Betraying the Tribe: Michela Wrong and the Foundations of African Corruption

The list of corrupt African leaders in modern history is a long one.

Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, Sani Abacha of Nigeria -- to name just a few -- pilfered their countries and/or brutalized their people to a flabbergasting degree.

Why so many? It's a question that's rarely asked. While the reticence might be attributed to fear of being labeled a racist, in fact it's the silence itself that reeks of racism. After all, doesn't the sustained quiet speak of lowered expectations of these rulers? Michela Wrong's new book, It's Our Turn To Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower, confronts the question of African corruption head on and finds there's plenty of blame to go around.

In early 2003, Wrong's friend John Githongo was tapped by incoming President Mwai Kibaki to be Kenya's new anti-corruption chief. Kibaki had been swept into office on a platform of fighting graft, and his appointment of Githongo, a former journalist and Transparency International worker, was supposed to indicate that he meant business. Reeling from the scandals of the Daniel arap Moi regime, Kenyans had finally had enough of the rampant corruption that permeated virtually every aspect of their lives -- a 2001 survey found that the average city-dwelling Kenyan shelled out 16 bribes per month.

Githongo excelled at his job; corruption decreased during his years as czar. Two years after his appointment, however, Githongo fled Kenya afraid for his life. On February 6, 2005, he surfaced at Wrong's London apartment bearing secretly taped recordings of Kibaki's ministers. These recordings, along with other evidence Githongo would eventually make public, suggested that top government officials, including Kibaki, took part in a $750 million procurement scam - a scam that would become known as Anglo Leasing.

It's Our Turn to Eat, released in the U.S. a few weeks ago, recounts Githongo's attempts at bringing the architects of Anglo Leasing to justice. But it's only partly a political thriller. At its core, It's Our Turn to Eat is an examination of Kenya's - and by extension, Africa's - corrupt culture. In unearthing the foundations of this culture, Wrong points directly to colonialism and tribalism. But her book also serves as a searing indictment of western aid donors and the World Bank, which Wrong accuses of being complicit in Africa's corruption for turning a blind eye to thieving regimes.

None of this is entirely new, but Wrong, who covered Africa for 15 years for Reuters, the BBC and the Financial Times, argues convincingly that the evils of colonialism entrenched tribal differences to such a degree that the "patterns being reproduced today" - thieving regimes out to take care of one group at the expensive of everyone else - "began in the Nineteenth Century."

When the British colonized Kenya, they established separate tribal reserves, with virtually no travel allowed between them. These instilled a belief that members of other tribes were foreigners -- a belief that became so ingrained that today, Wrong says, many Kenyans expect their president to take care of his tribe first and the country second. All of the alleged participants in Anglo Leasing were members of the Kikuyu and neighboring tribes. Githongo was also Kikuyu, which is why his fellow officials were in such disbelief when he went 'off the reservation.'

Like Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid, released earlier this year, It's Our Turn To Eat argues that aid fuels corruption in African nations by removing accountability between governments and citizens: a government less reliant on taxes thinks it owes less to its people. While Wrong, unlike Moyo, sees some value in systemic aid, Wrong paints a more vibrant portrait than Moyo does of the sicknesses in the aid relationship.

Wrong offers up-close-and-personal accounts of World Bank directors so cozy with Kibaki that they lived on his estate; of Britain's diplomat Sir Edward Clay, who resorted to mocking Kenya's corruption in public after his concerns were ignored by the Blair Administration; and of a meeting between Githongo and Britain's development ministry in which Githongo's "allegations" were dismissed with an attitude of "This is Africa; it's always been corrupt."

Wrong is particularly critical of the World Bank. She, like Moyo, describes the Bank as the center of a barely tameable "aid industry" in which half a million employees rely on aid for their salaries. This creates an almost unstoppable impetus to keep the money flowing - even in the face of blatant thievery. Incentive structures are also a problem. "No one gets Brownie points back at head office for closing down a program or putting a relationship with a client government on ice," Wrong writes, "even if this was, in fact, the most constructive course of action."

So if colonialism, tribalism and aid compose Wrong's foundations of African corruption, the top layer, of course, is the thieving governments themselves. Wrong is certainly unblinking in her criticism of the Kibaki regime, but she occasionally veers toward excusing the corruption by pointing so often to its historical roots. She addressed this in a recent interview with me for Guernica Magazine.

To understand is not to absolve," she said. "Colonialism played its part in laying corruption's foundations - the belief that 'everything is permitted because it's us against the world' - and donors hypocritically indulged it. But the level of corruption in countries like Kenya and Nigeria stands as a terrible indictment of African leadership since independence. The fact that some nations have gone down a different path shows that it is not necessary, or inevitable, for African countries to be this way.

There are many tragic moments in It's Our Turn To Eat, not least of which is the end. Wrong leaves her hero with his findings dismissed, his name disgraced (in some quarters), and his life still in danger -- yet most of the Anglo Leasing suspects remain in power, including Kibaki, who managed to steal the 2007 elections. But Wrong's book nevertheless is an essential case study of one African government's descent into corruption placed within the context of the historical factors that made it such an easy plunge to take. The real tragedy of It's Our Turn To Eat is that you're left knowing one more name has been added to the long list: Mwai Kibaki.

