DoYouEverWonder
06-09-2009, 05:57 AM
June 9. 2009
When the former Albert Bernard Bongo died of an unspecified form of cancer in the Spanish city of Barcelona yesterday, at 73 years old, he left behind a father-in-law and another continental African strongman who, at 65, could easily be taken for the younger brother of the Gabonese leader or even his nephew. I, personally, have several uncles who barely missed being my elder siblings by a handful of years. He also does not seem to have used his country's rich and vast oil resources for the development of Gabon's health system, and thus his final curative journey to Spain.
Interestingly, the foregoing was not what most of the global media found to have been most remarkable about Mr. Bongo who, perhaps, motivated by his country's striking petrochemical semblance with the Arabo-Gulf States, converted to Islam and became known as El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba.
Instead, the global media, apparently fascinated by the easy way out, described the recently deceased Gabonese leader as having become the longest-reigning non-monarchical ruler after Cuban strongman Fidel Castro. The stark fact remains, though, that both Messrs. Castro and Bongo are de facto monarchs in the practical sense of the term. Thus when the Cuban leader was forced to stand down last year, from the post that he had held for nearly a half-century, due to his fast-failing health, it was Mr. Castro's younger brother, Raoul Castro, who was promptly named as his successor. And in the quite predictable case of Mr. Bongo, rumors started circulating long before his lifeless body had experienced the onset of rigor mortis, that the substantive Gabonese defense minister, Ali-Ben Bongo, 50, who also happens to be the son of the deceased, “is being maneuvered to take over,” claimed Gabonese opposition politicians (See “Gabon Leader Omar Bongo 'is dead'” BBC-News 6/7/09).
At the time of his death, President Bongo, who had visionlessly allowed the once vital agricultural sector of the Gabonese economy to literally go down the drain, as a result of his country's oil boom, was, reportedly, one of several African leaders being investigated by the French government for squirreling millions of hard currency notes belonging to their peoples abroad for personal use. Among the leaders so accused are Mr. Blaise Campaore, of Burkina Faso (Is there any wonder, then, that some Ghanaians are vehemently calling for our own Togbui Agbotui to be investigated by governments from anywhere between Switzerland and the United States?), Mr. Dennis Sassou-Nguesso, of Congo-Brazzaville, and Mr. Eduardo dos Santos, of Angola.
The aforesaid investigations, we are told, were originally sparked by complaints lodged by the France-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Survie and Sherpa, to the effect that the foregoing African leaders, and there may yet be others, have illegally used public funds to build themselves lavish mansions and villas, among other properties, in territories owned and controlled by the former colonial mistress of Francophone Africa.
In the era of “global 'villageization'” and “global accountability,” such constructive gesture can only be deemed laudable, rather than being cynically and preposterously derided and characterized as another neocolonialist ploy aimed at perpetually putting Africans in their place.
Years ago, as I vividly recall, while working as a freelance journalist with the New York Amsterdam News, I passed up an opportunity (at the time, I doubted this much) to meet with and interview a daughter of Mr. Bongo, Ms. Pescaline Mferri Bongo-Ondimba, 53, then-Gabonese foreign minister, who was attending a United Nations conference, here in New York City, as a diplomatic representative and cabinet member of her father's government.
I simply found the assignment to be rather bizarre, embarrassing and almost too demeaning for my taste. It could hardly be that Ms. Bongo achieved her prominent status by dint of self-motivation and diligence, I had thought to myself and promptly dismissed any thought of her from my mind.
Anyway, among the slew of allegations leveled against the late Gabonese leader was that Mr. Bongo had, supposedly, forked up about $ 9 million to Jack Abramoff, the renowned Washington lobbyist, in order for the latter to arrange a meeting in the Oval Office (White House) between President George W. Bush and the Gabonese chieftain, although no official proof or evidence to the preceding effect has, to-date, come to light.
Then in 1990, four years after splitting with his wife of some 27 years, the former Ms. Patience Dabany, the globally-renowned musician, Mr. Bongo married the 26-year-old daughter of Congolese president Dennis Sassou-Nguesso. The father of the bride was 47, while his son-in-law was 55 years old. Keen observers of the fortunes of the Bongo family claim that it was, indeed, the untimely death of his 45-year-old wife, the former Ms. Edith Lucie Sassou-Nguesso, in a Moroccan hospital, for an officially undisclosed illness in March this year that hastened the decline in the health of the fast-aging Mr. Bongo.
