Whatever Happened to Africa’s Philosopher Presidents and Their Philosophies?

In April 1967, Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s first post-colonial president announced “Humanism” as the country’s ideological and philosophical standpoint. It was a philosophy he announced, that put the “human” at the centre of all activity, although in practice it became barely distinguishable from Socialism/Communism. Around the same time, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania was making that country’s “Arusha declaration” in which he outlined a national developmental ideology/philosophy anchored on Ujamaa, a Swahili term with connotations of family or togetherness. Not to be outdone, Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko announced that “authenticite” or “Zairinisation” a few years later, was going to be then Zaire’s national philosophy, and proceeded to carry out a renaming and rebranding exercise aimed at entrenching this philosophy. Almost a decade before that, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah had sought to entrench his pan-Africanist ideology by hosting the All-Africa People’s Conference in Accra Ghana.

The ubiquity of new flags signalling independent Africa had now given way to philosopher presidents and their ideologies. Perhaps borne out of a necessity to impress upon their followers that being president also bestowed upon one superior intelligence, it soon became fashionable for newly independent nation leaders to carve for themselves a niche in the philosophy sphere. With much pomp, ceremony and at times disregard for more pressing issues, philosophies were propagated, volumes of books churned out in support of the chosen philosophies and national holidays decreed in the name of the same.

For example, in support of “Humanism” a whole Ministry was created in Zambia. In addition, an annual week was duly designated in which commemoration of Humanism would lead to a grand event graced by government and Party dignitaries, who would look on approvingly as school pupils marched in neat rolls, women danced and youths enacted plays, while the military demonstrated their drills.

To the question “whatever happened to Africa’s philosopher presidents?” the answer is straightforward. Some like Nyerere left power voluntarily, others like Kwame Nkrumah and Mobutu Sese Seko were deposed while others like Kaunda had to suffer the ignominy of being defeated by a supposedly more progressive and democratic cadre of politicians.

What happened to their philosophies however, is a little bit more complicated. Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism continues to survive albeit in different nuances depending on who the proponent is. It manifests itself in various hues, ranging from public and grandiose proclamations of love for the African continent to more radical exponents of a United States of Africa. In between is a whole raft of T-shirteering, slogan chanting and public blogging in support of Pan-Africanism.

If Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism has outlived its sponsor, the same cannot be said of Zambia’s Humanism. The fanfare of the 70s and 80s, the public excitement in support of Humanism seems to have dissipated into nothingness save for a heap of publications now reserved for the National Archives library in Lusaka. Perhaps this was expected even way before Multi-partism came and in one fell swoop obliterated Humanism in Zambia in 1991. Valentine Musakanya, Zambia’s first Secretary to the Cabinet and one of the most venerated thinkers of his time noted in his memoirs that Humanism could not stand up to rigorous examination as a national philosophy. Not only was it not sufficiently differentiated from the prevailing thought patterns of the time, but seemed to have been hastily put together by President Kaunda in a vain attempt at scholarship.

Indeed it is a fair point perhaps to note that with independence won, and facing the very real challenges of bread and butter, many post-independence African leaders resorted to philosophy or some variant of it anyway. This had the double advantage of raising the intellectual profile of the leaders, while at the same time detracting the masses from real existential issues as Michela Wrong notes of Mobutu Sese Seko in her brilliantly written, “In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz”.

There might have been an honest desire by our “philosopher kings” to provide a new rallying point once colonialism had been done away with, as Musakanya notes, yet in most instances, these rallying points ended up being shallow proclamations high on rhetoric yet scant on practicality. As such, it is difficult to ascribe much importance to many of these philosophies beyond that of frantic attempts to keep up with a growing fad at the time and to appropriate some semblance of intellectual perception on leaders who in many cases were of humble educational background. It was not long before the masses saw through these and actually began deriding these philosophies.

It is difficult to predict whether the phenomenon of “Africa’s philosopher Presidents” will return one day. One suspects if it does return, it will find a public that is less willing to be fed on empty rhetoric and obscure proclamations.