There was once a time when South Africans traveling in Africa would be asked about Nelson Mandela as if we all saw and greeted him every morning. “How is Mandela doing?” other Africans would ask.
Such a question would be posed by the most ordinary of human beings. The elite, who knew that presidents are inaccessible, never made such a strange enquiry.
Under Thabo Mbeki, the African elite always passed a comment to compliment South Africans about the oversized brains of their short president.
Things would later change. “You see what those monkeys are doing. That’s your president.” These are the words of a Kenyan tour guide to a South African tourist who was on a game drive. The monkeys were doing things that human beings normally do not do in public. It is indeed not difficult to guess which South African president was associated with such things.
People may or may not like it, but that is how the world makes sense of other societies. In the eyes of the world, we are judged on the basis of the character of our leaders.
That is why the whole world was anxious about the recent American elections. We all wanted to gauge if Americans are still mad or if they have regained their sanity.
Under Barak Obama, America was respected across the world. Whenever he opened his mouth, we all sat up to drink from America’s pure waters of wisdom.
The convergence of American education, politics and society in nurturing and embracing excellence was in full display. We saw in Obama the best of American culture.
Even those of us whose president was associated with monkeys still had the courage to tell the world that people with a dark skin are not the same. We were quick to produce Obama as our Exhibit No.1.
Over the past four years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been pointing at America to ask self-appointed champions of democracy if that is what they want China to become. Suddenly, the champions of democracy developed a lump in their throats.
As the American people continued to be ravaged by Covid-19, the CCP asked which political system –democracy or dictatorship? – was best suited to manage health emergencies. While Americans were trying to manufacture an answer, madness intensified in their White House.
So, if you have been wondering why the world is so obsessed with American elections, that is precisely the point.
Other than the obvious weight of the American economy in the world, the US has been hoisting the global flag for democracy since the end of the World War 2.
It is true that America has since sponsored numerous dictatorships in the Third World, but it is equally true that billions of people in the Third World have been inspired by the liberty enjoyed by Americans.
Even Third World elites who pretend to hate America behave like kids in a candy shop when they get an opportunity to visit the US. Which dictator would turn down such an invitation?
The same leaders of the Chinese Communist Party pressure their children to study hard so that they could be admitted to Harvard or Yale University.
In a single year, 2016–2017, there were 351,000 Chinese students at American universities. If the Chinese truly hate America, why are they sending their children to be corrupted by American dons?
The truth is that, given an opportunity, we all would like our children to go and study at the same universities that produced Barak Obama.
In SA, people are very proud that Trevor Noah has made it in America. Is there an African who wants to be big in Egypt or China?
The problem with us human beings, unlike other animals, is that we can lie. Here is the truth: most people in the world are obsessed with America because that country has experienced the closest manifestation of the idea of liberty.
That such a great country from time to time permits madness to enter the White House is the greatest of travesties.
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