Are Western Ideals Failing in Africa?

Al-shabaab Militia: photo from www.jihadwatch.org

 Policy makers in the West have for a long time concluded democracy, capitalism and expanded social freedoms are good and acceptable, not only for western societies, but for the world as a whole. While this might seem good on the surface, a deeper analysis shows that, in the face of other social dynamics, this might be creating more problems than benefits in other societies – this is especially true in most African societies, where true democracy, human rights, freedom and liberty for all remain unfeasible, and more so in economic sense.   

Many African societies are finding themselves in a tight spot by either being consumers or partners in western thought or western ways of doing business. Wars, terrorism, senseless murders and maiming, rapes, corruption, crime, sodomy, ethnic intolerance, just to mention a few, are increasing as a backlash or collaterals of adopting popular western ideals (social norms, capitalism, democracy, Liberalism, Freedoms, human rights, etc).

Liberty and Liberal

Liberty is defined as “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views”.  It can also be defined as the “power or scope to act as one pleases”.

The term “liberty” is closely linked to another – liberal.  Which is generally defined as the state of “being open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values”.  A contextual combination of the two would mean that people should be left to act as they will, even if their actions are not morally, religiously or culturally right. Right?

Human Rights

Human rights is defined as “right that justifiably belongs to every person.” This partly includes what a government owes to its people such as security, access to clean water, food, healthcare, and other facilities. This is another area where the west has emphasized before doing business with other, mostly poverty stricken societies.

Without wasting any more time I will argue a few points here as to show why the western model, from democracy to liberalism are failing elsewhere. 

Freedom Vs socio-economic status

In advocating for social freedoms such as the freedom of expression and all, one must really take into account several dynamics, most importantly the socioeconomic status of the society. A case in point is when Kenyan’s voted out the oppressive KANU regime and ushered in a new government that rapidly expanded basic freedoms (under the West's guidance) to a level that Kenyans were unprepared for. Even the political leaders who spearheaded the process didn't understand the level of responsibility that comes with such expanded freedoms. The freedom of expression was abused leading to careless, tribal remarks from leaders across the political divide, and this massively contributed to the post-election violence that followed.

This implies that as much leaders can invoke their freedom of speech to say what they want, they should take caution when talking to a poverty-stricken audience that is suffering from a host of other social problems.

On a rather interesting note.  The United States has unemployment rate of 5.8% as of October 2014. The US with its tiny 5.8% unemployment is continually faced with threats to its social order and the government is always at pains to explain what it’s doing to create more jobs.  What if the figures rose to only 10%? Well, cognizant of the threat, the United States has invested hugely in security and intelligence to keep its liberty-enjoying population on the right side of the law. In contrast, a country like Kenya has unemployment rate of 40% and has a very small and not-so-well equipped police force. But expanding freedoms is always a precondition before the US and other Western nations can agree to do business. A society with 40% unemployment rate is fragile by any definition. When the tribal politicians (better known as war-lords) decide to take advantage of the expanded freedom and talk as they will, who will rescue us from tribal animosity? We have not invested in internal security and Intelligence like the US – we simply do not have the financial resources to maintain a police force that keeps a close eye on every free citizen, and more so on the rogue leader. There is sense in limiting what various leaders should say to a population devastated by poverty, disease, insecurity, crime, and ignorance. 

Liberalism, cultural and religious alienation – more chaos

The West has embraced liberalism or “broadmindedness” with both hands and have good experience with it. Therefore, Western policy makers feel that these should be emulated in other societies. For example, Not so long ago, several Western countries threatened to cut business links and aid to Uganda after the latter's parliament passed a controversial bill that was regarded by the west to be too harsh for homosexuals. In reference to human rights, liberal thought and other freedoms, the West feels that Homosexuals should be allowed to freely exist with others, irrespective of the dominant cultural and religious values in the society. In the African context, homosexual fiercely condemned from a moral perspective. Economic sanctions, cutting aid, and other threats have made many non-western countries to relax their laws and allow practices that are unacceptable from both religious and cultural positions. 

I want to argue here that forcing practices that are culturally unsound to a people creates cultural-alienation, resulting in a more chaotic society.  For instance, the liberal thought borrowed from western countries has made many Africans to look at their cultures as a backward thing. This means that lesser people have refer to cultural or religious values in reinforcing their behaviors.You tell a child its wrong to kill an innocent person because it's against the law, but you don't underpin that in culture or religion.
I know of two guys who were shot dead in Nairobi just because a criminal felt that their laptops were more important to him than the lives of these two fellows. We are now witnessing cases where young girls are raped and then murdered; women are stripped for wearing short skirts; and petty criminals are lynched by the public.  Many people no longer understand the difference between right and wrong, and this can be blamed on cultural and religious alienation, which can further be blamed on western push for liberalism, freedoms, and “human rights”.

When you engineer a process that gradually leads to alienation from basic belief systems that guide behavior in a society, what you are doing is creating a chaotic society.  It’s the society and its belief systems that differentiate humans from animals. Taking away the belief systems makes humans to act like animals.

Someone might say that, rather than religion, it is resistance to pressure from western norms and values that has given rise to terrorism.

To be continued…… Next section, Capitalism, poverty and corruption 

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