The Many-Headed Monster Of East-Africa's Populism

The Janus-Faced strategy employed by ruling elites in East Africa to cultivate anti-western and racist (anti-white) sentiments while at the same time courting compassionate conservatives has worked well for Museveni & Kagame for decades. On a daily basis an army of journalists and bloggers from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya (and Tanzania) unload their hatred for white westerners on twitter, in newspapers and on all sorts of blogs and east african news sites. Even some western journalists (in east-africa) buy in to this astonishingly superficial line of thinking. In this context we read Paul Kagame's press release yesterday after walking out of the UN great lakes summit over the weekend advocating for a regional solution to Congo's problems. The M23 rebellion popping up in the DRC is just one example of the many ugly faces of the many-headed monster of East African populism.