What does Julius Malema mean to Africa?
Julius Malema turned 40 this week on the 3rd of March, many Africans have watched his political journey with great interest and with divided views. Part of Julius Malema’s notoriety on the African continent has merely been a factor of the South African media landscape. The South African political moment is well documented by the robust media landscape and the dedicated parliamentary platforms. The other part of his notoriety has purely been a factor of his political talents and his strategic choices over the years. With or without the amount of media coverage something tells me that Julius’s speeches would still have gone viral “rubbish is what is inside your pants”, “withdraw delela” and several other moments have simply got all the ingredients for a tik tok and YouTube generation.
Many on the continent have either followed his story out of genuine interest in politics or out of curiosity about how it will end, his personal journey has been full of the elements that make a successful reality show, there has been drama, there has been betrayal, there have been allegations of corruption and there has been a never-ending stream of classical political moments delivered by Julius himself. Very few people have the grasp of political comedy and public speaking that Julius Malema has. Whatever their reasons, few can deny that he one of the most followed political figures on the African continent.
As leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema has been able to demonstrate what leadership of a modern African political party looks like.How have Julius Malema and the EFF achieved this.
Branding
The first element of any successful venture be it Apple computers, Bauer or BMW is branding. The EFF has been able to create a distinctive brand and iconic wardrobe. The effect of the red berets in the African political landscape is visible, they have multiplied across the continent with political parties like Chadema of Tanzania adopting them, in Uganda Bobi Wine and his People Power movement have also donned the red beret as a symbol of his fighting spirit.
Unity
Aside from branding the EFF has been able to remain united over the 8 years since its founding. There are critical lessons to be learnt from this journey, as a startup in any venture the first five years are notoriously difficult, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe had split into two by the time the 2008 elections occurred, after only having been formed in 2000. It split further over the years and only consolidated under one umbrella in 2018 as the MDC Alliance. The EFF was able to do this by establishing a clear chain of command and removing factionalist politics from its structures. They have also given a platform for young politicians to rise to prominence in the South African political landscape. When Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu were kicked out of the African National Congress youth league (ANCYL) they were known political entities. Fast forwarding to the present moment the EFF has developed young leaders and given them national prominence, names like Naledi Chirwa, Vuyani Pambo, Sixo Gcilishe, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi have become household names. The ANC has not been able to give platform and responsibility to an equivalent or comparable number of fresh political faces.
Ideological offer
Continentally Julius Malema has been able to give a comprehensive ideological offer to the youth of Africa. The youth perspective on African politics will become the dominant perspective on African politics in the short to medium term, because young people do not stay young forever.
We often think that the youth of Africa don’t matter, and youth political issues are secondary, this is simply because the institutions are controlled by an older generation of former liberation movement leaders. However, Africa is a young continent, and the median age is 19.7. This means that whoever is able to capture that audience has a lot of sway on the ground level and grassroots level. The EFF has been able to present a comprehensive ideological offer. They have done the work of educating their audience on their Marxist, Fanonian socialism. They have additionally tried to extend the contemporary discussion on pan Africanism especially with respect to movement of people and trade. I do not agree with a lot of the theoretical frameworks that are preferred by the EFF, however I cannot ignore that they have done this work.
Other prominent politicians in the same age bracket as Julius Malema have either failed to present a comprehensive ideology to the continent or are not willing to do so. Bobi Wine as much as he is a great champion for democracy and term limits often fails to articulate his ideological worldview and his foreign policy positions. Nelson Chamisa of Zimbabwe also does not provide a complete and coherent ideological posture in terms of his domestic and international policy. Abiy Ahmed has attempted to provide a theoretical and ideological framework for Ethiopia but he has not been able to articulate a similar framework for the continent. His credibility has been tarnished as he has been waging war with the northern Ethiopian province of Tigray (to find out more on this conflict visit the Jozi to Lagos podcast). Julius has been able to outdo his peers in this respect and it’s not a trivial thing. Ideology matters.
The youth of Africa are experiencing violence, poverty and exclusion from the rewards of the continent, they are looking for leaders who can explain why this is still the case after these countries attained independence and what solutions exist to remove the endemic poverty that has actually increased in Africa since 1990. They are looking for ideology and solutions not just personalities.
My thoughts on the EFF ideological position
Personally I disagree with the EFF on the socialist model as being the correct developmental model for Africa. I am of the view that the German social market economy is the best model for Africa to adopt, I would tweak that model to include African values of ubuntu and harambe but I would not go full scale on socialism (If you want to hear more about that you can listen to my podcast Jozi to Lagos, I explore that question quite comprehensively)
I do not agree with Julius Malema specifically on the issue of Mugabe and the Mugabe model. I view Mugabe as having been an undemocratic leader — he preferred one party systems of governance as opposed to multi party systems of governance. I view Mugabe as having been a brutal authoritarian willing to kill his own people to stay in power, this is what he did during the Gukurahundi in the 1980s where over 20 000 civilians were killed in Matebeland province, many more died of starvation because the government did not provide food relief to areas adversely affected by drought. Mugabe used the structures of the state to oppress and suppress for the duration of his leadership of 37 years and the outcome of that is a failed state. I disagree strongly with anyone who positions him as an African giant and icon.
My disagreement with Julius Malema and the EFF on policy and on people such as Mugabe does not blind me from making an objective assessment of their impact on the continental political discourse. They have articulated their position clearly and it is the prevalent ideological offer on the continent. It does seem as if Julius Malema has become the leading continental voice in issues of politics and pan Africanism. The EFF impact has been such that the EFF has been able to expand their footprint beyond the confines of South Africa, to Zimbabwe, to Namibia and even further. Some of these projects are viable and others are less viable due to the nature of African politics but the EFF is the only party that has been able to accomplish this in recent years.
It is therefore clear that Julius Malema chosen and has partly filled in the shoes of fallen African figures such as Robert Mugabe and Muamar Gaddafi. This is what he represents to the continent and more specifically the youth.
Global relations
The question that remains to be determined is whether or not this is a good thing. The West has shown that they are willing to work and interact with Bobi Wine, this is partly because while he has adopted the costume of Julius Malema, he has not adopted his worldview which is very critical of former colonial powers and of the USA. The West has also shown that they are not prepared to have global racial discussions, these issues are still being ironed out in their domestic spaces. Many of the issues that are being raised by Black Lives Matter and other movements become amplified when looking at them from the view of foreign affairs. For instance, if African Americans deserve reparations, then what does Africa deserve for the impact of slavery, colonialism and other grave infractions. Will the West be willing to embrace a leader who will continue the criticism that was a constant feature of Mugabe and Gaddafi diatribes. America might love Trevor Noah but Julius Malema is no Trevor Noah.
China has often been referenced by the EFF in discussion of their economic model, however it is unclear if they would be willing to embrace and cultivate relationships with Julius Malema as a continental leader. I am on record saying that while I would love the Chinese economic success story I would not love living in an Africa where there is constant surveillance and a erasure of my freedoms of speech and thought. China is also the new colonial power in Africa, taking control of the region through debt trap diplomacy, it is unclear whether they worry that Julius Malema will one day challenge them on all their activities which have many times kept illiberal African dictators in power.
Why does the global response matter? It matters because Africa is not isolated and cannot be isolated from the world, because the West and East still have massive impact on the trade, economies and politics of the African political moment. A consideration of them has to be made in a consideration of what Julius means to the continent. If for instance Twitter decides that Julius is like Donald Trump and that he is a hateful populist, they could ban him from the platform and the EFF. These are questions worth considering.
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