Comrade Mugabe – hero and a tragic spectacle in his own right 

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot

June 19, 2008 

A resolution, titled RS H. RES. 1270, was passed by the US House of Congress on June 12, 2008 that puts political events in Zimbabwe today in context.

The resolution was spearheaded by a group of House Representatives, among whom was Mr. Donald M. Payne, an African American representing the Congressional District of Newark, NJ. 

Kudos to Mr. Payne for not kowtowing to the usual orthodoxy of Black unity that required opposition to imperialism at all cost, even when your own was culpable.

The desire of the resolution was to commend the effort of South African dock workers of the port of Durban, and members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, who blocked the attempt to transfer arms from China to Zimbabwe, through South African ports.

In the process, the resolution Mr. Payne offered lacerated to pieces, and justifiably so, Comrade Mugabe’s reputation.

Mugabe had sought arms from China to fortify his chances of remaining in power, immediately after the March 29, 2008 failed presidential elections in Zimbabwe.

And China, bent on her own brand of imperialism, consented.

Obvious to all but China and Mugabe, the incumbent president, the result showed on the day of the election that Mugabe had lost the March 2008 contest. 

Yet, Mugabe remains in power today because of events he and his cronies unleashed on the opposition in Zimbabwe immediately after the elections.

For close to five weeks the results of the elections went undeclared.  Then, after much international pressure and protests from within, Mugabe and his cronies consented finally to the release. 

However, the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai, found to its chagrin that it had won but could not assume power because of a constitutional requirement – it lacked the majority needed for governance.

By accounts of many within civil society, the “lack of majority” excuse given by the Mugabe machine was just that. 

Old Mugabe simply did not want to cede power.   His cronies had either low counted or stolen votes to leave the opposition party with less than was required constitutionally.  Thus, a run-off was set for June 27, 2008.

Evidently, and in plain sight, the people of Zimbabwe have once again been robbed of the chance to rid themselves of the aging autocrat Mugabe. 

And since the run-off was announced, his government has “unleashed a campaign of terror and intimidation against opposition members, supporters, and other civilians in a desperate attempt to cling to power,”  Resolution H. RES. 1270 declared.

The resolution went on to describe Robert Mugabe as “Zimbabwe's liberator-turned-despot.”  The description could not be more apt.

Mugabe is a despot because his acts say so.  He is an autocrat who thinks there can be no Zimbabwe without him. 

There are those who still seek to romanticize him.  But it is absurd not to think that his own actions have not wiped away his exploits as a hero.  And nothing is half as tragic as a hero who diminishes himself.

By diminishing his hero status, Mugabe has diminished all of us; in this case those of us in Africa and in the Diaspora.

Since independence some 28 years ago, Mugabe has been the only leader Zimbabwe has known. 

He did away with Ian Smith.  He also pushed into exile his erstwhile comrade in arms, Joshua Nkomo and destroyed the latter’s tribal based ZAPU party in a military style operation that caused thousands to be killed.

Today, Mugabe has brought on Zimbabwe a misery quotient that Ian Smith, for all his diabolic reasons, could not have done.

As it stands now, Mugabe’s gloomy administration of the fortunes of Zimbabwe may be the only lesson future African leaders need to know so as not to act like him.

Those who will seek to idolize him today, after all the maladministration, risk the cementing a suffering of a sentimental kind on the future of Africa.

The revolution in Zimbabwe was for the people, not Mugabe. 

The people of Zimbabwe rose against imperialism and colonialism. 

And Mugabe is bringing these back by way of the Chinese. 

China’s incursion into Africa is motivated by the same reasons that brought Europe to scramble up Africa in the 19^th century. 

Yet, Comrade Mugabe sees a distinction and a difference between the Europeans and the Chinese today.

As we see it, this is so only because the Chinese are needed to prop up Mugabe’s failing regime. 

Political violence in post-colonial Zimbabwe today is now entirely a Mugabe’s creation.  Human rights groups have witnessed and spoken against sponsored partisan violence and political terror that rank with the worse in world history. 

Since 1980, there has been violence in every election in Zimbabwe and the run-off for June 27, 2008 will be no exception.

In 2007, the US Department of State, in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, issued the following statements: 

That, “the Mugabe regime `is engaged in the pervasive and systematic abuse of human rights,” and that `state-sanctioned use of excessive force increased, and security forces tortured members of the opposition, student leaders, and civil society activists.”

You may not want to hear the U.S.  After all they are the much-loathed imperialist. 

But how about former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, an African hero, who “described the situation in Zimbabwe as intolerable and criticized African leaders who cling to power”” according to Herald Tribune?

Or the Congress of Southern African Trade Unions that called for a global boycott of arms to Zimbabwe because “there’s no prospect of there being a sudden external invasion of Zimbabwe. And so, it is very difficult for anyone to conclude that this ammunition is likely to be used for anything other than to take action against opposition groups.”?

Countries in the region, Mozambique and South Africa included, have spoken.

They do not want more arms to be shipped to Zimbabwe.  According to Zambian President and Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairman Levy Mwanawasa, `I hope this will be the case with all the countries because we do not want a situation which will escalate the situation in Zimbabwe more than what it is.”

The US Congress just spoke with its intention to pass a resolution on Comrade Mugabe.  Now can the Chinese tell him that the romance is over?

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, June 19, 2008

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