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MISSING THE POINT: Next Z'bar president, JK rivals and fear of witches
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 00:38
This year the most interesting politics will be happening in Zanzibar. The Zanzibar presidency is already
being contested by a dozen Zanzibaris while on the mainland, only President Jakaya Kikwete has collected the ruling party CCM’s nomination forms to seek re-election. The other CCM members have either respected the party’s tradition of letting the incumbent run unchallenged for a second and last term, or have bowed to threats from our maestro palm reader, Sheikh Yahya Hussein, who hinted last year that whoever would dare challenge President Kikwete this year would surely die.
As religious as they are, still most potential candidates have probably chosen to hold up to Sheikh Hussein’s threats apparently because either it reminds them of the biblical caution from God that if Adam and Even ate a fruit from the tree at the centre of the garden they would die or it is evidence of our life in the middle.
Life in the middle, in this case, would mean someone living a life torn between the values of Western or Eastern religions on one hand and traditional witchcraft on the other. Life in the middle is reflected not only in the fear to challenge CCM’s incumbent but also in the names, dress codes, rituals, and lifestyles of many politicians.
Often politicians are photographed in church or mosques – normally taking front positions – to show that they are the most God fearing humans in their whole country. And the truth about this is that they truly fear God and worship him out of fear. But at night a good number of them would assume that God is asleep and they would sneak off to the cemetery to consult with marabous. So while during the day our leaders project the image of God fearing humans, at night they dine and dance with the devil.
In the Gambia President Yayah Jammeh refused to become a hypocrite who worshipped in a mosque during the day but consulted witches at night. He came out in the open and declared to his country men and women that he was, indeed, a marabou himself. Today President Jammeh cures the sick and predicts a better future for his citizens.
This year the election industry is likely to make a lot of money. Some business, such as printing, will be booming. But the industry that will make money the most is that of marabous, palm readers, witches and clairvoyants.
Politicians who prayed to God and lost in the previous election will definitely try the other alternative this year. That’s why life in the middle is convenient for many of them because it provides psychological security that probably many devoted believers find wanting.
So on the mainland President Jakaya Kikwete will probably enjoy an easy ride back to the State House. Even those in the opposition who have already announced to challenge him do not seem to pose any formidable threat to the presidency.
But this does not mean the unthinkable cannot happen. Politics is full of surprises. And for the first time in the history of this country and CCM, the ruling party has serious cracks that can easily be seen by everybody including the visually impaired.
And the cracks can only be mended, hypocritically, for the sake of winning this election or they can eventually snap away if the inherent animosities, hatred and anger are brought forth to bear during CCM’s top decision making organs later this year.
In Zanzibar, however, things seem to be completely different. President Amani Karume winds up his last term at a time when he has normalised the Islands politics which are normally characterized by tense rivalries and rancor between the ruling party and the main opposition CUF
But still, looking closely at aspirants who have picked forms for the Zanzibar presidency it is possible to see marks of old wounds and patterns of score settling among certain factions. And, surprisingly, the toughest rivalry in Zanzibar this year will not be between CCM and CUF. Initially, the dozen or so presidential aspirants in the Islands shall have to cut off each other’s throats before one of them can limp to the finishing line to face CUF’s Seif Shariff Hamad.
It would then be interesting to see how casualties of the Zanzibar CCM presidency contest react, not only to their loss, but to the behaviour of the process that left them defeated. And if the Mainland will be seen by the Zanzibaris as trying to determine, by force, the outcome of who shall succeed President Karume, then politics in the Islands – and about the union - shall take a completely new twist.
If this election is held in a free and fair environment then it will be a good taste for the ruling party CCM as to how long it can survive in power.
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Source: The Citizen
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AS for me I have JESUS as my marabout...
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