Arguably, only few books have spawned more intellectual discourse on the subject of corruption in Africa than Kwei Ayi Armah’s popular 1968 novel, “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born” has done. Published over five decades ago, the thrust of this captivating and interesting novel has over time become a veritable site of intellectual dialectics among scholars of African descent, and easily falls into the rank of Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.”
The prolific Harvard-groomed Ghanaian-born novelist, Kwei Ayi Armah, had in his classic novel, cast in bold relief the pervasive corruption that had eaten deep into the social fabric of immediate post-colonial Africa. Of course, with Ghana under her first indigenous national leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as its historical setting, the novel graphically pictured how the monster of corruption was capable of not only hobbling national development, but could seriously undermine the security of an entire nation with very dire and far-reaching consequences.
Be that as it may, the argument has been that Africa’s true problem is not really that the beautiful ones had not yet been born; but on the contrary, it is a poignant case of the beautiful ones being too few in number to change the ugly development narrative of the continent. This school of thought has gained currency when it is carefully considered that despite the wind of Afropessimism that is blowing from the industrialised Western nations towards the continent, fueled by localised corruption and bad governance, there have been flashes of promising leadership and good governance here and there.
It is pertinent to note, however, that the political culture entrenched in Africa, right from the birth of political independence in majority of the countries, intrinsically promotes political impunity, corruption and governments which are not accountable to their peoples. Without an iota of doubt, this is the bane of transformative development needed with fervent urgency to change the development narrative of Africa, sub-Saharan Africa in particular, whose progress has been stunted and badly blighted by leaders who see the commonwealth of their nations as their personal estate.
The foregoing notwithstanding, the beautiful ones – the good people with the fear of God and milk of human kindness flowing in their veins – needed to pioneer Africa’s development renaissance have justifiably been born, judging from the great innovations in various spheres made by Africans at home and in the Diaspora. Of a truth, it is quite glaring that it is the political ecosystem prevalent in most parts of Africa that is responsible for caging out the beautiful ones from the public office space. The beautiful ones are the expected servant leaders that could deploy public office to inspire a new paradigm shift in the governance architecture across all the nations in Africa and drive them through the fast lane of uncluttered progress and development.
In the past, it was tenable to argue that it was Europe that ruthlessly underdeveloped Africa with the instrument of colonialism, but such development theory has simply evaporated and lost the grain of acceptability in contemporary times. Therefore, it stands to reason that Africans have governed themselves long enough to rewrite and correct the anomalies bequeathed on the continent by her erstwhile colonial masters.
In fact, the African political experience is replete with cases of leaders ruling their people to their own injury, giving credence to the adumbration that Africans have since taken over the inglorious task of under-developing Africa. Consequently, the rich intellectual capital at the disposal of the continent as a critical asset to liberate Africans from technological dependence on the West had been seriously undermined by policies that reinforce such dependence at a very prohibitive cost.
Although it may seem an uphill task, when the beautiful ones actually assume the mantle of leadership at all levels in every African country, then Africa’s long-anticipated development revolution would come. But political pundits will be quick to aver that this postulation is nothing short of the adage that “if riches were horses, beggars might ride.”
It was John F. Kennedy who said, “Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.” As the saying goes, you can’t make omelet without breaking eggs – so how can someone become president of a great nation without participating in the political process?
Conclusively, therefore, if the beautiful ones whom Africa needs in the corridors of power only see politics as a contraption for only bad or evil people to practice, then they would have invariably opened the doors for the so-called bad people to govern them perpetually. As the Greek philosopher Plato put it, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” This is the crux of the complicated leadership puzzle to be resolved for Africa to realise her full potential as a continent with the beautiful ones already born in it.
Alemu wrote from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
