On social networks, Internet users from the continent had a fantastic time ahead of the ups and downs of the US presidential election, which they compared to African situations. Role reversal, funny comments, imagination were in power before Joe Biden’s victory was announced.
For many African internet users, humor prevailed in the face of a chaotic situation reminiscent of certain African election processes: an outgoing president who declares himself a winner before the end of the count and then refuses to accept his defeat, while long tense days preceded the announcement of results. “Omar Trump Bongo is holding on to power as a true African dictator,” we read on Facebook.
What happens if Africa sent observation missions to the United States? Or even better, an interpositional force led by the army against the sea (sic) in Chad, a landlocked country? This is what a Senegalese internet user maliciously thought before the results were announced.
Highly acclaimed democratic victory
Joe Biden’s victory was greeted with zeal. The author Alain Mabanckou thus hopes to change “the laughable image that the country has shown over the past four years”. Congolese journalist Chris Elongo Selemani, for his part, is pleased with “the inauguration of an extraordinary career: Kamala Harris, former prosecutor and daughter of immigrants, goes down in history as the first woman to become Vice President of the United States. allowed the dynamic and nasty California senator Joe Biden, 77, to get votes from a more versatile voter who was thirsty to be better represented in power, so much so that some voters said they did not vote for Mr. Biden but for her, daughter to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. “
A warning came from Abdou Ndukur Ndao, a Senegalese socio-anthropologist: “Let us not forget that this remains an American president for the Americans. It will not make us happy. At the moment we are going into ecstasy, Ethiopia is bombing Tigray, Alpha Condé is marching against squads, the ADO is crushing its resistance, the Sahel countries are bloodless, Cameroon is torn apart, fracture lines are everywhere and our sons are taking the sea and the desert. May God protect Africa, which is once again becoming a field of American projection. “
Reversals of the situation
During those waiting days, many enjoy a turn and stare. Kenyan cartoonist and journalist Patrick Gathara laughed on his Twitter account: “As officials in a crisis-ravaged America struggle to count the votes for Day 4, African countries have offered to send maths teachers’ contingents to speed up the process and build capacity in what Many on the continent hope it will become the world’s newest democracy. ”
Ghanaian journalist Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, for his part, spoke about the American election by imitating the tone of Western media in Africa. “The American tribes go to the polls in uncertainty,” he announced with the image of a homeless man wrapped in a blanket in the colors of the American flag before continuing: “Two elders of white tribes contest the leadership of this former British colony ravaged by Covid and a large wheat exporter. (…) Due to levels of illiteracy, candidates are represented by animals on ballots, the elephant for the Republicans and the brave donkey for Democrats.More than 230,000 people have died from Covid, more than in any other country in the world, which has led to endemic poverty and unemployment that has not been seen in this great country for a century. “
Tease around Paula White
Videos showing a fiery sermon by Paula White, an evangelical pastor and Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser, have gone viral in Africa – linking back to all rumors that heads of state are using occult forces. Paula White is heard shouting calls to all angels, including Africa, to work for her client’s victory. A Senegalese from Antwerp, Belgium, laughs at it: “She forgot who called an entire continent a ‘shit country’, so I’m afraid the voodoo names she randomly shouts will remain in the background. The house.” A Ghanaian mockery of the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory: “So Donald Trump was no longer than his 214 voters? 56 African angels have been deployed to shake up the numbers.”
Trump apologist and abuser
On Facebook, a Malian is full of praise for the Republican candidate and explains to anyone who wants to hear him that Trump is a “big man.” The reason? “Trump is the love of the motherland. He fought against homosexuals and abortion and did not take part in any war, unlike Obama in Libya. “His post strikes a chord, that of admiration for strong men, a trend that was already heavy before Trump’s 2016 election.
Since Libreville, the Gabonese sociologist Joseph Tonda sees in Trump rather the tough figure of “wild capitalism”. Because these partisans are rural, the outgoing president “symbolizes the brutal power of the American dream exploited by the populist (…). He expresses his racism by supporting white supremacists, and because he has a peasant spirit, he hates intellectuals and does not believe what they say about Covid-19 ”. In South Africa, interest was finally quite focused on Joe Biden. It is an old video that shows him young and very angry with the apartheid regime, which he describes as “disgusting”, which made the buzz.
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