I was in ecstasy on my first visit to Ghana last April — I was on the same flight as military strongman turned ex-President Jerry Rawlings (JR). Ten years out of power, he still cuts a dashing figure. Now a comfortably ensconced senior statesman, for me, like so many around the world, he represented a recent incarnation of the spirit of pan-African self-determination, alongside that of Nyerere, Nkrumah and Lumumba. Imagine my consternation when, over a drink after my arrival, this image was disassembled.
My hosts, unable to utter a word in malice, obtusely related stories of mass executions, arbitrary banishments, arrests and disappearances committed under JR’s watch. If only a fraction of the accusations were true, I wondered, why would he be allowed to retire in ample, government-sponsored comfort?
A few days later I felt able to return to the topic with my host, who provided a glimpse into Ghana’s textured and eventful history. He has something of a vantage point. Born of a prominent local family, his brother, Nana Akufo-Addo, who served as attorney-general through much of the post-JR transition, seems to have resisted the clarion calls to persecute JR and his inner circle. Whatever the real story, I left Ghana more than a bit deflated — yet another African emperor defrocked.
Back in Ghana this Christmas I attended a thanksgiving service to mark the ruling party’s adoption of Akufo-Addo as its presidential candidate in this year’s elections. Beaming proudly, he sat among the 16 losing candidates. Some claim he fell on his sword 10 years ago in deference to the current president, who chose not to support him this time around.
A week earlier his party, the NPP, had been locked in an unusually acrimonious congress that nearly ended in chaos amid accusations by an agent of one contender of ”buying” delegates. As they sat in church on the first working day of 2008, the wounds would have been raw. But President John Kufuor, whose favoured candidate was decisively rejected, put in a statesmanlike appearance before heading out to Kenya (oh, Kenya!). Suitably reconciled in Christ, all retreated to Akufo-Addo’s family home for lunch — try as a I did, I could not superimpose this scene on to a kraal in KwaZulu-Natal!
All this made me ponder — which is more relevant for Africa? Ghana’s unglamorous and continuous reconciliation of 40-plus ethnic groups, adulterated by two decades of sometimes brutal military rule and an ongoing battle to relieve the grinding poverty that afflicts most of its people? Or the celebrity-endorsed, reality-show mimicking, black diamond-producing spectacle that the South African transition is seen as evolving into? The South African story speaks to a universal need for instant gratification — good confronts bad, good triumphs, they get married and live happily ever after. Well, sort of. Our media and academics need to cast a wider net, to trawl more realistic and relevant case studies of change — more mundane but perhaps more reflective of our reality. Ghana’s economic performance has not been stellar, but seems a lot less vulnerable to external shocks than ours. The socio-political accommodations being forged across its ethnic and social strata are more laboured, but are seemingly grounded in the society’s deep historical and cultural dynamics.
South Africa’s trajectory is the most significant determinant of Africa’s medium-term future, and there is much in this country’s transition to celebrate. But Polokwane must put us on notice that some, even many, of the answers may be found elsewhere on this diverse continent. South Africa’s assumed socio-moral monopoly on progressive change must be broken for its, and Africa’s, good. Let us raise our sights in 2008.