Saturday, July 19, 2008

Now What?

Ah, those were the days! Below is a photo from a frontline summit of '85, with Presidents Kaunda, Mugabe, Machel & Nujoma. If only we could get back to those days. President Yar'Adua - as the President of the "Giant of Africa" - should take the initiative and call for a special Africa summit on Zimbabwe. That way, some basic principles can be laid down for "talks about talks". I'm not naive: there is no way that Zanu-pf will ever unite with Tsvangirai's MDC. However, interested parties, influential outsiders and progressives from all the political sides must be given a platform to express their wishes for a future Zimbabwe.

If such a platform is not available then Zimbabwe will just lurch from problem to problem, with no end in sight. The mindless clashes produced by such a stalemate can only be harmful, and yet meaningless at the same time. In Shona we say, "Kutungana kwe-mbudzi!" ; that is the futile clashing of goats. That's precisely what is happening when Zanu-pf's hardliners in the J.O.C and the MDC's camp are each trying to seize the high ground. Let's call a time-out to this nonsense.

The photo is below
James Chikonamombe

http://flickr.com/photos/ernstschade/337225955/

No comments :