Where is our Mandela?

Where is our Mandela?

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By David R. Katerere

MAYBE we are cowards. And we must walk around with our heads bowed in shame for not standing up to the school ground bully.

Some would like to say that there hasn’t been revolt in Zimbabwe because we are educated (and civilised?) and therefore know when not to provoke Mugabe’s wrath. Those that are indeed educated and have been using this excuse, Zimbabwe’s middle-class, have not done badly in the maelstrom of life in Zimbabwe: in the midst of chronic severe shortages of fuel, bread and everything else between, they still drive in their Japanese recons and do groceries at the re-launched Spar with it’s ridiculously inflated imported goodies.

Others say that we are a peaceable and peaceful people. But this was disabused during the farm invasions and in the subsequent elections when untold violence was visited upon perceived opposition activists by these peaceful people. So, we are quite capable of violence, thank you.

It is going on to six years since the crisis in Zimbabwe started and yet we are no nearer a solution, the situation continues to deteriorate and the citizens continue to be hapless, helpless and paralysed. There is no leadership that can unite the disparate ranks of civil and political opposition and no evidence of strategic resistance to the demented dictators course to destruction.

When we delve into the heart of Zimbabwe’s problems, we can finally and truthfully confront the fact that, as a country, as a people we have a dearth in leadership. Wherever we look, whether in the opposition ranks, in civil society or in ZANU PF, we appear to be deficient in good, humble, compassionate and gracious leaders. Put another way, where is our Nelson Mandela when we are most in need of him (or her)?

I am more and more convinced that our problems mainly stem from the lack of leadership. But the lack of leadership is not an exclusively Zimbabwean problem. Political and social scientists have pointed out that Africa’s lack of economic development has more to do with a dearth of leadership than with colonial exploitation. And this shortage of good leaders is probably not because of a shortage of disciples. Indeed if you throw a stone (as the late Masipula Sithole used to like saying) in Harare, Bulawayo or any other village or town in Zimbabwe whoever it hits could be the next president!

However, like anywhere else in post-colonial Africa, the Big Man has so discouraged any ambition among his followers and quashed any dissent that the populace believes that only he can and must rule – no-one else can be better than VaMugabe. This mantra has been so oft been repeated that Zimbabweans cannot actually identify good leadership qualities - we do not actually know the attributes of a good leader and continue to believe that a good leader must be Mugabe-like. So we associate the qualities that we see in Mugabe with leadership qualities – a university education, first and foremost, great fluency in English and a measure of arrogance and aloofness. Anyone who does not have a university degree, who cannot speak good English (or speaks in Chinua Achebe’s words, the simple English of “is” and “was”) and who does not act “educated” we immediately see them as unable to lead. To a large extent Morgan Tsvangirai has been subjected to denigration even by his supporters and others in the opposition on this account.

While it helps to be eloquent in speech and have a populist and even non-conformist touch (read Bill Clinton), leading people involves much more and it is something that is learnt through experience rather than instinctive and innate. Gold becomes pure through fire.

Leading is like taking people on a journey. To get from point A to the next level requires that the leaders have a vision to achieve the mission. Leading is not an end in itself as many good leaders have shown us through history. One only needs to look at the biblical Moses, or in more recent times, to Nelson Mandela. Once their vision had been achieved, they then handed over the reins to the next generation of leaders. Leaders influence, they direct, they inspire. Leaders are contingency planners, they have a good ear, they are consensus-builders (not brinksmen), they are altruistic and they are tolerant of divergent views. Good leaders cultivate, groom and grow their followers to one day be leaders too. Good leaders are like good gamblers – in the words of that Kenny Rogers song, they “know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em …and know when to walk away” because good leaders should not be Machiavellian and scheming, but rather strategic in their thinking and actions. Leaders should be concerned and driven by legacy because when all else is gone, it is legacy that remains.

A reading of our history shows that we have in fact not lacked leaders. Many of these are the very people who founded the nationalist movement. Many names come to mind from Chaminuka to Burombo, Nkomo, Muzorewa and many of those who continue to play important roles in the media and civil society in present day Zimbabwe. Herbert Chitepo, supposedly stands head and shoulders above them as the great intellectual mind of the liberation struggle. But we will never know how he would have turned out as a statesman.

Eddison Zvobgo has been called one of the great minds to come out of Zimbabwe. Yet he lacked the courage of his convictions. Here was a man steeped in the same liberation history, burnished in the same revolutionary flame as Robert Mugabe, an eloquent and witty orator, but alas, he lacked courage; that which would have saved Zimbabwe for the state it finds itself in. If he had found himself that sterner stuff to stand up to his erstwhile comrade, he had the power to have changed (perhaps for the better) the course of the country. In private, he like other in Zanu-PF to-day, expressed reservations on land reform, human rights issues and general governance. But his actions and his public utterances betrayed a man who confused loyalty to Mugabe and Zanu-PF with loyalty to Zimbabwe and patriotic fervour. For a man who gave up a huge part of his life fighting in the struggle, his legacy is tainted with this misplaced loyalty to the point of tragedy.

A greater tradegy still is that many other stalwarts of the liberation struggle, reasonable men and women have suffered the same Zvobgo-type syndrome. Many years ago, Margaret Dongo made rather unparliamentary remarks when she called the compliant Zanu PF parliamentarians, “Mugabe’s wives”. This stirred up a hornet’s nest in the House of Assembly and she was threatened with physical assault. One can say that from what has subsequently taken place over the years, that Dongo’s remarks were apt and spot-on.

It appears therefore that apart from all the qualities of leadership outlined above, courage is the cornerstone. In fact we don’t need leaders for now, we actually need heroes. Brecht said “Unhappy is the land that needs heroes”, and Zimbabwe is the unhappiest of places right now.

Dr DR Katerere lives and works in South Africa. He is reachable on dimeric@gmail.com
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