By: Angela Okune
As Kenyans went into highly anticipated elections last week, many on social media penned humorous, sarcastic and sometimes angry Tweets pushing back against the common trope of African elections as violent and chaotic.
European Journalist: Are there any hotspots?
Matiangi: There are many WiFi hotspots across the country.
Matiangi wins it. #KenyaDecides
— Ahmed Mohamed (@Asmali77) August 10, 2017
Dear Kenyans thank you for disappointing the foreign media who had camped here #kenyadecides
— mtumzuri (@mtumzuri) August 9, 2017
However, as rumors (which were later verified to be true) began to circulate about violence in opposition strongholds, Mathare, Kibera and Kisumu, Kenyans on Twitter jumped into action to help — #HostRescueKE and @ResqueBnB were quickly set up to support those in communities with high tensions. As of 9.15am on Tuesday, August 15, 2017, Ksh. 231,740 had been contributed by well-wishers via a mobile crowdsourcing platform, M-changa.
While Kenyans discussed the skeletons in the closet that were revealed during the elections, my Twitter timeline also revealed social commentary on #Charlottesville in the aftermath of violent clashes between white nationalists and opponents protesting white supremacist views.
Excessive parallels should not be drawn between the two events – they are different levels of magnitude and contexts with obviously unique histories and environments that distinguish them – but the timing of the two events, both unfolding as I scrolled through my timeline, in some ways was perhaps the strongest pushback against the tropes of “violent African elections.” Because it revealed just how visceral and deeply entrenched the social construction of race and ethnicity is for people all around the world. As these documented incidents of violence which occurred over the weekend in Kenya and the US illustrate, identity is mobilized around the world to serve particular interests. To talk about tribal Africa and normalize such acts of violence misses the global politics of race (and ethnicity) which are increasingly come to the fore with recent events. These seemingly disparate incidences of violence hint at global structural issues and deep tensions exacerbated by factors CIHA Blog has noted previously including a deep “crisis of capitalism”, rising inequality, and shifting roles and identities.
The CIHA Blog largely focuses on issues of critical humanitarianism across the African continent. But given that our Editorial team is uniquely transcontinental, based at six research institutions in Africa and the US, I believe it is equally important to turn a critical eye not only to issues geographically located on the African continent, but also, as my Twitter timeline this past week highlighted to me, to shared themes and across lines of similitude that cross the ocean and geographic locations (separate conversation to be had on the role of social and digital media with regards to this).
As we have previously discussed on this Blog, social construction of collective identity is complex with wide reaching ramifications including some that we are seeing unfold today in Kenya and the US. Simultaneous with the unfolding of these events, I’ve also observed a rise in citizen and local leaders’ voices speaking against hate and violence, state-based and otherwise.
For example, on August 14, a statement was written by concerned ethicists and theologians on White Supremacy and Racism. Concurrently, Father Toussaint Kafarhire, a Professor of International Relations at Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations (HIPSIR) in Nairobi who has recently joined our CIHA Blog Editorial team, has been involved with the Kenyan Jesuit community and many others who are organizing vigils of prayer for peace in Kenya.
This type of peace activism and “speaking truth to power” demonstrated by religious leaders echoes a statement made in a 2015 lecture by Rev. Dr. Willy Mafuta at our partner institution, the Ujamaa Centre in South Africa:
“I believe when the moral compass of the society is threatened, churches have the divine order to mobilize its prophetic expediency and proclaim a gospel of acceptance, tolerance and love. Churches should not be caught up in the lethargic state of mind and sit on the sidewalk while brothers and sisters are killing each other. … Violence does not cast our fear, but love eradicates hate.”
CIHA Blog sends prayers and heartfelt condolences to those who have been impacted in Charlottesville and parts of Kenya. We stand with those who speak out against hate and violence during these times.