Growing up in a tyrant’s colony

For all the ideals that independence from colonialism is supposed to represent, its the same old ox-wagon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. That is how the silent majority always remain the compost heap upon which tyranny flourishes.

In Zimbabwe, in the past decade, events moved so fast that people couldnt keep up with them. The place became unbearable. What would you do if you were stuck in one place and everyday was the same and nothing you did mattered? When everybody you know is a PhD. When the whole township is full of PhDs. When everyone is a Permanent Home Developer and yet an ideal life should be about going to work and getting home and going to work again.

Most of my generation passed their days sitting at the footbridge in Mukonde Street, on the steps at Mhishi Shopping Centre, at Defes Tuck-shop, at the OK Bus Terminus, everywhere. Waiting, hoping something or someone will turn up. When you live in deprived circumstances for so long, you learn to accept them, and believe them to be your life.

There was this political party and that party and a faction of that party and that party, and people just didnt care anymore. They got fed up. Maybe it was just me going to pieces. When something is permanent you learn to live with it and accept its ominous presence. Ours was not a permanent condition. Ours was a human-orchestrated famine of the flesh and the spirit.

The scary bit was the amount of media play that the Zimbabwe crisis generated around the globe. More than ever, the myriad stakeholders who lurked in the shadows were coming into the light and telling us what was good for us and setting out how democracy was shaped, organised, led, managed, evaluated and supported.

Their views conflicted; as they jockeyed for position, some voices were louder than others and some of their sentiments were just plain mad. And while all this noise was all round us, nothing changed. Ordinary people endured their day-to-day struggles. Power outages became a daily reality. Banks ran out of money. Shops had empty shelves.

The year 2000 constituted an important junction in the history of Zimbabwe. A strong opposition emerged. A government draft constitution was rejected in a referendum. And the unbudgeted huge payouts to the so-called war veterans and youth militia to butcher innocent people became a desperation campaign to retain power by all means necessary. All these events marked a watershed in Zimbabwes post-independence political history, precipitating dramatic shifts in the countrys political, economic, social, cultural and spatial landscapes. The ghosts of colonialism certainly returned to haunt Zimbabwe and her erstwhile coloniser, Britain.

Land reform is a complicated issue throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In many countries, white farmers who gained title to their property during the colonial period when race still defined opportunity in Africa, own the best land. In the years since these nations gained their independence, pressure has mounted for a more equitable distribution of land.

Mugabe and Zanu (PF)s land reform policy had little to do with righting a colonial wrong, but much to do with holding on to power. With a growing political opposition to his long rule and polls showing waning voter support, Mugabe resorted to a draconian policy of seizing land from white farmers without compensation and parcelling it out to his supporters.

Sometimes what he was saying, especially about the imperial powers, was true. But of course, telling them the truth does not make him any less of a cruel dictator. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. That does not absolve him from his bad deeds. A tyrant is a tyrant. Big tyrant, small tyrant!