From the points raised by my readers, I continue to be amused at some of the arguments we make to defend the indefensible. The first thing we tend to do is to shoot the messenger, a normal defense mechanism by politicians who are under scrutiny.
The second thing we assume is that, a black man who may exhibit the same point of view that a white person might agree with is labeled an “uncle tom” who supports a white point of view. In other words he is a “sell out”.
I hear it all the time here in Zimbabwe. If you support the MDC you are a sellout. If you promote racial integration you are black man who thinks like a white. If you insist on high standards of ethics and performance from the politicians, they label you counter-revolutionary. In other words we must all accept sub-standard quality of life and keep quiet about it because our brothers and sisters who fought the white man are now in power.
For me that is a tired old argument which indicates that we blacks still have very far to go in creating constructive and self-critical dialogue that addresses the fundamental issue of accelerating economic development and addressing poverty in Africa.
For the record, no sane person would support apartheid, colonialism, imperialism or any system that oppresses others. No sane person must support the dictatorship we have in Zimbabwe or the plutocracy we have in South Africa, or any political system that is based on a group of politicians abusing state power and resources, failing to address the pertinent issues of poverty alleviation and refusing to admit their incompetence.
We must shed old style thinking and fears. We must begin to embrace white Africans as part of the solution to developing our continent. We need a revolution in our minds first before we can be architects of a new African society.
Poverty has increased in Zimbabwe and many other African countries, despite these countries having plenty of resources. Education standards have not improved. Corruption is now a habit and there is rampant abuse of resources by those in government. This has absolutely nothing to do with the white man or woman, but everything to do with our incompetence to manage, plan and deploy resources.
The reason is simple: we have elected the wrong people into power. We have deployed the wrong people for political leadership because our criteria of choosing them have been how they were involved in waging a war against apartheid or against colonialism. We assumed that the most vocal, the most radical and popular, the most ruthless, the most revered blacks during our liberation struggles, are the ones that are necessarily endowed with the capability to lead Africa after independence. We were wrong and we must correct that.
We have had a very hard lesson here In Zimbabwe. Let me tell you something, social conditions deteriorate slowly on a day by day basis and “normal” becomes characterized by oppression, poverty, political bullying, black racism and the domination of the political space by a black plutocracy that claims to be democratic and “defending the gains of independence”.
The behavior and motives of politicians are universal, and are hardly dependent on climate, geography, or race. They will claim the right to rule and will want to stay in power, even where they are clearly incompetent and are not delivering.
Zimbabwe must get its act right and South Africa has a vested interest in that because; it will create more opportunity for us to accelerate economic integration, development and the fight against poverty within the region. It will open up space in South Africa for increased employment opportunity and create more jobs for all of us. The dictatorship in Angola is unacceptable and we have an obligation to help our brothers and sisters there. Swaziland is a joke that must now come to an end. Our brothers and sisters in Zambia needs better leadership. The whole SADC region needs a political re-awakening.
We black Africans can certainly achieve much higher standards of living in Africa than those expected by whites or the West or the East. We have everything we need accept one thing; LEADERSHIP!
Let’s now rather spend our energy and time organizing ourselves across the borders so that we can create a new African Democratic Movement that creates momentum towards the realization of Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of Pan Africanism with a modern face.
Don’t expect support from our current politicians or their minions, they are all scared of becoming irrelevant. – Please comment and share your views by emailing: vtmusewe@gmail.com
Post published in: Analysis