A Rejoinder to Mukoma wa Ngugi

I got this interesting Article from Jukwaa.com


A Rejoinder to Mukoma wa Ngugi« Thread Started on Jan 13, 2008, 5:53am »

Onyango Oloo Responds to a Recent Intervention by Mukoma Completed and Posted Online from Nairobi at 5:43 am, Sunday, January 13, 2008

Mukoma wa Ngugi is a compatriot of ours that I hold in very high esteem. A talented writer and progressive activist, he continues to inspire many Kenyans with his passionate committed stances on a range of social justice matters. Whenever I can, I google his name on the internet for his latest contributions, especially his perspectives on the contemporary political developments in Kenya. I therefore eagerly embarked on reading his take on the Orange Democratic Movement- the political party which garnered 100 seats and won the Presidential elections in the December 27th, 2007 polls.

His piece:http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/45291 has already elicited vigorous comments pro and con-especially on the Jukwaa online platform http://jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1200131949which I administer and contribute to also on a regular basis.I too, would like to critique his piece by going through his essay chunk by chunk, kicking off with his opening paragraph:

"One cannot fully grasp what is happening in Kenya and Africa without considering the changing nature of opposition movements and the differences between a people powered movement, or a democratic revolution, and a plethora of movements that consolidate democratic institutions for international capital while flying under the radar of democracy.Even though here below I am mainly speaking about Raila Odinga and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), I could just as easily be speaking about Mwai Kibaki and the Party of National Unity (PNU). It is only because ODM has actively courted the image of being a people powered movement engaged in a democratic revolution that I draw your attention to it. Amilcar Cabral once said “tell no lies, claim no small victories.” It is in that spirit that I write."

My problems with Mukoma wa Ngugi's contribution begin right there, at the very outset. By conflating ODM with PNU, the writer confuses the issues, whether consciously or not.Why?Because PNU and ODM, represent, in broad strokes, two very divergent political tendencies in Kenya even as they swim in the same ideological stream. More on that a little later.Also:A "people powered movement" is not a "democratic revolution".Mukoma confuses an organization with its goals and objectives. In other words, in order to affect a democratic revolution, you need to have a vehicle which will get you there. It may or not be a "people power movement".For instance, in order to carry out the South African national democratic revolution, you needed the Tripartite Alliance consisting of the ANC at its head, working in tandem with the South African Communist Party and COSATU together with a host of other popular organizations like the ANC Women’s League and the ANC Youth League among others.It was the national liberation movement (and here I am not belittling the contributions of other actors outside the ANC led alliance) which managed to wrest power from the De Klerk led minority racist forces and launched South Africa on the trajectory that it is currently on, with all the obvious pitfalls, set backs and challenges that the world is witnessing even as I churn out these lines.In building what Mukoma wa Ngugi calls a "people’s movement" one observes a process fraught, wrought wracked and rocked with contradictions as the movement itself matures, consolidates its historic gains and evolves further.

Let us stay with the South African example.The ANC started life off as a very conservative grouping of South African traditional and community leaders. It matured through struggle to become a viable nationalist movement with various tendencies within it- from Christian Pacifists to African Nationalists to die hard Communists. By 1944 when Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela represented the militant youth wing, it was time for the organization to change tact. It took a more progressive orientation with the Marxist-Leninists beginning to assert themselves along with the militant social democratic nationalists like Mandela and Tambo.By the mid 1950s ANC was Africa’s most powerful nationalist organization.After Sharpeville its "moderate" leadership consisting of people like Nobel Peace Laureate Chief Albert Luthuli was already giving way to a new generation of leaders. On December 16, 1961 it formed Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) its military wing with Nelson Mandela as its first commander.Forced underground and into exile, the ANC became even more powerful. At its Morogoro Conference in 1969, the ANC’s ideological perspectives became very much influenced by the precepts of Marxism-Leninism, even though it still remained a broad national liberation movement with many non-Communists (Mandela, Tambo etc) among its top leadership. Its alliance partner, the SACP grew in stature. All Communists within the alliance were simultaneously members of the Party as well as the ANC, with the former recognizing the leadership role of the latter.By the late 1980s, one could argue that the ANC was the most respected and most powerful national liberation movement in the entire world with Nelson Mandela being the most famous freedom fighter on the globe-despite being incarcerated.After its unbanning in 1990, the ANC graduated into a government in waiting.On April 27th 1994 the ANC won South Africa’s first democratic elections and formed the government. It has since won three back to back majorities.As a government and ruling party, the ANC is undergoing further transformations.From 1996 to 2007 it took a rightist turn, embracing neo-liberal and under other pro-imperialist policies under the tutelage of its second state president, Thabo Mbeki.At its December 2007 National Conference held in Polokwane, the ANC repudiated the rightist Mbeki neo-liberal line by throwing out the old guard and electing a fresh team anchored by the controversial Jacob Zuma which is attempting to get the ANC back to its revolutionary democratic roots.

