Looking into Zimbabwe from outside

Looking into Zimbabwe from outside

• 2005 Zim personalities of the year awards

• Mandaza: pitfalls of supping with devil

• Zimbabwe's small minded rulers

• Mugabe cornered by events out of his control

ONE of the great benefits of travel is the sense of perspective it gives a person on his previous life and situation. When one is in a particular situation, they sometimes get so bogged down in the minute details of getting through it that they can lose that sense of perspective.

On the other hand another benefit is to more keenly realise the good things about the previous life/position. It is difficult to do this until you have had an opportunity to step outside it for a while.

These are the thoughts that pre-occupy me a little less than two months after leaving Zimbabwe, the longest time I have been away from home in almost thirteen years. Apart from just being removed from my routine of so long, I have also been privileged to be regularly on the move during these last several weeks, which forces one to reflect even more on the great and sudden contrasts one experiences.

Robert Mugabe's regime looks every bit as incompetent and ridiculous from central or southern Europe as it does from Harare. This may seem too obvious to need mentioning, but whenever I have run into fellow Africans or other black people I have been eager to see whether the relative alienation of being "a stranger" in Europe would help explain Mugabe's one-time appeal to a lot of blacks in the diaspora. I have seen no evidence of it. There are many who for racial or ideological reasons would have liked to have a strong African or black leader to champion the "black cause" if there is any such unified thing any longer. But Mugabe's excesses;his numerous and now undeniable failures no longer make it possible for them to hold him up as any kind of positive model.

Mugabe's recent rantings at the FAO in Rome did not get anywhere near the kind of world notice that the Zimbabwean state media would have us think. But those who did hear the gist of what he said simply shook their heads as if to say "oh, Mugabe, there he goes again; what can you expect from that madman and what publicity stunt will he come up next?" This kind of dismissive, off-hand reaction is almost more humiliating than an attack based on facts and figures.

But then again, when the ruler of a hungry, dysfunctional country goes out of his way to make a fool of himself in the way Mugabe does, it is quite appropriate for a wise man to say "don't bother arguing with a fool, people might not notice the difference between the two of you!"

Economic integration is an important subtext of the great changes that are taking place in Europe at the moment. Even in relatively prosperous societies where there are concerns about joblessness (panics over figures of 10% unemployment versus Zimbabwe's 70%+ for example!) there is a an acceptance that global competition is a big reason for slower growth and that any hopes of reducing this problem can only happen with Europe acting in concert economically. So while there may be linguistic, cultural and other tensions between the nations of Europe, with the exception of Britain there is also a fairly widespread acceptance of the benefits of at least economic cohesion.

Contrast that to the super-nationalism of the worlds's weakest economic entities -- Zimbabwe sadly being an example of a country that has dragged itself deeper into the doldrums of economic marginalisation.

Graphically and closely seeing how economies that were until recently mighty and unchallengeable scramble to find ways to fend off the many advantages of dynamic upstarts like the emerging powers of Asia makes Mugabe's pitiful, pissing-in-the wind cries of "sovereignty" seem so relevant, and on many different levels.

"The power of an idea whose time has come is so obvious in a relatively free society. The pathetic efforts of the Zimbabwean authorities to ward off the inevitable seem just plain stupid"

CHIDO MAKUNIKE

The "sovereignty" that he thunders about is based on artificial, arbitrary national boundaries imposed on Africa by Western nations. How odd then that it is the African "liberators" who would then hold so tightly to those boundaries! But even if we accept that the importance of those imposed boundaries is an unavoidable, important stage of re-asserting our rejection of being ruled/controlled by Westerners, the fact of the matter is still that we do that at the cost of Africa continuing to be fragmented and powerless internationally. So Mugabe's version of "sovereignty" looks more like a defence of a personal political fiefdom to rule over than the more useful idea of a viable geographic/economic or even military or political entity. Simply put, the old, overstayed dinasaur at the helm of Zimbabwe still screams "sovereignty" at a time much more powerful nations are scrambling to develop synergies to survive the globalisation that is staring us in the face, whether we like it or not. The debate has moved from "is it a desirable thing?" to "how can we manouvre within its reality to our best advantage against other nations/economic blocks?"

But don't tell that to Mugabe and his propagandist Tafataona Mahoso, their heads have been stuck so long in the sand they don't know that's where the world is at now in its thinking!

We still have state propagandists telling us the evils of globalisation when many others in the world far better equipped than us to deal with it are busy figuring out how to maximise the benefits and minimise the ill-effects of this phenomenon that no nation on earth any longer has the choice to avoid or sidestep.

George Charamba and Tafataona Mahoso are Mugabe propagandists with whom I am fascinated because of how they are so out of touch with the realities of the age in which we are living, and how to strategize to do so to one's advantage. This is how "national interest" makes the most sense today.

It is one thing to try to spin information in the favour of a particular point of view, which these two valiantly but unsuccessfully do. But to have just been outside the straitjacket of a controlled information environment like Zimbabwe's makes it so abundantly clear that these boys are trying to cork the bottle long after the genie has escaped. The porosity of information is such that you simply cannot stop it seeping in everywhere by closing newspapers for instance.

It is to live in a fools paradise to think "the Herald has a circulation of X thousand" and the other papers have a circulation of X minus Y thousand so we are on top of the game." The hunger for the truth is so strong that people seek it out in ways that can simply not be reflected by the simplistic circulation figures Mugabe propagandists may feel so smug about, after working so tirelessly to kill or prevent competition.

