Reflections on land of the brave, home of the great

Columnist Nicholas Sengoba’s opinion “Trump is the best thing that has happened to the US in a long time” published in Daily Monitor of August 22 brought many memories from the six years I lived in the USA.
My first visit to the US was in September 1973 to attend the 28th regular session of the UN General Assembly in New York. On arrival at New York’s JFK airport one felt, in comparison to Europe, that one had indeed landed in the “new world” where virtually everything was huge, including buildings, cars and people.
At six feet tall, I was a giant of the family and there are not many people taller than me in my county. One day, I took a walk along New York’s 2nd Avenue where the Uganda Mission to the UN was originally located and was amazed and disappointed to find that I was of average size at best, if not below average.
President Donald Trump is, in size, the quintessential American male. As Sengoba has argued, for those who don’t exactly admire the US, Trump is manna from heaven. I bet many are hoping that he gets a second term which would give the big man ample time to expose the unpleasant truth about the emperor who is, beneath the veneer, ugly and naked. It’s a tragedy which was bound to happen sooner or later.
At a personal level, I enjoyed my stay in the US and Canada, more in the land of the true North, aka Canada. I have more pleasant memories of both countries.
In New York, my next door neighbour at 10 Waterside Plaza in Manhattan was a married Mzungu dentist who had no children, but the couple had four dogs they loved and appeared prefer to kids. In America there is a popular saying that “a dog is man’s best friend”. My neighbour was a generous and friendly man who told me that he likes Africans, but not black Americans. When I asked why, he said that Africans are different from African-Americans, without offering any particulars. Over the years I discovered that his was not an isolated position, but one held by many White Americans. I believe it’s a function of ignorance and deep-seated prejudice.
In the summer of 1978, I drove in broad daylight from New York to Washington DC with three colleagues to visit friends in the US capital and what a pleasant ride it was. The wide six-lane highways are among the best anywhere in the world. Unlike today, I loved driving those days and while cruising on the Interstate 95 South, I saw a police patrol car racing at top speed with blaring sirens. Soon after the police vehicle passed me a police officer beckoned me to stop which I did.
Two burly and well-armed bazungu officers menacingly approached my car, a white custom-made Mercedes Benz saloon bearing diplomatic number plates. They checked the vehicle and one of the officers asked for my identity card, a credit card and driving license which I gave him. Both officers retreated to their car and asked me to wait. Almost an hour later, the officers returned my documents and both were quite friendly this time, after verifying my credentials and wished us a safe drive to Washington DC. We were stunned and tried in vain to make sense of the incident.
When I shared my experience with a friend who knew the USA better, he quipped that the police officers could have assumed that a Black guy driving a posh foreign car must be a drug dealer which I am of course not. Such negative mindset vis-a-vis Black folks is sadly common among bazungu Americans.
Prof Ali Mazrui (RIP) told me of an incident which occurred when he was at the prestigious University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He went shopping at a supermarket with his wife, Ms Molly Mazrui, who is a Mzungu. As they were leaving the store, a Mzungu security guard insisted on searching Mazrui as a suspect for shoplifting! Ali was disgusted and protested in vain until his wife intervened and told the guy to back off which he eventually did. Mazrui’s crime was that he was Black!

Racism is America’s original sin
Truth be told, racism is rampant and thriving in many parts of the US in the 21st Century. It’s revolting, shameful and unbecoming of a developed country whose national anthem proudly proclaims that USA is the “land of the free and home of the brave!” America also brags about being leader of the “free world!” The only country which has so far sent men to the moon has sunk so low in moral degradation down here on earth!
America’s racists and bigots are having a field day. They have come out of their hideouts encouraged by the belief that one of their own is in power and their man has vowed to make America great again by all means, including using racism which is America’s original sin.
Of the many atrocities America has committed against fellow human beings two stand out: the Atlantic slave trade and the unjustified dropping of two deadly nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. These acts are worse than crimes against humanity. They are grave sins against the Lord. USA must repent and publicly apologise to God and humankind; the sooner the better because before the divine throne of God there is equal justice.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist, consultant and a retired career diplomat. [email protected]