Opinion / Columnist
Africa needs to be there for Zimbabwe as Zimbabwe has been there for Africa
28 Jul 2011 at 07:01hrs | Views
On 10 July 2005 in Durban, South Africa a Declaration was made in tribute to the Organization of African Unity on the occasion of the launching of the African Union. The declaration reads
We, the Heads of State and Government of the Assembly of the African Union, meeting in our inaugural session in Durban, South Africa, have adopted the following declaration in tribute to the Organization of African Unity:
1.Thirty nine years ago, the Heads of State and Government of the then independent African Countries gathered in Addis Ababa Ethiopia to found the Organization of African Unity.
2.The main objectives for establishing the organization were, inter alia, to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote unity and solidarity among African States; coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; for the defence of sovereignty, territorial integrity and consolidation of the independence of African States, as well as promoting international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations.
3.The common identity and unity of purpose engendered by the OAU became a dynamic force at the service of the African people in the pursuit of the struggle for the total emancipation of the African Continent in the political, economic and social fields. Nowhere has that dynamic force proved more decisive than in the African struggle for decolonization. Through the OAU Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, the Continent worked and spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an international consensus in support of the liberation struggle. Today, we celebrate a fully decolonized Africa and Apartheid has been consigned to the ignominy of history.
4.Pursuant to one of the major objective of its Charter, the OAU has strived to address Africa's problem of poverty and under development and adopted strategies in this regard, including the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action and the Final Act of Lagos which continue to be the blue print for Africa's integration and development.
President Robert Mugabe has always maintained that as Africans we are our brothers' keepers. The people of Zimbabwe have shown their solidarity to their brothers across the continent; in South Africa during the apartheid era, in Mozambique, in Namibia, in the DRC to name a few. An attack on any one of our African brothers is an attack on the whole continent. History has shown that when Africans unite they can accomplish great things it has also shown that African Unity or Pan Africanism is considered by the West as a dirty thing which should be destroyed at all costs.
On 1 July 2008, the US President George Bush signed a bill that effectively removed Nelson Mandela and other members of the ANC party from the US terrorist watch list. The sad thing about this is that the US had Nelson Mandela under sanctions while the rest of the world saw Mandela as a symbol of freedom and equality. Yet America chose not to abide by the sanctions that the United Nations placed on Apartheid South Africa, the very system Nelson Mandela stood up against. The fact that the lifting of Nelson Mandela's terrorist label came a week after he spoke against President Mugabe at a function held for him by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown can be interpreted in several ways. This writer believes that Nelson Mandela was "civilized" because he showed that unlike his African counterpart President Robert Mugabe he would not rock the boat when it came to Western interests on the African continent. I am sure I will be cursed and receive hate mail for even suggesting this but the facts speak for themselves, the Americans hurriedly rolled out the red carpet for Nelson Mandela a decade after the fall of Apartheid and showered him with praises in hope of a repeat performance in condemning President Mugabe for standing up for his people.
Self determination is defined as the free choice of one's own acts without external compulsion and as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status or independence. Patrice Lumumba, Herbert Chitepo, Steve Biko are just but a drop in the bucket of those killed to stifle the cries of African freedom. Today the right to self determination of Zimbabweans has been stolen from right under them through nefarious means by America and Britain. Zimbabwe is under sanctions, America and Britain have formed and continue to fund a political party that is under the instruction of maintaining their interests in Zimbabwe, civic groups have been formed which have been capacitated to lobby against the nationalist government of President Mugabe at regional and international level. Zimbabwe and her people are being sacrificed by a few individuals so that her resources can be under the grip of America and Britain.
Zimbabweans wish for the justice that their grandfathers and grandmothers never had. They want their rights to be upheld not just by their Government but also by those nations in the West who are brutally waging a silent war against them in their name but for their own gains. Words alone of forgiveness and reconciliation cannot replace beliefs, as witnessed in Zimbabwe; racism has not been eradicated with words but it has continued to be perpetuated through a skewed distribution of resources based solely on color and not on merit.
The reality about Zimbabwe is this, President Mugabe kept his end of the bargain to the people who put him in power, the men and women of Zimbabwe, and refused to be bought by honorary degrees and knighthood. By embarking on the Land Reform Program, President Mugabe became the enemy of the West and he and his people are being persecuted for an action that many in the developing world would see not only as justified but long overdue. In 2002 the AU released a communique in which it underscored that Britain was the root behind the problems in Zimbabwe and that it had a role to play in righting its past mistakes instead of seeking to globalize a bilateral issue.
