Blueprint For Africa's Future

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki along with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. The two leaders had worked on a power-sharing agreement for Zimbabwe., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Zim story: Blueprint for Africa’s future

Sunday, 17 November 2013 00:00
Logun Mhukahurui
Zimbabwe Sunday Mail

While delivering a landmark lecture at the University of South Africa (Unisa) on the 23rd of August 2013, former South African president Mr Thabo Mbeki said: “I am using this example about Zimbabwe as an example about our continent because all of these things I am saying relating to Zimbabwe you can find the same (or) similar examples on the continent . . .”

He also added that: “. . . Zimbabweans have been in the frontline in terms of defending our right as Africans to determine our future . . .” Mr Mbeki did not end there; he went on to say: “. . . (an) offensive against Zimbabwe is an offensive against the rest of the continent . . .” because such “. . . (an) offensive is not in the first instance about Zimbabwe, it is about the future of the continent.”

In this historic lecture, Mr Mbeki raised quite a number of matters pertinent not only to Zimbabwe but to Africa as a whole. I strongly feel that some of the issues he raised have not been given the respect they deserve from among Africans, especially in Zimbabwe, itself the centrepiece of the presentation. And my intention in this instalment is therefore quite simple: to regenerate a constructive debate around the relevance of the Zimbabwean narrative within the broader spectrum of the African story.

The most important idea in Mr Mbeki’s famous lecture to me is his attempt to situate the Zimbabwean narrative into perspective for a full appreciation and understanding of this noble Pan-African story within the composite African thought and discourse.

It is this thinking that has immensely influenced my instalment. Hopefully this should adequately explain why I have quoted Mr Mbeki’s landmark lecture so extensively; in fact, I have quoted this lecture to the verges of plagiarism.

In short, Mr Mbeki’s extraordinary lecture - itself a must-read presentation for all genuine Africans - is a rude awakening to African intellectuals in particular and to all African leaders and their citizens in general, to stand up tall and claim our right to self-governance and self-determination; to jealously protect our independence; to respect ourselves and our institutions first and foremost and to consolidate our sovereignty with pride and dignity.

Many intellectuals from Africa and abroad have reiterated the very same sentiments which Mr Mbeki discussed in this lecture. One quite outstanding among the tall list is Mr Baffour Ankomah, a Ghanaian-born writer and editor of New African magazine. Mr Ankomah recently called upon Zimbabwe not to fail in its progressive movement because such would be tantamount to failing Africa as a whole. Failure by Zimbabwe is a failure by Africa hence Zimbabwe cannot afford to fail in this highly and gloriously exemplary trajectory.

Mr Ankomah said this while addressing delegates during a retreat organised by the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services and stakeholders, at a local hotel in Harare, to meet the new minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo, and his deputy, Mr Supa Mandiwanzira.

His call was loud and clear: in all that Zimbabwe has started, in all that the country has stood for, against the onslaught and the pains brought by our detractors, failure is just not an option because if Zimbabwe fails, Africa fails, too. Juxtapose this sentiment with Mr Mbeki’s “. . . offensive against Zimbabwe is an offensive against Africa,” then you get a crystal clear picture of the relevance and the importance of the Zimbabwean story to Africa.

Talking about the offensive on Zimbabwe, this is a phenomenon that needs no introduction, but I should remind you, gentle reader, of the thinking behind it just for the record. If there is anything that augments and solidifies otherwise mutually apprehensive relations between and among the West and greater parts of Europe, it is the shared and renewed love to hate and hurt Zimbabwe for a simple sin that the country is setting wrong precedence to the region and the rest of Africa.

This is even painstakingly captured in Mr Mbeki’s lecture. Apparently, it is beyond any imaginable doubt that the nationalistic narrative that Zimbabwe presents to Africa and the whole world, in this renewed revolutionary spirit and Pan-African vigour is in itself a comprehensive and holistic blueprint for Africa’s future and development.

I have always believed in the true Zimbabwean story as told by true Zimbabweans and my recent experiences in West Africa could only solidify my belief. I made a few friends in Senegal, at the Leopold Sedar Senghor International Airport where I stayed for almost 12 hours awaiting my connecting flight to The Gambia.

