Life is a Journey: Live it (Part 114)

The other autobiography
You see, it is the same with little toddlers. They process something which they love to play with all the time. When you, as parents, want to take away what they love dearly, you must either do this by force, by facing their anger and tears, or by distracting them with another offer. And offers they cannot resist, they would rather look at it very sceptically before no longer remembering what they had lost and are happy with in the end. The parents do this out of love they have for the child, not as a punishment. They are equally like the child interested in a good future. The ANC did not go down this path. Their members and leaders allowed the child to bribe the parents. The toddler was not as naive as the parents had thought. The toddler used his treats to bribe the parents, and the parents enjoyed the treats to fight the brother, who wanted what the toddler had played with for far too long. Now, the brother sees himself abandoned by the parents and turns against anything and anyone around him as he cannot attack the toddler, nor can he attack his parents, who feed him...or...wait a minute...can`t the brother stand up for his rights in front of his parents and demand justice from the toddler? What could the toddler do? Legally and economically?“

„Nothing!“ answered Hans Wilder.

„He could look for a knife to kill his parents,“ rejected Charles Darwin Jr. Any such idea of being unable to fight against what is wrong.

I asked Hans Wilder: “He can kill his parents and his brother, for sure. But can he kill all parents and all brothers and all sisters?“

Susanne Fröhlich stepped in to calm the situation down: “Fundamental changes are by the love of God and by his sword. God never told us he would erase the human race from planet Earth. It is therefore said in the bible that the toddler cannot kill the entire human race. When others are no longer capable of performing, they get replaced by others to carry on.“

„Which means for South Africa and the entire African continent?“ was my simple question.

„Democracy does not work for Africa?“ was Hans Wilder again, carefully and slowly to say.

„Nelson Mandela sold his black people through the ANC to the white South Africans. It takes another man capable of rejecting the threats of the toddler and taking away his toy to let the brother play with him on the same carpet of the living room. This man is not elected by his children to be the father. He is the father by the authority of history.“

Charles Darwin Jr looked at me with great scepticism. At first, he hesitated to approach me. I sensed something serious was going on inside of him. It seemed he had thought about a big topic, unable to make sense of it all. His head was full of puzzle pieces from the past, the present reaching into the future. He looked down into the fire as if he felt the heat of the moment. Like a water fountain in Rome, the city which was not built in one day, he asked me and challenged my intellect at the same time by saying: “You told us you want to share with us your idea of better governance, especially for the African continent. I guess...no, I know, now the right time has come.“

I was astonished by his courage and how forcefully he was speaking his mind: “Africa does not come from a tradition of democracy. In Europe, democracy, since ancient times, has been developed by the Greeks and practised in various ways. Dictatorship and Absolutism swapped places with democracy across Europe. The French Revolution revived the system and idea of democracy. Today, we see democracy as the rule of the people in many ways around the globe. Each society tries to develop its people in a different form to make its citizens happy, indeed. Cultural backgrounds and history have shaped individual forms of democracy.

Africa is very different. In ancient times, not a single form of democratic elements ruled over Africans. Before the Europeans came to take Africa as a big colony, Kings, Paramount Chiefs, and Chiefs were the rulers and authorities of African tribes, societies, kingdoms and nations. During the time of European colonialism, the Africans obeyed the words of their traditional rulers more than those of their European masters. The European masters bribed the traditional rulers to follow their instructions by the letter. Citizens foremost do not live in a nation at large, but in small, immediate communities, minds and hearts can relate to, and soul and spirit can get a hold of. The wider community, the larger society of a district, comes before the feeling for the nation. Cultural roots in local areas are deeper than roots in a nation.

After the end of European colonialism, African societies were confronted with the political system of white man's democracy. Each African country adopted their form of democracy along the rules and regulations of its specific former European master. The citizens of these countries felt like aliens flying loose in outer space. In free fall. The new political and economic elite took advantage of the situation to find a new way forward on African terms and with African traditions. Traditional rulers needed to find their place in the new societies left without constitutional powers, owners of the land, while they did not want to be seen as nice to look at, relics of a glorious past.

In politics, decisions have to be made for processes of different lengths. Some are short-term decisions, others have a life span of one or more generations. In democracies, voters are called every four or five years to cast their ballots in the polling stations. This is very costly considering the actual voting costs and costs for election campaigns. Four years in office means, in practical terms, a government governs for three years. Knowing that after four years, another party and political leader will be in power, the mindset of democratically elected leaders is short-term. Considering a human lives for eighty or a hundred years, thinking of three or four generations ahead is needed by any serious and visionary leader. Inherited thrones do not ensure the best of the best rules; only tradition rules, and a good ruler is left to chance of the moment.

Considering these and many more basic things, we must look into the history of the world. Let`s look around every corner and into every time of our planet to find the good pieces of each moment and space to piece them together and create a new puzzle for future generations. Not a puzzle for all times. Let`s be clear about that. At least for a considerable number of generations to come.

When we do it, ancient Greece comes naturally to our minds.

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