By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
I’m currently in the United States of America (USA) for the second time on what I will One Drop-nize as a “cooling off period” from my more than 28-years of journalistic practice. Last year, in early April and late May, I spent 29 days between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
And this year, I will be here (the USA) for just 15 days—working on a project which my daughter says I should try to bring to fruition because I have been working on it for a few years now. But my son is skeptical—saying that, with the weekly writing of my “One Drop” column and running both the home and office, the writing of that project will only be completed when the three dwarfish coconut trees at our Regent Village home start to bear fruits! But the singular thread that threads through the in-betweens of their optimism and skepticism is that I’m sure to bring them some gifts on my return from the USA as I did on my first “cooling off period” last year!
But the truth is: I’m always ill at ease in the USA than in Britain. Well, my love for English idioms and food coupled with the fact that I’m a product of the London School of Journalism and the University of Leicester; I’m sure to have a fondness for Britishness than a fondness for being an “Americanah” (To borrow that phrase from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s critically acclaimed novel: “Americanah”.).
Before the advent of the internet, my “Americanah” view was viewed through the perspective of John Pepper Clark’s novel, “America, Their America”, published in 1964. In that novel, which is a sort of a concoction of an autobiography and travelogue, Clark “attacks American middle-class values, from capitalism to Black American lifestyles”. He does that so humourously sarcastic that the “ignorance and cockiness” of the typical American will choke the reader’s muffled laughter!
But if JP Clark should revisit the USA today, or even surf the internet and watch Fox News, he won’t be attacking American middle-class values anymore. He might be, definitely, attacking the core philosophy of President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again (MEGA)” with icy sarcasm! He might have been disturbed by the seemingly anti-immigration policy of the Trump administration of which “ICE” (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is the overzealous acolyte! He might have also been alarmed by the manner in which Democracy appears to have been now un-democratized in the USA. And JP Clark might have changed the title of that novel to “America: The Bastardization Of A Bastardized Democracy”.
But whatever one might say about President Donald Trump; I love to love him with all the lovingness a lover usually has for a loved one. Forget about his seemingly political incorrectness. You may even pretend that his noticeable eccentricities are the new American political normal. And you may also pretend that his off-the-cuff gaffes sometimes are meant for comic reliefs in a world now gripped with fears of apocalypses. But Donald Trump is ruling the United States in a sort of preconceived nationalistic salad which he gleefully flushes down his gullet with a fine wine of patriotism!
Again, you might say whatever you want to say about his personality personally; but President Trump’s “America First” policy must be a kind of template for every African nation that is endowed with natural resources! If only African leaders have been putting their nations first whenever they are negotiating mining deals and giving out other agricultural-rich concessions to foreign companies; their citizens will not be now trooping in droves to the USA and European countries to become willing Economic Slaves. It is ironically amazing that during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; it were the Europeans and Americans who went to Africa and bought slaves who were unwillingly brought to Europe and America to slave on the Whiteman’s plantations. But now it appears to be a reversal of history: Africans are braving the deserts and seas themselves just to reach Europe and America to willingly enslave themselves to the economic systems of those continents!
As the Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America, President Trump is ruling that great nation in ways that are suggestive of some typical African leaders! In most parts of Africa, when some regions or some sets of citizens are democratically misbehaving; the Commander-in-Chief would just declare a State of Emergency and unleash a specialized security apparatus on those regions or citizens to contain the “misbehavior”. Now, President Trump appears to be doing the same in the USA. When some states and their citizens are democratically misbehaving—quoting their “Rights” or referencing some “Amendments”; the Trump administration will just give a free rein to the National Guard and that would be it! And in many countries in Africa there seems to be no freedom after speech or publications as there are draconian laws to stifle freedom of speech. Now in America, Trump’s America; the Trump administration is reportedly mooting the idea and also threatening to withhold the licenses of media outlets that are saying or writing bad things about the President or his administration.
And there was a time in Sierra Leone, under President Siaka Stevens, when Fullahs were rounded up and packed in trucks and sent across the border to Guinea. In Nigeria, there was a time when Ghanaians were rounded up and sent back to Ghana with just one big bag with all their belongings in it hence the coinage: “Ghana Must Go”. In the Ivory Coast, there was a time when there were very strong anti-Burkinabe sentiments. And as recent as recently, Nigerians were constantly attacked in South Africa and asked by the locals to go back whence they had come. Now in America, Trump’s America; there seems to be very strong anti-immigration sentiments as the Trump administration has found scapegoats in Mexicans, Asians, and Africans who came from “shit holes”!
That’s why in this my second coming to the USA, despite I have a scanned copy of my visa and return air ticket on my cheap and unreliable Tecno phone; I also have a printout of the bio-data page of my passport, my visa and air ticket—all attached. So, if by chance I’m stopped by “ICE” while strolling around or visiting some historical places; I will just show them that evidence to let them know that I have not yet given up on Sierra Leone where I know the Rising Sun will rise again in 2028!
medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986