1. “Do you really think Senator Obama can win the leadership of United States of America? And, if he should win, what will his presidency mean to you as an African?” This two-part question was one of many put to me at a speaking engagement in Cheltenham, at a Quaker meeting in 2008. I was invited by a good friend and former boss, Dennis Mitchell. Dennis was a remarkable Englishman; and, a visionary. He was a tough, blunt, humorous Yorkshireman; with an integrity second to none. An honest man, who expected the same high standards from others. When I told Mrs Melanie Gummer, another friend and colleague, that I was going to mention Dennis in my blog post, she e-mailed me her thoughts. She concluded her e-mail: “Dennis was very generous personally, opening his home and heart to people from all over the world. Mention must be made of his wife, Beryl, a quiet, kind, practical presence who supported him and enabled him to lead the life he chose. He continued to follow his own unique path to the end of his life…, he definitely left the world a better place.”
2. Dennis was one of the very first people I met when providence led me to Cheltenham in 1989; he embraced me like a long lost friend. When he discovered by chance that I would not be able to read for the Bar, owing to my lack of legal status at the time, he took a personal risk and gave me a job to work for his very small educational charity, The Rendezvous Society (now Global-Footsteps). He assigned me the task to work on ‘Local Agenda21’ – after Gloucestershire Country Council had commissioned his charity to help promote the idea in the region. My small contribution to the effort was to successfully organise the first Gloucestershire cycling marathon, which was kindly launched by a leading British environmentalist and writer, Sir Jonathon Porritt. However, shortly afterwards, the Home Office asked me to stop work, that is, until my status in England was officially settled. This was the background which made me to feel doubly honoured to be asked to speak by Dennis Mitchell.
A pompous windbag
3. The questions were particularly fitting as the theme of my talk was on: ‘Africa’s leadership in the 21st century.’ But I was ill prepared to field enquiries which were specific to Senator Obama, and his quest to become the 44th President of United States of America. Indeed, I must hang my head in shame, for I knew so very little about Obama at the time. I had taken very little notice of him, and, if the truth be told, I thought he was just another pompous African American windbag trying his luck.
4. So I answered one of the questions by telling my audience that Senator Obama (as he was then), had zero chance of winning the presidential election. I premised my answer on what until then was the accepted narrative, which was, that a black man could not possibly expect to be president of a great country such as the United States of America. And, even if he won, the possibility of a black man in the White House would not only be a nightmare for him and his family, but it would also put a spotlight on race relations in America, awakening old ugly ghosts that gave rise to the American Civil Rights Movements (1954 – 1968). I said that those ugly ghosts would come back to haunt the country with a renewed vengeance not seen before. I was genuinely afraid for Mr Obama: I feared he would come to some harm of one sort or other. I privately hoped against hope that he would come to his senses and drop out of the race all together. I did not want to see a black man so publically humiliated or even assassinated in office.
Black African leadership – abysmal
5. But there was another reason why I feared for Senator Obama. It is an open secret that I am a black African man – born in Uganda, East Africa. My experience of black leaders at the time I gave the talk was abysmal. With the exception of perhaps Nelson Mandela, the majority of black African leaders have been a disgrace in public office. Visions of a black man in the White House caused me to visibly tremble with fear; I could see a corruption scandal here, a sex scandal there, titillating and abhorring the American masses in equal measure; giving the tabloid press on both sides of the Atlantic a field day at his expense. I shuddered at the thought of it.
6. I went on to argue that, even if Senator Obama succeeded in his quest to become the 44th President of the United States of America, and assuming he did not violate Napoleon’s rule that generals should be lucky, that is, not be dogged with back luck, his success in the White House would trigger a major backlash. For I believed then as I do now, that there is a section in the America population which is genuinely persuaded that the ‘negro is not equal to the white man.’ I surmised that there would be an avalanche of hatred right-across the United States of America, with some individuals vying against each other to prove that Obama’s achievements were nothing to shout about. Not that I am something of a prophet, I am not; but I did foresee the possibility of a leader rising up to challenge Obama’s legitimacy to the presidency, a leader who would do anything to reverse any noteworthy achievement of Obama’s presidency – to the detriment of the USA and her standing in the world.
