They gather under the huge cashew tree at the Bantaba. It is the
meeting place for the young elites. They aspire to take over from the
old politicians whose response to politics they deem not enthusiastic
enough. They want to change the climate of apathy and silence that
characterized the politics of the day. They are the future leaders.
However, the rancor within their midst; the tone and depth of their
political arguments, leaves much to the imagination as to what the
future holds.
At the Bantaba they talk about politics. They argue and defend their
partisan posturing. They engage in heated intellectual debates about
the economy, democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the state of
governance in this tiny African nation, hailed proudly as the Smiling
Coast.
The most vociferous defender of the human rights campaign is Abdel
Kabir. He has a noticeable presence in all the online newspapers. He
writes voraciously and decry the wanton disregard of civil liberties,
and the abnegation of the fundamental rights that accords dignity and
decency to the human being.
The most astute advocate of democracy, however, is Mam Latir. He has
a polished and artistic delivery style. With a lot of sophistry. No
comment of significance escape his scrutiny, and many a time he finds
himself embroil in more than one disagreements.
Njogu is a gentleman and a scholar. A literary artists. He
articulates his disdain and opposition to the hegemony of a political
dictatorship, by writing political satires and poems that expose the
deficiences and corrruption of the status quo. He always stays above
the fray; the acrimonous and bitter exchanges that
at most times ensues at the bantaba.
There are the other voices too: intelligent, patriotic, measured and
forceful. They added to the relevance and importance of the bantaba as
a discussion forum. The exchanges and conversations, to a great extend
are a micocosm of what obtains in the larger society. The anxiety, the
hopelessness, the anger and frustration, of the intractable
complexities that bemoan the challenges of a nation.
At the heart of the problem is the question of being. What should the
nation become? Or conversely, what has the nation became?
Rene
NB: This is the subject of a play I would want to write reflecting on
the myraid voices that has been raised in our discussion forums.
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