All truly competitive elections ought to produce a few surprise results, and Tunisia’s first democratic elections after ousting long-standing dictator Zine Al-Abedine Ben Ali was no exception. The surprise came in the form of London-based businessman Hashmi Hamdi, whose previously obscure Popular Petition Party initially won 19 seats (some were later revoked amid allegations that the party had broken electoral rules.)
Hamdi has lived in London for 22 years, where he owns an independent satellite TV station. He won on a populist campaign promising half a million jobs, which he publicised on his TV channel. He did especially well in his hometown of Sidi Bouzid — the working-class town where frustrated vegetable seller, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire in January 2011, sparking anti-government protests in Tunisia and across the Arab world.
There are a number of reasons why his success is so improbable, not least the fact that his support for Ben Ali continued well into the revolution and there are reports that he has no plans to leave London.
One thing that shouldn’t count against him, however, is his rise from relative obscurity in London, because he is one of several African politicians that share a unlikely background in the UK and have gained prominence in recent months.
In early September, staff at Newman Catholic College in North London were surprised to receive an email from learning support teacher Mohamed Ibrahim, announcing that he was resigning from his post to become deputy prime minister in Somalia’s transitional government. Ibrahim had spent two years teaching at the college, but accepted the position after visiting the troubled and famine-stricken country during the school holidays. The Western-backed transitional government is still fighting Islamist group Al-Shabab for control of the country and Ibrahim may yet yearn for the comparative calm of a classroom filled with rowdy teenagers.
A couple of weeks later, on 23 September, Michael Sata was elected president of Zambia. The 74-year-old populist politician once worked at London’s Victoria Station as a cleaner, and boasted to an interviewer that: “I never got any complaints about my work. I want to sweep my country even cleaner than I swept your stations.”
And a familiar face popped up during Liberia’s presidential election in October when former footballer George Weah became running partner to presidential hopeful Winston Tubman. Weah played for Chelsea, Manchester City and a number of other European clubs before making an unsuccessful bid for the Liberian presidency in 2005. On 8 November, Tubman, flanked by Weah, will be facing Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the run-off elections.
These politicians provide an interesting contrast to the scores of post-independence leaders who have passed through Britain’s more conventional training centres — the parliamentarians, monarchs and despots who have been whipped into shape at Sandhurst or who have passed through British universities.
Politicians of all political persuasions have been drawn from a small pool of British universities. Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe may have proved very different leaders, but both are law graduates from the University of London external programme. India and Pakistan rarely see eye to eye but have historically favoured Oxford graduates as prime ministers: India has appointed two Oxford alumni as prime ministers, Pakistan four. A shared education needn’t lead to shared political values, it seems.
So while it would be great to conclude that these African politicians with new and unusual backgrounds could be a sign of a new politics, this probably isn’t the case. It would also be unwise to draw too many conclusions from four separate anecdotes.
What can be said, however, is that in the often murky, nepositic world of politics, the introduction of a few outsiders is usually a good thing. It’s just a shame that Hashmi Hamdi is neither a genuine outsider, nor a credible candidate.
Sophie McBain is a staff writer for Spear’s. She previously lived in Tripoli.
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