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The
Psychosis of Denial: Response to "The anatomy of Zimbabwe-s
problems"
Kwanisai
Mafa and Netfa Freeman
Extracted from Pambazuka News 273
October 12, 2006
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/37717
This article
is a response to an article The
Anatomy of Zimbabwe-s Problems by Maggie Makanza that
we published last month. Kwanisai Mafa and Netfa Freeman caution
" . . . all Africans at home and in the Diaspora are to unite
against real live enemies and beware of any diagnoses with a psychosis
of denial that neglects the most pertinent aspects our anatomical
problems."
We agree
with the author of this article that all is not well in Zimbabwe
but she fails to objectively explain the causes of the problems
in Zimbabwe. It is strange to make a statement like "Most pressure
for reform appears to be coming from external rather than internal
forces" without referring to the external destabilization measures
of the British and US governments, the EU and certain white settlers
bent on maintaining power and privilege. This is to speak of such
problems in Zimbabwe as if the aforementioned have no bearing on
them, or as if they do not exist. In psychology this is analogous
to a condition called denial.
Zimbabwe-s
problems are caused by two conflicting ideological dispositions,
Pan-Africanism versus neo-colonialism. To understand this, we must
remember that British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated openly that
he is working with the Movement of Democratic Change in Zimbabwe
to effect regime change. To achieve this objective the western secret
services MI6, CIA, and others used their arsenals of alliances,
networks of military bases, economic devices such as sanctions,
sabotage, blackmail, and provocateurs. Equally insidious is the
psychological weapon of propaganda which aims to impress on the
masses a number of imperialist dogmas.
Kwame Nkrumah
taught us that these are the "mechanisms of neo-colonialism".
Nkrumah told us "In the labor field, for example, imperialism
operates through labor arms like the Social Democratic parties of
Europe led by the British Labor Party, and through such instruments
as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU),
now apparently being superseded by the New York Africa-American
Labor Center (AALC) under AFL-CIO chief George Meany and the well-known
CIA man in labor-s top echelons, Irving Brown."
Philip Agee,
former CIA operative and author of Inside the Company: CIA Diary,
confirms this when he revealed that " . . . the successes
of revolutionary movements in Ethiopia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe,
Grenada, Nicaragua and elsewhere brought 'cold warrior-
Democrats and 'internationalist- Republicans together
to establish in 1979 the American Political Foundation (APF). The
foundation's task was to study the feasibility of establishing through
legislation a government-financed foundation to subsidize foreign
operations in civil society through U.S. non-governmental organizations.
Within APF four task forces were set up to conduct the study, one
for the Democrats, one for the Republicans, one for the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, and one for the American Federation of Labor-Congress
of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)."
Agee describes
how this effort developed mainly into the U.S Agency for International
Development now doing overtly what the CIA used to do covertly to
advance the neo-colonial agenda of the West. The psychological denial
around Zimbabwe consistently avoids such facts. The author asks,
"Why has the pro-democracy movement not been able to capitalize
on many reported failures of the ZANU PF government?" Could
it be because this not a legitimate movement? Nor is it for democracy.
Neglected by
psychological denial in the anatomy of Zimbabwe-s problems
is the fact that the trade union "movement" in Zimbabwe,
which spawned the so-called Movement for Democratic Change, is in
line with recommendations from a 1998 European Union study on Zimbabwe.
These recommendations call for Mugabe-s removal specifically
by systematically building up NGOs and the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) as alternative centers of power,
supported by fostering strikes, demonstrations, urban unrest, food
riots and carefully engineering dissension within the ranks of the
government, the ruling party and the country's armed forces.
The blatant
violation of Zimbabwe-s sovereignty is inherent in the anatomy
of Zimbabwe-s problems. No other word better describes omission
of this fact than the condition of denial.
Surprisingly
the author who is a member of a liberal organization, Zimbabwe Social
Forum, has lost faith in the parliamentary system, and says that
"the continual use of the ballot under the present circumstances
can only be described as sheer madness." What other means
is the author advocating? Imperialism tells us that western democracy
and the parliamentary system are the only valid ways of governing.
