So long, Uncle Bob!

“…Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” Robert Gabriel Mugabe is as alive as any 93-year-old can be, but his reign as president died last week. The Western media celebrated the easing into retirement of the grumpy old man who was probably the only African president they feared.  As […]

“…Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” Robert Gabriel Mugabe is as alive as any 93-year-old can be, but his reign as president died last week. The Western media celebrated the easing into retirement of the grumpy old man who was probably the only African president they feared. 

As students, we marched for Zimbabwe and all oppressed peoples. Because we had never been under the yoke of apartheid or any other form of racism, we had an attitude of righteous indignation towards the racists controlling southern Africa. At great personal costs we fulfilled our youthful duty of unalloyed solidarity with the oppressed. Even new halls of residence were named after the struggle (witness Angola and Mozambique Halls at the then University of Ife).

For people of my generation, the decolonisation gale that swept over southern Africa was great news and we looked forward to a future of giant strides across the continent. Guerrilla war leader Mugabe came to the job of leading Zimbabwe better prepared than any other president in history:  BA (History and English) 1951; B.Admin; B.Ed; BSc Econs; BL, LLB; LLM; MSc Econs. He earned the two Law degrees while in prison between 1964 and 1975, and the MSc after Independence.

Mugabe assumed office with the promise of reincarnating the era of philosopher leaders like Ghana’s Nkrumah. Nobody could have predicted back then that it would all end in a coup at a time the earthly sojourn of the liberation fighter was nearing midnight. Thankfully, it didn’t end in a blaze. Power simply left the Commander-in-Chief, reverting him to harmless civilian-hood.

In spite of the fact that he wasn’t a model strategist in his quest to empower his people, and the rank corruption that allowed his loyalists to blur the distinction between personal and national purse, I think history, the inevitable magistrate, will be kinder to him than the western press thinks. 

The 1979 Lancaster House Agreement that paved the way for Zimbabwean independence, replacing the unrecognised state of Rhodesia with Zimbabwe, was a recurring refrain throughout Mugabe’s rule for it promised what the British and American governments had no intention of honouring – the compensation of white farmers for any land redistributed to landless natives whose patrimony had been forcibly taken in over 100 years of white rule. White farmers owned 70% of the most arable land in the country.

Zimbabweans looked forward to enjoying the fruits of their armed struggle after independence. The land issue was a matter of life and death and Mugabe was determined to meet the hopes and aspirations of his people. Britain and the US did not fulfil their part of the bargain. In exasperation, he ordered his people to forcibly take back their land. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a land distribution system in place and the exercise became a free-for-all. Senior members of the security forces, politicians, judges, civil servants, war vets and other party operatives most of whom had no prior farming experience or capital grabbed their share. Many white farmers were terrorised to abandon their farms. Lives were lost.

Agricultural exports used to account for about 40% of the country’s foreign currency earnings. As production nosedived, the economy started heading south. Western conspiracy and Mugabe’s inability to balance expediency with realism helped quicken the downward slide. By 2008, inflation had rocketed to 231,000,000 per cent! Seventy-four per cent of the population live on less than $5.76 a day (lower than in 1980) and just 10 per cent of the population draws a salary. The country has been brought to its knees. 

Britain and the US can pretend all they want, they can publish derisive tomes on the “African despot”, but they are as guilty as hell in the Zimbabwean tragedy. Recall that when the going was good, Mugabe was knighted by Queen Elizabeth as Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath. Sir Robert Mugabe became a bad man only when he insisted that the Brits and Americans fulfil their own part of a deal freely entered into. 

But he stayed too long in power and brutalised his opponents. Yoruba philosophers warn that all manner of bluebottle flies would perch on you if you stay too long defecating in the bush. God will never create a man who is irreplaceable. I don’t grieve for Uncle Bob, but I won’t dance on his grave.

Newly sworn-in President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is 75 years old, a veteran of the liberation war in his own right, a Mugabe ally, senior member of the ruling ZANU-PF and one of the richest men in Zimbabwe. He knew too much and was too connected to be thrown under the bus as Mugabe did. 

He needs to think and act more strategically than his predecessor. He can, for instance allow the whites ownership of 10-15% of the arable land and arrange a mentoring programme between white farmers and their black counterparts to build mutual understanding and increase agricultural production. In my books, it is better to have 85% of something than to have 100% of nothing.  

Mnangagwa should start grooming younger elements for future leadership, ensure that his wife doesn’t transmogrify into another rude, violent and over-ambitious Grace Mugabe, curb corruption and tackle the economy squarely. He is nobody’s messiah. The earlier he gets that into his crafty head the better. I wish Zimbabwe well.