Jesse Jackson: His Relevance To Africa
by Dr. A. B. Assensoh
A.B. Assensoh, a post-doctoral research student of the School of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, England, was in the United States to collect research material for a thesis on the American civil rights movement of the 1960s in which the Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson played a leading role as an aid to the late Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. From Washington DC, Dr Assensoh examines, in this article, Rev. Jackson's relevance to Africa as a candidate for the US Democratic Party's presidential nomination, the impact of his recent diplomatic success in Syria and, in a nutshell, the Baptist Minister's current standing among American voters.The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson - like Alex Haley of Roots fame - does not hide the historical fact that his ancestry had deep African roots. According to his close friends and political aides, Rev. Jackson's past travels to Africa were always on the level of an educative pilgrimage and, particularly, it is remembered that on one of such visits to West Africa in 1979-80 which took him to Monrovia, the late President William R. Tolbert of Liberia made a gift of a "gold" watch to him, a gesture of which the Chicago Baptist Minister has always been proud.
To many of his fellow Black Americans, Rev. Jackson's campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination holds a lot of promises for the black race in general and for the African continent in particular. Generally, it is viewed as a way for an individual blackman to assert himself within the context of the American political process and, in practical terms, if Rev. Jackson survives the various caucuses-cum-primaries, he is expected to serve as a viable political "power-broker" during the 1984 Democratic Party's Convention in San Francisco.
Ethnic-Minority Support
If Rev. Jackson, by chance, becomes a viable candidate with strong ethnic- minority support, he would be able to seek recognition for various issues affecting all ethnic-minorities, including all Blacks and Hispanics in and outside of the United States; stylishly and for political expediency, the Baptist Minister has categorized his minority power-base as the "rainbow coalition”. Additionally, he would also make sure that such minority concerns are given priority attention on the political agenda of the U.S. Democratic Party for the 1984 presidential campaign.Indeed, apart from what Rev. Jackson overwhelmingly sees as "bread-and-butter" issues affecting his fellow Blacks and other minority interests in the United States, he has unequivocally made it very obvious that the two major external issues, which are closest to his heart, are the stale mate in the efforts to seek independ- ence for Namibia and, also, the phas ing out of apartheid policies in South Africa itself. His recent cordial meeting with African envoys at the United Nations went a long way to underscore those concerns.
It is Rev. Jackson's contention that, in American politics, it has only been under the presidency of a Democrat that the leaders of the United States have often shown a measure of concern for Pan-African issues. As an example, he recently recalled the useful role played in negotiations for Zimbabwean independence by American and British diplomats under the administration of former President Jimmy Carter. In support of Rev. Jackson's contention, other observers of the African political scene have often referred to the known fact that, with the tacit approval of Mr. Carter, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, now Atlanta mayor Andy Young, conspicuously displayed sympathies for varied Third World issues. Andrew Young's deep concern for such matters, in fact, prompted him to deal directly with a Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) official at the United Nations in defiance of American official policy, a measure which obviously led to his sudden departure from the U.N. job. It is only sad now that, politically, Mayor Young has not found it expedient to support the Jackson Campaign.
Pan-Africanist Views
It is, indeed, important for the leaders and people of Africa to measure Rev. Jackson in the realm of his Pan-Africanist views, including his preparedness to make sure that issues of African interests were placed on his party's agenda together with other ethnic-minority programs. Being the sole Black candidate among the previous seven in the Democratic Party's nominating process, it was the initial feeling of Rev. Jackson's opponents that the country was not prepared for a black presidential candidate in this century, not even a vice-presidential position for a black person.However, various events which took place in the United States between 1983 and now have, surprisingly, modified the political mood of Americans to a great extent. A major boost for the Jackson campaign was his successful diplomatic negotiations in Damascus, Syria, in obtaining the release from captivity of the U.S. naval officer, Lt. Robert O. Goodman, Jr., an event which prompted The New York Times of January 4, 1984, to note that "Mr. Jackson's mission had given him additional credibility as a candidate."
Rev. Jackson, known for his civil rights radicalism of the 1960s, harboured the feeling that since the captured naval officer was within the racial ambit of his "rainbow coalition," and as a black person, the Reagan Administration might not exert the needed influence on the Syrians for his release. Already, the Republican Administration had been accused on several occasions by some black leaders, including Rev. Jackson of being insensitive to the problems of minorities. Therefore, it was to make sure that Lt. Goodman did not become what Rev. Jackson termed as "political football that the Baptist Minister, accompanied by thirteen other blacks, went to Syria to seek his fellow black's release from captivity.
However, the Reagan Administration later claimed that the necessary diplomatic efforts were being made toward the freedom of the black naval officer. Yet, unimpressed by the official claim, Rev. Jackson, in an interview with the Syrian news agency in Damascus, reportedly described the entire U.S. policy in the Middle East as being "harmful to the real interests of the American people, lacking logic."
To many American political leaders and a section of the nation's news media, Rev. Jackson's diplomatic success in Syria assisted a great deal in presenting him as a viable candidate in the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Although other candidates dropped out of the contest, with Mondale, Hart and Jackson retained, supporters of Jackson are still of the view that he stands the chance of becoming the running-mate of either Senator Gary Hart or former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Meanwhile, an interesting scenario in the interest of the Jackson campaign is that since some American Blacks were known to have scored various "firsts" in 1983, it is being speculated that 1984, the presidential election year, may also add similar omens for them. For example, for the first time in the history of the "Miss America" beauty contest, a black contestant, Miss Vanessa Williams, won the 1983 national title and, in the major cities of Chicago and Philadelphia, blacks were for the first time elected their mayors.
In the race by the superpowers to gain supremacy in outer space, too, a black astronaut, Lt.-Col. Guion Bluford, in 1983, journeyed with other astronauts into space, followed recently by another black astronaut.
Apart from the fact that former President Carter had earlier served as a Governor of his native Georgia, it is no gainsaying to underscore the fact that, in terms of political obscurity, Rev. Jackson and the former chief executive from Georgia had a lot in common. Voters, in the initial stages of Mr. Carter's presidential campaign, echoed their "Jimmy who?" chorus in 1976, just as they did when Rev. Jackson threw the hint that he might run for the presidency on the Democratic Party's ticket. However, after Jackson's Syrian diplomatic triumph, coupled with his impressive showing in the New Hampshire primary - many American voters have begun to know more about his background.
In the end, what is expected to be seen is whether or not Rev. Jackson's message that, now, is the time for minorities to "move from the outer house, to the courthouse, to the State House, and to the White House" has really reached home. His showing in those contests may, necessarily, prove his point!
