By Owei Lakemfa

THESE are trying and dizzy times.  They are breathless seasons when nothing seems certain.  By my last count, there have been uprisings in 19 countries in the last two months.  These are times that demand sacrifice, and  millions of people step forward to put their lives on the line.

These moments bring out the best in human beings and the worst in leaders; these times expose the heroism in the human spirit and the cowardice in ‘strong’ leaders who hide behind blazing guns, armoured cars and cockpits of jet bombers to massacre their own citizens.

When the year 2011 dawned, the world may not have realised that within its first 60 days, the political map of many countries would have been redrawn.

The protests cut across races, ideological, regional and ethnic divides.  The main trigger of the mass explosions are usually the same: uprising against  dictatorial or monarchical regimes; against fossilized leaders, conservative or even radical governments  that have lost touch with reality; massive corruption, mass unemployment;  poverty, rising food prices, hunger, human rights abuses and lack of political freedom.
The weapons are similar: the ideas in peoples heads, the anger in their hearts, the meeting of minds and the determination of the masses.

All these began on December 18, 2010 in Tunisia after a street fruit vendor, Mohammed Bouaziz  immolated himself in protest against the seizure of his hand chart by the police and the frustration of being unemployed. Bouaziz’s merely audible voice was taken up by millions of Tunisians and it was heard strong and clear across the world.

The Tunisian example of mass street protests, occupation of public squares and places, marches, self-immolation, and general strikes became the standard methods used across the world on the boil. Libya, however, added the dimension of armed struggle and civil war.

In Tunisia, the homestead of this new global revolution, President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali fled on January 14 to Saudi Arabia. In  18 days of rage, Hosni Mubarak fell in Egypt after 30 years in power.  The Libyan protests, started on January 23 like a joke, soon protesters seized cities, military units defected to the side of the protesters and in a move undertaken in human memory, only by fascist General Francisco Franco in Spain, a leader bombed his cities into the dark ages.

Showing evidence of a disturbed mind, Colonel Muammar Ghadaffi referred  to his fellow citizens as cockroaches that should be exterminated.  A civil war is afoot in Libya and no matter the outcome, the oil-rich country cannot be the same again.

Algeria, the radical country with a rich history of resistance did not recognise an uprising when it saw one, but it quickly recovered to lift its 19-year state of emergency.

When the revolutionary winds swept across Oman, Sultan Qaboos reduced the contributory pension paid by workers, increased the pay of private sector workers and reshuffled his cabinet.

It spread to Mauritania, West Africa, on January 17 and the situation remains fluid below the surface.  The Syrian protests broke on January 26 and President Assad quickly promised reforms.

In East Africa, the protest winds landed in Djibouti on January 28 with protesters occupying public places.  Two days later, it was the turn of Morocco where in Tangier four protesters set themselves on fire.  In her parts of the country, protesters demanded that King Mohammed give up some of his powers to democratic forces.

King Abdullah of Jordan sacked his government and appointed a new Prime Minister in order to appease protesters. When deposed President Ben Ali of Tunisia fled to Saudi Arabia, the authorities did not realise that he carried  the seeds of protests, until they sprouted into mass protests on January 21. King Abdullah quickly increased wages by 15 percent and put billions of dollars into a development fund to appease protesters.

The usual special days of protests include “Days of Rage” but the Palestinians had no central government to rage against, their concern is their country divided between Gaza and the West Bank; so they had “Days of Unity”.

Sudan was already on its knees, it has a raging civil war in the West (Darfur), a president, General Omar al-Bashir on the run from the International Criminal Court, food crisis, and at least one third of the country voting to break away.  So when the protest waves rose from January 21, Bashir quickly promised to step down in 2015.

Bahrain has been a repressive country, so the protests and strikes that began on February 14 were not unexpected. King Hamad resorted to  massive bribery; he gave out $2,652 cash to each family, sacked some ministers and released some political prisoners.

The  protests in Iran which began on February 14 are yet to abate.  This week’s protests are mainly in support of detained opposition figures and for greater political freedom.  When the protests began in neighbouring Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promised not to seek re-election in 2014.

Oil-soaked Kuwait, just across the Iraqi border witnessed two deaths in its first days of protests, and the issue of residents without identity documents became a dominant   theme.

President Ali Abdullah of Yemen has been in power for 33 years. He organised counter-protests against the masses and promised to step down two years from now.  Initially, he tried to muscle  protesters, but soon backed down for more reconciliatory tactics. Even lawless Somalia which has no viable central government experienced protests from February 13.

While welcome changes have come to a number of countries, and autocracy across the globe has been shaken to its foundations, tragic humanitarian cases have emerged, especially in Libya where an estimated  140,000 people have fled. Meanwhile, the international community has been busy issuing warnings against the use of force against protesters.

The uprisings show that the human spirit cannot be conquered by bullets or bombs, repression or suppression. The world is in a welcome turmoil; like an earthquake, it will settle down eventually, but it cannot be as we have known it; the days of innocence are gone, those of rage are here!