Zimbabwe has been using this model to run elections since its independence
every five years without fail.
It is wrong
to say that people lack energy and suffer from inertia to fight
the regime. The only democratic means for regime change is through
the ballot box. We know, however that the leader of the main opposition
in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai is on record as suggesting that if
Mugabe does not want to go they will remove him violently. He has
been exposed through meetings in London and Montreal, Canada in
what was more than likely a plot to assassinate President Mugabe
and stage a coup d'état.
The leader of
MDC has been globetrotting calling for the isolation of Zimbabwe
through economic sanctions. While the western governments are fooling
the world that these are "smart sanctions" targeting
only government and party leaders, so-called progressives abet this
misnomer by blaming Zimbabwe-s ailing economy on Mugabe and
ZANU- PF.
These so-called
progressives neglect to consider that these sanctions openly oppose
"any extension by [international financial institutions] of
any loan, credit, or guarantee to the government of Zimbabwe"
and in addition oppose any reduction or cancellation of debt. It
is dishonest denial to suggest the anatomy of Zimbabwe-s problems
can be determined without conceding to these facts. The ordinary
person is suffering because of these sanctions.
If ZANU PF were
intolerant of the opposition, MDC would not be in parliament. Most
mayors and councilors in urban centers are MDC. MDC legislators
head most parliamentary portfolio committees. This demonstrates
that people in Zimbabwe have the capacity to choose the leadership
they want. ZANU PF knows that urban centres are MDC domains. MDC
knows well that rural constituencies are ZANU PF strongholds. The
majority of the Zimbabwean population lives in rural areas. The
author is not correct to say that rural folk have been used and
then "abandoned" after elections. Since independence,
government has embarked on many developmental projects in rural
areas to improve their lives. Most of the major dams were built
in rural areas for irrigation and fisheries.
Most rural areas
have benefited immensely from the government rural electrification
programs. Schools and clinics have been built and recently the government
is building major referral hospitals in all districts. Every farming
season the government dispatches tractors to rural folk for tillage
but the major challenge has been fuel, a need mostly impeded by
foreign versus domestic challenges.
There are so
many government community empowerment programmes underway in rural
areas. Seed packs and fertilizers are given to the rural folk and
new farmers for free by the government. With these things is it
not also a denial to say rural people are being neglected?
However, the
author is right when she says, "the opposition has worked
on the false assumption that no one supports ZANU PF." Tsvangirai
and his controllers have seen that they cannot dislodge ZANU PF
through the ballot box. That is why they are trying to create the
"necessary conditions needed for combustion to happen"
so that they can violently remove the government. Tsvangirai even
asked President Thabo Mbeki to cut all lifelines to Zimbabwe including
trade routes, electricity supply and fuel. Any leader with people
at heart would not ask for the continued suffering of his own people
until they vote him into power.
On the land
issue, the author needs to do more thorough research about the history
of this question in Zimbabwe. There is nothing poor or chaotic about
the land reform programme. What solution could have been better
to address the racial land imbalance maintained by the "willing
buyer-willing seller" clause? Who was willing to sell land
and who, in a new nation of mostly poor Africans, was in a position
to buy it?
An honest analogy
for the anatomy of Zimbabwe-s problems is more like a gang
taking control of a family-s- house. Only after being
forced by the family to relinquish control in part, the gang then
co-opts certain family members to badger the rest into infighting
while the gang ransacks the house and from outside, standing in
front of their glass homes they throw stones. Our call to all Africans
at home and in the Diaspora is to unite against real live enemies
and beware of any diagnoses with a psychosis of denial that neglects
the most pertinent aspects our anatomical problems.
*Kwanisai Mafa is an Electronic Resources Librarian at Zimbabwe-s
Midland State University and Chairman of the Ujamma Youth Farming
Project in Gweru. He can be reached at cdemafa@yahoo.com
*Netfa Freeman is the Director of the Social Action & Leadership
School for Activists at the Institute for Policy Studies and an
organizer with PALO, the Pan-African Liberation Organization. He
can be reached at netfa@hotsalsa.org
* Please
send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org
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