The recent US midterm elections have sparked reflection on democracy, citizenship, and representation in Africa. The elections saw historic breakthroughs, including the election of Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman governor in Georgia and Deb Haaland as the first Native American woman governor in New Mexico. These achievements challenge long-held assumptions about who can occupy positions of political authority.
America's evolving political representation raises questions for Africa about embracing democracy while allowing ancestry, ethnicity, and perceived foreignness to determine leadership. Despite its imperfect history, the US democratic journey presents Africa with an important question: Why should a person's ancestry remain a political liability in a country where that person is a legitimate citizen?
The US elections demonstrated that citizens can choose candidates with different racial backgrounds, ancestry, or identities through their ballots. Constitutional and democratic institutions establish rules that protect the electoral process, ensuring that incumbents cannot overturn legitimate elections due to a candidate's identity or background. This presents a challenge for Africa: Are its societies prepared to elect people perceived as descendants of foreigners, even when they are citizens and meet constitutional requirements for leadership?
Across Africa, xenophobic attacks have exposed hostility directed at fellow Africans, particularly migrants from countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Nigeria in South Africa. Exclusionary attitudes may exist among voters themselves, and ideas about indigenous identity, ancestral ownership, and national belonging have become deeply rooted, making it difficult for constitutional guarantees to overcome them.
The challenge for Africa is not only institutional but also political and social. While some African societies may be willing to look beyond ethnic and ancestral boundaries, political rhetoric and identity-based mobilisation can create barriers around who is considered entitled to lead. Zambia, for instance, has experienced controversy surrounding presidential eligibility requirements, particularly constitutional provisions relating to the citizenship of a candidate's parents.
Africa must confront the historical irony surrounding its geographical boundaries, which emerged from colonial arrangements that divided communities and disregarded existing cultural relationships. As a result, African families have cross-border roots, share languages, intermarry, and maintain historical connections that existed long before modern nation-states were established. It is contradictory that Africa celebrates Pan-Africanism while sometimes treating fellow Africans as strangers due to colonial geography.
Ultimately, Africa must adopt a standard where citizenship establishes legitimate belonging, constitutional rights protect political participation, and voters determine whom they wish to entrust with leadership, within the requirements of the law. A person's surname, accent, complexion, or grandparents' birthplace should not automatically become a referendum on their loyalty to the country.
Key points
- Ancestry and ethnicity should not determine leadership in Africa.
- Africa's geographical boundaries, a legacy of colonialism, have created complexities around citizenship and identity.
- The standard for leadership should be based on citizenship, constitutional rights, and voters' choices.
