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A youthful President Robert Mugabe in 1991
By Louis Egbe Mbua
Hon. Corbyn finished his speech at the House of Commons on the Debate on Democracy and Elections in Africa that held on 22 April 2008. As the focus was on Zimbabwe and Cameroon, it was time for the Zimbabweans to take to the floor. One of the Speakers on the main platform was a woman: she spoke first. I made discrete enquires, from a reliable Zimbabwe source also ensconced in Committee Room 15 as to her name; and was told that her name was Ms Mastara.
Ms Mastara began with a vivid and eloquent lamentation on the sufferings of her people. According to her narrative, one-eighth (1/8) or more practically one in every eight of Zimbabweans are extremely rich while seven out of 8 of the population are poor to the point of destitution; and are almost reduced to perpetual beggars to eke out an almost certainly inexistent marginal living.
She then turned to Gender issues: that there is persistent abuse of women in Zimbabwe although she did not actually say in clarity what these abuses entailed. However, one's intuition points to the lack of opportunities because Ms Mastara appeared to have laid down her solution to this "abuse" on the foundation that women should be provided a platform so that they may have a voice in public life. The conclusion one can draw from this inductive reasoning is that women may have been discriminated in public life in Zimbabwe; or that their labour rights had been ignored while their human rights to freedom of decent living had been trampled on.
Ms Mastara then returned to the important and debatable farm land question that has been politically explosive, racially charged and a tremendous socially vexation in the country; and possibly the cause of Zimbabwe's economic maelstrom; and the poltical nightmare of Mr. Mugabe: and the rise of national opposition to his rule that has been exacerbated by international economic and political sanction of the Mugabe regime. Mastara compounded the debate by embellishing Agricultural skills to the former White farmers while stating categorically that Black people had no Agricultural skills that could match those of the Whites: reason, according to her analysis, being that Black Zimbabweans were never taught advanced Agricultural skills leaving them as unskilled labourers. However, in another scenario and a succinct counterattack to her claims, the Pro-Mugabe or the ZANU-PF group that were also present at the debate challenged what they called a "gross distortion of history"; and that Ms Mastara had to reconsider her statements because before the Europeans arrived Zimbabwe and Southern Africa at about 1652, Black people practised well-organised governance and advanced traditional Agriculture. Consequently, they have traditional farming experience which they could develop before the lands were expropriated from the natives without compensation to be allocated to Europeans.
Mastara further added more volcanic fire to the debate by advocating that the Mugabe government-led brutal seizure of farmlands by Zimbabwe freedom fighter war veterans ought to be returned to the skilled White farmers. Additionally, she stated that in this case White farmers must be held as accountable for their actions as any corrupt African politician. She buttressed her proclamation and proposed solution by pointing out the unaccountability of White farmers in relation to abuse of the land and the people with impunity since the dawn of independence and the rise of President Mugabe in 1980.
Ms Mastara's arguments were too explosive for the pro-Mugabe or the Zimbabwean Nationalist camp to sit without making a stand to "correct" what they vehemently denounced as a "shamelessly-conceived colonial manifesto" to hand back Zimbabwe to the dark past of White racial tyranny against the majority black Zimbabweans by the White Zimbabwean minority and; the culture of unfounded supremacist doctrine whose main objectives was ethnic deprivation and exclusion. The Pro-Mugabe camp then pointed out that only 2% of the population of the country is White. But stressed that they believe all Zimbabweans regardless of racial or tribal origin have equal rights to live and prosper in the country but that it would be the saddest of days if the nation were to return to the dark days of racial privilege.
Ms Mastara went further by stating with uncanny confidence that Zimbabwe was efficiently run by White Zimbabweans even after independence until the land "seizure" fiasco that began in the late 1990s; and that when they left as a result or reaction or both of Mugabe's arbitrary and brutal land take over, without compensation to the White farmers, the country was left to the devices of incompetent and unskilled Black Zimbabweans. As a result, the economy collapsed. Her solution is that Africans should learn to run their own affairs rather than sit on their laurels while other people take control of their destiny.
To that; the debate on Zimbabwe closed. The audience then waited for the next Speaker.
