Multiracial Leadership Across the World

Sometimes I go for a walk, and I listen to the news, and I think "what makes multi-ethnic democracy work". I can't remember what sparked the idea, but I wanted to know how many countries had leadership springing from different races or ethnicities. A lot of words have been spilled online about the prevalence of female leadership, but much less so on this. And as watered down as the idea of Barack Obama has become as a symbol of progress, I think he must still be on a very short list.

A scattering of thoughts:

• Obviously race and ethnicity are controversial and poorly defined. I will generally give "points" to countries the more varied the leadership gets. Leadership from both Catholics AND Protestants counts as something, but if you can transcend a five-year-old's definition of different races that's got to be more rare.

• I'm mostly interested in the most powerful leader in the country. None of this Governor-General is the head of state crap.

• Modern era, I don't care who ruled during the Prussian Empire.

• I haven't done a deep dive into all ~196 countries. I'm mostly going off my own knowledge with some help from Google, and I'm happy to update this page later if I learn of a cool new example.

First countries I can think of:

1. U.S.A. Barack Obama counts because by race-craft definitions he is "black" and other presidents have been "white".

2. Edit: Liberia should count if USA does. Racecraft be damned.

3. Peru. Most presidents I would describe as generically "mestizo" (Again, I'm not going for a deep racial understanding here), but Alberto Fujimora solidifies it by being "Asian".

4. Zambia. Guy Scott was an acting president for three months, making him the only "white" African leader post-apartheid and the biggest addition to this list that I didn't know about.

5. A lot of Latin American countries have "mestizo" leadership, with varying levels of European, American, and African ancestry. I was actually surprised how little this would be noticeable, however, with most of the largest countries having leadership that appears mostly European. Outliers should include Evo Morales of Bolivia, Noriega of Panama, Batista of Cuba, or Perez of El Salvador. I'm sure I'm missing countries of this type. See also Madagascar.

6. Most American nations have leadership from different European ethnicities. How much credit do I give to having both Spanish and Italian leaders, or both French and English? I would give more if I heard examples of that happening in Europe.

7. On that note, I know Soviet leaders came from different regions, such as Ukraine or Georgia, but I would need to see modern day Russians do the same. I know African leaders come from different tribes, with the immediate example in mind being Edi Amin. I guess I'm less interested, since this rarely seems to exemplify a populace accepting outsiders, and more commonly who can win power at a given time.

8. I definitely give some credit to elected Jewish leadership. The UK gets points for Benjamin Disraeli, and it looks like some other countries including New Zealand, Ukraine, Panama, and Guyana get some kudos. Obviously, in case you've missed the exercise, Israel gets no points for electing Jewish leaders, they would get points for electing "gentiles".

9. Post apartheid South Africa obviously had different leadership from pre-apartheid South Africa. I really want to give this zero points, but it IS kind of measuring something I'm interested in. I'm sure some other southern African nations fall into this category if you go back further.

10. I'm sure I'm missing smaller island nations, who seem like excellent candidates to have multi-ethnic leadership without me knowing about it. But I'm too bored to check any more than say Trinidad and Tobago. ...I checked, and they easily and repeatedly fit.

That's it? The way Americans talk about race, I can think of 3 (edit: 4) large countries that qualify easily followed by presumably a large number of island nations. However, Latin American countries make the way Americans talk about race seem kind of stupid, so that I won't be able to use this as an interesting "fact" or anything. Countries that I normally think of as very diverse, such as Singapore, have only ever had ethnically Chinese leadership in the modern era, although that could change. I'll be interested to see if there are any big exceptions that I missed (there probably are).

Alberto Fujimori served as "118th-121st" president of Peru, a country known for lost Incan cities, Alpaca wool, and silly presidential dating conventions.