From Class Envy to Afrosocialism?

Towards Mutual Social Responsibility, Part Two

In this article I would like to define exactly what I mean by capitalist individualism, communitarianism, and communalism.

Last week I discussed how Kenyans have adopted capitalist individualism (on steroids) and are in the process of rejecting communitarianism and communalism which entail a focus on the consideration of the wellbeing of the larger community in which you reside in or originate from.

?What is Capitalist Individualism (on steroids)?

Capitalism is broadly described on the International Monetary Fund website as an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society. The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to make a profit.

In my opinion, capitalism goes beyond free market economics to drive growth, it is a philosophy that underpins and drives how Kenyans conduct their political, business and even relational affairs. Much of life is motivated by the desire to make an economic profit. We are living in a transactional age where even social and romantic relationships are measured in terms of economic gain. This is a major element of capitalist individualism.

Capitalist individualism is very similar to what psychologist Oliver James describes as Selfish Capitalism which is founded on four basic things.

1. The first is that the success of businesses is judged almost exclusively by their current share price.
2. The second is a strong drive to privatise public utilities, such as water, gas and electricity, or, in the case of America, to keep them in private hands. He references America but one only needs to replace America with the word Kenya. Kenya is one of the most unequal countries on earth and the push for privatization of public utilities has recently been renewed and reinvigorated.
3. The third is that there should be as little regulation of business as possible, with taxation for the rich and very rich so limited that whether to contribute becomes almost a matter of choice.
4. The fourth is the conviction that consumption and market forces can meet human needs of almost every kind.

The very last point is what is driving a large number of Kenyans and the ever-growing tenderpreneurship class I described last week.?There is a strong belief that we can purchase happiness. One of?the foundations of this belief is that Kenyans and Africans at large experienced humiliating forms of financial poverty during and after colonization. Embedded in the generational DNA is the embarrassment of starvation, lack, and limitation. This humiliation made people feel very insecure and to develop extreme forms of inferiority complexes’ about being born and nurtured as a black person in a world where white people were financially and socially dominant. Alongside this humiliation, the violence of colonization introduced us to the concept of class envy.

Class Envy

Class envy has driven people to emulate a lifestyle that looks easy, stress free and opulent. In the context of select economic research,?class envy is perceived as a positive factor in driving economies to grow financially.?This is because it motivates workers to work very hard as they strive for promotions, the lifestyles of those above them in the corporate or work organisation and the elusive goal of being the top boss who is paid more than everyone else. In the same research literature, there is very little data to confirm whether this economic and financial growth leads to growth in moral values like contentment, kindness, empathy, enhancement of familial and social relationships, spiritual wellbeing and emotional feelings of happiness, peace and long-term joy.

Class envy has?made us believe if we work very hard we can overcome our challenges and become as powerful as the white men who conquered our lands and exploited us. We try to escape a man-made form of humiliation that many people erroneously believe they can cure by consumption and purchase of luxuries such as huge homes, vehicles, clothes, designer label items, rare foods and foreign vacations.?In addition to envy, most Kenyans who studied the now abolished system of 8-4-4 education were indoctrinated with a very strong belief that if another member of the class is number one there is no room for you who is below that.?This feeling of inadequacy and humiliation is corroborated in research by Susan Fiske, “Feeling below someone makes people feel ashamed of their own inadequacy. If a peer can succeed, then people feel inadequate for not doing equally well. Envy also makes people angry at the injustice of their low-status positions. Those who succeeded must have had unfair advantages. In the long run, envy definitely “correlates with depression, unhappiness, and low self-esteem.” Additionally, class envy is now sustained by the existence of social media platforms. I no longer have to see Mandy drive off at school to see what she owns. I just need to peep at her social media pages to see posts about a new purchase or a gift.?

In summary, the capitalism we are practicing in Sub Saharan Africa is actually more enhanced and stimulated (it is on steroids) due to deep seated emotions, pathologies and attitudes of racial inferiority. It is also enhanced and sustained by the active use of mobile phones to access social media sites. It is so much easier to access class envy data using a digital device.

So how did communitarianism and communalism fare in comparison to this?

According to my PhD thesis, In the context of the diverse communities within Kenya, the collective responsiveness that is key to communitarianism, communalism and even familism?is simply the action of being constantly aware of the larger community and being responsive to their needs and wants. This attitude is one that ensured that there was the constant exchange of favours between individuals so everyone in the community never lacked.

People are the ends and means of development.

Additionally, I view the contested and controversial African Socialism conceptualized and promoted by the late Tom Mboya as an inevitable and desirable expression of communalism and communitarianism. It has now become apparent that African socialism was being preached to the society and drawn up in postcolonial government sessional papers and documents but in the hearts and minds of most men who fought for independence, self-interest and self-enrichment was of paramount importance than communal growth.?

