“Mugabe is not unpopular in Zimbabwe today because his government has been autocratic and brutal. He is not unpopular because the minority (but substantial) Matabele tribe have been persecuted, killed and dispossessed by a governing party whose power base is among the Mashona majority. He is not unpopular because he and his wife are greedy and flaunt their wealth, or because corruption in his government is widespread. He is unpopular because his administration is broken and there is nothing for ordinary people to eat.”– Matthew Parris, Times of London columnist
In essence, the African elite can carry on as they please, regardless of how disgraceful their conduct, and Africans will accept it as long as there are a few scraps of food left over for the masses.
“Many Zimbabweans hunger not for liberal democracy, but for food. By corollary, much of Morgan Tsvangirai’s power base is either an urban minority or among the minority tribes who have received a raw deal from the distribution of resources by Zanu (PF). They too, many of them, hunger not for liberal democracy but a turning of the tables. Unless we are careful, today’s TV pictures may tomorrow be thrown into reverse, and we may watch those who were once in flight, now in pursuit; and those who were once in pursuit, now in flight; the iron bars having changed hands. The Matabele in history were always a more warlike people than the Mashona pastoralists. Bulawayo (their capital) means “place of slaughter”. Jacob Zuma, the next South African President, comes from the same (Zulu) family of tribes.”
In other words, the MDC will be just as bad as the current murderous thugs and stand by to see them exacting revenge on the Zanu-PF.
“For that, an outside power or league of powers would need to occupy Zimbabwe and begin the process of recreating government, the executive and judiciary; purging the military and police, redistributing land and resources that have been stolen, identifying and prosecuting the culprits … and paying for it. I doubt we have the stomach for this.
“Thanks for that,” you may say, “but what alternative do you propose?”
I have none. To rescue Zimbabwe is beyond not our capacity, but our will. We can only wail and wring our hands.”
In a nutshell: I feel for you, I may even shed a tear or two, but Africa is not worth bothering about.
There is no bigger insult to Africa than what you have read above. There is one problem: Parris is not alone in his thinking. It’s becoming a majority view and, even worse, Africans are the reason why it is happening.
The African way
I am getting so sick and tired of reading about this bullshit excuse for a bankruptcy of ideas and a failure to deliver to the masses of South Africa and Africa: Leaders preaching violence and hatred because they know that sharing the wealth with the people doesn’t sit well with their wallets; seeking to entrench other elite groups by providing aid or silence, knowing that the favour will be returned when the time comes.
On a continent rich in resources, with land in abundance and an enormous potential workforce, we’d rather allow the fat cats and people posing as leaders to sell us a vial of poison, disguised as ideology on the reasons why we have to kill or be killed.
Not for us education, arts, culture and upliftment as things to be admired and cherished as “the African way”, but rather killing for a non-existent revolution or — as has been the case in Zimbabwe — standing tall for a black leader who just happens to be murdering tens of thousands of black people. Some get the bullet while the rest die the slow painful death of starvation and neglect.
African leaders contemplating their navels: Should we say something? If we criticise that mad thug in Zimbabwe, the new Zimbabwean government might say something about our own disgusting behaviour. Can’t have that.
Then the world contemplates its navel and starts to wonder whether bothering with this continent is worth the paper of a resolution. Sooner or later it will start wondering whether it’s worth bothering about aid. What happens then? Is that the world’s way?
Two major issues point at the truth in what Parris is saying:
In Zimbabwe, we have stood back and guess what? The butcher is back. This means that we are now about to receive the next crop of Zimbabwean exiles. Maybe as many as a million more. Who is going to pay for that? South Africans. Which means what? The masses of this country are going to be flooded by starving exiles who are desperate for food and work. Not only will their situation deteriorate, but the government also has even less chance of delivering on promises made at Polokwane.
So the masses of Zimbabwe and South Africa are being made to pay for allowing Mugabe to continue with his genocide unchallenged: use of the counter-revolutionary fantasy of fighting off a disinterested West so that we can allow inhumanity to reign supreme.
What is the world supposed to do? Pour in aid? So that this disgrace can continue? Don’t Africans deserve better? Isn’t investment and rebuilding ten billion times better than handouts to prop up murderers?
Then here in South Africa, we have leaders who speak about killing for Zuma, fighting for a revolution and all the other nonsense we hear. They are the problem children, not the solution that Zuma is going to inherit. The world hates listening to that kind of rhetoric and investors run a million miles from it.
Again, who suffers from the instability? The masses of South Africa, whose pot is getting smaller every time they open their mouths and threaten the country.
Of course the irony is that at Polokwane our masses were promised upliftment at a far quicker pace. Ransacking the economy because no investment is flowing in will not solve that problem. It will just make many more people poor, far quicker. Selling South Africa as a stable regional power that knows how to do the right thing is the way to achieve that goal. Harnessing the skills of all South Africans is the way to get you there. Just doing the right thing in Zimbabwe takes us halfway home and on the road to recovery and delivery.
The insult of Parris — that other than a few tears we aren’t worth bothering about because nothing will change — is far more frightening than all of the war talk combined.
Think about that before you open your mouth again.
Author
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