Africans See Humour and Hypocrisy in Donald Trump's Presidential Win

America's 45th president Donald Trump. Cropped version of original photo by Michael Vadon. CC BY-SA 2.0

America's 45th president Donald Trump. Cropped version of original photo by Michael Vadon. CC BY-SA 2.0

The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on November 8, beating his rival Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party. His victory, which has been described as the biggest upset in America's history, has shocked many people around the world, including Africans.

On Twitter, people from African countries have reacted with shock and humour.

Bwesigye, a Ugandan African Leadership Centre Fellow based in South Africa, asked:

Dikeledi Mokoena replied:

Reacting to Bwesigye's tweets, Ugandan digital strategist Rosebell Kagumire wrote:

‘Lets wake up and fix our country…There is nowhere to run to anymore!’

Gidimeister noted how historic his victory was:

Nwachukwu Egbunike, a Global Voices author from Nigeria, criticized media coverage of the campaign:

Another user wrote:

Trump made several racist comments during his election campaign.

Eyo, however, thought Trump's victory and the UK's Brexit vote to leave the European Union present an opportunity for his country:

Nigeria talk show host and TV producer Mo Abudu asked Africans to take Trump's victory as a reason to clean up their own countries:

‘Flight to Africa begins’

Trump has promised to deport all illegal immigrants and employ “extreme vetting” of immigrants coming to the US. Twitter users in Africa used that stance as a basis of many jokes.

Charles shared a photo of a cluster of planes taking off and quipped:

While Stefan said:

Kulayo joked:

Ruth Tsonnie said:

And Hassan Ha-g saw Trump's victory as proof that anything is possible, even if you lack experience:

‘America as a shining beacon of justice is a lie’

For many Africa-based observers, the election of Trump highlighted the hypocrisy of the US weighing in on African politics.

Alexander Waweru in Nairobi observed:

Kenyans are going to the polls in 2017.

Nigerian author Ifeatu Nnaobi made the following observation:

Donald Trump is the 45th President of the USA and the story of America as a shining beacon of justice is a lie. If it weren’t a lie then he wouldn’t be president. If it weren’t a lie then Clinton should have won by a landslide but well over 58 million Americans elected this excuse of a man as President. Like many liberal non-Americans around the world, I never thought this day would come. But after Brexit, and now this, there’s the sinking realisation that the world is a shittier place that we thought. What we missed, I believe is the fact that the America we know from leftist television, press and perhaps short visits is vastly different from the America that voted in Donald Trump. The real America.

He pointed out that:

The bottom-line is that if America was really as progressive as we thought, Trump never should have gotten close. The fact that he ran for the elections after allegations of sexual assault and after running a campaign fuelled by lies shows that Americans are not as progressive as they’ve led the world to believe.

He however acknowledged that not all was lost:

While this seems very grim, we must acknowledge a few strides that were made. California Attorney General Kamala Harris made history on Tuesday night when she won the Senate race and became the second Black woman to be elected to the US Senate. Former refugee Ilhan Omar has been named the first Somali-American legislator for the United States. Finally, for the first time, an openly LGBT governor Kate Brown, was elected in Oregon. These women winning seats is tremendous progress but against the hate brought to light by the Trump campaign, they look like a few rays of light penetrating a very dusty window.

3 comments

  • Alfia J

    Well done Global Voices! I am laughing, but looking at truth at the same time.

  • ..I live in Vegas and spend a lot of time in California. Both of those states didn’t go for trump.Between Manhattan and Vegas,America is one big racist trailer park. These people are just like Afrikans and Rhodesians. They see that the demographics of the nation are changing,and they want to keep it as a white nation. Then we have ignorant African Americans who refused to vote.46.9% of eligible Americans didn’t vote,but ALL the racists did.They’re ignorant and uneducated and they actually believe trump is bringing back the jobs corporate America shipped out.These idiots voted in a fiduciary incompetent,and I’m praying they all starve to death when he wrecks the economy like every other Republican since Eisenhower.

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