I was wrong about Obama
7. But I was wrong about Senator Obama in one respect. He did in fact win the presidency – not once but twice. He is now possibly one of the most highly respected former Presidents in the history of United States of America. And, to his credit, his presidency surpassed all expectations, it passed off without as much as a whiff of a scandal. An extraordinary achievement indeed! This blog is not the right place to assess his legacy, however. Therefore, apart from the unfortunate programme of drone strikes, which killed large number of civilians, Obama may rest assured that when the time comes to put his record in the scales of history, it will be found that his record is on the whole rock-solid. It is unassailable insofar as political careers go.
Donald Trump
8. But my prophetic fears were fulfilled in another respect. A candidate, in the person of Mr Donald Trump, did indeed rise up to challenge Obama’s legacy. Donald Trump’s opposition to everything Obama is and stands for, surpasses anything I could have imagined; it has left me dazed and confused. I am speechless.
9. But nothing could have prepared me for the torrent of hatred we have witnessed in the last several months since Donald Trump was elected president. I could scarcely have guessed at the degree of horror now flowing out of America on account of Trump. It grieves me deeply that some of my worst fears with regard to a backlash against Obama’s presidency, have materialised. The death of Heather Heyer on 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, was for me a low-point. I don’t know what to make of things. Then came the press conference: I was left utterly flabbergasted when President Trump blamed the alt-left as much as white supremacists. It was like rubbing salt in a gaping American race-relations wound, making bad worse.
The purpose of government
10. My shock at the president’s press conference is premised on the fact that the primary purpose of a government is to maintain law and order. It is highly desirable that order should be upheld under the law and that the law should respect rights of individuals regardless of their social status, religion or colour. But unless the government has the will and capacity to ensure law and order, not only bad but eventually good people will be compelled to flout its authority. The law abiding people will accordingly be demoralised when they see their president appearing to side with people who espouse the vilest form of racism. Citizens and local communities will turn inwards, away from Federal Government Institutions, losing all confidence in law-enforcement authorities and relying on degrees of vigilantism to protect themselves and their property. No one wants to see a return of those scenes of the 1960s or the 1992 Los Angeles riots – on the streets of America. Were that to happen, it would result in a process of disintegration which, if allowed to go beyond a certain point, it may be found that it is impossible to reverse.
Trump is the elected President
11. I pinch myself now and again to be reminded that President Trump was democratically elected and that he represents a sizeable constituency. A constituency of whom some say, may be in the region of 42%, are classified as white working class. I further remind myself that these may be the people for whom the American dream has in all probability failed; for in the last 20 years they have seen their incomes shrink in favour of what some may describe as welfare recipients, of whom the majority happen to be black African Americans; and, that they are probably the biggest losers as a result of globalisation.
12. The harsh reality is that America is now battling against exceedingly profound social forces: the natural complacency of a nation grown accustomed to ‘top dog status’ since the First Great War; the deceptive might of her armed forces which incidentally, remain superior, but which costs an ‘arm and a leg’ to maintain; and, of course, the exhausting wars in the Middle East. As a result, the America that woke up on the morning after 2009, when Obama took office, was not only a nation drained by many conflicts abroad and, but also one suffering from a prolonged bout of economic and financial anaemia. The combined effects of the major financial crisis of 2008 and the out flow of capital owing to globalisation merely served to exacerbate the situation.
13. Consequently, I think it is not helping for the media to continually refer to Donald Trump’s constituency as racist xenophobes, or even worse, ‘deplorable’ as Senator Hillary Clinton unfortunately called them. It may be worth our while to remember that they supported Trump because they felt, rightly or wrongly, left out in the emerging new world order of globalisation. They are suffering because they have no jobs, the life styles they were accustomed to are no longer sustainable, and some of them have not the wherewithal to put food on the table. Insulting them does not advance anybody’s cause. And, to abuse them, I much fear, is to scorn Trump; just as to abuse Trump is to disrespect them. These insults have something about them which bespeaks of a condescending intellectual superiority. It is deeply offensive. I know. For I myself have been on the receiving end of condescending intellectual superiority owing to the fact that I am a black African man and a refugee.
What happened to leadership?