Author's Comments:
It is unfortunate that Zimbabwe has endured and continues to endure such economic hardship and socio-political trauma. Zimbabweans, from the author's encounters and experience, are one of the best educated and well-behaved Africans. They are well trained in their African language; and also fluent in good English. Today, they are unwanted refugees even in South Africa: poignantly many South Africans were refugees in Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria etc. in the 1980s when Apartheid was at its height. The following is that the disgraceful xenophobia that is being exhibited by South Africans against Zimbabweans and other Africans is a perfect pointer to the great misfortune for Zimbabwe.
Not only have they lost their best minds to other countries, but are now subjected to torture in their own country and the country they helped to achieve freedom from a dreadful racial supremacist policy that threatened to wipe out South Africans. The South African hate campaign against other Africans in general and Zimbabweans in particular must be halted by South African leaders. South Africans must leave the ideology of hate that bedevilled their nation for almost 300 years and return to the world of civilised norms where human beings are not burned alive in broad day light.
While it is understandable that the wicked system of hatred in the apartheid era cannot be wiped out in less than a generation, we must all condemn this wanton act of barbarism, looting, and the incineration of innocent peoples for reasons based on racism, tribalism, xenophobia or economic jealousy: South Africans must learn to work hard to compete in the global economy. Further, South African ANC leaders appear to have been trapped in their new found wealth without noticing the degeneration in social order, soaring unemployment of their own youth and the abysmal record of crime prevention. South African leaders must wake up; fight social deprivation; crime; xenophobia; hate and finally create an economy where the youth will be employed; and can compete globally rather than sit back for the youths to drift into the maddening cycle of gangsterism followed by stints at marauding criminality.
Mr. Mugabe's problems are that he has outstayed his welcome. While the author agrees that he is a brave fighter of freedom, there is a time to fight; and a time for peace. Those who continue to fight while they should be negotiating a peaceful settlement for the sake of the well-being of the people may not be remembered with glowing memory in posterity. There are periods where rhetoric counts: other times when wisdom prevails. Mr. Mugabe should make way for the new generation of accountable democrats. They may have other brilliant democratic ideas that can stop the politically-motivated street beatings in Harare and the shameful terrorism directed towards unsuspecting political opponents; and negotiates with the British for the compensation promised in the Lancaster House Agreements but which were never fulfilled by the British. If, on the other hand, Mr. Mugabe insists on staying on, undemocratically, the little sympathy he may command from other Africans will evaporate within the shortest conceivable time; and this, clearly, will totally wipe out his previous heroic exploits as a freedom fighter and a nation builder from 1980 - 1996. He, together with his political and military henchmen, will then be called upon by Zimbabweans and the democratic world to account for their time as President and Generals respectively.
Hon. Corbyn finished his speech at the House of Commons on the Debate on Democracy and Elections in Africa that held on 22 April 2008. As the focus was on Zimbabwe and Cameroon, it was time for the Zimbabweans to take to the floor. One of the Speakers on the main platform was a woman: she spoke first. I made discrete enquires, from a reliable Zimbabwe source also ensconced in Committee Room 15 as to her name; and was told that her name was Ms Mastara.
Ms Mastara began with a vivid and eloquent lamentation on the sufferings of her people. According to her narrative, one-eighth (1/8) or more practically one in every eight of Zimbabweans are extremely rich while seven out of 8 of the population are poor to the point of destitution; and are almost reduced to perpetual beggars to eke out an almost certainly inexistent marginal living.
She then turned to Gender issues: that there is persistent abuse of women in Zimbabwe although she did not actually say in clarity what these abuses entailed. However, one's intuition points to the lack of opportunities because Ms Mastara appeared to have laid down her solution to this "abuse" on the foundation that women should be provided a platform so that they may have a voice in public life. The conclusion one can draw from this inductive reasoning is that women may have been discriminated in public life in Zimbabwe; or that their labour rights had been ignored while their human rights to freedom of decent living had been trampled on.
