Nancy Mburu
One of the individuals who have gone down in the annals of greatness is America’s 16th President Abraham Lincoln, who is popularly known as Honest Abe.
On February 12, Americans marked the 200th anniversary of Abe’s birth. Lincoln continues to fascinate many scholars because he was presumed to have a split personality. But he remains one of the most respected people for the way he guided his country through the most devastating experience in its national history —the American Civil War.
One of his outstanding qualities was his love for books. A new biography says: "Lincoln, a young Congressman in 1847 in Washington DC, did not drink, chew tobacco or gamble away hours...instead he was observed walking out of the library carrying books wrapped in a scarf tied to a pole over his shoulders. His colleagues accused him of incessantly ‘mousing’ around in the stacks."
The biography says Abe did not just enjoy books, he craved them — from Shakespeare, to history, philosophy, poetry and the Bible.
Today, Lincoln is contrasted to modern leaders like immediate former US President George W Bush, who is described as "not a curious reader", and compared to Bush’s young, ambitious successor, Barack Obama, termed as a "well read man".
I was disappointed to learn that this great man supported colonisation of black people, despite championing the end of slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln made the proclamation a war goal, but not without nursing his anger with scapegoats.
The American Civil War of 1861 was sparked off by attempts to end slavery, when 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the US and formed the Confederate States of America.
Blacks Separate
The biography says in August 1862, Lincoln met with five black leaders during which he told them the races must remain "separate". He told the leaders that black people should emigrate from the United States, alleging that their presence had caused the war.
Today, we may praise Lincoln as a great man of his times yet he did not have much respect for the black race. That was almost over two centuries ago, but the unwanted feeling has lingered among black people in the West.
Which brings me to my point. Sometimes in hindsight, I think former President Moi, who was widely travelled, had some words of wisdom. Despite his many failings, Moi often reminded us that nobody loves the black race anywhere in the world. Maybe he experienced discrimination as an individual or in his dealings with other states, but his words nevertheless rang true. Moi’s take was that we had first to learn to value ourselves as black people, because if we did not, nobody else would. And in my few travels, I couldn’t agree more.
The West is more than happy to focus on our failures rather than our triumphs, going by the careful selection of only negative images from our motherland. But can we entirely blame these countries? Where is our pride? When we talk of the Kenya we want or do not want, do we ever think of preserving our pride?
What do we have that is exclusively Kenyan? Where are our patents to flaunt to the rest of the world? Why are we just consumers of goods manufactured in other countries? When are going to start seeing motor vehicles with the label ‘Made in Kenya’?
What were leaders thinking when they spent large sums of money to travel to the US to witness Obama’s inauguration without even an invite? This is despite disturbing pictures of our hungry being splashed across the Internet for the whole world to see. Did these leaders think of the remote Lorengipi camp, where Kenyans are starving in their thousands, before they embarked on their fools’ errand to the US? Why are those in positions of power so selfish that they can oversee the suffering of others?
Confidant
As has been previously argued, there is a lot of good in our country which we take for granted. If we truly believed in ourselves and in our pride as a nation, we would accomplish a lot. We have beautiful weather, great natural resources and the ability to generate wealth. That is why foreign companies have struck it rich in our country.
But we lack any confidence in ourselves. That is why we continue to view each other with suspicion as leaders continue to exploit us. I am not getting preachy, but I believe the starting point is learning to love ourselves. It is only through this that we shall yearn to make ours a great country. If we don’t, we shall continue to be a laughing stock.
Let us mark Moi’s words: nobody loves us except us.
The writer is a commentator on social and political issues.
wanjikku@yahoo.com.