Clearly
The Kenyan Twittersphere is buzzing with tweets on the referendum on the proposed Constitution of Kenya. We are using the hastag #KenyaDecides.
Uchaguzi a technology platform that allows citizens and civil society to monitor and report incidences around the electoral process built on the Ushahidi engine is also accepting reports via Twitter through the hashtag #uchaguzi.
No Kenyan vote is complete without a picture of long queues at the Holy Family Basilica, Cathedral of the Catholic Archbishop of Nairobi and Primate of Kenya, one of the most central polling stations in the heart of Nairobi.
Here is a short video as we walked the queue of 500 people from the entrance of the polling station to the end of the queue.
The queue lengths varies tremendously throughout the day, sometimes it is almost twice as long as the one in this video, other times it is just a few people.
His Eminence John Cardinal Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi had voted moments before I took this video and media scrum around the Cardinal held things up for a while. Not that Nairobians seem to mind, so long as they had a newspaper to read while they wait.
4am in Kenya and across the country election officials of the Independent Interim Election Commission are waking up at the polling stations where in two hours time Kenyans will stream in ready to vote for or against a new constitution. These IIEC officials spelt at the polling stations watched over by at least 2 policemen to ensure that the election materials they collected yesterday evening were not tampered with overnight.
The last time Kenyans voted, on the 27th of December 2007 brought one of my proudest moments as a Kenyan. Watching the queues of people patiently waiting for hours to cast their ballots and choose their representatives for the next 5 years without drama, even in the face of fierce provocation was special. The next two months after that day brought my most heart breaking moments as a Kenyan as brother turned on brother, sister on sister and brother on sister.
But I believe in Kenya. I believe that the true picture of Kenya was December 27th 2007 not the two months that followed. Yesterday as I went around asking people if they are going to vote, the vast majority said yes they were. Some are making huge sacrifices, travelling over 400kms overnight from Nairobi to their polling stations. Others devoting a whole day to the exercise, a big sacrifice for someone who earns money on a daily basis surviving hand to mouth. Actually the only people I know who have said they will not vote are relatively well to do members of the so called Kenyan “intelligentsia” often justifying their choice by misquoting a random ancient philosopher.
We’ll be out there voting and watching and thanking God for our country.
Vote!
A Kenyan army paratrooper with the Kenyan national flag at the 2009 ASK Show in Nairobi. Photo: Daudi Were
I’m not just Red. I’m not just Green.
I’m a tricolour of black, red, and green, charged with two crossed white spears, behind a red, white, and black shield.
Kenyan.
Bafana Bafana played a world cup final on Tuesday the 22nd of June 2010 as the whole of South Africa stopped and came together at 4.00pm to see if their team could, against all the odds, win the match against France with four clear goals and qualify for the knock out stages of the FIFA World Cup 2010.
Bafana Bafana fan in Cape Town before the South Africa v France FIFA World Cup 2010 match. Photo by DAUDI WERE
AYOBA! Photo by DAUDI WERE
Predictability can be positive. In delivering each match the same way the organising committee ensures that nothing goes wrong with the technical side of things. Everybody, the players, the officials, the sponsors, the fans know what to expect. Routine and predictability more than anything else perhaps proved to the world what many had been saying for the last year, South Africa is ready.
The question, however, was that as a clever outsider who had manage to craftily embed myself deep within the troops of the Bafana Bafana auxiliary wing, enthroned with a lekarapa to complete my cunning disguise, would there be anything unique about being part of the South African fan experience?
Four years ago the ever efficient Germans managed to fill streets across Deutschland with flag waving fans, so Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh in itself wouldn’t quite cut it. Four years before that Korea and Japan showed that celebrating your unique football culture was to be encouraged, so the Makarapas and Vuvuzelas on their own wouldn’t quite cut it. Four years before that in France we saw a national team made up of different ethnicities (dare we say nationalities?) gel to conquer the world, so the “Rainbow Nation” in itself would not cut it.
South African fans celebrate a goal by Bafana Bafana during the South Africa v France FIFA World Cup 2010 match. In the background you see Cape Town City Hall where on 11 February 1990 Nelson Mandela made his first public speech after being released from prison. Photo by DAUDI WERE.