Ms Mastara then returned to the important and debatable farm land question that has been politically explosive, racially charged and a tremendous socially vexation in the country; and possibly the cause of Zimbabwe's economic maelstrom; and the poltical nightmare of Mr. Mugabe: and the rise of national opposition to his rule that has been exacerbated by international economic and political sanction of the Mugabe regime. Mastara compounded the debate by embellishing Agricultural skills to the former White farmers while stating categorically that Black people had no Agricultural skills that could match those of the Whites: reason, according to her analysis, being that Black Zimbabweans were never taught advanced Agricultural skills leaving them as unskilled labourers. However, in another scenario and a succinct counterattack to her claims, the Pro-Mugabe or the ZANU-PF group that were also present at the debate challenged what they called a "gross distortion of history"; and that Ms Mastara had to reconsider her statements because before the Europeans arrived Zimbabwe and Southern Africa at about 1652, Black people practised well-organised governance and advanced traditional Agriculture. Consequently, they have traditional farming experience which they could develop before the lands were expropriated from the natives without compensation to be allocated to Europeans.
Mastara further added more volcanic fire to the debate by advocating that the Mugabe government-led brutal seizure of farmlands by Zimbabwe freedom fighter war veterans ought to be returned to the skilled White farmers. Additionally, she stated that in this case White farmers must be held as accountable for their actions as any corrupt African politician. She buttressed her proclamation and proposed solution by pointing out the unaccountability of White farmers in relation to abuse of the land and the people with impunity since the dawn of independence and the rise of President Mugabe in 1980.
Ms Mastara's arguments were too explosive for the pro-Mugabe or the Zimbabwean Nationalist camp to sit without making a stand to "correct" what they vehemently denounced as a "shamelessly-conceived colonial manifesto" to hand back Zimbabwe to the dark past of White racial tyranny against the majority black Zimbabweans by the White Zimbabwean minority and; the culture of unfounded supremacist doctrine whose main objectives was ethnic deprivation and exclusion. The Pro-Mugabe camp then pointed out that only 2% of the population of the country is White. But stressed that they believe all Zimbabweans regardless of racial or tribal origin have equal rights to live and prosper in the country but that it would be the saddest of days if the nation were to return to the dark days of racial privilege.
Ms Mastara went further by stating with uncanny confidence that Zimbabwe was efficiently run by White Zimbabweans even after independence until the land "seizure" fiasco that began in the late 1990s; and that when they left as a result or reaction or both of Mugabe's arbitrary and brutal land take over, without compensation to the White farmers, the country was left to the devices of incompetent and unskilled Black Zimbabweans. As a result, the economy collapsed. Her solution is that Africans should learn to run their own affairs rather than sit on their laurels while other people take control of their destiny.
To that; the debate on Zimbabwe closed. The audience then waited for the next Speaker.
Author's Comments:
It is unfortunate that Zimbabwe has endured and continues to endure such economic hardship and socio-political trauma. Zimbabweans, from the author's encounters and experience, are one of the best educated and well-behaved Africans. They are well trained in their African language; and also fluent in good English. Today, they are unwanted refugees even in South Africa: poignantly many South Africans were refugees in Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria etc. in the 1980s when Apartheid was at its height. The following is that the disgraceful xenophobia that is being exhibited by South Africans against Zimbabweans and other Africans is a perfect pointer to the great misfortune for Zimbabwe.
Not only have they lost their best minds to other countries, but are now subjected to torture in their own country and the country they helped to achieve freedom from a dreadful racial supremacist policy that threatened to wipe out South Africans. The South African hate campaign against other Africans in general and Zimbabweans in particular must be halted by South African leaders. South Africans must leave the ideology of hate that bedevilled their nation for almost 300 years and return to the world of civilised norms where human beings are not burned alive in broad day light.
While it is understandable that the wicked system of hatred in the apartheid era cannot be wiped out in less than a generation, we must all condemn this wanton act of barbarism, looting, and the incineration of innocent peoples for reasons based on racism, tribalism, xenophobia or economic jealousy: South Africans must learn to work hard to compete in the global economy. Further, South African ANC leaders appear to have been trapped in their new found wealth without noticing the degeneration in social order, soaring unemployment of their own youth and the abysmal record of crime prevention. South African leaders must wake up; fight social deprivation; crime; xenophobia; hate and finally create an economy where the youth will be employed; and can compete globally rather than sit back for the youths to drift into the maddening cycle of gangsterism followed by stints at marauding criminality.
