This morning after I read a couple of the wonderful diaries devoted to the recent peace gatherings in Washington D.C., I mentioned to a few friends (West African friends) that people were protesting in Washington D.C. against the war in Iraq. (I am currently living in a West African country.)
Immediately my friends became concerned for the safety of the protesters. At this point I realized that protesting in West Africa has an entirely different definition than it does in America; example 1, example 2, example 3. I quickly explained that it was a peaceful gathering of people who are against the war, with a few pro-war people, and that largely the gatherings were non-confrontational. (Damn, my French is still bad...)
My friend Mamadou then took interest in how the people gathering in DC were spreading their message and what their message was. I showed him this diary because of all the nice photos. Before going further, I must mention that Mamadou is a very educated person (with a post-undergrad degree in agriculture); he has traveled to a lot of countries including the States.
We then had a short discussion on Bush. Mamadou said that he thought Bush is very powerful and that it is difficult for the people to change his agenda because Bush is in the majority. I then mentioned that Bush is technically in the minority as the Democrats do have control of Congress... Mamadou new that, but mentioned that the President of the United States is still very powerful because he wields so much power over the affairs of the world. He then asked me to translate one of the pictures. It was a picture featuring the large banner that said "Impeach Bush Now". This was a tough one. I explained that Impeachment is basically a process that we do when we think the President has broken a law and we want to hold him/(her) responsible. We then had a discussion about how a lot of Americans think that Bush has broken the law and want him impeached.
This is where the discussion became interesting. I didn’t want to bias Mamadou with my view, but rather try to just talk about how things were, as they were without being too partisan or angry at the present situation. We talked about why the people were protesting and agreed that it is a very strange situation in America now. I mentioned that Bush is very unpopular, the democats have a majority in congress, and a lot of Americans want something done other than the present course. However, I mentioned that for some reason the Democrats do not seem to have the political inertia to balance him. (Please give me a pass on that one!)
Mamadou’s next statement stopped me flat.
He said:
"That is very close to dictatorship"
West Africans know a few things about political violence, strife and dictators. Also, West African cultures are very old; they have lived on these lands a long time, and have lived through a lot (famine, colonization, dictators, etc...). Memories go back generations and wisdom is accumulated. My friend chose his words carefully.
Through our conversation, I really tried to give him my best, most objective and non-partisan impressions on the state of affairs. Obviously, by showing him a diary on Kos I am already biasing the discussion some; fact that I f-ing hate Bush, makes being objective difficult too. My friend lives in one West African country, there are a lot of countries and cultures in West Africa, and he doesn’t necessarily represent all West Africans. However, one thing I have learned while here is that there is a sense of community and a collective wisdom among West Africans (and all Africans) that really doesn’t really exist in the States.
Also, a disclaimer here: this diary could just as easily be a small comment under "Open Thread". If you think so, let me know and I’ll pull the diary down.