There’s something insane about people who claim the Libyan revolution was foisted on Africa by the West. Now, I’d be the first to nod sagely over a beer when conspiracy theorists start trotting out their heavily researched (once read an ANC Youth League press release), well-thought-out (memorised something someone said at a dinner party) evidence that the United Nations meddles in other countries only if there’s something in it for them. Like oilfields, or reserves of stockpiled iPads.
Hell, it’s fun to have someone to blame for all the ills of the developing world, especially since it’s probably true. But when people start phoning radio stations to berate the Libyan ambassador, saying that “the Libyan revolution isn’t a real one because it was won by Nato planes, and the Libyan people didn’t struggle and do it by themselves”, well — you have to wonder just how utterly stupid people can be. And how insensitive to all the Libyans who gave their lives fighting against Muammar Gaddafi.
How quickly we forget the help provided to our own liberation struggle by the running dogs of the capitalist West. After they’d provided help to the other side first, of course, but hey — I’m not asking our monomaniacal firebrands to suddenly think of the West as our friends; I’m asking for more understanding of how to use the West’s aspirations to further our local causes. Give them enough nous and they’ll hang themselves, if you will.
It’s astonishing that we let our suspicion of the West (which we tend to think of as America and the soccer-powerhouse European countries rather than, say, Liechtenstein) colour our judgment. We’d rather defend a lunatic dictator such as Gaddafi than be seen to collaborate with our former colonial masters. We’d rather sacrifice our own people to scumbag despots like Robert Mugabe than give the West the pleasure of smugly dispensing aid and “international” justice.
I notice it’s never the people who need the bottled water who are telling us to refuse Western aid. It’s never the starving people whose country’s money has been siphoned off to overseas accounts who are berating Africans for letting the International Court of Justice decide who is or isn’t a war criminal. Well, until some grandstanding politician decides to haul out the Western Peril. It’s always some idiot who thinks he’s really clever for having noticed that Western countries put their own interests before those of others. Wow, what a revelation!
Is the choice really between taking sides with neocolonialism or cosying up to greedy assholes like King Mswati? We can be more subtle than that. Use what we’re given and then fight the larger ideological battles once our people are safe. Leave the pointless posturing to the African Union, swap dogmatic for pragmatic and let’s try to do some good despite ourselves.
Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisRoperZA