It’s flattering when Western media are supportive of us, but are they sincere?

A CNN correspondent in Nairobi got it right, I thought, when he reported with some surprise that Africans had reacted calmly when their countries were called “sh**holes”.

There were no angry demonstrations in Lagos, or Lusaka, or Johannesburg – or Nairobi. Any public anger was channelled officially through our political leaders who summoned resident American ambassadors for furious dressing downs, or wrote fierce protest letters to Washington DC.

Later, I was amused when I watched another CNN journalist, the anchor Anderson Cooper, go into histrionics about Donald Trump’s insult. He was hosting a discussion panel and, by way of introduction, he went into a high-minded dissection of Trump’s racism that would have earned him a standing ovation at the African Union. I felt good, too, for the moment.

Listening to Cooper, his American panellists and their sanctimonious homilies, the hypocrisy of it all did not fail to cross my mind. Who else other than the Coopers and their influential TV channels have aided in the portrayal of African countries as “sh**holes” through their zealous coverage of war, disease, famine, coups and, well, our “sh**wholeness”?

THIRD WORLD

I don’t want to get into the tedious argument about the Western media’s slant toward the Third World. My interest is the motivation which drove commentators like Cooper to turn almost into African revolutionaries.

Cooper’s political orientation is liberal, as is that of a good number of other CNN journalists. Trump’s favourite parlour game is to ridicule CNN and other liberal US media such as the New York Times and the Washington Post as “fake media” who spread “fake news.” The natural instinct of the herd is to hit back when Trump goofs like he did on “sh**holes”. I suspect it is not all about Africa. What is going on is a vicious ideological war between the White House and the liberal media.

Curiously, this position is at odds with a clique in Africa that has a huge axe to grind with sitting governments.

This clique encompasses Opposition activists and assorted critics who believe they are ruled by rogues who rigged themselves into office so as to loot.

POLITICAL

They were ecstatic to hit upon what they thought, wrongly, was a kindred spirit in Trump. They have been blowing hot kisses to the man on social media ever since. The motivation is purely political. There is no improbable paradox than to see a well-educated African singing the same song as that of an American right-wing bigot who finds Trump a thrill.

For the rest, our calm did not mean lack of sentiment. We have become resigned to these things. Trump is not the first Western racist we are seeing.

The only novelty is of somebody who tweets his vulgar mind so openly from the White House. We know the liberals well, too. Their anger is manufactured. I am not sure which side is better: The one which thinks we deserve pity, or the other which won’t give a damn either way. All said, none of them cares to be entangled in an African “sh**hole”. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, straight from her star reporting of the Bosnia war, did not want anything to do with the subsequent Congo civil war.

***

I had always wanted to meet Ken Wafula. Whenever I was in Eldoret, I would be told he was out of town. Possibly hiding from the police, or his many dangerous political enemies. He had his eccentricities, yet he remained the epitome of courage, knocking heads with some very nasty political characters and persevering as a human rights crusader in that cesspit of politically-fanned ethnic hatreds called Uasin Gishu. While his breed preferred squatting in Nairobi writing ineffectual and often fictional reports, he stayed where the trouble was.

Last week, he gave in to what was said to be complications from diabetes. The family awaits an autopsy. Fare thee well, brave fighter for justice.

 Warigi is a socio-political commentator [email protected]