Comments

[muigwithania]

Fact Check: Get the facts right - "When the British colonized Kenya in the 1930s, they established separate tribal reserves, with virtually no travel allowed between them. These instilled a belief that members of other tribes were foreigners"
1.The british arrived in Kenya in 1885 not 1930
2.Tribal reserves were only created in central and eastern Kenya in 1953 at the height of the independence war.
3.African tribes have always been distinct in nature.The notion of foreigners did not come with colonialism. Kikuyus,Maasais etc were different culturally politically and socially.Some foreigners lived and traded near each other . Divisons and differences are not a creation of colonialism

[Jake Whitney - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi Muigwithania, thanks for your comments.
Regarding your first point: Yes, the British arrived in Kenya in the late 1800s, but the post was referring to when the British colony of Kenya came formally into being. However, that was not in the 1930s, as stated, but rather in 1920, so I appreciate you pointing that out. I've changed the post accordingly.
Respectfully, you're not entirely accurate on point number two. By 1938 there were 24 tribal reserves and the use of the pass system to control the movements of indigenous Kenyans dates back to even earlier than that.
You are correct on point three. As Wrong makes clear in her book, colonialism did not create tribal differences, but it did entrench them. This is a very important distinction and perhaps I could have made it clearer in the post. For more on this, please see my interview with Wrong in Guernica Magazine at www.guernicamag.com.
Thanks again for your comments,
JW

[muigwithania]

Hi Jake,

Thank you for correcting the points mentioned . The interview @Guernica was great too

On the tribal reserves you are right that they did exist,though they did not have the strict control of movement. Both my grandfathers grew up in Kenya during this time .I have listened to countless stories of his travels within Kenya (including travel to Ethiopia an independent African country)

If you check your historical facts you will find that before the emergency rule period Kenyans had free travel.Many Kenyans including Jomo Kenyatta even traveled unrestrictedly to Europe. Many Kenyans including liberation heros Gikonyo Kiano,Koinange even attended university in the United states . The Notion that colonialism restricted movement and interaction between communitiesis a creation of revisionist Historian( we have many in Kenya).

There seems to be a deliberate campaign by some to trivialize the nature of Ethnic nations in Kenya. The easy escapism used is to blame Older Kenyans,politicians or even the unjust old colonial system for creating distinct tribal/ethic identiities with different interests.But the truth and the facts are Kenya has never been one nation and Kenya will never be one nation.The most we can wish for is a kenyan state of many nations

Muigwithania

I

[Charles Njuguna]

First let's acknowledge the diversity of Sub-Saharan African, example only one country experienced apartheid SA, Swazi, Lesotho Namibia by extension. While Southern Africa suffers acutely from AIDS most of West-Africa is health...with Malaria challenges. Secondly Ghana is not the only stable country, off the top Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Senegal etc etc. so solutions have to be country specific, lets learn from countries that are doing things right in Africa Rwanda for example emerged from genocide to relative stability and prosperity...Third and most important; to my African brethren, no one can help us even if they wanted!!! we must start taking responsibility, leadership and ownership of our continent, that way friends of Africa can join us in our struggle not create solutions for us! In my country of origin Kenya, we slashed and burnt each other (07 elections) to restore corrupt leaders back to power...can we blame any outsider for that!

On the other hand, how come foreign Aid does not corrupt Israel? Lets stop conflating history; the money Bush gave to fight disease in Africa worked very well, monies given to the Mobutu's and Somalia in the cold war era was devastating, it was not meant to help Africans!

[Delaware22]

So let's change the reward system. Let's make it more profitable to all persons involved to be accountable for their actions rather than corrupt. If we know why and how the aid system is deficient, let's change it. It will take an Oprah-level world figure to spearhead this task and stay with it until the new system of accountability and transparency is in place and working; decades of committment. But what a legacy for the person able to accomplish this task...it would literally change the Continent of Africa.

[elaygee]

Time to move on. Get with the program Africa or get left in the dust again.

[stell]

LOL. You cannot be serious. The U.S. is an exhausted empire. The dollar will soon be in shambles. They will now fight the rest of the world with their military for the worlds remaining oil and other resources in places like Ghana. The mineral coltan in your cell phone is from Africa. Westernern multinationals are paying off African "dictators" and extracting the countries resources not so covertly by way of military and security forces. In a just world Africa would be the world financial center. But you can't have a planet full of black people act as the world financial center.

[stell]

All of those so-called African dictators couldn't hold a candle to Leopold, Ian Smith, Mussolini, Cecil Rhodes, genocide of the Namibians by the Germans, apartheid South Africa, France, Portugal, British Empire---who do you think these Africans learned from? And they still weren't as brutal. You have Hitler, Stalin, The British Raj, etc.

[Charles Njuguna]

Ok Stell what's ur point? we gonna revive the ghosts of the past to fix our current predicaments? or we should start acting when the crimes of our leaders equal the crimes of the Leopolds? At what point do we look in the mirror and acknowledge our role, and realize that solutions can only come from us!...do you hear France blame high unemployment on the German invasion?

[stell]

I know that there are hoardes of unemployed non-white French youth, much like in the U.S., it's not because of their pathology it's by design. My point is that the U.S. presently supports at least 11 dictatorships: Equatorial Guinea, Swaziland, Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Rwanda, Gabon, Egypt, and Tunisia.

Hypocrisy is the only true sin.

[stell]

My point was that when it comes to brutality all of those black African "leaders" don't measure up to their white counterparts.

[tnlcallen]

I think you missed the point of the story.

[WilliePilgrim]

So...a more "vibrant" picture is better than one that might actually be more accurate? I'm glad to see there is some exposure regarding the long history of corruption in Africa as it relates to their efforts to address their very real problems. Making the situation palateable to those from whom one is requesting continued assistance is natural, but actually getting down to the root problem of dependency on aid and the legacy of failure in Africa in particular with which it seems so unalterably and undeniably linked is the crux of the problem. Colonialism, tribalism, slavery, ignorance, apartheid, and disease conspire to thwart any effort, or so it would seem. Are there no really good ways to defeat them in such a way that Africans benefit across the board and achieve the same standards the entire world seeks?