I vividly remember one long conversation I had with a friend at the airport in Senegal. I remember this chat very well because it was one encounter among many that stretched my intellect more than I was prepared to.

Coming from a heavily misguided point of view about Zimbabwe, my tall, dark and handsome friend was very inquisitive and his English, which was heavily tainted by the pronunciation of his first language and the acquisition of French as a second language, did not do our discussion a favour.

And worse still, my good friend disagreed ferociously as I tried to explain what the real Zimbabwe is like. So our conversation went on for hours on end. Fortunately, towards the end of our conversation, after a spirited struggle on my part, my good friend started to understand and appreciate the true Zimbabwean story.

In short, my dear friend was convinced that the gruesome stories they hear about Zimbabwe from Britain and America through their media were all true and to him, Zimbabwe was one of the worst countries in Africa. In this part of Africa, most stories from New York and London are accepted as gospel truth. So to my good friend, there was not even the remotest morsel of democracy in Zimbabwe.

Elections were last held in 1980 and whatever followed thereafter were mere ceremonial processes of endorsing Mugabe and his regime’s stronghold on power. And in the process, Mugabe’s regime has literally butchered all dissenting voices and among this recalcitrant lot, only Tsvangirai is alive.

To my good friend, just like to many other West Africans I met thereafter, Zimbabwe is a country literally engulfed by gratuitous, uncontrolled and uncontrollable violence. There is a civil war of some sort in Zimbabwe; it is a country of primitive, backward and barbaric natives; a country given to hunger and starvation; a society ravaged by pungent poverty and abject squalor; a state gnawed from the heart by all social, political and economic vices you can think of. This is the unfortunate image that Britain and America, through their information vehicles and other social media networks, have painted about Zimbabwe to people in West Africa.

What even shocked me was that, my friend was actually convinced that the movie presentation of Idi Amin, the famous Ugandan dictator, was actually a true life story in Zimbabwe.

So you can imagine, gentle reader, the pains I had to endure trying to sell the real Zimbabwean story to my newly found friends in West Africa who had a completely false image about Zimbabwe. But one huge advantage about Zimbabwe in West Africa, and most likely in the whole African continent, if not the world over, is that even the very common of the common man knows that there is a country called Zimbabwe ruled by one very aggressive president called Robert Mugabe.

What they just do not know are the good things in this country and the marvellous things that this very aggressive leader called Mugabe has done for his people.

You would understand and even forgive my friend for carrying such gross misconceptions about Zimbabwe, for two main reasons. One, my dear friend never had, in his whole life, an opportunity to hear the true Zimbabwean story as told by a true Zimbabwean. In fact, the true Zimbabwean narrative has not been told through the means and to the level it should have especially to this part of the continent. And secondly, the sources of information that shaped my dear friend’s thinking are traditional and eternal enemies of Zimbabwe, and as such they would never tell the true Zimbabwean story. Actually, they do not want the true Zimbabwean story to ever be told, not even in Zimbabwe and worse outside her borders. If ever the Zimbabwean story is told, it should be so ruinous, so horrific and so shameful that no other country would want to emulate it.

The interplay (or is it lack of it) of these two main factors - there are other related factors of course - created a fertile ground in the painting of an all doom-and-gloom picture about Zimbabwe in the psyche of my dear friend. But what did hurt me the most was the realisation that my friend’s grossly compromised understanding of the politics and governance, socio-economic, and even general life in Zimbabwe represented that of many simple men in West Africa.

In Banjul, the capital city of The Gambia, I met quite a number of people with this wholly untrue picture about Zimbabwe.

In fact, most of my West African friends wanted me to merely rubber-stamp what they thought was true about Zimbabwe. It was so hard for them to believe what I told them about Zimbabwe, which was directly the opposite of “what they knew” about Zimbabwe. It is against this backdrop that Zimbabweans, more than ever before, have to stand up tall and proudly tell their story to Africa and to the whole world. The truth about the success of this purely Pan-African story has to be told today and now without fear or favour but with pride and confidence.

