Nehrus of africa

On Indian independence day, we remember our founding fathers. These founding fathers, Gandhi and later Nehru influenced a host of leaders across the world to pursue independence for their countries. However, unlike Gandhi and Nehru many of these subsequently became hugely unpopular among their countrymen and some had fatal outcomes too. The following could be called Nehrus of Africa:
Tanzania: Julius Nyerere
Kenya: Jomo Kenyatta
Malawi: Hastings Banda
Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe
Zambia: Kenneth Kaunda
Botswana:
Seretse Khama
and ofcourse,
South Africa: Nelson Mandela
Ohh! I forgot an important one:
Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah

Comments

A really nice informative post. Apart from Mugabe, Kauda and Mandela had never heard of the others. Though I would beg to differ in accepting the 'opportunist' Nehru as the founding father of our nation.
Rohit said…
well anirban,
I know the ambiguous place nehru occupies in the indian history ... he had his faults ... may be too many! Gandhi on the other hand is more accepted although not universally. That is the reason why I've chosed to call this post "Nehrus of africa" and not "Gandhi's of africa" because Gandhi was so difficult to emulate and too impractical to be a head of the government. You see ... you have to have quite a bit of opportunism and cunning to be a head of a state!
Rohit,
Well I do agree with you. Calling the post 'Nehrus of Africa' is surely more appropriate than calling it 'Gandhis of Africa'. Any way do carry on with your posts. They are a treat to read.

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