REQUIEM FOR MUGABE

REQUIEM FOR MUGABE-Mugabe's Last Act of Historical and Political Suicide

Chika Onyeani

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief African Sun Times

(March 21-27, 2002 on newsstands)

When those of us who became of age in the late 1950s and early 1960s remember the great joy and happiness we all experienced at the victory that Africa was going to win over our imperialist Europe and colonialists, we are now shedding tears that Africa has been dealt the worst hand at the rulers who we thought would rescue us from that intolerable knowledge of being a slave to another human being. The late 1950s and early 1960s were a time of joyous exuberance for us as Africans. It was the time of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Leopold Senghor of Senegal, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and of course Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.

We cheered heartily when we heard Nkrumah tell us that Africa could not be free when one African was still under bondage. Today, Africa is still under bondage, but not from the imperialist and colonialist Europe, but rather at the hands of other Africans.

I have shed tears for mother Africa; in fact, I have literally shed tears for Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe, a hero of the Republic of Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia), who would rather tarnish his image in the pursuit of unbriddled power and ambition. It is therefore with great sadness that hundreds of millions of Africans who had come to include Robert Mugabe among the heroes of Africa, are unfortunately left with no choice than to say a requiem for Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Here is the Robert Mugabe we all saw as a hero of Zimbabwe as well as Africa.

Born in to a peasant family of herdsmen February 21, 1924, Mr. Mugabe had his early education with the Roman Catholic schools. By the age of 17, he had already qualified as a primary school teacher, and then decided to get involved in the political process of liberating his people from the British Crown. Mugabe took his first steps in this direction by quitting his teaching posts, and enrolling at the Fort Hare University in South Africa, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951. But before then, he had already came into contact with other freedom fighters and nationalist leaders in southern Africa. Mugabe returned to Rhodesia in 1960, and joined with other Black nationalist leaders in forming a series of political parties which were banned by the white-minority government.

In 1964, Mr. Mugabe was detained along with several other nationalist leaders, and spent the next 10 years in prison camps and in jail without trial. Whilst in jail, he continued with his studies, as well as consolidating his position in the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), and emerged from prison in November 1974 as leader of the party. He left Rhodesia that same year for Mozambique, where he led the largest guerrilla force, fighting the white-minority government of Ian Smith. In 1979, after a protracted negotiation with Britain under the so-called Lancaster House agreement, which brought peace to Rhodesia, Mr. Mugabe returned home to a rapturous welcome from all blacks in the then Rhodesia. His party won the ensuing election, but had to form a coalition government with the Nkomo-led ZAPU party in 1960 when he effectively became the Prime Minister of Rhodesia. He promptly changed the name of Rhodesia back to its original empirical name, Zimbabwe. Mr. Mugabe has led the government of Zimbabwe therefore for the past 22 years. The Mugabe we just described is the Mugabe that millions of Africans came to admire and respect. But that Robert Mugabe is sadly no more, but a Mugabe who has inflicted more pain like other African leaders of his ilk on poor masses of Africans.

It is inconceiable to most of us that at 78, Robert Mugabe would be so driven with the trappings of power that he would lie, cheat, and subject millions of Zimbabweans to a far worse condition than they were subjected to under white rule. Unfortunately, Mr. Mugabe is not unique in this department, as he is merely a reflection of other African leaders who have decided to give him succour than tell him in no unmistable terms that what he was trying to do, what he did and what he continues to do, are totally unacceptable in the so-called 21st Century African Renaissance. If Mugabe felt that he was so beloved by his people, the right thing to do was to offer the unconditional opportunity to express themselves by allowing everybody entitled to vote to vote freely according to their choice. Unfortunately, Mugabe did everything to see that he stole the recently concluded election in Zimbabwe.

Mr. Mugabe continues to waive the specter of white-minority owned lands in Zimbabwe. We unequivocally agree that there is absolutely no reason why a white minority of 76,000 people should continue to control more than 60 percent of fertile land in Zimbabwe. The land does not belong to them, and never had. The land was stolen from Africans who were forcibly ejected from those lands during British rule and the subsequent Ian Smith illegal government. But Mr. Mugabe has had 22 years to settle the land issue. Unfortunately, what most people are not aware of in the hoopla of land seizures is that Mr.

Mugabe's government has repurchased some lands from their owners at market rates. But Mr. Mugabe has not seen it fit to distribute those re-acquired lands to his new found friends - the so-called veterans. Rather, these lands have been kept within the Mugabe family or given to his comrades in the government.

Again, those who cry the loudest about what a bad man Mr. Mugabe has become, are the same governments which reneged on an earlier agreement to make millions of pound sterling available to the Zimbabwe government to carry out a successful re-acquisition of the land from the white minority farmers - the British government. Sadly, Mr. Mugabe has won a pyrrhic victory. You cannot thumb your nose at the same people you are going to be crying to for help - the Europeans. If all Mr. Mugabe has accomplished is to use every subterfuge to win an election and then go begging to the same people he expelled from monitoring the election, it is a sad commentary on his bloated ego, as well as on those who encouraged him to stay in power at all costs.