And so in a quite plausible sense, while he may have died of cancer, nonetheless, President Omar Bongo may well have also hastened his own death by having conjugally distorted the traditional genealogical tree in the curious name of love and friendship.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is the author of 20 books, including “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@aol.com
Source: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
http://www.modernghana.com/news/220781/1/nobody-mourns-the-dead-president.html
When the former Albert Bernard Bongo died of an unspecified form of cancer in the Spanish city of Barcelona yesterday, at 73 years old, he left behind a father-in-law and another continental African strongman who, at 65, could easily be taken for the younger brother of the Gabonese leader or even his nephew. I, personally, have several uncles who barely missed being my elder siblings by a handful of years. He also does not seem to have used his country's rich and vast oil resources for the development of Gabon's health system, and thus his final curative journey to Spain.
Interestingly, the foregoing was not what most of the global media found to have been most remarkable about Mr. Bongo who, perhaps, motivated by his country's striking petrochemical semblance with the Arabo-Gulf States, converted to Islam and became known as El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba.
Instead, the global media, apparently fascinated by the easy way out, described the recently deceased Gabonese leader as having become the longest-reigning non-monarchical ruler after Cuban strongman Fidel Castro. The stark fact remains, though, that both Messrs. Castro and Bongo are de facto monarchs in the practical sense of the term. Thus when the Cuban leader was forced to stand down last year, from the post that he had held for nearly a half-century, due to his fast-failing health, it was Mr. Castro's younger brother, Raoul Castro, who was promptly named as his successor. And in the quite predictable case of Mr. Bongo, rumors started circulating long before his lifeless body had experienced the onset of rigor mortis, that the substantive Gabonese defense minister, Ali-Ben Bongo, 50, who also happens to be the son of the deceased, “is being maneuvered to take over,” claimed Gabonese opposition politicians (See “Gabon Leader Omar Bongo 'is dead'” BBC-News 6/7/09).
At the time of his death, President Bongo, who had visionlessly allowed the once vital agricultural sector of the Gabonese economy to literally go down the drain, as a result of his country's oil boom, was, reportedly, one of several African leaders being investigated by the French government for squirreling millions of hard currency notes belonging to their peoples abroad for personal use. Among the leaders so accused are Mr. Blaise Campaore, of Burkina Faso (Is there any wonder, then, that some Ghanaians are vehemently calling for our own Togbui Agbotui to be investigated by governments from anywhere between Switzerland and the United States?), Mr. Dennis Sassou-Nguesso, of Congo-Brazzaville, and Mr. Eduardo dos Santos, of Angola.
The aforesaid investigations, we are told, were originally sparked by complaints lodged by the France-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Survie and Sherpa, to the effect that the foregoing African leaders, and there may yet be others, have illegally used public funds to build themselves lavish mansions and villas, among other properties, in territories owned and controlled by the former colonial mistress of Francophone Africa.
In the era of “global 'villageization'” and “global accountability,” such constructive gesture can only be deemed laudable, rather than being cynically and preposterously derided and characterized as another neocolonialist ploy aimed at perpetually putting Africans in their place.
Years ago, as I vividly recall, while working as a freelance journalist with the New York Amsterdam News, I passed up an opportunity (at the time, I doubted this much) to meet with and interview a daughter of Mr. Bongo, Ms. Pescaline Mferri Bongo-Ondimba, 53, then-Gabonese foreign minister, who was attending a United Nations conference, here in New York City, as a diplomatic representative and cabinet member of her father's government.
I simply found the assignment to be rather bizarre, embarrassing and almost too demeaning for my taste. It could hardly be that Ms. Bongo achieved her prominent status by dint of self-motivation and diligence, I had thought to myself and promptly dismissed any thought of her from my mind.
Anyway, among the slew of allegations leveled against the late Gabonese leader was that Mr. Bongo had, supposedly, forked up about $ 9 million to Jack Abramoff, the renowned Washington lobbyist, in order for the latter to arrange a meeting in the Oval Office (White House) between President George W. Bush and the Gabonese chieftain, although no official proof or evidence to the preceding effect has, to-date, come to light.
Then in 1990, four years after splitting with his wife of some 27 years, the former Ms. Patience Dabany, the globally-renowned musician, Mr. Bongo married the 26-year-old daughter of Congolese president Dennis Sassou-Nguesso. The father of the bride was 47, while his son-in-law was 55 years old. Keen observers of the fortunes of the Bongo family claim that it was, indeed, the untimely death of his 45-year-old wife, the former Ms. Edith Lucie Sassou-Nguesso, in a Moroccan hospital, for an officially undisclosed illness in March this year that hastened the decline in the health of the fast-aging Mr. Bongo.
And so in a quite plausible sense, while he may have died of cancer, nonetheless, President Omar Bongo may well have also hastened his own death by having conjugally distorted the traditional genealogical tree in the curious name of love and friendship.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is the author of 20 books, including “Dr. J. B. Danquah: Architect of Modern Ghana” (iUniverse.com, 2005). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@aol.com
Source: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
http://www.modernghana.com/news/220781/1/nobody-mourns-the-dead-president.html