By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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I suspect there will be another reason tonight why US President Donald Trump will be wishing he was an African president. Of course you know about having virtually unbridled power to abuse as he wishes, and other factors that make our presidents untouchable.

But this is a different one, and it is about that relationship between Africans and books. There is something pathological about the way Africans relate to books that would have comforted Trump these past two days.

Two people so closely related to the Potus (president of the United States) have announced imminent releases of books that have been hailed as nothing short of catastrophic for the man seeking re-election this November.

One book is by John Bolton, Trump’s sacked security adviser, who has written a book to basically show that his former boss is so consumed by his own self, and especially by his re-election that for him nothing else matters. The Room Where It Happened has been heralded as a damning commentary by a man who was thought to be the grey matter of Trump’s foreign security thinking and action.

But the second is from closer to home, written by the president’s own niece, daughter of Donald’s own elder brother, Fred, who died young from alcoholism. The book, titled Too Much, and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, will also be out in early Summer, and is certain to create waves as Americans edge toward perhaps the most important political contest in decades.

Since I have not read the two books, and consequently cannot attempt an in-depth appreciation of either, all I am enabled to state right now is that I envy the American reading public as well as those who can access books immediately they are published. It is a privilege reserved only for the most fortunate in our midst, and what irks me even more is the fact that we do not seem to think there is something amiss with this intellectual deficit.

My argument has always been that as long as we fail to close down that deficit there is no way we can even hope to do away with the other deficits that cripple our ability to compete in the world.

Hand in hand with that reality is the fact that people like Bolton and Mary Trump have the leeway, when they are really pissed off, to come out and share with the public what they know about the man they have known intimately and against whom they think the public should be warned.

They both may have an axe to grind, and why not? Bolton was sacked because his jingoism and Trump’s jingoism could not live in the same stable, and it is really interesting that Bolton, who anecdotally was said to be always looking for a potential target to ‘nuke up,’ could think that Trump was too bellicose in his foreign policy. People will also take him on concerning his reticence during the Democrats’ impeachment of Trump, suggesting wooliness and double standards.

The niece might also be accused of wanting to settle family scores going back to her father’s sorry ending and possible bickering over inheritances and other legacies. Trump’s signature cavalier style could hardly be expected to endear him to too many up-close people, meaning to like him one has to impose extreme forms of social distancing.

WITH CAUTION

However, the closeness that Bolton and Mary Trump had with their subject affords them that intimacy that can, used with caution and probity, provide the world with valuable intelligence on those whose fate has thrown to the fore of public national and international affairs. Thus, if there is a sensitive reduction of illiteracy among Trump voters caused by the combined power of these two books and Covid-19, it may have spared right-thinking Americans another four years of painful embarrassment caused by a man who seems to sincerely believe he is more important than his country.

But that wouldn’t work for us.

In our societies, a niece who goes public to denounce a greedy, but rich, uncle will be castigated as un-African, and blamed for not seizing the opportunity to make a fortune on the back of her uncle’s power.

As for the official who is sacked and goes out to squeal on his president, he will go to prison, or he will drive very badly on the roads.

And, in both cases, if they write books, there will simply be no readers.

Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]