Trump-Boris era Africa’s doom, end of good leaders from West

As a crowd of Americans at a recent rally chanted ‘Send her home!', willed on by President Donald Trump, I asked myself what the world had done to itself!

President Trump had earlier this month told some Democratic Party’s female politicians from ethnic minorities to “go back home where they came from” and the hate anthem caught on.

The chorus has been used to demonise immigrants and plays right into the hands of far rights groups in the US and Europe.

Trump could be seen joining in the chant, but he later denied it and said he tried to dissuade the crowd instead.

Nonetheless, are we looking at a new world order anchored on lies, xenophobia and islamophobia?

Boris Johnson, the new UK prime minister, has been quoted several times making unsavoury comments on immigrants.

While contributing to a debate on the burka ban, Johnson described Muslim women wearing the face veils as “walking around looking like letterboxes”.

And he has not shied away from supporting colonialism. He once called the Congolese “the flag-waving piccaninnies (an offensive term for black or aboriginal children)”.

Of concern is that despite their history of making racist comments against the ‘others’, Trump and Johnson seem to command huge majorities in their backyards.

It is this massive support for vile, tasteless and divisive ideology that should make the world concerned about the future of democracy.

It lends credence to the rooted intolerance for immigrants.

With the potential of Trump and Johnson forging a ‘special relationship’ based on their shared dislike of the ‘others’, this won’t be the type of ‘white’ lovey-dovey relationship television comedians should advise African viewers to emulate.

I was in London when Johnson lent his voice to the Brexit call. Anti-immigration sentiments played a large part in the birth of Brexit.

Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, like Johnson, dug his heels in calling for Brexit by suggesting uncontrolled immigration would lead to immigrants taking over jobs from the locals, filling hospital beds, stuffing classrooms and destroying British values.

The European Union (EU) was cast as an incompetent organisation unable to stop influx of foreigners into the UK.

Farage spoke to converts of anti-immigration such as the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right group in England, and others across Europe and the US.

Several European countries recently voted in far-right leaders whose manifestoes were filled with anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric, depending on which way ‘hate-o-meter’ swung.

Accusations have also been made against Trump and Johnson for lying about ‘stuff’ verbally and on Twitter in order to get their points across.

In the middle of Brexit campaigns, Johnson wrote in a local paper claiming that the UK Health Service would benefit from £350 million a week that would be recouped after Britain left the EU. The figures were disputed by UK’s Statistics Authority.

It was wrongly predicted that the aggressive way Trump rails against liberal and progressive voices would be replaced by moderate views.

Patrick Cockburn says in the Independent about the white supremacists: “Commentators forgot that leaders who believe that they have won power by demonising foreigners and minorities, and accusing their opponents of treachery, see no reason to abandon a winning formula”.

In Africa, lies have traditionally coalesced into politics and it has become the norm for leaders to walk on paths carved out of them.

The Trump-Johnson political style does not augur well for Africa, given its history of dictatorship and human rights violations.

If anything, it will embolden leaders to rule with impunity and the iron fist.

For decades the West held up its ‘perfect’ democracies as exemplary and, hence, castigated African leaders who failed to uphold the rule of law.

Do they now have the moral latitude to castigate anyone when they have in their midst a version of leaders whose DNA they seem to share with rogue African leaders?

One almost wishes to ask the West, “How does it feel now to have your own Mugabes?”

Like many other people, I believed the West would continue to be a threat to the endangered species that is African dictators by upholding their past ‘exemplary’ democratic values. Not anymore.

In adopting dishonest, xenophobic ideology to accede to power, some Western leaders have created a new world order that spells doom for Africa.

Turning East towards China has caused rancour on the African continent so far and, with its alleged human rights record, Beijing may not be the best template to use.

Africa swept aside values embodied by the likes of Nelson Mandela and sold its soul to anarchy. Will the continent continue the trajectory of being democratically footloose or put its democratic values in order?