After
the Fall from the Wall
What
happens to Africa after the mud walls of dictatorship come tumbling down and
the palaces of illusion behind those walls vanish? Will Africa be like Humpty
Dumpty who “had a great fall” and could not be put back together by “all the
king’s horses and all the king’s men”? What happens to the dictators?
When
the people begin to beat their drums and circle the mud walls, Africa’s
dictators will pack their bags and fly off like bats out of hell. Some will go
to Dictators’ Heaven in Saudi Arabia where they will be received with open arms
and kisses on the cheeks (Ben Ali of Tunisia, Idi Amin of Uganda, Nawaz Sharif
of Pakistan found sanctuary in Saudi Arabia, as will Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and
Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan and soon.) Others will hide out in the backyards of
their brother dictators (Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia has been holed up in
Zimbabwe for the last 20 years; Hissen Habre of Chad remains a fugitive from
justice sheltered in Senegal; Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia lived out his last
days in Nigeria as did Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko in Morocco). The rest will fade
away into the sunset to quietly enjoy their stolen millions. But few will meet
the fate of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Central
African Republic (CAR) who found sanctuary in France only to return to CAR,
face trial and be convicted of murder; or Charles Taylor of Liberia who found
refuge in Nigeria before he was handed over to the International Criminal Court
and is now standing trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The
fact is that the morning after the fall of Africa’s dictators, the people will
be stuck with a ransacked economy, emptied national banks, empty store shelves,
torture chambers full of political prisoners and dithering and power-hungry
opposition leaders jockeying for position in the middle of political chaos.
Who
Could Put Africa Together After the Fall?
Where
are the “king’s men and the king’s horses” who will put Africa together after
the mud walls come tumbling down? Who are Africa’s Knights in Shining Armor who
will ride to the rescue? Unfortunately, there have been few African knights and
a lot of armor with one general or self-proclaimed rebel leader replacing
another to lord over the people. Africa has been a victim of a recurrent case
of old dictator out, new dictator in. In 1991, after the fall of the military
dictatorship (Derg) in Ethiopia led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, a malignant
dictatorship replaced it with Meles Zenawi at the helm. Zenawi and his crew
came to power promising democracy and ended up establishing a kakistorcatic kleptocracy
(a government of incompetents whose mission is to use the state apparatus to
steal from the people and enrich themselves and their cronies). Two decades
later, the country’s economy is in shambles with galloping inflation and jails
full of businessmen and merchants who are made the fall guys for the country’s
economic problems.
Laurent
Gbagbo succeeded Ivory Coast’s military dictator Robert Guei in a democratic
election in 2000. After losing a democratic election by a 9-point margin to
Alassane Ouattara recently, Gbagbo refuses to step down and continues to cling
to power despite pleas by his own election commission, the African Union, the
U.N., the U.S. and the European Union. In 1997, rebel leader Laurent-Désiré
Kabila overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, named himself president the day
after Mobutu fled, suspended the constitution, renamed the country to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, moved into Mobutu’s palace and continued
Mobutu’s ongoing enterprise of massive human rights abuses and corruption
without skipping a beat. A week after Kabila was assassinated by his own
bodyguard in 2001, his 30-year-old son Joseph was anointed president. Lansana
Conté replaced dictator Ahmed Sékou Touré in Guinea in 1984, until he was
overthrown by another military dictator in December 2008. Omar al-Bashir seized
power in the Sudan in 1989, immediately suspended political parties and
introduced Sharia law on a national level, a major factor that contributed to
the recent breakup of the Sudan. In 1999, he disbanded the parliament,
suspended the constitution, declared a state of national emergency and began
ruling by presidential decree. Today al-Bashir is a fugitive from justice
sought by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war
crimes. When Siad Barre’s military dictatorship fell in Somalia in 1991, the
warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his rebel group took over Mogadishu but were
unable to consolidate their power throughout the country, triggering bloody
clan wars that have left Somalia as the ultimate completely failed state.
Learning
From History: Preparing for Change
It
is said that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”; but
there is much to be learned from the history of African dictatorships. Africa’s
dictators have methodically and systematically wiped out their strongest
opposition by demonizing, jailing, intimidating, torturing and outlawing them.
They have neutralized rivals even with their own ranks. Zenawi jailed the
entire leadership of the opposition, journalists, civil society leaders and
human rights advocates in one fell swoop in 2005. The dictators have created
their own political institutions and doctored their constitutions to allow for
change to come only through the auspices of their own parties and allies. Both
Ben Ali and Mubarak amended their constitutions so that no opposition leader or
party could run for the presidency or other national office and have a chance
to win in a fair and free election. Because African dictators live in an echo
chamber, they are self-delusional. They convince themselves that they have
popular support. Mubarak believes he has the full support of the people, and by
reshuffling his cabinet and appointing his army buddies to top posts, he could
continue his 30-year-old dictatorial rule. Zenawi declared that his 99.6
percent victory in the parliamentary election in May 2010 represented a
“mandate” from the people to his party in gratitude for his great leadership
and the “double digit” economic growth he had brought the country. African
dictators are so arrogant that they believe they can save the day by making a
few superficial concessions and grandstanding promises of democratization,
reorganization and reconciliation. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Mwai Kibaki of
Kenya agreed to a make-believe “unity government” to prolong their
dictatorships. Without the support of the West, no dictatorship in Africa could
survive even a single day. That is why Mubarak, Zenawi, Kibaki, Musevini and
the rest of them shake in their boots when the West angles their collective
boots towards their rear ends. The West will throw them under a steamroller at
the first sign of unrest. President Obama was quick to “applaud” the Tunisian
people for overthrowing Ben Ali. He warned Mubarak that unless he takes
“concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people,” there will be
cuts in the billions of dollars of U.S. handouts to Egypt.