What South Africa has managed to do is make its uniqueness predicable. Codified uniqueness if you like. The extraordinary masquerading as the ordinary. And that is extraordinary. As La Marseillaise died out and the National Anthem of South Africa sung by a choir 50 million strong first in Xhosa, then in Zulu, moving into Sesotho and Afrikaans, before finally ending in English that unity is extraordinary being ordinary. When you’re standing a few metres away from where, almost 20 years ago to the day, on 11 February 1990 Mandela made his first speech as a free man watching Cameroon play the Dutch in Cape Town, that is the extraordinary being ordinary. When the only painful words bothering Archbishop Desmond Tutu are that his beloved Bafana Bafana did not get the four goals they need, that is the extraordinary being ordinary.
And that is worth celebrating.
South Africa’s relationship with the rest of Africa is fascinatingly complex.
On one hand, South Africa fascinates the minds of other Africans in a largely positive way. Here we have an African country that is a development giant illustrated in its status as a key member of the G20 not merely as Africa’s representative but in its own right as an economic powerhouse. Here we have a new democracy which behaves like an old democracy, changing heads of state as easily and bloodlessly as cutting a toe nail. Here we have a country that is comfortable enough in its multi-ethnicity to have 11 official languages and a national anthem with verses in three languages. A nuclear power, the home of the first open heart surgery, with a gross domestic product (GDP) four times that of its southern African neighbours and comprising around 25% of the entire continent’s GDP. South Africa leads the continent in industrial output (40% of total output) and mineral production (45%) and generates most of Africa’s electricity (over 50%).
On the other hand, you have South Africa’s relationship with the hearts of other Africans. Here too South Africa’s story is largely positive. Here are a people who fought the longest battle for liberation from oppression with apartheid falling only in 1994 meaning that the “born frees” are only 16 years old, not yet of voting age. Despite this South Africans have managed to lift themselves up, decide that their focus is forward not at looking backwards. In addition South Africa is double rugby world cup champion (1995, 2007) and African Nations Cup Champion in 1996 only two years after the fall of apartheid.
However, while South Africa has managed to capture the minds of Africans, it has had a much harder time winning over the hearts of other Africans. No doubt South Africa generates intense respect that comes with a recognition and acceptance of its status as the economic and political leader on the continent. The warmth of brotherhood, which is different from respect, while there, is not as intense.
There are several reasons why this could be the case. The one I have encountered most regularly is the “except South Africa” syndrome. The “except South Africa” syndrome ironically is a direct consequence of South Africa’s huge strides in development. It presents a unique dilemma as the same things about South Africa that fascinate positively African minds are the same ones that push away African hearts by making it appear so apart. For example take Wikipedia’s entry on Sub-Saharan Africa:
Sub-Saharan African countries top the list of countries and territories by fertility rate with 40 of the highest 50, all with TFR greater than 4 in 2008. All are above the world average except South Africa. Figures for life expectancy, malnourishment, infant mortality and HIV/AIDS infections are also dramatic. More than 40% of the population in sub-Saharan countries is younger than 15 years old, as well as in the Sudan with the exception of South Africa.[47]
Sub-Saharan African countries spent an average of just 0.3% of their GDP on S&T(Science and Technology) in 2007. This represents an increase from US$1.8bn in 2002 to US$2.8bn in 2007. This represent an increase of 50% in spending in S&T in Africa. South Africa is the sole exception. South Africa spends 0.87% of GDP on S&T.[85][86]
(emphasis mine)
In so many ways, some positive, some negative, South Africa seems so removed from the rest of Africa. It is almost impossible to get any meaningful statistic on Sub-Saharan Africa that does not exclude South Africa as the inclusion of that data would transform the results completely. I first noticed this during Idris Mohammed’s talk at TEDAfrica in which most of his statistics on the economy of Sub Saharan Africa excluded South Africa. While it is a blessing to be a trailblazer and a honour to be a leader, South Africa has also found that it can be lonely place to be.
This explains South Africa’s obsession with making the world cup not just about celebrating South Africa but about celebrating Africa. This I believe is not so much about selling Africa to the world but about selling South Africa to the rest of Africa. South Africa is tired of being just the cleverest kid in school; South Africa wants to be the most popular kid in school.
MTN, official sponsor of the World Cup, main advertising campaign is centred around urging us to support team “Africa United”. South Africans in particular were urged to make “every African match a home game” by buying tickets to matches involving African teams and (equally important) to go to the stadia and support those teams with the same passion they support Bafana Bafana. MTN also shouts, “Let’s go Africa. Let’s go 2010.”
South Africa is reaching out to the rest of Africa, perhaps “except South Africa” and “accept South Africa” do not have to be mutually exclusive.
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