Robert Mugabe's Template For Racial Reconciliation in Southern Africa

Today is Zimbabwe's 33rd independence anniversary and I would like to take readers back to an amazing event that took place on March 4, 1980. It was the first ever speech made to the new nation by the incoming Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe, and I have posted this speech at the bottom of this blog. This statesman-like speech of racial reconciliation and nation-building set the tone for a decade of economic prosperity, racial healing and great advances in education and health.

Having demonized Robert Mugabe as a "terrorist", "war-monger" and "Communist" throughout Zimbabwe's war of liberation, White Rhodesians were understandably terrified of the incoming Black African nationalists who were to take over the reigns of power. Furthermore, the mass evacuation of a quarter-of-a-million Portuguese to Portugal on the eve of Mozambique's independence in 1975, was still fresh in the minds of Rhodesia's Whites. After Robert Mugabe's ZANU had been declared the winner in the elections, White Rhodesians literally had their bags packed waiting to escape the incoming racial retribution and tyranny that they thought was to accompany ZANU's rule. Alas, no such thing happened.

On the 4th of March 1980, Robert Mugabe gave one of history's greatest speeches, a speech that is up there in the same league as Dr King's, "I have A Dream" speech and Winston Churchill's wartime,"Never, Never, Surrender" speech. It was a speech that changed the course of history. Prime Minister Mugabe assured the nation's Whites of their rights and economic freedoms in the new and independent state of Zimbabwe, and stated that there was to be no racial retribution for past misdeeds. This racial-reconciliation would allow White Zimbabweans to prosper for a decade-and-a-half in ways they had never imagined before!

This White prosperity and racial harmony in Zimbabwe was also keenly followed by White South Africans. It was this harmonious Zimbabwean template that would convince White South Africans of their own place in a free and independent South Africa under Black majority rule. Had the Black African nationalists in newly independent Zimbabwe gone for racial retribution, the Whites in South Africa would never have acquiesced to majority rule in their own country. They would have fought  to continue with the evil Apartheid system and this would have engulfed the whole of Southern Africa in a racial inferno. Mercifully, that ghastly outcome never saw the light of day, thanks to the foresight and statesman-like conduct of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe. We salute him and thank him for that.

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Margaret Thatcher: Lessons For Africa

I've never hidden my love for Maggie Thatcher, the now dearly-departed former PM of Britain. I'm an unashamed fan and I've always kept her speeches, biographies and videos in my personal records. Her faults were legion and her enemies ran into the millions, but nevertheless, she ruthlessly stood for British interests and the policies that she thought would help Britain prosper. Some of these policies were brazen in their cruelty, lacking not even an iota of empathy. And yet, these were the policies she wanted, these were the policies she stood by (whatever other people thought), and these were the policies that ultimately saved the UK from turning into a basket-case. We too in Africa need to produce a few "Thatchers" of our own to move our countries forward. We need to produce leaders that are daring; willing to "radically alter the pieces on the chess-board" and change the status-quo; even to be cruel -- where doses of cruelty are needed -- in order to achieve their aims.

Other countries have had leaders who were prepared to take unpopular, even exceedingly cruel actions, actions that in the long-run greatly benefited their countries. Chairman Mao ruthlessly crushed China's feudal elite; allowed peasants to farm for themselves; increased female literacy from 1% to 80%; and set in motion the progressive direction that led to China's dominant position today. Joseph Stalin took over Europe's most backward, illiterate nation and within thirty years had turned the Soviet Union into a Super-Power, albeit at great human cost. The South Korean Generals who took over after the Korean War crushed all dissent; marshaled all resources in a concentrated effort to catch up with the West; and in a generation-and-a-half turned the once backward, inward-looking "Hermit Kingdom" into one of the world's most dynamic regions.

We have had three leaders in Africa who could be defined as "Thatcherian" in their revolutionary idealism. The first two were Kwame Nkrumah and Thomas Sankara, and third of the trio has to be Robert Mugabe. The bold actions of the first two were cut short prematurely, and we will never know what could have transpired in Ghana & Burkina Faso had their revolutions been allowed to run their course. In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe has returned land back to its original owners and is in the process of re-possessing the mines and other key sectors of the economy. The jury is still out on his reforms, but by golly, he has shown the Chutzpah, the gumption, the revolutionary idealism that would have made Margaret Thatcher proud! In fact, in many ways, they were kindred spirits.

What we now need is a newer, fresher, younger generation who come forward and radically re-vitalise the African landscape. This is not a utopian fantasy, but a necessary course that might be our saving grace. Without radical change in Africa, we risk turning into African versions of America's Native Indians...a defeated people who no longer direct their own destiny.

Phandu Skelemani and Botswana: A Napoleon Complex Writ Large

Way back in my clubbing days I was always weary of attracting the ire of short people. I knew that if an argument broke out in a night-club it was always the little guys who wielded a knife (or even worse, a gun). You see, short people always have a point to prove and the same can be said for the little countries that most people have never heard off. It's always the Qatars and Botswanas of this world who make the most noise in the international arena, despite their having small populations.

Just this week we witnessed the bizarre tale of Botswana's Foreign Minister, Phandu Skelemani, threatening to arrest Kenya's President-elect, Uhuru Kenyatta, if he dared to set foot in Botswana. One could almost imagine Uhuru Kenyatta sitting in his office, straining his eyes and trying to find Botswana on a map of Africa! The fact that little Botswana (population1.8Mil) could dare to throw the rule-book at Kenya (population 41 million) was a shock to many people. What gumption!

