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In Africa, where the exercise of political power is often sprinkled with a kind of mysticism, it’ s not surprising to see citizens thinking that any power coming from God- even the dictatorship imposed on them by self-important men- would be validated by God, would be validated by God, and consequently it would be an offence to God to question the chaotic management of Cameroon by someone like Paul Biya, who for over 40 years has led the country into the abyss of systemic underdevelopment, and who, horror of riches, at 93 years of age, is a candidate for his own succession. In ancient Rome, the emperor was deified. In Fascist Italy, Mussolini called himself Il Duce, the guide. In North Korea, Kim Jong-un is not a president: he’ s an almost mystical being, whose official biography claims he learned to drive at the age of 3 and wrote 1,500 books. In Africa, this sacralization has taken similar forms:- In Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang is described in official propaganda as“ a God on earth”.- In Côte d’ Ivoire, under Houphouët-Boigny, it was forbidden to mention the president’ s illness- as if acknowledging his mortality were an insult to the nation. This neutralized any opposition as political blasphemy. Moreover, education is the engine of mass manipulation, a factory for manufacturing obedient citizens.
Flashmag! Edition 163 Aout 2025
School emptied, youth asleep: education as a tool for demobilization
This strategy is as old as the hills. Stalin rewrote school textbooks. Hitler used cinema and radio to anchor Aryan superiority in people’ s minds. In Africa, it’ s community radio, national holidays, school slogans and“ support marches” that ensure the fusion of political power with popular memory.
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