Online Reporter
Gibson Nyikadzino-Zimpapers Politics Hub
Politics raises hope when supported by ideologies.
In politics, just as in life, ideas matter. All known ideas, ideologies or bodies of revolutionary thought have gone through some form of revisionism and politicians, and their followers have used them to articulate their social, economic and political positions.
The acceptability of a narrative or its pushback is all defined and premised on talking points they are anchored on. In political leadership, ideas are also the basis on how one steers and shapes their worldview.
One thing, for certain, that does not constitute a philosophical idea is age, and in particular, being young.
This is the dilemma of the modern African youth. It is political vacuousness for one to elect someone to a leadership position only on the platform that they are young. Being young is not an idea, it is a biological fact. To advance that someone is qualified to lead only based on their age is part of modern political imaginaries that cannot be translated into reality.
Hoisting the youth and age cards in the place of ideas is what Frantz Fanon perspectivally wrote about when he said, “the greatest danger that threatens Africa is the absence of ideology”. Africa has its idea, an idea of decolonisation. It has an idea of African socialism. An idea that refuses to let the attitude of development grounded in African culture and traditions fade.
Senegal’s history on repeat
The election of Bassirou Diomaye Faye as Senegal’s “young and progressive leader” in 2024 was in international media framed as a victory by the youth over the old guard who for a long time protected colonial interests. Faye’s victory was a political project by his political-ally-turned-nemesis, Ousmane Sonko’s strategy was to transfer his political capital and electoral influence to the former. Today, the two are no longer allies after Faye dismissed Sonko as prime minister, before he bounced back as Speaker of the National Assembly.
The Faye-Sonko fallout is a repeat of what happened in the same country in 1962. Senegal’s founding President, Leopold Sedar Senghor, was known for being very close to France a former coloniser, like what Faye had now become. Senghor’s Prime Minister, Mamadou Dia, like Sonko, sought to end neo-colonial ties. Like Faye and Sonko, tensions between Senghor and Mia also escalated into open conflict in 1962, however, leading to Dia’s side lining and imprisonment.
When they assumed government business, Faye and Sonko’s patriotic ideals resonated with many as they sought to ensure Senegal’s total independence on the promised to renegotiate the terms of the French-backed CFA currency as well as oil and gas contracts with foreign companies. They promised to reduce poverty and unemployment levels, and ensure West Africa had a reserve sovereign currency that would be established to strengthen regional integration. They were young men with patriotic ideals.
Before their recent fallout, Faye, like Sonko, had long claimed to have Pan-African reformist leanings, vowing to combat neo-colonialism, and not getting closer to France, which has proved not to be the opposite.
Youthfulness is not ideology
The advantage the youth demography has in Africa is immense. Africa is considered the youngest continent with 70 percent of the population below the age of 30. The continent’s median age is 20 years. This advantage, when used adequately means Africa has the biggest active workforce, a huge market of creative technologies and the best chances to absorb skills for economic transformation.
Being a young continent also has its disadvantages. Restlessness created by failure to create adequate employment opportunities for young people. However, winning an election on the idea that one has a number of young people to their side is an unstable basis and attempt to inherit institutions of governance.
Replacing an old political establishment without replacing it with new ideas of governance, political and economic philosophies ideas is as futile as expecting abundant maize harvest in the Sahara Desert. Age cannot be used as a factor to separate Africa’s young and old people as their struggles are the same, and their destiny is shaped by the same struggles. A convergence of ideas of the elderly and the young are critical for stability.
Faye-Sonko error?
The late Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan academic and one of Africa’s greatest authors in his book,Wizard of the Crow, advised young people against doing things with hurried excitement. “Hurry and hurry-it broke the house of Harry and Harriet,” he said.
In 2024, Faye assumed the presidency aged 44 while Sonko was 49. Both had radical ideas that, politically, turned out to be the curse of youthful exuberance. Prior his presidency, Faye had only worked as a tax collector. Sonko, on the other hand had been a mayor. At the helm of government, they both wanted quick change. A radical change that has changed the way state institutions are reacting to their acrimony and dividing the nation along political lines.
The error of Sonko and Faye could be that they both lacked the maturity to infuse an intergenerational aspect in their structures to ensure stability and decided to use age as a factor in governance, without translating their biggest demographic, the youth, into a political and economic force.
If one fronts being young alone and does not share ideas that resonate with the struggles of the downtrodden, defending the rights of different marginalised and oppressed groups, their political orientation is an external factor with no place in Africa.
Political ideas need to be connected to the reality of the people they aim to serve for them to be operational. In all expression, ideological words are themselves weapons against age.
