http://africanarguments.org/2009/08/a-radical-proposal-to-deal-with-our-prejudices/ Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:01:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://africanarguments.org/2009/08/a-radical-proposal-to-deal-with-our-prejudices/comment-page-1/#comment-7147 Lydiah Kemunto Bosire Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:02:08 +0000 http://africanarguments.org/?p=543#comment-7147 The contribution helpfully caricatures the complex question of ethnicity in Kenyan politics. However, a solution based on finding ways to dull the potency of “political ethnicity” is largely based on the assumption that the violence was initiated and sustained by “evil” elites who used “innocent” co-ethnics for selfish ends. In this view, the masses are manipulated to take part in a struggle (for ethnic domination) whose fruits accrue only to the elites. Macharia Gaitho <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/blogs/-/446672/644758/-/view/asBlogPost/-/15g89vy/-/index.html" rel="nofollow">summarized</a> this aspect of problem as follows in his column in the Daily Nation of 24 August 2009: The problem is leaders who exploit their own ethnic groups for personal advantage. Another problem is foolish people who think that they stand to benefit, individually and collectively, if one of their own ascends to power….We give our leaders power to plunder the nation under the foolish belief that it our turn, as a community, to eat. But the fact is that the eating is usually limited to the First Family, along with a few relatives, fixers and hatchet-men who help in the looting and plunder. Is this the whole story? Can we assume that the average Kenyan a blameless pawn in a political game, lacking agency, and grossly misinformed about the extent to which they (or the non-elite “other”) benefit from elite politics? Or is the average Kenyan an active participant in the violent social relations Branch termed as “normalised violence” <a href="../../07/the-normalisation-of-violence/" rel="nofollow">earlier</a> in this collection? Do we have good <em>evidence</em> - say population surveys on motivations and attitudes of perpetrators of violence from different ethnic groups – to support these different positions? These assumptions are important to interrogate because they form the basis upon which solutions are suggested, and others have said elsewhere (see <a href="../../07/diy-violence-is-corrosive-of-nationhood/" rel="nofollow">Waweru</a> on incompatibility of reform and accountability) misdiagnosis of the problem can yield inadequate or even counterproductive solutions. The contribution helpfully caricatures the complex question of ethnicity in Kenyan politics. However, a solution based on finding ways to dull the potency of “political ethnicity” is largely based on the assumption that the violence was initiated and sustained by “evil” elites who used “innocent” co-ethnics for selfish ends. In this view, the masses are manipulated to take part in a struggle (for ethnic domination) whose fruits accrue only to the elites. Macharia Gaitho summarized this aspect of problem as follows in his column in the Daily Nation of 24 August 2009:
The problem is leaders who exploit their own ethnic groups for personal advantage. Another problem is foolish people who think that they stand to benefit, individually and collectively, if one of their own ascends to power….We give our leaders power to plunder the nation under the foolish belief that it our turn, as a community, to eat. But the fact is that the eating is usually limited to the First Family, along with a few relatives, fixers and hatchet-men who help in the looting and plunder.
Is this the whole story? Can we assume that the average Kenyan a blameless pawn in a political game, lacking agency, and grossly misinformed about the extent to which they (or the non-elite “other”) benefit from elite politics? Or is the average Kenyan an active participant in the violent social relations Branch termed as “normalised violence” earlier in this collection? Do we have good evidence – say population surveys on motivations and attitudes of perpetrators of violence from different ethnic groups – to support these different positions? These assumptions are important to interrogate because they form the basis upon which solutions are suggested, and others have said elsewhere (see Waweru on incompatibility of reform and accountability) misdiagnosis of the problem can yield inadequate or even counterproductive solutions.

]]> http://africanarguments.org/2009/08/a-radical-proposal-to-deal-with-our-prejudices/comment-page-1/#comment-6856 daniel.waweru Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:49:56 +0000 http://africanarguments.org/?p=543#comment-6856 A <em>modest</em> proposal, surely? A modest proposal, surely?

]]> http://africanarguments.org/2009/08/a-radical-proposal-to-deal-with-our-prejudices/comment-page-1/#comment-6849 Alexander Eichener Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:37:00 +0000 http://africanarguments.org/?p=543#comment-6849 The article is - evidently - mistitled by the author or more likely by the editrix. It should be called "A Modest Proposal...", in honour and admission of its obvious and glorious lineage. The article is – evidently – mistitled by the author or more likely by the editrix. It should be called “A Modest Proposal…”, in honour and admission of its obvious and glorious lineage.

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