Mr. Mugabe's problems are that he has outstayed his welcome. While the author agrees that he is a brave fighter of freedom, there is a time to fight; and a time for peace. Those who continue to fight while they should be negotiating a peaceful settlement for the sake of the well-being of the people may not be remembered with glowing memory in posterity. There are periods where rhetoric counts: other times when wisdom prevails. Mr. Mugabe should make way for the new generation of accountable democrats. They may have other brilliant democratic ideas that can stop the politically-motivated street beatings in Harare and the shameful terrorism directed towards unsuspecting political opponents; and negotiates with the British for the compensation promised in the Lancaster House Agreements but which were never fulfilled by the British. If, on the other hand, Mr. Mugabe insists on staying on, undemocratically, the little sympathy he may command from other Africans will evaporate within the shortest conceivable time; and this, clearly, will totally wipe out his previous heroic exploits as a freedom fighter and a nation builder from 1980 - 1996. He, together with his political and military henchmen, will then be called upon by Zimbabweans and the democratic world to account for their time as President and Generals respectively.
3 comments:
Mola Mbua, you have made a very good analysis of the problem both in South Africa and in Zimbabwe. I think the poor South Africans are ill-informed of the effort many African Countries made to get them out of the pangs of the Apatheid regime. There is no doubt that Mbeki and his mates have been slow to empower the majority of the black population.Ironically the trouble is borne from the notorious "Mandela Shacks" These are Islands of uttermost poverty, on the border of the wealthy Cities, created when Mandela asked these people to occupy wherever they could and enjoy their land. There is some effort to convert these townships into well built brick houses, but the momentum to convert is slow compared to the general good fortune of the SA economy in the past many years. There are many Africans who have come to SA to invest and take advantage of the good times and flourishing economy. I know one of the best hotels in Pretoria (Hotel Pretoria) is owned by Monkam Pascal, a Cameroonian. The markets in JZB and Pretoria are marked by frenzy Cameroonian, Nigerian,Ghanaian commercial activities. So all are not refugees or beggars who have arrived here. Mbeki must make life better for his kin and must also sensitise them on the importance of accepting other Africans and indeed other nationals. SA is spreading it's businees tentacles in many African countries. They wont want to be treated in like manner.
Mbak'ngombe
Mola Mbako,
Thank you. You have thrown a new and important light on the unfortunate South African events; especially the economic aspects. I am of the opinion that it is the place of Mbeki and to a certain extent Nelson Mandela; even Bishop Tutu to influence the educational upbringing of the young South Africans. While it is true that Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu played legendary and admirable parts in free in SA, this won't have happened without African, and in fact sacrifices from the British people. Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique suffered terribly for hosting the ANC and other freedom fighters under the Apartheid regime. Samora Michel, the Mozambique Nationalist and President lost his life in a mysterious plane crash in the SA border for supporting SA freedom fighters in his country. Nigeria had to expel British Petroleum for breaching and OAU embargo for oil exports to South Africa at a great cost to the Nigerian economy, political clout and diplomatic cost. In Cameroon, several South Africans and Namibians were hosted and were educated at the best colleges including Lycee Bilingue Molyko, Saker College and Sasse College. The fact the entire Africa supported the SA fight for freedom. Therefore, when one sees such attacks against Africans, one begins to doubt as to the motive of the elite in that country--both Black and white. The earlier the elite educate the people, the better lest other Africans and the world become resentful with negative consequences for the African continent. South Africa has huge potential which should be optimized by good economic, social and foreign policies. This present state of events were xenophobia is taking over must not stand in the way; and therefore should not be allowed to continue. South Africans should be educated by their media, schools, and Universities who appear to be silent and complicit. Stoking up anti- immigrant sentiments will have a monumental backlash on their country and its image abroad.
hello.just saw the article on Ms Mastara.may i ask where she is based.I am in SA.leave answer on this blog
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