The Independent African Republic of Scotland

Nelson Mandela speaks to the crowds in George Square, Glasgow, 1993. He received the Freedom of Glasgow bestowed on him 12 years previously, when Margaret Thatcher regarded him and the ANC as terrorists. Watch clips from his visit to Scotland here. Scotland (including Andy Murray) votes today in a referendum for its independence from the United Kingdom and posh men in expensive shirts.

While you wait for the result, we can recommend the following sources: the @Africans4Indy twitter account; this good history courtesy of the BCC; everything by Gerry Hassan, like this:

… the difference between Yes and No is small on the constitutional question. There are in effect two versions of home rule contesting this debate, one of which is called independence, but which wishes to retain the oversight of significant agencies of the British state. The main differences between the two offers appear to be aspiration and ambition. Yet, underneath this appearance, there is the prospect of bigger change, for the Better Together argument has got trapped defending the existing state of Britain. At its most outlandish, this has former Blairite adviser John McTernan proclaiming that the UK is social democratic, which is to put it mildly an over-statement; similarly the threat to pensions from independence willfully ignores that the UK has the second lowest state pensions in the OECD, with only Mexico lower.

John Harris’ video report for The Guardian and this Tommy Sheridan interview:

Rachel Hamada on the shifting political landscape in Scotland:

What has made the Yes campaign transcend expectations and given it the size it needs to take on the behemoth of the Westminster establishment and its mostly tame media is a kind of magic that nobody saw coming. Political fairy dust. Many will no doubt try to bottle it, and they will fail. It has been a viral movement, with the best jokes, music and visuals. In terms of the countercultural cool factor, Yes wins hands down, with support from Public Enemy’s Chuck Deven. Chuck D and unicorns. It’s hard to fight that with Union Jacks and a Prime Minister who won’t speak to a public audience in Scotland.

This Tom Devine piece and Africa is a Country’s own Elliot Ross on Al Jazeera America:

What has emerged in Scotland is a profound disagreement about the condition of the U.K. in 2014, its position in the world and the kind of political future that people in Scotland want for themselves. Some see the U.K. as stuck in a postimperial, postindustrial crisis in which marketization threatens the very fabric of the society, imperiling its finest institutions, such as the National Health Service and British universities. For others, the country is doing just fine. There is a shift taking place in British politics that has yet to be properly understood. Not since the English riots of 2011, when groups of poor young people stole sneakers and wide-screen TVs from high street shops and left them ablaze, have commentators working within the parameters of ordinary U.K. political discourse been at such a loss to offer plausible explanations for this alarming disruption to the established order of things.

Finally, read AFKInsider and Nathan Chiume (on Africa is a Country) on which Africans are watching the Scottish referendum closely. Here’s a sample from Nathan’s piece:

Many agree that the way forward for Tanzania is for more devolution or greater identity and autonomy for Zanzibar, with Union retaining big issues such as defense and economy. The Union President Jakaya Kikwete admits to long-running political “fault lines” in Zanzibar which necessitated a power sharing agreement in 2010 between the two major parties in the isles. But Kikwete recently played down any notion of a strong “separatist movement” in Zanzibar, saying it wasn’t a big issue that needed to be blown out of proportion. He believes it can be contained: “We will always be able to manage them and I don’t think they will be able to wreck the country,” he assured. However, many observers believe it was partly due to such fears of secession that compelled the President to see the wisdom of initiating a rewrite of the Union Constitution in order to preempt violent demands for more autonomy in Zanzibar and to guarantee survival of the Union “for the next 50 years”. Tanzania and the Cameroon, remain the two longest surviving and most successful unions in modern day Africa after the collapse of Ghana-Guinea Union, the Senegambia and United Arab Republic (UAR). No other examples remain of independent Africa countries that decided on own volition to unite.

Further Reading