Consider the standard public and private discourse on any current issue of political or economic importance on the African continent. There is a single factor that is consistently and conspicuously missing: the sense of the absurd. It is my contention that the consistent and conspicuous absence of this factor accounts for much of the political and economic madness that we see in Africa. It is my conviction that if this factor were allowed to operate more freely in Africa, we would achieve radically different, and radically improved, results.

But first: what do we, or to speak for myself, I, mean by the sense of the absurd? One dictionary defines absurd as: "utterly or obviously senseless, illogical, or untrue; contrary to all reason or common sense; laughably foolish or false." Note the "utterly" and the "obviously". Another dictionary says it means "inconsistent with reason or logic or common sense". Comfortable? OK: so the absurd is that which is utterly or obviously lacking in sense, logic, truth, reason or common sense. What about sense, what does that mean? Back to that first dictionary again: the closest definition to what I mean in this context reads: "a faculty or function of the mind analogous to sensation". Presumably sensation here refers to the physical senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch. The second dictionary is less precise: my meaning falls somewhere between two of its definitions of: "a particular sensation or kind or quality of sensation" and "[the] capacity for effective application of the powers of the mind as a basis for action or response: INTELLIGENCE". By THE "sense", I refer to a specific and definite faculty of the human mind. And in this particular case that faculty enables the senser to clearly see and acknowledge that which is utterly or obviously senseless, illogical, untrue or irrational.

Once again, I draw your attention to the qualifiers: utterly and obviously. This is important because we are not asking for the senser to possess a mind with the subtlety and power of a Da Vinci or an Einstein. It is sufficient that they are able to see and acknowledge that which is utterly or obviously senseless, illogical, untrue or irrational. In fact: a more powerful mind may well be a disadvantage in this regard. (I refer you to the remark often attributed to George Orwell that some ideas are so absurd only an intellectual could believe them.)

OK, with me so far? Good. Let's move on.

Let's look at some recent specific examples of how lacking we in the African continent appear to be in the sense of the absurd.

Exhibit A: Muammar Gaddafi and the United States of Africa (USA?) proposal. This proposal is, to put it bluntly, ridiculous. It's very hard to believe that our national leaders are wasting precious time and effort at the ongoing 2007 African Union summit to discuss such an absurd proposal. And each with a straight face, apparently. Am I just being a nay-sayer and an Afro-pessimist here? Why can't we form a United States of Africa? This is how the United States of America and the European Union started, isn't it? No, actually it isn't. It's very clear that the US and the EU were founded on the basis of shared values and principles. What values and principles does a relatively democratic country like Zambia have in common with a dictatorship like Gaddafi's Libya? On what basis would such different countries "unite" and remain the same countries? The idea is utterly senseless, illogical, untrue and irrational. And of course, the one thing Colonel Gaddafi never mentions is that he sees himself as the rightful President of an African superstate. And yet the political and intellectual leaders of Africa are currently engaged in serious discussion on this ludicrous proposal.

Exhibit B: Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his Economic Perpetual Machine/Defiance of Economic Gravity. Of course there is no such thing as a perpetual machine or violation of the law of gravitation in physics or economics. And yet Mugabe continues to sink his country further and further into the abyss whilst loudly claiming that he is in fact saving his country from economic ruin. Utterly and obviously utterly senseless, illogical, untrue and irrational, wouldn't you say? And yet a report on the BBC tells us that Mugabe spoke to a cheering crowd at Kwame Nkrumah's tomb this past Sunday. That's right: a cheering crowd, not a jeering crowd. I'm at a loss to comprehend why they were cheering a man who has ruined his country. A man who last week dispatched the army to enforce a 50% price cut in goods and services whilst he continues to print money to finance his government. Established economic theory would have told Mugabe that this would lead to immediate shortages and only fuel the already burgeoning black market in Zimbabwe. Common sense would have told him exactly the same thing. But no: Mugabe and his cronies seem to be convinced that things don't work like that at all. The really frightening thing is that they, or at least Mugabe, actually seem to believe what they're saying even if it contradicts all available sense, logic and facts. Of course, common Zimbabwean folk know otherwise. Their sense of the absurd is fully functional and many continue to leave their country of birth and live the precarious existence of illegal immigrants in neighbouring countries like South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.

Exhibit C: Jacob Zuma, South Africa's President in Waiting. Mr. Zuma's misadventures are well documented. The amazing thing is that Mr. Zuma continues to be the unstoppable object of South African politics. This is no small or laughing matter for as we all know, South Africa has the strongest economy in Africa by far. All this may change in the next 24 months if Mr. Zuma becomes South Africa's next president. This, you will recall is the man, who has been tainted by a corruption scandal and has shown a singular lack of wisdom and integrity in his personal life (to put it mildly). A man who excites his political support base not with well-thought out ideas and policies, but with dancing and dangerously suggestive sloganeering. In any other part of the world, Mr. Zuma would, quite rightly, have been a figure of fun and ridicule. In Africa, he is a political hero. And depending on how the next year or two go may well become Africa's latest political villain.

And of course, none of this is new. Africa's history reads like a Who's Who of some of the world's most absurd leaders: Idi Amin, Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Mobutu Sese Seko, P W Botha, Sani Abacha, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The rise of all these men and their ilk could have been prevented if enough people had had a healthier sense of the absurd. Sadly, many of them were aided and abetted in their criminal activities by intellectuals, you know, those guys Orwell reminded us about, who are the only ones capable of actually believing the most absurd ideas.

The answer is for Africans, leaders and led alike, to become more comfortable with the sense of the absurd. It is astonishing that there are still people, in Africa, who still believe that socialism is the answer to Africa's problems. In South Africa, the South African Communist Party (yes Communist Party) is a formidable political force; indeed it has an alliance with the ruling ANC. This is despite the decades and dozens of failed socialist experiments north of South Africa's borders. A properly functioning sense of the absurd would have seen the extinction of communists, never mind socialists, on the continent long ago. Of course many of the SACP comrades readily avail themselves of the fruits of the capitalist economy – the absurdity of their position in this regard completely escapes them.

The sense of the absurd is a powerful tool in the prevention of dictatorships and/or failed states. Every dictator is, ultimately and logically, an absurd figure who is completely blind to his own absurdity. Think of Hitler, Mussolini and Africa's own contributions to that hall of infamy. All, without exception, absurd. If Hitler had had a properly functioning sense of the absurd he would not have committed the atrocities he did, not with a straight face at any rate. And the same goes for our own ruinous and murderous contemporary: Robert Gabriel Mugabe. It just goes to show that when you have a leader who sports a ridiculous toothbrush moustache and takes himself seriously, you're headed for disaster.

It is profoundly important that we, as African citizens, maintain a keen sense of the absurd. It is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.