The ongoing election campaign in the United States is bringing up memories from the past in far off regions like East Africa. It is not its intention, of course. But it is not surprising either, given the two septuagenarians contesting for the top job. These memories come via a quarrel about the method of voting in November. It is all due to this covid-19 pandemic that has thrown the familiar world into disarray. That includes how elections are conducted. It has made the traditional in-person voting hazardous, and so another method that guarantees the exercise of democratic rights and security of person and process had to be found. Mail-in voting was judged to be the most appropriate in the circumstances. No hassle, no danger of contracting or transmitting the dreaded virus. All a voter has to do is get their ballot paper, indicate their choice and send it to the returning officer through the post. Now, not everyone is happy with this arrangement. Some are already crying ‘rigging’. Not for the first time either. It also happened four years ago. This time they are being taken seriously because apparently they know a thing or two about rigging. Rigging used to be associated almost wholly with African elections. Now we learn it is not an African preserve or invention. In any case rigging is an English word and so it must define a practice that exists among the speakers of that language. There does not seem to be an equivalent word for rigging in many African languages, which probably means it is an alien concept. The nearest they come is theft. The Americans are not the only ones having to find new electoral methods in the midst of covid-19 and quarrelling over the eventual choice. Our northern neighbours have come up with something they have called ‘scientific’ campaigning and elections. Not many seem to understand what this scientific thing is or what is scientific about it. All some of them know is that it is blocking them from the voters and tilting the election outcome in favour of the incumbent. There is a difference, however, between the two. In the US, it is the incumbent who is shouting about rigging. In Uganda it is the opposition that is crying foul. This article started with how the US campaign is bringing back memories from the past. They were brought back by the postal services at the centre of voting disagreement. Matters postal, especially those that have to do with the post office are unknown to the majority of Rwandans. They might have to turn to Google to find out what this is all about. But for earlier generations, the post was the only means of communication. You sent and received mail though it. It might take days, depending on the distance to the post office, but it did arrive. You sent valuable items and money through the post office by postal order or money order. The post office building was the reference point in every town. Distances from the town to other places were measured from there. Where there was no post office, little red box, red pillars really, in which mail was deposited served the purpose. At regular intervals, postal workers would collect the mail for dispatch to different destinations. Occasionally you heard of thefts of money or other valuable items sent through the post. Hands itching to dip into others’ pockets or boxes are not a new phenomenon. It is indeed so bad that God had to state expressly that various forms of covetousness and, stealing specifically, are strictly prohibited. I don’t think this is the sort of theft that is worrying some in the United States, though. The noise about mail-in voting sent me back to the days when the postal service ruled in East Africa. To post a letter or send an item, you had to pay for it, proof of which was carried by a little square piece of paper called the postage stamp that was affixed to the top right hand corner of an envelope. They carried various symbols: the head of a monarch, the pope, or other iconic figures; rare animals, flowers or other plants or particularly spectacular landscapes; or remarkable landmarks. They were little colourful things that did the trick of delivery of messages. But their value did not end with that. They lived on much longer as a collector’s item. You see they gave rise to a world-wide hobby of stamp collection that cut across age and territorial boundaries. Enthusiasts were everywhere and would collect rare stamps, the most beautiful, most iconic or those with unusual value. I was never a stamp collector and did not understand what they did with their collection. Did they, for instance, keep them in their scrap books and occasionally bring them out to admire them? Did they hold an exhibition? I never saw one. Perhaps they kept them for personal gratification. Anyway, the election campaign in the US recalled this wonderful hobby. I wonder what happened to it or what replaced it in this digital age. Maybe there is a virtual collection or something with a name of these times. But would it have the same feel and smell, and bring tears to the eyes and cause such nostalgia? The views expressed in this article are of the author.
