Last year, I wrote a piece about Jehu, concluding, “I see someone approaching the horizon and from the way he rides his chariot, I reckon this must be the son of Nimshi.” I got a lot of heat for that; some said I was cooning or had drunk the kul-aid but thankfully, it wasn’t my first rodeo – my job was just to say the quiet part out loud. At the beginning of this year, I respectfully doubled down by saying, “2024 is the year of the madman” – “It’s Jehu versus whoever wants to lose”.
When I speak of Jehu, I refer to Jehu-esque leaders – many Jehus that have emerged and will yet emerge but the one with the most notoriety headlines the rest. Who is Jehu? That’s a wrong question. To avoid identity politics, the right question should be: what is Jehu? Jehu is an archetype; it is neither a man nor a woman.
The same definition applies to Ahab and Jezebel which I stated this last year. Jehu is a season; from last year, you saw a strange pattern of political outcomes. There was the rise of what is referred to as right-wing, nationalist or conservative leaders.
Jehu is also a disruption; a lot of incumbents had their seats taken or at the very least had their grip on power shaken. Jehu is a spirit of agitation: this year, across board, we all saw a significant spike of protests against abominable leadership, needless wars, electoral coups, the fallout of the pandemic, socio-political crises and social injustice. In some cases, this agitation also manifested in c.