Beware of false choices! People sometimes will offer you a choice which isn’t really a choice but a direction, or a choice based on a faulty premise.
A woman/man of good character or a woman/man who is attractive.
A car with good performance, or one that is economical.
A government that encourages big business or one that listens to the people.
Strong enforcement of law and order or the respect of the rights of citizens and individuals.
What I am getting at is, one can have them both, it doesn’t have to be a choice of one or the other, in many cases it is better to have both.
Robert Mugabe freedom fighter or despot? One can’t help notice the part Robert Mugabe pricing the hands of white rule off of Rhodesia, latterly known as Zimbabwe. However, at the same time on cannot but see the years of oppression, mismanagement, brutality, cronyism that have crushed a country that was once termed the bread-basket of Africa.
Some of Mugabe’s quotes whether they have some element of truth or not, are polarizing and reactionary:
“The only white man you can trust is a dead white man.”
“Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy!”
“Was it not enough punishment and suffering in history that we were uprooted and made helpless slaves not only in new colonial outposts but also domestically.”
Blaming the white man and being bitter about the past is understandable, but useless in and of itself unless one has a direction to ones anger that can actually improve the situation of yourself and the people around you. Not a strict translation in context, but applicable:
“Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” – Proverbs 29:18.
Have you seen children fighting over a toy, one has seen the other playing with it and wants it for himself, so they squabble over it. When the child who didn’t have the toy in the first place gets the toy, he grows bored of it after 5 minutes, or the other child who had the toy originally may soon grow bored with it too. Watch what happens when either of the children lose interest in the toy, and the other child goes to get it, there is squabbling again!
It’s almost the same situation with Zimbabwe, and rulers treating this country of many fine people who deserve a future, like a toy. Mugabe, perhaps rightfully gained possession of it, but he soon grew bored and stopped paying it the interest, care and attention it deserved. He had no vision of what he wanted to do with the country in the future, how he would truly empower the people, but his only vision was of hatred for white people, and the need to take back from them something he believed he should have. Because of this lack of vision his rule deteriorated in to a foul blot on the African continent, and a sorry story of what might have been.
Tyranny, exploitation and white rule often go hand in hand in Africa, but the sad thing is, when black rulers take over – the people often see more of the same. I guess my point is, people don’t want the lesser of two evils, they want no evil at all. They don’t want a black ruler who expresses his misrule simply in a different way to a white ruler. THey want someone who has vision to improve the country they live in. A black ruler, with integrity, with a heart for the people, consistent to the end.
Morgan Tsvangirai said this of Mugabe and I tend to agree – “Do we portray him as the great liberator or do we portray him as someone who betrayed the liberation he fought for? I think the latter will prevail, because I think his ending, does not confirm, the legacy he built in the earlier years of his political life…”
It’s high time in Africa, and across the world that rulers and authorities act with integrity, wisdom and justice. It is in my prayers, and has been for a long time that this will happen. If Africa can not stand with integrity, and stand with some form of togetherness, it will be continually exploited by foreign powers while its people cry our for change. Africa needs to grow and have self-determination and independence in order to free herself from exploitation and the trap of low self-worth.