Racism in the unlikeliest of places

Former President Daniel arap Moi often got it wrong in his long political career especially on the area of human rights, but on a few occasions his sagacity was unmatched. One of the more memorable occasions was when he insisted that we should never imagine that the rest of the world harboured any high affection for Africans. And indeed, he was right. The only thing he forgot to say is that he and his ilk among African leaders contributed heavily to this highly jaundiced view of Africans due to their misrule. 

But that cannot be the only reason Africans, and the black race in general, are held in such disdain by the rest of the world. In my view, we Africans are not the best advocates of our own cause. When you impoverish a country through imprudent economic policies, fail to fight corruption because you are, on the main, its chief beneficiary if not the architect, hurl your political opponents into the dungeons for pointing out your perfidies, and then hold out the begging bowl for bailouts, why would anyone hold you in high esteem?

What I am saying is that on the main, members of the African race are looked down upon because they are seen as incapable of managing their own affairs, which is interpreted as a deficit in intelligence. Evidently, there is a lot more to this state of affairs – African countries are not the only ones that are badly managed – but this is not the place to delve into the lies that Africans were born deficient in intelligence and are therefore inferior human beings who are only fit to serve the “master” races.

The fact is that racial bigotry rests on the lie that “inferior” races should accept discrimination as their natural lot. It doesn’t matter that science has long disproved that canard. The loathing and fear of what is different permeates all levels of the white society, and it doesn’t matter that some segments of that society may be dumber than lamp-posts. Racism is a historical fact of life and blacks have always been the helpless recipients of prejudice.

The hideous nature of innate racism keeps erupting in the most unlikely of places and situations. Last week, the mighty super-power known as the Russian Federation, the largest country on earth, invaded its neighbour to the South West, Ukraine, for geopolitical reasons that are only now becoming clear. 

As was to be expected, there were howls of protest from Western Europe and North America, followed by severe sanctions meant to cripple Russia’s economy.

Blatant discrimination

Most of the rest of the world followed suit in their condemnation of the invasion because this was seen as a David-and-Goliath situation. It doesn’t matter that, in this case, there is no way David can emerge victorious short of a cataclysmic war between Russia and the West, which everyone hopes will never happen however loud the hot-heads on either side yell. Nobody wants the world to end with a bang over a territory that used to be part of the giant Soviet Union before its empire crumbled.

As for the African countries that joined the chorus of condemnation, they were more concerned about the suffering and death that continues to be visited on the ordinary citizens of Ukraine, for after all, wars are violent solutions to political problems with ordinary folk as collateral. Also, few such countries will welcome violent takeovers of their own territories by hostile neighbours, especially in a continent with quite artificial boundaries crafted by European colonisers.

Unfortunately, this knee-jerk support for the under-dog was soon diluted when it emerged that as the war raged and citizens of Ukraine’s major cities started fleeing, Africans, most of them students, were blatantly discriminated against at bus and railway stations, and on the border points with Poland. Reportedly, Ukrainian soldiers insisted that their compatriots must be allowed to cross the border first, pushing the obvious foreigners with kinky hair to the back of the line.

The result was that some poor folks spent hours waiting in line, while others were forced to seek others means of exit. The stark reality that Russian bombs would not differentiate between the natives and the visitors may have occurred to these soldiers, but that, apparently, did not faze them in the least. This would have been understandable were it not a matter of life and death. It would have been understandable if all non-citizens were treated the same. But that, reportedly, was not the case; the only factor seemed to be the skin colour of those in flight.

To highlight this disenchantment with the developments, protests from the African Union bosses and other African diplomats including Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations, the eloquent Dr Martin Kimani, followed in quick succession. Not to be left behind were the irreverent Kenyans on Twitter who told the Ukrainians that Africans have no business with wars in Europe and the Europeans can continue slaughtering one another for all they care. Quite a callous reaction if you ask me, but then again, entirely understandable in a macabre sort of way.

Mr Ngwiri is a consultant editor; [email protected]