Newt Gingrich, PhD

US presidential contender

NEWT GINGRICH just became the first officially declared candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. While he may never make it to the White House, he will certainly liven up the campaign. Gingrich’s favourite theme is American exceptionalism: the idea that the US is uniquely superior to all other countries.

Why is this relevant to the Congo Masquerade blog?

Believe it or not, Gingrich has a PhD from Tulane University and wrote a thesis about education policy in the Belgian Congo. While many children learned to read and write under Belgian rule, there was practically no elite formation like in the French or British colonies. Poor leadership in contemporary Congo is a legacy of this lack of training. The slogan so frequently repeated in Belgian colonial circles with respect to education was: pas d’élites, pas d’ennuis’ (‘no elites, no headaches’).