14. But, as someone who cares about leadership, I am compelled to protest at President Trump’s apparent failure to lead as a president should. It is my opinion that the president, especially the president of the United States of America, has a pre-eminent duty to give moral leadership in times of crisis. America is in crisis. The character of a president should both reflect and be reflected by the character of his government. Regardless of Mr Trump’s constituency, the president has in this respect failed abysmally. It is for this reason that I find myself in agreement with those in England, who are calling on the British Government to take a closer look at the values which govern the ‘Special relationship.’ The special relationship is, to you and me, ‘scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’ It is founded on a long shared history between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and, as Matthew d’Ancona writes in his Opinion piece, ‘Awkward? Yes. But Trump’s state visit must be called off’:
For as long as I can recall, I have been drawn by what the late Christopher Hitchens called “the gravitational pull of the American planet”. In fair and foul weather, I have defended the “special relationship” as the foundation of Nato and a cornerstone of liberal democracy, and for many other reasons with which you may disagree.
And yes: I fully appreciate the diplomatic embarrassment that would face the royal visits committee – attended by representatives of No 10, the Cabinet Office, the Department for International Trade, the Foreign Office and the royal household – if Theresa May were to rescind her original recommendation. Still and all, it is the only honourable, patriotic and morally defensible course open to her.
When MPs debated the propriety of the invitation in February, responding to a petition signed by more than 1.8 million people, ministers insisted that Britain’s commercial, diplomatic and strategic interests remained paramount. There was little attempt to dispute Trump’s buffoonery, misogyny and casual racism, or to deny that the White House appeared to have been taken over by the world’s first far-right improve group. But such qualms – it was argued – were an insufficient reason to call off a presidential visit.
That was before Charlottesville. If ever there were a time for unequivocal condemnation, unhedged and unqualified, this is it.
…when the most powerful person in the world fails the most basic test of democratic leadership – “Were the Nazis uniquely bad?” – we are all suddenly involved. Everybody has a stake in how the US president answers that question.
We have a stake
15. Indeed we have a stake. And, in an age in which competitive jockeying for ‘nuclear’ dominance seems to be the new way of playing the ‘great game,’ America’s place as the only super power needs to be on a surer footing than ever before. And in an uncertain environment, even a super power deserves a true friend capable of speaking truth to power. Which is why it is legitimate to express a hope that the British enduring policy of ‘scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’, counts for something. Her Majesty’s Government needs to review this policy by being bold and principled in the interest of all of us, and the world at large; to prove her worth as a good friend of America. There is no substitute to the requirements of good leadership, even for a super power.
16. In keeping with the above theme, we must by all means register our protest. But I would not go so far as calling on Her Majesty’s Government to rescind the presidential invitation as Mr Matthew d’Ancona recommends. Cancelling the invitation is tantamount to punishing America; she does not need our censure. What America needs most of all is our continued friendship. As alarming as events in America clearly are, I am persuaded her robust institutions will hold; they have plenty of give in them to recover. I believe she will overcome this crisis. I also believe that the illusions of Donald Trump, his associates and all those who overwhelmingly voted for him, will crumble a lot faster before the onrush of reality – all the more reason for Her Majesty’s Government to speak softly as a true friend should, albeit firmly.
We still need America’s leadership
17. Unpleasant realities have to be faced whether we like or not. The reality is that the United States of America is the only remaining super power; she is strong enough to dwarf all challenges from other ‘nuclear’ powers. Yes, it is true that she will probably not continue to maintain her status as a super power alone over time, as other countries, particularly China, emerge more fully as world super powers. But for now, the US is the only super power we have. We need her to be strong; for the burden of world leadership must needs rest on her broad shoulders. The world will, I’m sure, rest the more easily if assured of a dependable friend to a leader in the White House. I believe now is the time for Britain to play the role of a dependable friend.
18. I end with a sincere hope that the lessons of yesteryear – both in peace time and in war time, have been fully absorbed by our leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, that we will not repeat yesterday’s terrible errors today or anytime in the near future. Unfortunately however, I can’t help but think of Rudyard Kipling. In his poem, ‘The Gods of the Copybook Headings’ published in 1919, he reminds us that:
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man –
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!