Africa needs to hear the true Zimbabwean story as told by a true, confident and proud Zimbabwean. The continent needs to be told that this Zimbabwe, under the wise, capable and unwavering leadership of President Robert Mugabe was born out of the bullet and blood; fired and shed for over 14 years of a gruesome armed struggle, one of the worst ever witnessed in Africa; that this Zimbabwe of Robert Mugabe has redistributed land to over 400 000 families who had been previously relegated to the peripheries of their own productive land by colonial masters for well over a century; that this same Zimbabwe, in a few years’ time will be producing 30 percent of the world’s purest diamonds; that many Zimbabwean communities are now benefiting immensely from various indigenisation and economic empowerment programmes championed by President Mugabe.

Zimbabwe is among the best countries in terms of literacy and education in the world.
The whole world has to be told these and many other true Zimbabwean stories. Every government ministry, every national institution, every organisation operating in Zimbabwe, every Zimbabwean company and every Zimbabwean family and or individual, whenever and wherever they are, should begin to tell the true Zimbabwean story with pride.

The Zimbabwean narrative should remain highly active in the conscious mind of every Zimbabwean and indeed in the national psyche because it is not like any other story. It is unique in the sense that when and if it is told and re-told in its original Pan-African flavour, the narrative can lead to the total emancipation of Africa in the political, economic and mental spheres. It is the blueprint of a holistic emancipation and development of Africa.

That Zimbabwe as a country and indeed Africa as a whole is engaging a strategic, rightful and God-ordained mode of dictating our future politically and economically, and that America and Europe is not comfortable with this inevitable development is not a eureka discovery.

It is rather a simple conclusion derived from a simple analysis of the world’s trajectory in a political and economic context.

As such individuals, organisations, institutions and stakeholders have to find themselves in this national narrative such that as our country progresses, we all move together as one complex machine pushing a wholly new world order.

Unfortunately for Zimbabwe and for Africa, not all people, not all countries and not all continents will be willing to see us attain our rightful place in this inevitable new world order.

For obvious reasons, America and Europe will lead the pack of enemies of the country who are by extension enemies of the continent. Due to their self-gratifying policies centred on military invasions and fuelled by neo-colonial ambitions, America and the Western bloc have evolved into some senseless blood-sucking vampires. And Africans have to fight for their rights.

They have to fight for breathing space in this cruel world.

Under this context, African unity is the only solution to this equation. The old adage that united we stand and divided we fall has never been more relevant to Africa than it is today. Indeed the demand among Africans to have their respective leaders speak with a single voice has never been louder and clearer than it is today and now. More apparent than anything is the need for all Africans to sing from the same hymn book hence the Zimbabwean story becomes extremely relevant to guide and encourage Africa along this labyrinth leading to sustainable development.

Indeed the unity that has been exhibited by Zimbabweans around their Pan-African story, the very fibre appreciated and augmented by all progressive observers of Zimbabwe’s just-ended harmonised election of July 2013, is a clear pointer to this unity of purpose between and among Africans. Surely there is immeasurable value in the Zimbabwean narrative that all African states should extract and make relevant and applicable in their respective contexts even if Britain and America are not comfortable with this.

Radical feminists always say to abused women, a man can abuse you only if you allow him to and this also happens to a level and for a time that you allow him to. Likewise, America and Europe can abuse us (Africans) only if and when we accept to be abused by them and this happens for a time and to a level that we allow them to.

This assertion is certainly true especially when one considers the relations that Africa has had with Europe particularly during the colonial period.

The day that Africans said we have had enough of colonial nonsense, despite their mighty power in war weaponry, the colonialists ran away with their long stool-dirty tails tacked between their legs.
All this boils down to the fact that the true Zimbabwean story has to be told with pride and dignity - whoever we are, whenever and wherever we are.

From the hilltops down in the village to the colossus bright towers of the city; from the deep valleys yonder to the mountain tops, the Zimbabwean narrative should be told.

Charira!!!

logunmhukahuru@gmail.com