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Zimbabwe
and Namibia: The people betrayed
Henning
Melber, Extracted from Pambazuka News 389
July 17, 2008
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/49495
In 1980 the
Zimbabwean "povo" (people) celebrated a victory over
settler colonialism and Western imperialism. We celebrated with
them. For us, this was a step closer to Namibian sovereignty, even
though the overwhelming victory of ZANU was time-wise a detour on
our long road to Independence. The unexpected result had taught
Western imperialism a lesson. It shattered its manic assumptions
that one could orchestrate and manipulate an election, even if the
people are allowed to cast a secret vote at the ballot. Without
major intimidation the "povo" used the weapon of an
electoral process, by voting for the cock (the symbol for Mugabe-s
ZANU), and not the archbishop (Abel Muzorewa, who was considered
the blue eyed boy of the West). The people knew what they wanted:
a government of their own choice, which they had reasons to believe
would represent their interests.
Almost three
decades later, 18 years into Namibian Independence, we have to face
the sobering realities: Mugabe and his loyal clique in ZANU/PF messed
it up. By the end of the 1990s they had lost the "povo."
While they blamed Western imperialism for this, it was in the first
place their own elitist neocolonial project, which betrayed the
liberation gospel and thereby the people. From the start, the new
rulers were not shy of ruthlessly violent practices. Remember the
genocidal mass violence in Matabeleland shortly after Independence
(Gukurahunundi).
Tens of thousand innocent people were tortured, maimed, raped, mutilated
and slaughtered between 1983 and 1985 by the North Korean trained
Fifth Brigade. Only because being Ndebele they were considered guilty
of being in support of Josuah Nkomo-s ZAPU, a competing liberation
movement finally coerced into the ZANU/PF alliance. With a few exceptions
(notably the Catholic church inside Zimbabwe), those who knew remained
silent and thereby endorsed if not encouraged the perpetrators to
further cultivate their dehumanizing version of "chimurenga"
against the people.
The violent nature of the new elite in control over the state displayed
similiar features to the mindset of those "Rhodies"
they were fighting against during the "chimurenga".
It was the language of coercion and oppression, which dictated the
colonial reality and crept into the "liberated" society,
where it prospered and flourished. By the time of Independence,
the former victims had turned increasingly into perpetrators to
achieve their goals. More than twenty years later the degree of
violence and brutality with which they treated their fellow-Zimbabweans
had exceeded the atrocities under colonial rule and made life for
the majority of the people more miserable than before Independence.
When the self-enrichment
schemes of the new elite alienated its members and their beneficiaries
more and more from the "povo", they blamed Western imperialism
for the deterioration of legitimate rule and the erosion of credibility.
But the anti-imperialist rhetoric, which became an opportunistic,
populist effort to cover up the own failures, was merely a smoke
screen. It worked for many among those, who were not at the receiving
end of the government-s policy at home. Those, who could afford
to identify with the pseudo-alternative discourse promoted by Mugabe
at a time, when he had already lost the confidence and support of
his very own people. In contrast to these privileged outsiders,
who could cheer to the misleading tune without consequence for themselves,
those who were supposed to benefit from the fruits of Independence
now fled their home country in the millions. More than ever before
under colonial rule have meanwhile ended in exile and wait for the
time to return. That is in itself an outrageous scandal.
After twenty years under
Mugabe-s ZANU/PF, Zimbabweans moved away in ever growing numbers
from the liberation movement in power. Manipulated elections could
not cover up the realities that Mugabe had lost the "povo."
Not because of an imperialist conspiracy, which sought to undermine
a nationalist government challenging the West. But because those
who pretend to uphold the banner of anti-imperialism had in actual
fact betrayed the very same people whose interests they claimed
to represent. As a matter of fact, the people did not even count
any longer. As Mugabe stated just ahead of the scheduled runoff
presidential vote to a group of businessmen in Bulawayo: "Only
God, who appointed me, will remove me." - The voice
and vote of the "povo" had been eliminated from the
justification of executing power.