The point I am trying to make is that in the real world, national liberation movements, revolutionary parties and other "people's power movement" are built in struggle; they are never purely perfect organizations and certainly the revolutionaries and progressives within its ranks evolve and there are all kinds of contradictory elements within it.If we take our own history as Kenyans, we see our contemporary freedom struggle has been going on for over ONE HUNDRED YEARS from the early peasant uprisings of the 1880s, 1890s and early 1900s featuring the likes of Waiyaki wa Hinga, Mwangeka, Me Katilili and Koitalel arap Samoei to the working class struggles anchored by the Makhan Singhs, Fred Kubais and Chege Kibacias in the 1930s and 1940s, the armed struggle of the Kiama Kia Muingi led by Field Marshall Kimathi wa Waciuri in the 1950s, the militant demands for an Uhuru administration led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Bildad Kaggia, Pio Gama Pintos and others in the early 1960s, to the socialist oriented underground movements like the December Twelve Movement and others of the mid- 1970s and early 1980s featuring patriots like Mukoma’s own dad Ngugi wa Thiongo, Willy Mutunga, Edward Oyugi, Micere Mugo, Alamin Mazrui Shadrack Gutto, Wangui wa Goro, Yusuf Hassan, not forgetting the radical parliamentarians of the same era as Chelagat Mutai, George Anyona, Jean Marie Seroney, Mwashengu wa Mwachofi, James Orengo, Koigi wa Wamwere etc, to the underground and exile based anti-imperialist formations of the late 1980s and early 1990s like the Kenya Anti-Imperialist Front, Umoja, the Me Katilili Revolutionary Movement (where people like Adongo Ogony, Mwandawiro Mghanga and Onyango Oloo were founder members), Harakati ya Kupigania Demokrasia, Kenya Patriotic Front etc; to the above ground broad democratic organizations such as the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy with its leaders like Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Paul Muite, Wamalwa Kijana, Raila Odinga, James Orengo and others. In the mid 1990s we see people like Willy Mutunga, Njeri Kabeberi, Reverend Timothy Njoya, Davinder Lamba and others jump starting the constitutional reform process with organizations like the Citizens' Coalition for Constitutional Change, the NCEC and others.

The end of KANU rule in the year 2002 was spearheaded by mainstream politicians teaming up to create the National Rainbow Coalition. The pivotal role of Raila Odinga in this process can not be gain said. After 2003 and the betrayal by Mwai Kibaki and his NAK cronies of the dream for a democratic constitutions and other reforms pledged, we see Kenyans going to Bomas and crafting a draft of such a constitution and then we see the power struggles which led to the implosion of the NARC government to create the Kibaki and Raila factions in and out of government.By the time we get to the November 2005 Referendum on the Wako Draft, Kenyans are broadly divided into two camps-a somewhat amorphous national movement in formation united by a need to fight for democratic and social reforms on the one hand and a conservative clique that wants to cling on to power and entrench neo-liberalism in Kenya on the other.The first camp was led by Raila Odinga and it later formed the Orange Democratic Movement and the second camp was captained by Mwai Kibaki and it retained control of the post NARC administration by reaching out to such old guard KANU stalwarts like Simeon Nyachae, Njenga Karume, Prof. George Saitoti and ultimately Daniel arap Moi himself.Now the Orange Democratic Movement is by no means a "revolutionary" or "socialist" movement, even though it has DOZENS of revolutionaries and socialists within its ranks- not necessarily within its leadership. ODM is and remains just that, a BROAD DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT with individuals of all kinds of ideological tendencies within it.In ALL of the patriotic and democratic organizations that I have cited above, the Kenyan wananchi are ever present, often playing very pivotal roles.For instance in 2002, it was the wananchi, NOT the mainstream politicians, who forced all the opposition leaders unite, thus hastening the downfall of KANU and its Moi Project, Uhuru Kenyatta.In 2005, it was the wananchi, coming out in their millions who threw out the Kibaki’ regime's undemocratic and unpopular Wako Draft.In 2007 it was the wananchi who came out in their millions to vote out over 20 members of the Kibaki administration including Mwai Kibaki himself.My main point is this:"People Power Movements" to use Mukoma wa Ngugi’s somewhat nebulous phrase, are formed from the raw material thrown up by the concrete historical circumstances of specific societies. These kinds of popular organizations grow from weak, crude and contradictory seedling formations where you find conservative and progressive tendencies coexisting side by side; are purified through struggle until you get powerful anti-imperialist movements with revolutionaries at the apex. In other words, these movements are not omelets conjured up in a few minutes by arm-chair revolutionaries pontificating on democracy from wherever they are.

The other thing that must be emphasized is that Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki are NOT clones of each other, despite their shared class backgrounds.Raila is a veteran of Kenyan democratic struggles, a political prisoner who spent almost a decade in gaol without trial; a patriot who has been to exile; knows about police truncheons and tear gas first hand and someone who has ALWAYS been part of the country's reform movement.Kibaki is the quintessential neo-colonial establishment figure, who has contributed more on Kenya's golf courses than in the annals of our people's collective anti-imperialist struggles.

Continues: http://jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1200192799