From the recent NY Times article (06/27/07) that Zimbabwe’s government wants 51% stake in virtually all publicly traded companies to be transferred to Zimbabweans, one could be tempted to think that Zimbabwe has finally reached the promised land. A land where Africans are self-determining, sovereign, and where virtually all or the majority of African resources are for their betterment. One could be tempted to think that finally, political independence has precipitated an economic dimension that is more than just changing guards from colonial masters to Africans while the masters still own and control everything for nobody but themselves. And given the ills of colonialism, racism, and all other schisms that have condemned the African to the periphery of economic progress, it is easy to understand why one would be tempted to want to congratulate His Excellency for paving a road that no other leader, expect, perhaps Idi Amin, has dared pave. You would understand. But, before the temptation strongly gets hold of you, let me exorcise it in the name of my ancestors, history, Zimbabwe, and the future of my children. I command the temptation to let go of you. Zimbabwe is not free, it is falling.
It is not just falling economically, but also spiritually and in character. Zimbabwe is fast becoming un-African by repeating the mistakes that we have condemned for so long- stealing people's property. Whether the victim is white or non-African does not serve our goals. We are Africans. We are a spiritual people. We have Ubuntu and what the government is doing now, is un-African.
What kind of people have we become that we have lost all moral character, integrity, wisdom, self-respect, and the dignity of our ancestors? What kind of people have we become that we sing a chorus of pillage with clowns, boot lickers, and " revolutionaries" whose idea of revolution is about burning down the village of their mothers and children.
Until and unless we Africans learn to distinguish the sham of pseudo-freedom and exchange, from freedom and change, we will always be in an economic, political, and social pendulum swinging between the comfort of political speeches about a false tomorrow, someday, and the concrete reality of poverty and social strife today.
Change is not about exchanging positions with murders and oppressors. It is not about exchanging the wisdom and humanity of our ancestors-"ubuntu"- for stolen wealth, bigger cars, and better demonstrations of how loud we can sing the song "revolution."
So, if you were ever tempted to think that Zimbabwe has finally overcome, I caution, warn, and command you to stop. Stop dreaming! Do not go about composing songs that His Excellency has bigger balls than Tony B-lair, and singing the song " we have overcome.
" Stop! Now sing....
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome the day
Oh deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome the day when we become true Africans.
True Africans know that society precedes the self, that village is more important than the hut, and that the pot is better than the plate. True Africans know that the individual is supposed to work for the common good of the community. So, what kind of Africans are our leaders who do not know that destroying the village destroys the self. Leaders who loot from the village, who kill their own families, and who have grown younger rather than wiser with age.
Forget the White man, the enemy is us, and the war must be against us! Us who put self before community, us who no longer have a sense of self-respect, the wisdom of when to come and go from politics, and the African humility to say I have failed, please help me.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
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Sir,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect I do not know in what part of the World you have been living in. You talk about respect and honesty as if those were virtues that only Africans have to respect. If you see the nature of colonization, specifically capitalism and the privatization of all resources that opens the door to Europeen investors to come and distroy small African economies, then you will praise Mugabe. Thinking that nationalizing companies is stealing, think again, these companies belonged to Zimbabwe before been stolen. Mugabe is just get back what once was his country's property. This is the kind of thinking you guys use to destroy morale in Africa. You've seen that the CIA killed Lumumba, ust to keep him from doing what Mugabe has started. I may agree with you on the fact that "the enemy is us", meaning people and reasoning like you and yours.
Even though I happen to be from Zimbabwe, I do not want you to think that I what I am saying is not subject to challenge. However, what I am essentially saying that African leaders themselves are using the masses to loot on their own behalf. In Zimbabwe, there are many clear examples. The so called Land reform was hijacked by politicians who appropriated farms and resources to their relatives under the disguise of doing it for common good. We have had a number of business people whose resources have been taken by the government as well as been barred from participation because leaders wanted a cut. Good examples are Mutumwa Mawere, he rallied Africans around, got money, bought mines in Zimbabwe and the government took everything from him. Strive Masiyiwa, founder of Econet Wireless, a global company that is listed on the London Stock Exchange, had party people barring him from investing because they wanted a piece of the pie. There are far too many examples for me to go on. But, the bottom line is that unless and until we plan for change, fight our own material greed, Africa will be on a treadmill, running fast but going nowhere. We do not eat morale, and morale does not build nations, especially if it is ill-conceived morale that just comes from celebrating that the Black brothers are sticking it to the white man. For what end?
ReplyDeleteI am all for morale, but a morale to celebrate our descipline and diligence in making sure that we deliver all of Africa on a platter for all Africans, not just a few people. What difference does it make to me or my people if the Black leaders are worse off than their former colonizers. That said, I do recognize what is happening in international affairs, our position as a continent, but unless we band together, we fight a real war, then our morale is a sham.
I personally believe that we have been accomplices in much of our own destruction from slavery to present day servitude. Had we been self-respecting to say we are a community and we reject subjugation of any one of us, we would be in a different place. But instead, some of us said and continue to say, well we reject subjugation, but if you pay us well, we are down, as long as you subjugate so and so. And this is not only a continental African problem. It is all over. So the sooner we see who we are dealing with, the better we will be.