On
the other hand, many opposition leaders and parties opposing dictatorships in
Africa have been disorganized, fractious, confused, haphazard, self-righteous
and duplicitous. Regrettably, there are far too many opposition leaders in
Africa who are driven by the singular desire to grab power than are interested
in bringing about real change. Truth be told, many African opposition leaders
have little faith in the courage and resourcefulness of the people; and the
people prove them wrong every time. As Egypt’s Mohamed El Baradei recently
observed on the Egyptian popular uprising: “It was the young people who took
the initiative and set the date [for the uprising] and decided to go. Frankly,
I didn’t think the people were ready... [but what the youth have done] will
give them the self-confidence they needed.” Once opposition leaders seat
themselves in the saddles of power, they become the mirror images of the
dictators they fought to remove. In the eyes of the people, many of these
leaders have proven to be wolves in sheep’s clothing; they want to grab power
to make sure “it is their turn to eat, their turn at the trough.” That is the
reason why people in many parts of Africa have little faith in the opposition
leaders or their parties. Laurent Gbago, who fought dictator Félix
Houphouët-Boigny and years later led his supporters into the streets toppling
General Robert Guei is today the reincarnation of Houphouët-Boigny-Guei. Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda are no different. Further evidence
in support of the assertion that many opposition leaders are driven by a hunger
for power is their inability to present to the people concrete and
comprehensive proposals to address the structural problems of poverty,
unemployment, inflation, corruption, oppression and human rights violation in
their countries. In short, many opposition leaders have no plans to clean up
the mess the dictatorships always leave behind, and have failed to become
beacons of hope to guide their people out of despair. That is what we seem to
be witnessing today in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere.
An
African Charter Against Dictatorship (Charter 2011)
The
history of the human struggle for freedom offers many lessons. One of the great
lessons of the past two decades is that political changes that ensure lasting
peace and guarantee freedom and human rights do not come as a result of military
or palace coups, rebel victories or the efforts of opposition parties and
leaders, but through simple acts of civil disobedience, passive resistance and
the spontaneous actions of ordinary people and youth in the streets fed up with
corruption, poverty, unemployment and human rights abuses. Who could have
imagined that the match young Mohamed Bouazizi lit to burn himself protesting
dictatorship in Tunisia would now be torching decades-old dictatorships in
Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan? Could one reasonably doubt that the winds of
change will not carry the embers of freedom from Tunisia and Egypt to other
countries in the region?
In
the current context of civil disobedience and mass resistance and the absence
of organized parties and leaders to lead peaceful popular uprisings in many
African dictatorships, it seems that there is a great role to be played by
individuals, small groups, civic society and other informal institutions
dedicated to the defense and protection of human rights and the rule of law in
Africa. Africans must look to civil society institutions and grassroots
organizations to spearhead real change and take charge of their destiny. The
first step towards that end is for ordinary Africans committed to nonviolent
peaceful change to take a stand against dictatorship openly and defiantly. It
has been done before successfully a number of times. The struggle of the
Czechoslovakian dissidents who signed the Charter 77 petition is one
instructive example of how individuals without political partisanship,
affiliation or ideology — but committed to human rights and freedom — were able
to change history by simply standing up for their beliefs and defying
dictatorships.
In
November 1989, riot police violently suppressed student demonstrations in Prague,
which in turn triggered a massive popular uprising and a general strike against
the communist regime. As a result, Czech president Gustav Husak resigned in
early December; and by the end of 1989 a non-communist government was in place.
Within a few months, the much vaunted communist system in Czechoslovakia was
dismantled completely. The “Velvet Revolution”, as it came to be known, had
roots in the tireless efforts of a few hundred Czech dissidents committed to
the principles of “Charter 77”, a human rights document prepared in the from a
petition demanding respect for basic human rights guaranteed to Czech citizens
in their Constitution and other international human rights conventions. The
Charter demanded the right to freedom of expression, freedom of association, a
stop to politically-motivated prosecutions, humane treatment of political
prisoners and other basic rights. Charter 77 was not an organization nor did it
have any formal membership. Those who signed it consisted of “a loose, informal
and open association of people of various shades of opinion, faiths and
professions united by the will to strive individually and collectively for the
respecting of civic and human rights in our own country and throughout the
world.” Anyone who agreed with the ideas of the Charter and was willing to
propagate and participate in its pursuit could take ownership. When the Charter
was finalized in 1977, approximately 300 individuals had the courage to sign
it. Many avoided openly endorsing the document or showing support for it
fearing retaliation, harassment and persecution by the communist regime. When
communism fell in 1989, fewer than two thousand Czechs had signed the Charter.
Most importantly, during the turbulent days of the “Velvet Revolution”, it was
the members of Charter 77 who played a pivotal and decisive role in the
transition of Czechoslovakia from totalitarianism to democracy. Member of
Charter 77 ensured not only the dismantlement of communism but also became the
bulwarks against the rise of another dictatorship. An African Charter Against
Dictatorship is long overdue!
Palace
of Illusions and Fortress of Freedom
When
the mud walls of African dictatorships come tumbling down, the palaces of
illusion behind those walls will vanish without a trace. If Africans are to
have hope of a better future and fulfill their destiny to become one with all
free peoples in the world, they will need to build a fortress of freedom
impregnable to the slings and arrows of civilians dictators and the savage
musketry of military juntas. African dictators should heed these words: “Those
who make peaceful change impossible, make a violent revolution inevitable.”
Alemayehu G. Mariam
