Letter: South Africa can perhaps now reinvent its more traditional and consensual ways

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, centre, arrives at the National Results Operations Center during the announcement of the results in South Africa's general elections, in Johannesburg. Majority rule was a huge, horrible mistake in the country. It also provoked tribalism (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Maybe the ANC’s loss of a majority in the South African election is good news.

After all, “majority rule [is] a foreign notion,” (Nelson Mandela). When we Europeans first landed in Africa, we called them ‘black’ but they referred to us as ‘wazungu’ – wanderers – from the verb ‘kuzungu’ – to wander. And if you wander too much – ‘kuzunguzungu’ – you may lose yourselves, get giddy, grow impatient or even go crazy.

Traditionally, Africans met “under the tree” (Julius Nyerere) – i.e., 'on the grass' (gacaca, the Kinyarwanda word) – and debated until a consensus was achieved. But the European wazungu were impatient; come on, they said, make a decision, take a majority vote. And Europe imposed majority rule, even on Rwanda; it was (not the but) a cause of the 1994 genocide, which started with the Interahamwe’s slogan, “Rubanda nyamwinshi,” 'we are the majority.’

Letters to editor

So for Africa, majority rule was a huge, horrible mistake: it also provoked tribalism in Kenya, for example, Nilotic versus Bantu, Luo versus Kikuyu, Oginga Odinga versus Kenyatta. In a word, “asking yes-or-no questions is very unAfrican,” (Ephrem Kanyarukiga – a Rwandan senator), but such questions everywhere are often very silly... like Brexit: “EU, yes or no?”

Furthermore, in times of existential crises – e.g., Britain in World War II – some countries resort to all-party coalitions. Today, climate change is a crisis. The nations of the world try to cooperate, sometimes, as in their recent UN COP conferences in Glasgow and Dubai, where they endeavour not to use majority voting. Should not political parties within nations also cooperate? Should all-party power-sharing be the norm? After all, it works quite well in Switzerland; it was introduced there in 1959.

And maybe South Africa can now reinvent its more traditional and consensual ways, not least by using one of wazungu's computerised multi-option voting procedures; interestingly enough, I hear Switzerland has started to experiment with preferential decision-making.

Peter Emerson, (A Swahili speaker who travelled extensively in Africa in the 1970s), Director, the de Borda Institute, Belfast BT14