In retrospect, the wily ANC old guard who passed him over for promotion and sure presidential ascendancy knew just why they had to do that. They were not about to commit class suicide
It is a universe out of sync indeed. Not since the height of the Cold War has the civilized world witnessed such an evil distemper abroad and a nasty disquiet at home. Something strange and inexplicable is beginning to happen to the post-Cold War order, hinting at a possible reconfiguration of the global order and international relations. As if on cue, Europe has played host to a resurgence of xenophobia and extreme native nationalism which have led to much national unease and dark foreboding in Germany, Austria, Holland, France, Britain, Belgium and Italy. In these civilized and advanced countries, the fear of immigrants and people of colour has become the cornerstone of nascent national wisdom.
The world has never been more polarized and bitterly divided by race, colour and creed. What are the implications of these global concussions and unfolding world disorder so soon after the west thought they got it right with the end of the Cold War? The errant eccentricities of certain nations and historical individuals notwithstanding, they speak to the fact that there is a fundamental rationality embedded in human history which makes periodic restructuring inevitable for the global order and nation-states alike if they are to face new realities. Just as no nation can rule the world in perpetuity, now national ruling bloc can also hold sway forever.
At the turn of the nineties and with the Cold War sprinting to an impossible conclusion aided principally by the implosion of the Soviet Empire, Francis Fukuyama, an American scholar of Japanese extraction, wrote a famous book triumphantly proclaiming the unchallengeable dominion of liberal democracy and the irreversible ascendancy of America as the global law-giver. But with subsequent developments, it is now obvious that Fukuyama might have spoken too soon.
What he saw was not the end of history but history at a particular ending. Fukuyama could not have foreseen the advent of Donald Trump, the human fireball setting ablaze the most brilliant political institutions the modern world has seen, or the rise of primitive tribalism in America for that matter. Donald Trump is a nightmare for America and the rest of the world. It is possible that after four years, America will figure out what to do with this nasty glitch on their system. But the damage to American power and global prestige will be there for a long time. If internal fissures can be mended, external afflictions are not so amenable.
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| Is President Trump destroying the American Legacy? |
With the Iranians still chafing in ethno-theocratic distemper, with the Koreans threatening a nuclear holocaust, with China confronting the world with a new prototype of the Yellow Peril, with the rise of anti-Western Slavic nationalism in Russia, with Europe gripped by illiberal fear and xenophobia and with Syria reduced by carnage to a vast field of vultures, the combined population of societies under the hammer of anti-democratic hybrids far outweighs the dominion of liberal democracy.
What are the implications of these global ruptures for Africa? Unfortunately, the cradle of human civilization remains rooted in civilizational infancy. As it has been famously noted, although humankind first developed in Africa, it has not continued to do so there. This is a drama of giants and a poor man’s mouth is a cutlass fit only for bush-clearing. African nations do not expect to be taken seriously as long as they remain a net exporter of misery and human afflictions to other nations; as long as the flowers of their youth are absconding and voting with their feet ; as long as its children are openly sold into slavery in the stateless anomie of Libya and as long as they are wantonly butchered by homicidal militias. A demented hen that sucks her best eggs cannot expect global approbation.
Unfortunately, African nations that could make the difference are weighed down by a combination of internal and external factors arising from their historical circumstances. The progressive nations of Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania and Botswana lack the world-scale economy and strategic population that could propel them into continental and global reckoning. Ever since its liberation from the claws of a monstrous racist regimen, South Africa has projected a curious combination of international coyness and lack of self-assertion. The psychological impairment of the past still haunts and hurts. The ascendancy of Cyril Ramaphosa, a former iconic revolutionary turned sedate billionaire businessman, is unlikely to threaten the extant statusquo. In retrospect, the wily ANC old guard who passed him over for promotion and sure presidential ascendancy knew just why they had to do that. They were not about to commit class suicide
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| Nigeria and South Africa, failing in their duties of leading Africa out of its doldrum. |
Ironically, Nigeria, despite its current difficulties, remains in the eyes of dispassionate observers the best hope for continental renaissance. Nigeria has the best national advantages in terms of sheer biodiversity, natural riches, human resources and quality population to drive a continental revival. But Nigeria is so hobbled by internal problems that it is a miracle it has continued to survive. Stone Age leadership, ethnic fundamentalism, regional divisions, religious polarities, ancestral feuding leading to bloodshed on an industrial scale and state larceny have prevented till date the rise of an alternative elite formation that will drag the country by the scruff of the neck to the portals of modernity and modernization.
A new internally driven Berlin Conference is in order for Africa. African nations must set in motion the mechanism for the convoking of a pan-African congregation to deliberate on the fate of the continent. Without this, the unfolding global disordering of the old order is likely to consume most of its nations.
Umar Nasir is a social affairs commentator.
Checkout his articles at nasirumar.blogspot.com
Checkout his articles at nasirumar.blogspot.com
Africa is so messed up. Her leaders are so wrong in their mindset of leadership.
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