One would also be amazed at the reach, depth and power of ostensibly small-circulation papers in Zimbabwe and international Zim-web sites.The power of an idea whose time has come is so obvious in a relatively free society, even if we all know that simple truth intellectually. But from my new vantage point the pathetic efforts of the Zimbabwean authorities to ward off the ultimately inevitable seem laughable and just plain stupid.

I have been intrigued about how I have seen no sense in Europe of "kith and kin" sympathy for Zimbabwe's white farmers in the admittedly limited circles in which I travel and ask questions. The world-wide opposition to Mugabe is because his regime stinks so much that it is not even possible for any who would like to defend him to say "ah, he ruined his economy but he was really, genuinely trying to improve the lot of the people."

I am also struck by how there is a sharp, fairly definable contrast between the general expressions of black and white Zimbabweans at what is going on in their homeland. The anguish at the destruction of a beloved country is shared, but I seem to perceive in the websites and articles of some white Zimbabweans a surprising pining for the era of privilege, over and above the lamenting of what Zimbabwe has been reduced to by Mugabe. As I read the outpourings of many ex-Rhodies, as opposed to the tiny remnant of progressive Zimbabwean whites, I sometimes find myself having no problem agreeing with the facts of their lament at the neutral,objectionable indices of Zimbabwe's troubles.

But I often also find myself fascinated at how out of step their conclusions of what must be done are with possible reality, whether now or in the post-Mugabe era. The society has moved on in many ways that they simply haven't kept up with , or in some cases even noticed. Many seem to be pining for a time that will never come again, no matter who is ruling over Zimbabwe.More on this later.

Zimbabwe is a sexy international story not only because of the drama and suddenness of its decline, but its many symbolisms for different groups all over the world. For some Rhodies, the state of Zimbabwe today is a way of saying "world, we told you that we were raping, dispossessing and murdering the natives for their own damn good." One can quite clearly pick this sentiment up in a lot of their dispatches.

But it is also interesting how a lot of Western journalists who consider themselves enlightened and outside the racist paradigm go to Zimbabwe and either talk to their country-men or have to talk to white Zimbabweans to feel that their reports to their home bases have "weight."

So often an obscure European or other Western aid worker, economist or diplomat is the prism through which we are told the unfolding story of Zimbabwe, as if the natives cannot speak or draw conclusions for themselves about their own situation! Perhaps the natives are not too objective or sufficiently analytical, their thinking must be corroborated by a white point of view in order to be valid! More later!

I accept that economic reasons have spurred migration as much as or even more than political reasons throughout the ages. So we all know of people who are claiming political persecution in Zimbabwe to remain in various Western countries when they never gave a damn about politics. This is neither new nor unique to Zimbabwe or Africa.

But I find myself being appalled at the many opportunists who besmirch the struggles of thousands of Zimbabweans by claiming to be politically persecuted when they are nothing of the sort. This is a kind of sacrilege of the anti-Mugabe struggle that a disturbing number of Zimbabweans abroad are involved in. By all means, go ahead and look for innovative ways to get your "papers" but don't desecrate the sacrifices of the many Zimbabweans who have really made contributions to a better Zimbabwe, at the risk of their livelihoods or very lives, by claiming to be one of them when you are an economic refugee! What's the matter, are you ashamed to openly say you just wanted a better material standard of living? If you regard being involved in the anti-Mugabe struggle as a more noble base from which to claim asylum, why then aren't thou really contributing to that struggle in one way or another from wherever thou art, o thou hypocrite?!

One of the hardest things to get used to in wandering through relatively normal societies is the realisation of how much energy we must expend in Zimbabwe just doing very ordinary things. To run a business in Zimbabwe even half-way successfully at the moment takes super-human effort on even mundane things like just getting enough fuel to keep one's vehicle fleet going.

It is startling to come from this environment and to once again experience life in societies where one has the time and peace of mind to take a deep breath, to reflect, to plan for the future with a certain degree of confidence that many important variables to one's success are under control.

The average Zimbabwean businessperson eking out a living under the hostile, harsh environment created by the ruinous Mr. Mugabe would make it virtually anywhere in the normal world! Sometimes we speak of the Zimbabwean resilience disparagingly, but it is more apparent to me than ever before that when Mugabe and all he represents are finally defeated, Zimbabwe will rise again!

Finally, there is no way to minimise the great suffering that Mugabe's rule has wrought on Zimbabweans. The main measure of our decline is how poorly we are doing today compared to how we were doing before and to how we could be doing; never mind how much "better off" we may still be compared to many other countries. It is like trying to console an unemployed German or French citizen to not get too uptight about his situation because "after all, the overall standard of living in your country is better off than that mess of a country Zimbabwe!"

Comparing apples to oranges in this way does not help at all. That having been said, I marvel at how little the reality of economic prosperity corresponds to a sense of well-being an individual, community or nation have.

Being in wealthy, prosperous, peaceful Europe for these last few weeks and a few more has reminded me of that. Despite the misery wrought on the country by Mugabe and his gang, Zimbabwe has a spirit and a reservoir of serenity I could not possibly explain to a European in the context of the political upheavals taking place there. Economic prosperity and material peace-of-mind can certainly contribute significantly to this quality, but they can neither create nor compensate for it.

This is a meandering way of saying that we have many precious things to fight for in Zimbabwe beyond what may be obvious by the standards of how we measure life in the world today. Let none of us ever get too cynical, complacent, comfortable or afraid to ever lose sight of that or give up the struggle to reclaim our homeland from the bandits who hold it hostage today.

Chido Makunike is a social commentator and a New Zimbabwe.com columnist
CONTACT CHIDO: chidomakunike@yahoo.com
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