Bryan Mukanditries to make sense of the scenes of machete-wielding Kenyans.
I turned on the TV last night and saw angry machete-wielding Kenyans everywhere. There were pictures of people in hospital with blood-stained bandages and swollen faces. I felt like I was looking back into the dark ages! How could things have gone so wrong? How does public outrage at a stolen election turn into a tribal conflict?
More than 800 Kenyans have died so far in the post-election violence. Eight hundred. It's easy to hear statistics like that and not internalise them. How does one put 800 lost lives into context?
My high school had about 500 pupils enrolled at any one time. More people have died in Kenya than are now attending my former high school. Worse still, it is believed that over a quarter of a million people have been displaced from their homes.
I know there are more interesting things happening in the world right now than Kenya's disintegration, but indulge me. Just for a moment, let's avert our gaze from the American economy's impending recession, the US presidential race and Bertie's popularity.
Just for a short while, let us think about Kenya. Because it's an African country, it is easy to normalise the situation. Let us pretend that these people that are butchering each other are white. I know it's a bit of a stretch, but again, indulge me.
Next, imagine they aren't Kenyans at all but French or German or, God forbid, Irish? Yes, let us imagine there are two groups of Irish people at odds with each other and the country is in turmoil.
And since we're imagining that these people are white and not black, we need to make adjustments for our stereotypes.
It is one thing for uncivilised blacks to carry machetes, but decent white folk would use guns
. . . and bombs, perhaps?
I know this is a very big stretch of the imagination, but please bear with me just a little longer. You hopefully have a picture in your mind of two factions of angry Irish people, killing each other with guns and bombs, over tribal (and religious) differences as well as crooked politics. Instead of fighting an idea, they are fighting each other. Why does this picture suddenly look familiar?
I hate what is happening in Kenya now. As an African myself, my heart breaks and I'm in anguish. I am angry that a few corrupt greedy "leaders" have sacrificed so many lives for personal ambition. I'm also angry because, as an African living in Europe, I know that they have added to the chorus of voices saying there is something in us that makes us incapable of governing ourselves.
I am angry that more of my leaders haven't stood up in outrage and denounced [ Kenyan president Mwai] Kibaki's government.
But that's me, I am after all African. As for you, all I ask is that you try and understand without passing judgment. If anyone should be able to understand how a nation can turn on itself it is the Irish.
Ultimately, Africa's problems
can only be solved by Africa and Kenya's, by her people.
In the meantime, I hope
you can make a little more sense of this situation than I can.
Bryan Mukandi lives in Galway but qualified as a doctor in Zimbabwe. In Ireland he has worked for a discount retailer. Later this year he hopes to begin postgraduate studies.