African parliaments: is this a joke?

Aside from the corruption that runs rampant in African governments (these stories are regular news fare in Kenya, whenever I've been) the biggest absurdity in Africa to me is seeing the administrators of parliaments, and judges, in certain African nations, wearing white colonial English wigs (see 2nd video below). Not to mention the system of governing. I'd actually be a little less weirded out if they continued to use English structure but just got rid of the wigs. I wouldn't be satisfied, but it would be a step in the right direction. It's always seemed to me like a girl wearing her mom's lipstick and high heels -- when she's like 26 years old though. You're a grown ass woman, get your own! You know?

My conversations with regular folks in Kenya, when I've been, always tend to come around to discussing the structure of government. It's interesting to see the African Political Spectrum. Not all Africans are progressive minded, or radical for that matter, and not all Africans are stubborn traditionalists either. Some Africans are traditionalists about some things and radicals about other things. There is a lot of dissonance concerning how nations should proceed in the post-colonial age.

As an African American, I think it's vital that we keep our ears to those discussions that take place in nations where black folks have at least had figurehead sovereignty for a few decades. Now that we have caught up to many of our brothers and sisters in the diaspora in terms of experiencing black (faced, at least) leadership of national government, we're going to find ourselves I think, starting to see the differences between various communities of black Americans. It would only be wise to me on a strategic level to begin to poll and study these factions on the black political spectrum, so we know when compromise is necessary and when ending a discussion that cannot go anywhere due to fundamental differences. In 2009, the dream of total black unity has now officially become a lie. With what we have, we'd better start drawing lines, because as African politics have shown us, if we're too kumbaya with each other and not realistic, there will be factions of selfish black leadership that monopolize the reigns of power in the name of blackness, even if they have no intention of representing the people. The Obama age is here. Now more than ever, black strategy is going to need to know how to look way past blackness into the character and commitment of our leaders.

Obama was our first test in my opinion, and I think we could have done a lot better with our collective scrutiny and vetting of him as African descended folk. Hopefully the natural progression plays out and the lessons learned from the black hype cloud that allowed Obama to rise to power, stick. Afterall, because we elected Obama in the framework of the existing two party system, we now have little political leverage to show for our efforts. At least if we'd have voted for McKinney we'd have boosted a 3rd party onto the international political stage. Let's hope we learn our lessons and adjust our strategy accordingly in the future. Or we too will be electing black folk who wear colonial wigs -- just on the inside.