Below we publish the open letter of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (86), an African literary giant from Kenya.
Dear William Ruto,
The images of your recent state visit to the United States were very disturbing to me and to all Kenyan patriots. I saw you sitting in a chair, smiling, while Biden stood behind you, his face radiating with satisfaction.
Why not? He had just announced that you had signed your beloved Kenya into a non-NATO ally. In other words, you agreed to become NATO‘s running boy in the U. S. fight against Russia and China for access to the continent‘s resources.
Ruto, did you know that NATO assassinated Muammar Gaddafi so that the Libyan oil fields, nationalized by Gaddafi, would return to the West? Gaddafi was previously president of the African Union, of which Kenya was a founding member.
But this other image was no less disturbing. While you were in the White House, Haitians were demonstrating in the streets and calling you a slave. Do you know the history of Haiti? Please read “The Black Jacobins“, the book written by CLR James, a former pan-African ally of Jomo Kenyatta.
Haiti, today a state of black people, was once a slave colony of France. But, led by Toussaint Louverture, Haiti, the wealthiest colony of its time, fought French slavery and gained its independence in 1804. In the United States, slavery was on the rise. America did not want its African slaves to imitate Haiti, and it never forgave Haiti for that, and so began the story of America‘s destabilization of Haiti.
“Ruto, do you see the irony of your actions? The United States was originally a colony of settlers seizing land belonging to Native Americans. In 1776, the white settlers declared their independence from their English king. But the colonized Indians remained colonized.
Kenya was also a British colony. The white settlers wanted a similar independence. But the Mau Mau, led by Dedan Kĩmathi, stopped them. Years later, Algeria, Rhodesia and South Africa would follow Kenya‘s example. Thus, the country you lead today was the first to put an end to the historical tendency of white settlers to claim their independence, as in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Ruto, you chose to betray that pride story.
Ruto, have you chosen to become an agent of the West?
Ruto, you chose to sell your country cheaply.
Why, oh why?
Atlanta, Georgia, May 28, 2024.
source: pcco.info