Gitau Warigi
6 July 2003
opinion
Nairobi — George W. Bush is making his first African tour from Tuesday. You may not believe it, but he visited Africa once before, as part of an obscure American delegation to Gambia (or was it Senegal?) when his father was President. I think I read it somewhere in the New Yorker, an American periodical.
It transpires that Bush's first encounter with Africa was not a nice one. What is most remembered was a tense moment when his bodyguards cordoned him off from a group of sweaty African traditional entertainers who danced too boisterously close to where he sat. They just wanted to please him, but Bush got very agitated. Britain's Princess Anne, whose travels take in all sorts of weird ceremonies and tribal cultures, sat unfazed next to the American prince.
Bush had actually made only a couple or so trips outside America before becoming President. He sounded inordinately pleased about this embarrassing lack of exposure during his presidential campaign. Aside from that unmemorable West African jaunt, he had visited Europe once, or twice. His only other foreign trip was to Mexico, just across the border from the Texas state which he was running as Governor. Through the Mexican connection Bush learnt to speak some Spanish, of which he is very proud. Still he cannot manage to pronounce properly the name of the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar. Bush calls him A-n-z-a-r. It will be interesting to hear how he will pronounce African tongue-twister names like Olusegun Obasanjo and Abdoulaye Wade.
I once heard that Bush has a reading disorder called dyslexia. The condition makes the sufferer mangle words and phrases unintelligibly. Consider this: "We're working hard to put food on your family." It is a typical Bush-ism. There is a thriving global cottage industry about this Bush manner of speaking.
Were he the type to notice things, Bush would sense a sea of change in the continent's mood towards America since the last time Bill Clinton visited. President Clinton's behaviour with young White House interns may have caused him trouble in America, but the guy was genuinely liked in Africa, even when he came with nothing concrete to offer. It is true Bush is going to spend a sum of money ($15 billion, to combat HIV/Aids) surpassing any his predecessors committed to Africa, and yet he will never be liked on this continent.
Bush's singular achievement has been to make America resented in Africa - and elsewhere - to an unprecedented degree. America's unilateralist behaviour under Bush has messed up much of the goodwill America used to enjoy here. Nelson Mandela's declaration that he does not expect to meet Bush during the tour should be taken as an important signal.
In Kenya especially, America has become a dirty word. It may be just as well that Bush will not be visiting our country, never mind that this view could be taken by Americans as a case of sour grapes. The term "American arrogance" has become a by-word everywhere you go in this country. I am inclined to believe Americans get rather flattered when they hear that. It makes them all puffed up with that feeling of being powerful and super-important. They rationalise everything with the argument that being disliked by lesser mortals goes with the territory for a superpower.
As usual the Americans, an otherwise straightforward people whose only weakness is their naivette and self-centredness, are missing the point. Nobody has any problem with power, as long as it is used responsibly. Power vested in a country that has no idea of the harm it does everybody when it behaves recklessly is not something to be admired. As it is, Africans, like everybody else, roll their eyes in disbelief at the fact that Americans, in their wisdom, thought it fit to elect into such a powerful and consequential office somebody who is so obviously intellectually-challenged.
Africans respect power, of course. But there is something they respect more. Wisdom. They are not sure what they are seeing in the White House represents anything close to that. Especially not when it comes to the circle of advisors Bush keeps. People like Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld, or even that pitiable African-American, Condoleezza Rice. Probably with the sole exception of Colin Powell, the rest of the Bush team is made up of extremists.
Sure, we are poor. Yet all we demand is a little respect. Bush already has a nasty spat with Europe over genetically-engineered food, which he wants to give away to Africa. Trouble is, much of the rest of the world has doubts over the kind of food manufactured this way. Bush has no qualms about Africa taking it, though he has no clue that Africans understand all too well he is not doing this out of charity but to benefit American corporations that have invested in the technology of engineering food genetically.
There is a misconception American leaders have that Africans are only after alms. That is not true. Africa needs a level-playing field when it comes to international trade. It needs better prices for its primary products. It needs better access to global markets. It doesn't want to be looked at only through the prism of terrorism.
These are the issues Bush will be hearing when he stops in Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, Botswana and South Africa. He will be surprised to discover that the leaders of all these countries are a lot smarter that he can imagine. But from what we know of this man, it is too much to expect that anything lasting will register in his mind from this tour. It is the same story all the time with American Presidents when they visit.
As he was preparing to fly out to Africa, Bush gave an interview to journalists about his tour. When one of them brought up the issue of terrorism, Kenya immediately sprung to his mind. And he had that smug expression he gets when he is asked something on a topic he imagines he knows well. "Kenya is a great country," he said. "It's a place where there's been threats. Everybody knows that. Not only threats, there's been an attack in the past. And the government of Kenya has been very responsive. And we've been helping them."
I could imagine him sitting back after this with a gleam of satisfaction in his eye.
Welcome to Africa, Mr Bush.
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