Now I'm not one to normally read the Guardian. In fact, I'm probably as far removed from a typical Guardian reader as you've ever likely to get.
However. Kenyan Pundit (a great source of information regarding the recent elections) has pointed me towards this very interesting article written a couple of weeks ago. Any thoughts?
Friday, January 18, 2008
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2 comments:
Some interesting points here, and the references to the vast number of different languages and traditions relate perhaps in some way to the "micro-commmunities" (or whatever the phrase was) that I thought I heard one Kenyan commentator refer to earlier in the week. It made a lot of sense at the time.
But I find the statement that tribalism is "a logical result of Africa's imposed history" a bit rich. Tribalism would still exist whether or not Kenya had been created, would it not ? I have to say I get a bit hacked off when everything gets blamed on the British. On the one hand we're accused of being patronising and trying to impose western-style values on everybody, and on the other Richard Dowden complains that we failed to push for a fully independent electoral commission. It seems to me that we can't win sometimes.
I accept that we don't understand the continent - we can't possibly hope to understand such a complex inter-weaving of different races and traditions. My own view is that where we don't understand something, we should stay out of it - Iraq, for example.
None of which helps one jot the Kenyan people, for whom I feel desperately sorry. From the little I've seen of it it's a fantastic country whose people deserve better.
I completely agree with you WoT (if I may call you that!) and I don't think we pretend to understand completely what's going on in Kenya (not as much as the Americans at any rate who believe they own the place in my opinion) but I still think we have a role there.
This "micro community" point is an interesting one because you could argue that these occur (as does tribalism in a way) anywhere in the world, not just Africa. If I look at where I live in London, there a number of different little communities, all living alongside each other. Are there the same problems that we see in Kenya? No, not to the same extent possibly. Why? No idea.
Some things I don't even pretend to understand!
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