The truth of the matter is that, in the wider scheme of things, Botswana simply does not matter. No-one gives a rat's ass what the Foreign Minister of that little country thinks or says! Most people in East or West Africa would have a hard time naming the sleepy capital of Botswana (Gaborone) or even one MuTswana who has ever achieved any fame (I couldn't).

Let's leave pontificating on Continental issues to the big boys of African politics, the Nigerias, South Africas and Ethiopias of this world. They have the clout, size and Continental heft to make their voices heard throughout Africa. Small nations like Botswana, Lesotho and Eritrea should speak only when spoken to.

Rest In Peace, Hugo Chavez.

Whatever we think of Hugo Chavez we must at least concede that he did make an honest attempt at making the Venezuelan masses active participants in their own country's development. Previous rulers -- representing a very narrow elite -- had ignored the bulk of Venezuela's Mestizo and Mulatto masses, and instead had focused on living in their false utopia. These European-descended elites had always cared more for plastic-surgery and shopping trips to Miami rather than caring for the welfare of schoolchildren in Caracas' barrios.

Thanks to Hugo Chavez' Bolivarian Revolution, the state finally re-orientated its machinery to providing for the basic needs of the teeming masses. Ironically, the Bolivarian Revolution was named for Simon Bolivar, an independence-era member of the wealthy elite, but whose predecessors had chosen to ignore his noble intentions. Centuries of deliberate and structural "active inactivity" on the part of Venezuela's do-nothing elites meant that nothing had ever been done to uplift the poor. Absolutely nothing!

Until roughly thirty years ago, the only path of progress available to upwardly-mobile Mestizos and mulattos in Venezuela was to be found either in the military or as teachers. That's how Hugo Chavez -- a sharp mind from the lowly classes -- found himself in the military. As ruler himself, he could never change centuries of misrule in two decades, but he did give his best shot.

By no means is modern-day Venezuela a verifiable utopia, with its serious problems of crime and inequality, but at least the masses now have a foot in the door. It was Hugo Chavez who upturned the chessboard and put the masses in play as actors in their own development. For this we thank him! We salute him and may he forever rest in peace.

Yahya Jammeh: Barking Mad Or A Revolutionary Genius

Thank God it's Friday, and especially so in The Gambia. You see the tin-pot dictator in that West-African nation, Yahya Jammeh, recently decreed that from now on all public-sector workers will only work a four-day week. What a stroke of genius! He might be short of a fuse or two, but we should give this deranged-fellow credit where credit  is due. Furthermore, his revolutionary action does go far in proving the proverbial claim that, indeed, there is a thin line between between being a genius and being barking mad.

This is not the first time, by the way, that Alhaji Sheikh Professor Dr. Yahya Jammeh (to use his full title) has shown his revolutionary colours. In 1995 he attempted (in vain) to ban the use of skin-lightening creams in The Gambia, and in 1998 Gambia's first university finally opened under his rule.

We who live in The West can also also use some of his chutzpah. Half of all public-sector employees (here in the West, at least) are really filing clerks and are surplus to needs. To keep present employment levels in our public-sectors, maybe we should follow Yahya Jammeh's lead and make the work-week a four day endeavour.

SF 49ers: Why Oh Why?

Until the day I die I will never know why the SF 49ers called three straight passing plays -- all to the same player -- in their last offensive drive of the title game, and all in the opposing team's Red Zone. They had all the momentum, and were in striking distance of the end-zone. On top of that they had in Frank Gore the league's best short-yardage runner, and in QB Colin Kaepernick, the league's best rushing quarterback. And yet, to the horror of everyone, offensive-coordinator Greg Roman proceeded to call three straight passing-plays to wide-receiver Michael Crabtree. 

Crabtree has been QB Colin Kaepernick's favorite target all season long and the Baltimore Ravens knew this. They had been double and triple-teaming him all afternoon long. Why, oh why did the 49ers insist on calling these bone-headed plays to a marked receiver when running it in would have been a much better option. Why oh why?? Even a draw-play by the QB would have put the team into the end-zone.

Anyway, we'll never know what possessed Greg Roman on that Sunday evening. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, the play-calling of the 49ers in that final drive was a "riddle wrapped in a mystery". It was a case of lousy play-calling at its worst and it spoiled a fine season by the Bay Area's finest sports franchise.

49ers Game Plan

I know, I know, I live in Oakland across the Bay, but like most Bay Area folks I'll be rooting for the cross-town SF 49ers on Superbowl Sunday. Here's my game-plan for the day:

1] The 49ers must go with the ground-game, grinding out the yards on short-yardage plays. They have the league's premier short-yardage back, Frank Gore, a running-back who runs like a full-back (straight-up-the-middle).

2] The Niners must run the ball on most downs, pounding out the yards, and to do this they have to control the line-of-scrimmage. If they control the line-of-scrimmage and run the ball on most downs (keeping the ball out of the hands of Ravens' QB Joe Flacco) then victory is assured. Possession football is what I'm talking about here.

3] Niners QB Colin Kaepernick should only throw on third downs and he mustn't gun it long either. Remember, it's all about possession football. Kaepernick must not get into a shootout with the Ravens QB Joe Flacco, who can air it out. Furthermore (on throwing downs) the Niners should go with a version of the WestCoast Offense, dumping the ball off to the Tight-End (Vernon Davis) or to any of the backs coming out of the backfield.

4]. All Kaepernick has to do to ensure victory is to spend the afternoon handing the ball to Frank Gore and (on third downs) dumping the ball off to the tight-end, Vernon Davis. That's all!