The Cheetah Generation refers to the new and angry generation of young African graduates and professionals, who look at African issues and problems from a totally different and unique perspective. They are dynamic, intellectually agile, and pragmatic. They may be the ‘restless generation’ but they are Africa’s new hope. They brook no nonsense about corruption, inefficiency, ineptitude, incompetence, or buffoonery. They understand and stress transparency, accountability, human rights, and good governance. They also know that many of their current leaders are hopelessly corrupt and that their governments are contumaciously dysfunctional and commit flagitious human rights violations. The Cheetahs do not look for excuses for government failure by wailing over the legacies of the slave trade, Western colonialism, imperialism, the World Bank or an unjust international economic system. To the Cheetahs, this ‘colonialism-imperialism’ paradigm, in which every African problem is analyzed, is obsolete and kaput. Unencumbered by the old shibboleths, Cheetahs can analyze issues with remarkable clarity and objectivity. The outlook and perspectives of the Cheetahs are refreshingly different from those of many African leaders, intellectuals, or elites, whose mental faculties are so foggy and their reasoning or logic so befuddled that they cannot distinguish between right and wrong. They blame everybody else for Africa’s problems except themselves.
The youth are the most dynamic segment in any society. Two of history’s evil men understood the importance of controlling and “owning” youth. Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the totalitarian Soviet state promised, “Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.” His counterpart in the Third Reich proclaimed, “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” Both used their nations’ youths as cannon fodder to realize their warped vision of world domination. For the past decade, Ethiopia’s dictators have sought to buy the loyalty and allegiance of the country’s best and brightest. Most of the country’s university graduates have been held hostage to dictator Meles Zenawi’s corrupt neopatrimonial system. Zenawi has used various means to recruit, control, politicize and depoliticize the country’s youth. He has made economic survival impossible for the youth of the country except through membership in a syndicate palmed off as a political party.
Now is the Time for Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation to Lead the Way to National Reconciliation
It is now time for Ethiopia’s cheetahs to take a leading role in the national dialogue to transition Ethiopia from dictatorship to democracy. Such a prescriptive declaration might be surprising to some coming from a card-carrying member of the “Loyal Order of African (Ethiopian) Hippos”. But over the years, I have learned to appreciate the sacrifices of Ethiopia’s cheetahs and have been awed by their transformative potential. In numerous weekly commentaries, I have despaired over their plight under Zenawi’s dictatorship but nevertheless insisted that they must be the tip of the spear in bringing about democratic change in Ethiopia. In June 2010,
I reflected over what could happen if the rage bottled up in Ethiopia’s youth suddenly exploded:
The dialogue on national reconciliation in Ethiopia must begin within Ethiopia’s youth communities. Ethiopia’s cheetah’s must empower themselves, create their own political and social space, set their own agendas and begin multifaceted dialogues on their country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. They must develop their own awareness campaigns and facilitate vital conversations among youth communities cutting across language, religion, ethnicity region and so on. Their dialogues must be based on the principles of openness, truth and commitment to democracy, freedom and human rights. They must dialogue without fear or loathing. Above all, the cheetahs must “own” the dialogue process. At a gathering of cheetahs, hippos should be seen and not heard; tolerated but not involved. The cheetahs must keep a sharp eye on the hippos who are very skillful in political intrigues and expert at finding ways of getting involved to take over and manipulate the youth.
Many societies face generational gaps as the youth rebel against tradition and societal norms. In Ethiopia today, there are two different generations. The cheetah generation wants freedom, human rights and democracy now. The hippo generation wallows in a mucky swamp of corruption, nepotism, cronyism, criminality and inhumanity. The cheetah generation wants to drain the swamp. The hippo generation is hopelessly trapped in the bog of ethnic politics and revenge politics.
