One of the most famous quotes that I love is “Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan”. I love and hate the quote at the same time. My major complaint is that so many people have attributed the statement to several leaders. The beautiful quote has been attributed to numerous frontrunners, and of course as usual Americans would want it as their own like any innovation. But this time contrary to the usual accusations it is America that is stealing other peoples’ wisdom. The quote as Americans would like to make us believe is often attributed to George Washington. But as I checked many sources including Google; it appeared that the great quote did not originate from the so-called leaders of the Free World; the quote is from the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law! Apparently, Jared Kushner is not the first son in law-cum-prince. As I said Success has many fathers: (gender inequality as usual of course. why not many mothers?) as a result, like we did with Barack Obama, 12 years ago, we are once again scrambling to have a piece of Kamala Harris, the new US Vice President. India was not outdone though. Forget about “fathers”, Indians greater than before, now remind us very loudly that Kamala’s mother is and will always be Shyamala Gopalan, a biomedical scientist born on April 7, 1938, in Chennai, Southern India. Her home village of 2000 inhabitants literally held a night an overnight celebration for her inauguration. Let me not over divert, after all, I was addressing Africans not Indians. Many Africans are celebrating because the first American woman vice president is of African ancestry. Donald Jasper Harris – her father – is a Jamaican-American economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University, known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economic, also born in 1938. Girls in America will be inspired by Kamala’s achievement, but their counterparts in today’s Africa may not be necessarily so. After all, America is not a champion, when it comes to gender empowerment. Kelsie Smith, of CNN said that: “For many parents, the swearing-in of Kamala Harris was an inspirational teaching moment for their kids” adding that “the moment Kamala Harris took her oath of office on Wednesday to become the first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president was an inspirational teaching moment for parents and kids across the country”. I asked my daughter Gahongayire, to tell me what Harris’ “first” means to her. Her answer could easily disappoint many father/mothers that are trying to own Kamala’s success. She said: “Personally I am not inspired but to an African American girl I suppose it could give them hope and proof that the “American Dream” is still attainable. For an African Girl, little awe is drawn because we have seen our own female presidents and vice presidents and women in decision making positions, more so those of us from Rwanda, that we already know that we can”. My daughter may not be a representative of the feelings of the majority of African youth but I am sure they are many who share her feelings Humble African countries offer better inspiration My daughter’s refusal to be impressed is shaped by her growing up in modern Rwanda. Rwanda boasts by far one of the best record for female representation in parliament, with nearly two thirds of its seats currently held by women, so is the position of speaker of our National Assembly. So even if Nancy Pelosi (US Speaker) was an African American, Rwandan girls would not be over impressed. In addition, at least 50% of cabinet ministers in Rwanda are women. On the other hand the United States still lags well behind much of the world when it comes to female representation – ranking just 75th on a list compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In fact, 2019 figures showed that the US doesn’t even reach the global average of 24.1% of lower house seats won by women! And this women emancipation is not limited to Rwanda, Liberia and Malawi, and Central African Republic have had women president, Zambia’s current vice president is a woman, Ethiopia and Mauritius have had women heads of state. Uganda, and Burundi have also had a vice president. A woman has ever held a position of African Union Chairperson. And as I write, two of most prominent Regional Economic groupings in Africa, COMESA and SADC are headed by women, and rest I forget La Francophonie is headed by our own Rwandan daughter Louise Mushikiwabo. The list is not exhaustive. So is it surprising that girls in Africa actually grow up with higher aspiration and hope than black girls in the US?! Of course the Western controlled media tend to highlight domestic violence, rape and enslavement. Women in refugee camps and cramped ships, trying to get into Europe than any of these great stories. Believe it or not, they are good stories about women in Africa. Kamala no ordinary Afro- American girl As indicated earlier Kamala is a daughter of an Indian immigrant of no mean achievements; she is a biomedical scientist PhD holder. Kamala’s Jamaican born father is an American economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. Stanford is ranked no 3 in the world ranking. On the other hand, the ministers and MPs mentioned in countries like Rwanda are by majority daughters of peasants. I am not trying in any way to underrate Kamala Harris’ achievement especially in America that has been white-Male dominated society, where success is determined largely by the color of your skin and religion. Belonging to the WASP (white, Anglo Saxon Protestant) gives you a head start. For those who may not be aware, Joe Biden is the second president out of the WASP community. Second Catholic president, despite the power of the Catholic Church globally! Kamala Harris is undoubtable, smart and beautiful ( by the way in the stupid world of politics, even looks matter) but I have no doubt that Kamala would not have come any closer to the White House, if she was a daughter of a Black janitor and an Indian waitress, or worse still if she had maintained her mother’s Hindu religion. Can you imagine the outrage if Vice President Kamala Harris had decided to take oath of office using the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita, instead of the Christian bible? Do you remember how many times Barack Hussein Obama had to explain that he is not Muslim and that “Jesus is his personal savior”? Or how much insults US Congresswoman Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, has had to endure simply for her being Muslim? Believe it or not, even in the US, freedom of worship is still theoretical at the best and at worse it can decide your lifetime opportunities. So Africans lower your expectations VP Harris suffered racism as a child of color in America, and up to her nomination, her race was still an issue. So one thing we can be sure of is that ,she will not have racism against Black and brown. She is not going to refer to Africa as “shit hole “countries, never the less; her primary interests will be American. This is even more so since 4 to 8 years from now, she might be standing for the highest office in the land. She goes into the office however knowing what right-wing Americans think about her. And subconsciously will have to prove that she is a real American. Sad but true. If African ancestry was so important to US – African relationship, then Obama would have done even more because of his direct ancestral links to Kenya. This is unlike Kamala who if interested would have to dig deep to know which part of Africa the enslaved great parents came from. So Africa, let us celebrate that our daughter Kamala is a Vice President of (for the moment) the most powerful country on earth. But let us not forget that the biblical Queen of Sheba, was an Ethiopia, but her visit to King Solomon, is still written in a manner that glorifies Solomon and disadvantages the African great woman. The world is ruled by money, for the moment America has the biggest share of the world money, and in corporate America, he who fundraises most is likely to get into power. So dear Africa, accept that our daughter Kamala is a politician, an American in a black skin, and please keep your expectations with that in mind. If you have a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a nephew or niece with an American Green Card who hopes to achieve the so called “American Dream”, thank Kamala for that dream. But don’t expect much more. Give the devil his due (one area that is fair to women, at least the devil is he!) Whatever misgivings expressed above, and American dreams being rarely attainable, I have to confess that a daughter of two immigrants no matter how smart would never have made it on any African country’s political ticket. Every time African politicians want to discredit any politician, his/her roots are assigned to a different country. Genocide and Xenophobia have been committed in the name of where one came from centuries ago. So African surely we can do better than QAnon. The writer is a veteran journalist and former Head of Public Relations/Corporate Communication at the Common Market for Eastern and Sothern Africa, (COMESA), currently based in Kigali, Rwanda.