African socialism is extremely different from all forms of capitalism in existence.?In fact, many suggest it was viewed as a threatening and bad philosophy by the former colonizers.?All the countries that adopted African socialism after independence experienced grave challenges and many were quick to dismiss it is a failed economic system so that unbridled capitalism and free market economics would thrive.

If we are to be sincere and measure what capitalism has achieved in Kenya we will be left with more questions than answers. One definite result is inequality.

According to the OXFAM website.

The gap between the richest and poorest has reached extreme levels in Kenya. Less than 0.1% of the population (8,300 people) own more wealth than the bottom 99.9%. The richest 10% of people in Kenya earned on average 23 times more than the poorest 10%.

The number of super-rich in Kenya is one of the fastest growing in the world. It is predicted that the number of millionaires will grow by 80% over the next 10 years, with 7,500 new millionaires set to be created.

Corporate tax dodging is undermining Kenya’s tax base. Kenya is losing $1.1bn a year to tax exemptions and incentives – almost twice what the government spends on its entire health budget in 2015/16, in a country where mothers face a 1 in 40 chance of dying in childbirth.

Inequality presents very many well documented challenges such as a greater tendency of the population to participate in corrupt activities. Lesser well documented effects are the mental and emotional effects of inequality such as emotional distress, depression, substance abuse and chronic stress. In many media panels and discussions there is always a constant debate as to whether a senior government officer such as a cabinet secretary who has a stable income, security guards, bodyguards for himself (and his/her spouse) and is surrounded by an ecosystem of staff daily will empathize with a factory worker who lives in a tiny shack, walks to work, and is lucky to eat a completely nutritious meal?

I think the answer is that very few people at the very top have retained empathy. Otherwise, there would be absolutely no corruption scandals and failing or broken government infrastructure. The social segregation that is endemic in Kenya can allow that top official never to feel the pain of those at the very bottom.

Considering the reality of the current Kenya, will we?arrive at mutual social responsibility willingly? Many of us will not, we will simply get saturated by the effects of endless pressure and stress of striving for financial success at the expense of mental, emotional, spiritual and communal harmony. No matter what we do and no matter what we achieve, most Africans?will still harbour an innate desire to connect with their community in-group. Even those riddled by individualism and greed find themselves dishing out fragments of help, aid and cash gifts (even if it is to exploit people to acquire votes). There is an innate yet sometimes perverted attraction?to the concept of COMMUNITY.

Can we salvage this attraction for the betterment of Kenya?

Take a look at a paragraph from the document that was meant to guide the founders of a newly independent Kenya.

Mutual social responsibility is an extension of the African family spirit to the nation as a whole, with the hope that ultimately the same spirit can be extended to ever larger areas. It implies a mutual responsibility by society and its members to do their very best for each other with the full knowledge and understanding that if society prospers its members will share in that prosperity and that society cannot prosper without the full co-operation of its members.

The State has an obligation to ensure equal opportunities to all its citizens, eliminate exploitation and discrimination, and provide needed social services such as education, medical care and social security.

Sources

Fiske, S. T. (2010). Envy up, scorn down: how comparison divides us.?American Psychologist,?65(8), 698.

Jahan, S.,& Mahmud, S, A. 2022. What Is Capitalism? Free markets may not be perfect but they are probably the best way to organize an economy Sarwat Jahan and Ahmed Saber Mahmud. Retrieved from: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Back-to-Basics/Capitalism#:~:text=Capitalism%20is%20often%20thought%20of,motive%20to%20make%20a%20profit.

James, O. (2007).?Affluenza: How to be successful and stay sane. Random House.

Kenya. (1965).?African socialism and its application to planning in Kenya?(No. 10). Government Printer, South Africa. Retrieved from: https://repository.kippra.or.ke/handle/123456789/2345

Kibere, Faith Njeri (2016): The Capability of Mobility in Kibera 'Slum', Kenya: An Ethnographic Study of How Young People Use and Appropriate New Media and ICTs. University of Leicester. Thesis. https://hdl.handle.net/2381/37699?

Njoroge, T. (2023). Does privatization serve public interest? Business Daily, Retrieved from https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/opinion-analysis/letters/does-privatisation-serve-public-interest--4126336

Nolan, P. (2003). Adam Smith and the contradictions of the freemarket.?Challenge,?46(3), 112-123.

Oxfam. Inequality in Kenya. Data Table is derived from: (https://www.oxfam.org/en/kenya-extreme-inequality-numbers)