Barry Streek
BIG MEN LITTLE PEOPLE: ENCOUNTERS IN AFRICA by Alec Russell (Macmillan)
Despite its somewhat obvious title, which is over-emphasised by a picture of a pleading Jonas Savimbi on the cover, Alec Russell, who was the Daily Telegraph’s Johannesburg correspondent, has written an interesting book, based on his reporting experiences in Africa.
For him, the last 40 years have been a ” shattering experience” for most of the African continent. “Since independence, Africans have been terribly portrayed … Most of all they have been betrayed by their own leaders, who have done little but bask in personality cults, fill foreign bank accounts and beggar their people.”
But, Russell adds, “if there was one man who could bring purpose and hope to this confused and turbulent continent it was the living embodiment of reconciliation, Nelson Mandela. He is one of a handful of African heads of state to have had the interests of his people at heart. He acts as a bridge between the old and the new schools of leadership.”
If Mandela’s dream of a rebirth is to be realised, much depends on his successor, Thabo Mbeki, and Africa’s “new” leaders, “pragmatic autocrats like Ghana’s President Jerry Rawlings and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. The three can be roughly labelled as the democratic, the reluctant democrat and the anti-democrat.” He says none of these three are Big Men and all had vociferously condemned corruption and cults. All of which makes sense.
Russell then reduces his scenario- setting introduction to absurdity by saying, “their challenge is stark: a relapse to the days of Rhodes, or Renaissance”. Even if that were remotely true, he implies there are no other alternatives for Africa, which is obviously not the case.
In this way, he occasionally lapses into a sort of journalistic shorthand to make a point which does not hold up. There could also have been better editing. But, that said, this is a book which should be read by anyone trying to understand what has happened in Africa in recent years.
Russell’s Big Men are Mobutu Sese Seko (“The King of Kleptocracy”), Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Daniel arap Moi, Jonas Savimbi (“The Cold War Crooner”), FW de Klerk, Eugene Terre’Blanche (“White Man’s Magic”), Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi (“A Very Zulu Chief”), King Mswati of Swaziland and Nelson Mandela (“Madiba Magic”).
He then provides a thoughtful analysis of each of these leaders, linked to his own experiences of reporting and interviewing them. He is particularly scathing about the role played by the former colonial powers and by the United States, pointing out that when the Angolan war was at its height in the 1980s, the American embassy in Kinshasa was one of the largest CIA stations in the world.
“The West’s gullibility and culpability in Zaire are echoed across sub-Saharan Africa where tyrants have been indulged with billions of pounds of aid … Luanda is a monument to the disasters of the post- colonial years. It is also a mausoleum for the Cold War.”
Russell does not hold back on his interpretation of what has occurred in Africa. With his journalist-style writing, Russell’s book is easy to read and it is never boring. It does not purport to be the definitive assessment of Africa nor is it an academic analysis, but it does provide an insight into Africa in the 1990s.