Africa, often commented on, sees the irony in American political violence

As they watched a violent crowd crash into the United States Capitol, some in Africa couldn’t help but see a bit of irony in the chaos instigated by President Donald Trump, who once called the nations African “bullshit”.

Others across the continent have offered Washington some advice on how to run a democracy – advice that has so often gone the other way.

“It’s time for the African Union to send peacekeepers to protect American citizens,” one Rwandan Twitter user joked.

“Imagine the headlines on RFI, France 24, CNN, VOA Africa, Reuters: four dead killed with live ammunition in the Capitol,” tweeted Gastonfils Lonzo, a doctoral student in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Lessongivers would already be sending investigators.”

But some in Africa, which has seen a wave of political crises over the past year, including a coup in Mali and many aging leaders trying to stay in power through constitutional deception, have seen something. at Trump who reminded them of the problems at home.

Franco-Burkinabe satirist and cartoonist Damien Glez compared Trump to former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, who refused to step down after losing the 2016 election.

“We often look like those we snub,” he said in an editorial on Jeune Afrique magazine’s website.

“What happened on Capitol Hill shows that Americans are finally recognizing the value of Africa and copying its post-election practices,” wrote a Twitter user in Madagascar.

“ American Dozos ”

Images of one of Trump’s supporters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday – a shirtless rioter wearing makeup and a horned animal fur hat – were particularly popular in West Africa.

Fahad Ag Almahmoud, the secretary general of a Malian armed group, tweeted that his pro-government militia “solemnly condemned the presence of dozos on Capitol Hill”.

Dozos are traditional Sahelian hunters who have been accused of myriads of abuse and wear outfits surprisingly similar to the rioter, even down to the talisman hanging from his neck.

“Our cousins ​​the American dozos did not remain on the sidelines of this historic event,” wrote a Twitter user in Burkina Faso.

In the West, the rioter – identified by US media as Jake Angeli, a prominent supporter of the far-right QAnon conspiracy – reminded many of Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay, who tweeted saying it wasn’t him.

‘The United States has no moral rights’

While European leaders were quick to condemn the shocking scenes in Washington, African heads of state were in no rush.

However, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa took the opportunity to call on the United States to lift sanctions imposed by Washington in 2002 for violations of the rights of former dictator Robert Mugabe.

“Yesterday’s events have shown that the United States has no moral right to punish another nation under the pretext of defending democracy,” Mnangagwa tweeted.

As the chaos unfolded, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide Bashir Ahmad simply tweeted “The beauty of democracy?”

Bienvenu Matumo of the pro-democracy movement Fight for Change (Lucha) in DR Congo told AFP that “we must stop saying that only Africans do not want democracy”.

“We have proof that the refusal to leave power after an electoral defeat is not only the prerogative of Africans.”

Floribert Anzuluni, the coordinator of the Congolese opposition movement Filimbi, agreed.

“What has happened reminds us that human nature, whatever its color or origin, needs guarantees – education, strong institutions, responsible leadership – to contain its basic instincts,” he said. .

Journalist Boubacar Sanso Barry wrote in the Guinean newspaper Le Djely that “we should break with all these hasty and somewhat racist judgments” of African countries.