In Kilanga, the village where the Price family carries out their mission, public decisions are made not by majority vote, but by complete agreement. The chief meets and discusses with villagers until everyone is content with the decision. After the Congo gains independence from Belgium in June 1960, however, the villagers of Kilanga become enamored with elections and the democratic process. Soon, they are voting during a church service on whether they should follow Nathan Price and his Christian teachings, or voting in a tense village meeting on whether Leah, one of the Price daughters, will be allowed to participate in the village hunt. As democracy becomes the new fad in the village, divisions arise, tensions heighten, and what should have been a festive post-hunt gathering became a town fight, with elections springing up left and right over every minute conflict. Ultimately, the unity that kept the village together for ages dissolves, just as the rest of the Congo falls into discord.
Clearly, the democratic process did not work to the benefit of the villagers. Although democracy functions (for the most part) in Western nations, the idea of a simple majority rule serves to split apart villages and tribes in the Congo that rely on total unity to face extreme existential threats from nature and, well, their Western colonizers. Historically speaking, the election of Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister of the Congo in 1960 and the factional divisions that followed threw the fledgling nation into a spiral from which it has yet to escape.
The tendency of democracy and elections to incite division in the Congo draws parallels to today's political environment in the United States. Today's Congress finds itself so paralyzed by partisanship and obstructionism that barely anything can get passed, and nothing of substance, it seems. The American population is deeply divided, and between liberals and Tea Party-ers there seems to be little common ground. Whichever way the midterm elections go, the only certainty is that a large sect of the population will be discontented, and tensions will rise. Bipartisan compromise has given way to stubborn ideology, reasonable dialogue to hateful attacks. In fact, Tata Kuvudundu's (Kilanga's medicine man) ad hominem attacks on Anatole, a friend of Leah's, resembles starkly the political attack ads of today.
Yesterday, Jim Kennedy, a former spokesman for democrats such as Bill Clinton and Al Gore, wrote in The Huffington Post an imagined speech by President Obama called "Give Bipartisanship a Chance." In it, "Obama" calls for a cease-fire on attacks from both the Democrats and Republicans, a "unity of purpose" to "redeem [the American people's] trust in us." Kennedy acknowledges that partisanship and political games are an integral part of the enfranchisement and decision-making process of Americans, but also that these very games, when taken to today's extreme, are detrimental to the nation. Some, like Paul Krugman, argue that Obama and the democrats have attempted bipartisanship in the past, but that the Republicans are undyingly obstructionist. Although there is some truth to that, the fact is that only with compromise and mutual understanding can the United States face the myriad issues of today.
The Poisonwood Bible, in narrating the disintegration of Kilanga, offers a powerful literary example of why simple majorities do not always fit the bill. Our politicians would be wise to listen and learn.
It's also interesting to draw a parallel between the way Congo's emergence into a western sense of "modernity" brought the corruption of their usually democratic system. Back in the 50s and 60s, compromise and cooperation lead to the passage of major legislation like LBJ's Great Society, but as time has worn on into the age of modern media, this system has become fragmented and perhaps inefficient.
ReplyDeleteSometimes simplicity is the key to functioning government.