As President Obama addresses the leaders of the African Union, I have strong misgivings that his presence as the first sitting United States president to attend the gathering will be misinterpreted as positive reinforcement of the type of governance that pervades most African nations today. The president’s stated support for human rights, freedom of speech and the rule of law and justice are profoundly antithetical to the rampant human rights abuses and repression of free press throughout the continent.
It is important that the president signals this clearly in his trip. Millions of voiceless, stateless refugees and displaced people all over the world will eagerly watch and hear Obama’s address in their temporary shelters, tents and refugee camps by short wave radio or other available means with great anticipation and hope. The words of the sitting president of the United States will be heard, listened, repeated, stretched and minced by Africans living on the continent and abroad, both those detained in their nation-state unjustly and the fortunate ones who live freely.
I was once a detainee and a refugee in the Sudan years ago, and I clung to news that intimated freedom was near. The thick brick walls of the Kober prison in Khartoum did not stop me or other detainees from hearing or interpreting any signal that brought us a ray of hope. Is Obama aware of this impact?
The US president – who is fairly and democratically elected – will come face to face with African leaders who have clung to power tirelessly, by deception and lies. These autocratic leaders disregard the premises of their own constitutions; thousands of journalists and political dissidents languish in their dungeon prisons and millions of people continue to face the destitution that plagues their daily existence.
Every day, thousands of Africans are driven out of their homes and into perilous journeys to escape this destitution. Young African men, women and children drown in the Mediterranean Sea daily; countless perish in the Sahara desert; North African and European jails are filled to their capacity with these detainees. And yet, the African Union remains silent and has offered no plan to save its sons and daughters.
Rather, the organization has made abysmal decisions of repeatedly observing and certifying rigged elections and complying with genocidal leaders in protecting them from facing justice, all while the volume of displacement, brutality, ethnic cleansing, corruption and inter-communal war reaches unprecedented levels in most African States.
The president will undoubtedly address a variety of issues in his visit, including economic cooperation and the fight against global terrorism, with leaders considered partners in this effort. These partners who continue to terrorize and brutalize their own nationals should not be embraced to fight the war against terrorism on the cheap: Obama must stand unwaveringly in support of human rights, freedom of speech and all of the rights enjoyed by those people who live in a democratic society.
The refugees, the jailed and the displaced have no illusion that the president will win back their original home, village, bring back their loved ones or their freedom. But a clear message to their jailors, tormentors and to those who planned their misfortune will immeasurably uplift their spirit and their hope for better days to come, if not for them then at least for their children.
As a long-time Obama supporter, I don’t think this is too much to ask. I have campaigned for him by knocking on stranger’s doors, dipped into my children’s lunch money to make small-time donations and drove to Washington DC to witness the first inauguration and hear his direction and vision for the world. The hard-earned successes of Obamacare, renewable energy and lifting the Cuban embargo, to name a few, undoubtedly leave an indelible mark in the history of our country. And now I have the audacity of hope the leader of the most powerful and influential nation in the world to add another piece to his legacy: to unambiguously push for core democratic principles and institutional change in Africa.
