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America’s election is not all that funny following Trump’s drama

Wednesday November 18 2020
US election.

Gwinnett county workers begin their recount of the presidential ballots on November 13, 2020 in Lawrenceville, Georgia. PHOTO | MEGAN VARNER | GETTY IMAGES | AFP

By ELSIE EYAKUZE

A mere few days after Tanzania went to the polls, America copied us and decided to try democracy for itself. What a glorious few days of reporting it was. Many African journalists amongst others had a lot of fun with it. We pondered whether or not election observers would be allowed to do their work unimpeded. The general feeling that non-Americans would be much more unsafe seeing as America now has armed militia.

By armed militia I mean internal terrorists by their own definition, people who go about with guns and the neo-antiquated notion that they are protecting a way of life that is under threat by liberals. Their super-power: inventing injuries where none exist just because life got hard on them. In following this thread of their story I got embroiled in all the evidence that Americans of African descent have not only voted consistently — yes, mostly women — but have also consistently had their human rights and civil rights denied for centuries.

It cast a rather unflattering light on people of European descent who felt that the country was being stolen from them by illegals. It cannot be overstated that America put children of immigrant families in literal cages as a preventive measure. What hope is there for a system that puts children in cages?

Africa and other less developed countries also raised questions of how free and fair these elections would be considering the outgoing President Donald Trump seemed to be encouraging these internal terrorists as well as anyone who hates everything good about humanity. It was done tongue in cheek but the truth has a sting all its own.

To top it all off, Mr Trump used his campaign podium to say that there may be dire consequences if he should not win. There were threats to the opposition, declarations that they would cheat and the implication that Mr Trump would not willingly leave office even if the polls and the bizarre Electoral College asked him as politely as humans know so far to relinquish power.

A proper feast for political commentators on world affairs. You don’t get to call places sh*thole countries without their taking advantage of such a great opportunity for revenge. But let’s admit it: the minute the US “chose” Donald Trump as their president was the minute their history gave up. Full demagoguery with more than a hint of Russian interference was on display in the least leaderlike individual who has ever cursed our collective conscious.

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I have never felt more fellowship with Americans.

It is so easy to join in the gloating and the glorying in this failure of the self-proclaimed “leader of the free world”. I am not above it and enjoy an irony as much as you do. Current news reports that Mr Trump, somewhat incapacitated by his electoral loss, has been licking his wounds and contemplating how to resist reality and refuse to give up Ikulu. Oh how the turn tables go!

It is actually funny to see a man in his 70s behave thusly and yes, there is a bit of smugness in there too.

How on earth could they have allowed such an obviously flawed individual anywhere near their institutions? But it’s not all that funny after all. In fellowship with Americans and so many other people with questionable leadership around the world, I have never felt more resigned to our fate as a species.

We’re all blundering. We are not alone. Civilisations have to depend on contradictions. Oh look how the mighty fall. Character means a lot and yet it seems that with mass societies there is no formula. Except for one: hope.

It is in this spirit that I can now turn forward and say: alright. Here is to the darkest timeline. Given choices to be our best, we chose otherwise. America was just that little too compromised to be great and we knew it. Tanzania isn’t going to keep its foundation strong and we knew the test was coming. We can finally stop trying to uphold the impossible standards and treat each other as equals in this puzzle for a better future. It will be nice going forward and giving more attention to the possible.

The younger millennials whom I have been watching, the ones with none of the pretensions of glory to rest their laurels upon, they have hope. They make music and my favourite thing — new ways to use the technology available to us to resist whatever form of authoritarianism is upon us. Music, craft and laughter. Sometimes food, often video games and occasionally something akin to money.

Here’s an admission: this year I turned old enough to run for president in my country. I have never believed that is a good ambition to have since childhood, so I only wished for one thing: to see one of my contemporaries make it so that they might pass on the baton in my lifetime because I believe the children are the future. They quite literally are.

Now that Tanzania has failed my personal ambitions for her, however low, and the rise of autocracy and its good friend misogyny across the globe are undeniable, I don’t know yet what to do with the coming middle age.

It’s not easy giving up freedoms; becoming a second-class citizen is not done voluntarily. This makes the path clear — embrace the unknown. Keep holding the door open. One day a child will walk through. Probably not an American though.


Elsie Eyakuze is a consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report: E-mail: [email protected]

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