WYCLIFFE MUGA / JUST A MINUTE
Masking bigotry in the name of charity
In it William Saletan had this to say: "On Thursday morning, President Bush greeted the people of Iraq on their TV screens. 'You are a good and gifted people', he told them as Arabic script appeared below his face.
"I don�t know Arabic, but I�m sure the translation didn�t convey what Bush means by 'gifted'. He doesn�t mean exceptional. He means ethnic.
If you�re black, Hispanic or a member of some other group often stereotyped as incompetent, you may be familiar with this kind of condescension. It is the way polite white people express their surprise that you are not stupid.
"They marvel at how 'bright' and 'articulate' you are. Instead of treating you the way they would treat an equally competent white person, say, by ignoring you, they literally fuss over your every accomplishment.
"When James Baker and Brent Scowcroft do their jobs, it is a non-story. When Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice do the same jobs, it is a newsmagazine cover."
Well that is one type of soft bigotry. For yet another variety, we only have to refer to an article in the current edition of The East African (November 3-9) entitled "Lawyer tells Kenya to rethink military pact with Britain".
Mr Martin Day is a Briton who has made a name by suing the British government for compensation on behalf of various groups of Kenyans.
His current case concerns allegations of rapes in Samburu District, said to involve some hundreds of women. The matter is still under investigation, but serious doubts have been raised, relating to evidence that was apparently fabricated to give substance to some of these claims.
Precisely where the truth lies in all this is best left � for now at least � to the official investigations. What will certainly not come out of these investigations however, but is worthy of some note, is Mr Day�s attitude towards Kenyans in general. There is plenty of "soft bigotry" to be found in this.
Mr Day, in the article mentioned, is quoted as saying that his service to the people of Samburu is "a strong calling". Now bigotry cannot get plainer than that: why should it be "a calling" when he is simply providing legal services for which he is being well remunerated.
Irrespective of whether the case is in Britain or in Kenya, at some point he will stretch wide his palm to receive a payment cheque. So why can he not simply see the Samburu people he acts for as clients like any other?
The fact of the matter is that Mr Day�s perspective presupposes incompetence on the part of Kenyans. Behind it all is the idea that some outsider like himself, responding to "a calling", is required to solve our problems. And that without such guidance as people like himself can provide, we will continue to stumble in the dark.
Consider what Mr Day has to say to the Kenya Government, with its underlying assumption that President Mwai Kibaki�s Cabinet could profit from his advice: first he is quoted as saying, that "no other country would allow its nationals to be subjected to such abuse. Then, it would be surprising if the issue of Kenyan�s relationship with the British army were not raised in senior government circles. Finally, in the UK, any foreign army committing such atrocities would not last two seconds in the country".
Well, Mr Day must know the UK better than we do, so there is no point arguing with him over that. But, presumably he has not heard of the Japanese Island of Okinawa, which has hosted an American army base since the end of World War II.
As recently as 1995, there was an incident in Okinawa, involving the gang rape of a schoolgirl by American soldiers. The rapists were identified and court-martialled. And there have been about 5,000 incidents over the years, involving the American soldiers and the local people, including 12 murders and 110 reported rapes.
Japan is a rich country, and one which certainly does not need any "donor funding" from the US. If Japan allows the US army to continue having a base at Okinawa, it must be for reasons of state which have nothing top do with a desperate need for "donor funding".
As such, it should not be ruled out that Kenya, although a poor country, might also have a foreign policy influenced by considerations other than donor funding.
But Mr Day is not willing to allow for this possibility. He goes on to state that "Kenya�s need for donor funding is understandable and that the issue would have been treated very sensitively, were this happening in any developed countries".
Nonetheless it must be admitted that overall, Mr Day will probably be found to have performed a great service for the peoples of Samburu. It is his attitude towards the country � its leaders and people � which is totally unacceptable.
The pathetic aspect of Mr Day�s attempted self-glorification is that it is about 100 years too late. In the late 19th century, it was still possible for a single white man to walk into the area inhabited by an African community, and, acting on some higher "calling", completely transform the villages of that place.
In the vestry of the Mombasa Memorial Cathedral, there are framed images of some such men on who acted on such a "calling": Bishop Peel, Bishop Hannington and others.
Mr Day should have the honesty to see himself as he really is.
He is not the heir to those early missionaries, but rather a 21st century ambulance chaser.
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