Apart from discussions on the future of this new country, Zimbabweans and the rest of Africa will also need to seriously reflect on what they have achieved since independence. Southern Sudan’s independence will be a reflective reminder of where the rest of Africa started and is today.
A massive territory, Southern Sudan will be larger than Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda combined. One of the top officials in the new government Dr. Anne Ito, said, in terms of development, Southern Sudan was starting literally from afresh. The Khartoum government left a legacy of complete neglect. Under the so-called Hamdi Triangle policy, Southern Sudan fell outside the triangular zone that was the focus for development, meaning it received no development aid at all.
The tragic irony of it all is Sudan’s President Bashir will be among heads of state at the independence ceremony in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. The appalling sight of utter developmental neglect in Juba and Southern Sudan will be part of the irrefutable evidence for the indictment of President Bashir for crimes against humanity inflicted not only in Southern Sudan but also in the Darfur region.
As Southern Sudanese government begins the arduous task of nation building against formidable odds, three factors will play a crucial role in the effort.
Southern Sudan is rich in natural resources. It has oil, arable land and livestock that could make it the breadbasket of the region. It also has a dynamic leadership and a people who, through sheer resilience, have survived the brutal ravages of a civil war and absolute neglect. Southern Sudan has a large reservoir of international goodwill.
This was more or less the situation Zimbabwe found itself in back in 1980 when it attained its independence from Britain. Of course, Zimbabwe was far much better in terms of infrastructure and development.
In 1980, Robert Mugabe and his ZANU government received a great deal of international support and goodwill. Zimbabwe was poised to be the breadbasket of the southern African region. Despite the brutal massacre of over 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland by Mugabe’s trigger happy Fifth Brigade, international support continued.
In the formative days of Zimbabwe’s independence, pledges and promises were made that never again would Zimbabweans suffer the oppression, loss of their basic human rights and indignities they had experienced under the Ian Smith regime
But the genocide in Matabeleland may have been the road sign that Mugabe was exiting towards his own agenda for Zimbabwe.
Today, 31 years later, Mugabe’s agenda has been a dramatic and complete U-turn from the promises made at independence.
The Zimbabwean situation is among the worst post- colonial experiences in Africa. Independence for Mugabe and ZANU meant that he and his apparatchiki and sycophants had been bestowed with the right to loot, plunder, steal, cheat, rig elections and engage in barbaric violence against the prodemocracy movement in order to perpetuate themselves in power.
It never meant, as the late Edison Zvobgo would, ironically, say, the “passing of the baton to the next.”
The birth of Southern Sudan as Africa’s newest nation reminds us all of the age of innocence that characterized the emergence of independent African countries. The situation in Zimbabwe today is a stark reflective reminder of the false and deceptive independence in some post-colonial African countries, notably Zimbabwe under Mugabe, which is littered with broken promises, looting of public assets, violence and corruption.
Until today, the citizens of Southern Sudan had always been asking “When will independence come.”
Today and after 31 years of excruciating flag independence, the people of Zimbabwe are asking “When will independence end?”
Stanford G. Mukasa believes the legendary “winds of change” are now at Zimbabwe’s doorstep. They are spurred largely by the stubborn resilience of the Zimbabweans in the face of unprecedented and brutal oppression by the Robert Mugabe regime.
Post published in: Top Bloggers