In an act of betrayal,
the Zimbabwean sell-outs posed as truthful revolutionaries, while
they served foremost their own narrow class interests. Operation
"Murambatsvina" (meaning "clean out the rubbish"
or "sweep out the dirt") destroyed in a large-scale
operation during 2005 systematically the shacks of the urban dwellers,
while Mugabe and his clan lived in the luxury of palaces. The poorest
were even robbed of what was left to them. The derogatory term,
in which reference was made to the tens of thousand of marginalized,
as if they would be vermin, speaks for itself. This was the arrogance
of power, alienated from the masses. The same masses, who once formed
the basis for a successful struggle against the minority rule in
control if not over the people, then at least over the state power
and its repressive military and police apparatus.
How similar is the situation
today. Again an estranged minority maintains rule by all means and
at all costs over a majority yearning for change. Only that the
minority regime is not foreign. The "intimate enemy",
as the Indian post-colonial theorist Ashis Nandy termed it, is born
and bread under colonialism and socialized in a colonial context
and its terms, no matter how much it poses as its alternative. It
comes from the belly of the beast. It speaks the same language of
power. It shows the same disrespect for human rights and democracy.
It documents that the colonial legacy is not yet defeated. Imperialism,
as the ultimate irony of the story, lives on in the pseudo-anti-imperialist
postures of the regime, which has lost the people but tries to compensate
for this by claiming to challenge imperialism.
If the project of liberation
from foreign rule was more than mere lip service to cover up a neo-colonial
elite project, we need to position ourselves in no uncertain terms
in opposition to such betrayal. We need to re-define our notion
of solidarity. It is not us, who turn our back to solidarity by
taking the ZANU/PF regime to task and deny it any rightful claim
to a continued existence. It is the words and deeds of the ZANU/PF
regime, which show that they have lost any moral claim to any form
of recognition and support. This does not mean that we end up as
bedfellows to the Blairs, Browns, Bushs and Co., as long as we continue
to condemn in no uncertain terms their double talk, their Guantanamo
Bays, their invasions, their inherent racist immigration policies,
their state terror dubbed as "war against terror", their
hegemonic global projects. We have little to nothing in common with
them, even though we criticize like they do in certain cases the
same violation of fundamental human values. Our motives are different.
But if we compromise on this, we compromise our values and end up
as bedfellows to the Mugabes. This cannot be the alternative.
Our position to Zimbabwe
should be guided by our commitment to true liberation, which embodies
a democratic, human rights oriented culture within a socio-economic
system seeking to at least reduce (if not to eliminate) the indecent
proportions of inequality. The struggle for political self-determination
was a struggle for emancipation also in economic terms. It was a
struggle for human dignity shared by all. Those who deny such human
dignity to others, often for their own selfish interests and gains,
forfeit any claim to support. If we continue to back them, or at
least indirectly continue to allow them to literally get away with
murder by remaining evasive or silent, we betray our own values
and people. We betray our own project of liberation, which is one
in no isolation from other people. It is a project, which applies
to all people everywhere.
Imperialists the world
over and in all colours and shades try to exploit the contradictions
and conflicts we seek to come to terms with for their own gains.
We have to live with this challenge, even if it means that we need
to part with old companions. We do have to part because we have
not given up the commitment and determination to contribute to a
better future for more people. Because we remain convinced that
this is the way forward, instead of compromising with the class
interests of a new elite, which continues to exploit and terrorize
the people just as the colonial masters of the past did.
It should not be pigmentation
that ultimately decides over loyalties and common bonds. It should
be the shared values and norms to pursue freedom, equality and dignity
for as many people as possible with the aim to ever increase their
numbers. If this means to part with some old friends, it also means
at times to re-join the "povo". The wretched of the
earth are entitled to our empathy, our identification, and our solidarity.
"A luta continua"
should never be accepted as a translation into "the looting
continues", as the East African scholar activist Firoze Manji
warned a couple of years ago at a Southern African conference in
Windhoek. Otherwise we sacrifice our own credibility and legitimacy,
and betray the very same values, which motivated our struggle and
the sacrifices of so many. As people, we deserve better. And political
representatives of the people, who care about integrity, legitimacy
and the "povo", should learn from Zimbabwe and the writing
on the wall.
*Dr. Henning
Melber is Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation
in Uppsala/Sweden. He has been Research Director of The Nordic Africa
Institute (2000-2006) and Director of the Namibian Economic Policy
Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek (1992-2000).
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
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