Africa where have you been?

Today the world stands watching a nation in ruins. A disaster not caused by the forces of nature, the ravages of war or any such occurrence, rather the people of Zimbabwe have seen the systematic collapse of a vibrant economy and growing nation. The last 10 years have been especially horrific with lives lost for the sake of several greedy men and women. Zimbabwe has been independent for 28 years, this is the same amount of time that Robert Mugabe, (his Excellency as he would like to be referred as) has been at the helm. In the 80s he was hailed as one of Africa's great statesmen as he led ZANU PF. and the country away from British rule and into majority rule. Finally Zimbabwe had gained sovereignty! We shed the name Rhodesia and attained the name Zimbabwe, literally, "House of Stone." Named after the ancient ruins in the Masvingo, from the times of the great Monomotapa empire. Well Zimbabwe is still a sovereign country, if you listen to Robert and his henchmen. He still believes he is fighting against the Brits. He has systematically imposed himself on the people over the years, using his intellect to win the hearts of less informed rural voters, firing up hungry war veterans and using violence to drum up the support of the youth in urban areas. He started off as Prime minister and he can now his title is rather obscure but calling him somewhat of a monarchical despot would not be too far from accurate. Opposition and dissent have been expertly snuffed out in Zimbabwe. I will venture to say Zimbabweans are rather unattractive to violence and so the fact that our leader has been using force to install himself as undisputed ruler has not been met with great opposition, not until about 6 years ago with the emergence of the MDC. To be honest the 80s and early 90s were decent times and people were not that focused on the government's undercover operations as we were doing well economically. As far as neighbouring African leaders it was hard to see where opposition would come from, there was apartheid in South Africa, dictators in Zambia (Kaunda) and Malawi (Banda, chaos in Congo (from Mobutu to the two Kabilas)and genocide in Rwanda. Looking back it now it seems understandable how resistance to Mugabe has been almost none existent. In the 1980s ('82 to '87) there was the "Gukurahundi" where the infamous 5th brigade eliminated approximately 10,000 Ndebeles (2nd largest Zimbabwean tribe) on accusations of conspiracy and importing weapons. I mean a disaster of this scale seems to have been ignored by the international community. It has to be said that this mass killing was done very secretly and many Zimbabweans are miffed about it too. The fact that the Unity Accord between ZANU(Mugabe's party) and ZAPU(Ndebele party)was signed glossed over what was obviously genocide. The international community has always been hesitant to directly criticize Robert in fear of compromising sovereignty. This has encouraged Mugabe who continues to push as far as he can, no one seems to have been able to stop him. The redistribution of land to blacks began about 9 years ago, why did Robert wait almost 20 years to do this? One has to wonder. It seems this was just another convenient political opportunity and helped his party in the 2000 and 2002 parliamentary and presidential elections. Once again a masterstroke by Robert because the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai came in with a significant threat. The land reform became a "land grab" with ministers, officials and friends in high places got farms. So much for giving the land to the people. Some individuals had several farms. All this as the international community showed toothlessness and an unwillingness to apply pressure.sanctions on our beloved leaders came but they don't see to have worked and of course not every country participated.

Africa has been particularly silent, specially in the last 10 years until now. Mugabe is an elder statesman amongst African leaders and his eloquent speech and brash delivery make him a hard target, I feel this has led to African leaders being fearful of offending one of our "liberators." The situation in the country now is undeniably bad, no Mugabe propaganda can hide economic meltdown.Now we are hearing more dissent against Robert than ever. It is refreshing but we need more. To have pressure from fellow members of the Afican union could be the one thing that convinces Mugabe to step aside. He dismisses the West as trying to re-colonize Africa but pressure from Africa is unprecedented and we can only hope it works. The situation in Zimbabwe calls for urgent Action. I hope and pray that the meeting of African leaders today and tomorrow sees them stepping up and pressuring the Dictator from the south. Zimbabwe needs help, quickly. Africa has been silent for too long, its time for Africa to speak, for the sake of the Zimbabwean people at least! I hope and pray that the crisis of leadership in Africa may be resolved some day.







Wikipedia on Gukurahundi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gukurahundi