- 31 Oct 2013 09:22
#14323106
It need not necessarily be fascist (although fascists, including myself, would of course approve of this - at the same time we are not pie-in-the-sky impractical internationalists and recognize the specific historic and evolutionary-genetic circumstances and inclinations of different national groups), but Africa does definitely need more leaders like Siad Barre, Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sékou Touré, and even Idi Amin (for some of his faults). I would even go as far as to say that Modibo Keïta of Mali, despite his lean toward Marxian socialism, was a great leader for the African masses and did not shy away from acting on strong principles rooted in Pan-Africanism. Today this torch has all but been extinguished and it is the reason the Africans are in political darkness (the staggeringly poor material conditions aside). Why was the last and most energetic banner of Pan-Africanism held by an Arab who did more for Sub-Saharan Africa than they have been doing for themselves?
Haile Selassie was also an inspiring figure who has earned his place in Ethiopian history and lore, so it is understandable why today's Ethiopian nationalists identify with him so, but the monarchy, like many others, eventually became decadent and outlived its usefulness. I wouldn't hold fleeing from the Italian fascists against him, as no country on the continent would have been capable of resisting that.
On a side note, if you are interested in what I think an African interpretation of fascism in doctrine (but not in practice) would look like, I think Mobutu Sese Seko's of the former Zaire (today's Democratic Republic of the Congo) Authenticité is worth looking into. Unfortunately, Mobutu channeled this anti-colonial nationalism and sympathies for those who would be sympathetic to a variant of fascism among the Congolese into a state which he increasingly allowed to become a puppet of U.S. and Western European policy in Africa in the context of the Cold War and abused what was a noteworthy and rather organic ideology for the far-right in Africa by transforming the Congolese state into an increasingly corrupt kleptocracy with wanton abuses.
"I am never guided by a possible assessment of my work" - President Vladimir Putin
"Nations whose nationalism is destroyed are subject to ruin." - Muammar Qaddafi