It is time that Africa stood as one voice and moved to a new chapter in its history. The vestiges of colonization and apartheid are still to be removed, let us not be fooled by this talk of letting go of the past which removes the whites only signs in restaurants and shops but yet maintains discrimination through deliberate economic controls that shut black people out.
Unity and solidarity among African states should start with African leaders speaking with one voice. For so long African leaders have fallen to the divide and rule tactic of the West which means that as long as Africans are divide they cannot exercise the immense power they hold which is their raw materials. The west cannot survive without Africa's raw materials, which is why it is doing all it can to shut China out of Africa because it realizes that China possesses a threat to all the goodies it has been getting for a song in Africa.
Let Africa consolidate the gains of her independence from colonialism by standing up and taking her place as a global leader. The total emancipation of the African Continent in the political, economic and social fields cannot be left in the hands of those who jump at the voice of Africa's former colonial masters, nor can it be left to those who seek to endear themselves to America and Britain so that they can be given a prize. Political and Economic independence of Africa will only be realized when Africans can look each other in the eye and tell it like it is that "America and Britain are using us for their economic growth and we are fighting each other while our people suffer."
The Zimbabwe that is shown on BBC or CNN is not the true Zimbabwe. The true story of Zimbabwe is told everyday on the streets of a nation whose "economy has been made to scream in order to separate them from the Zanu-PF Government of President Robert Mugabe".
"We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba's murder should be a lesson for all of us. " were the words of Che Guevara following the murder of Patrice Lumumba by the Belgians with the help of the Americans.
How long will Africa look on as its heroes are killed and its resources plundered by Western war mongers masquerading as democrats?
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Dambudzo Mapuranga is very much interested in debating issues pertinent to Zimbabwe and can be contacted on mapurangad@yahoo.com
We, the Heads of State and Government of the Assembly of the African Union, meeting in our inaugural session in Durban, South Africa, have adopted the following declaration in tribute to the Organization of African Unity:
1.Thirty nine years ago, the Heads of State and Government of the then independent African Countries gathered in Addis Ababa Ethiopia to found the Organization of African Unity.
2.The main objectives for establishing the organization were, inter alia, to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote unity and solidarity among African States; coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; for the defence of sovereignty, territorial integrity and consolidation of the independence of African States, as well as promoting international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations.
3.The common identity and unity of purpose engendered by the OAU became a dynamic force at the service of the African people in the pursuit of the struggle for the total emancipation of the African Continent in the political, economic and social fields. Nowhere has that dynamic force proved more decisive than in the African struggle for decolonization. Through the OAU Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, the Continent worked and spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an international consensus in support of the liberation struggle. Today, we celebrate a fully decolonized Africa and Apartheid has been consigned to the ignominy of history.
4.Pursuant to one of the major objective of its Charter, the OAU has strived to address Africa's problem of poverty and under development and adopted strategies in this regard, including the 1980 Lagos Plan of Action and the Final Act of Lagos which continue to be the blue print for Africa's integration and development.
President Robert Mugabe has always maintained that as Africans we are our brothers' keepers. The people of Zimbabwe have shown their solidarity to their brothers across the continent; in South Africa during the apartheid era, in Mozambique, in Namibia, in the DRC to name a few. An attack on any one of our African brothers is an attack on the whole continent. History has shown that when Africans unite they can accomplish great things it has also shown that African Unity or Pan Africanism is considered by the West as a dirty thing which should be destroyed at all costs.
On 1 July 2008, the US President George Bush signed a bill that effectively removed Nelson Mandela and other members of the ANC party from the US terrorist watch list. The sad thing about this is that the US had Nelson Mandela under sanctions while the rest of the world saw Mandela as a symbol of freedom and equality. Yet America chose not to abide by the sanctions that the United Nations placed on Apartheid South Africa, the very system Nelson Mandela stood up against. The fact that the lifting of Nelson Mandela's terrorist label came a week after he spoke against President Mugabe at a function held for him by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown can be interpreted in several ways. This writer believes that Nelson Mandela was "civilized" because he showed that unlike his African counterpart President Robert Mugabe he would not rock the boat when it came to Western interests on the African continent. I am sure I will be cursed and receive hate mail for even suggesting this but the facts speak for themselves, the Americans hurriedly rolled out the red carpet for Nelson Mandela a decade after the fall of Apartheid and showered him with praises in hope of a repeat performance in condemning President Mugabe for standing up for his people.
Self determination is defined as the free choice of one's own acts without external compulsion and as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status or independence. Patrice Lumumba, Herbert Chitepo, Steve Biko are just but a drop in the bucket of those killed to stifle the cries of African freedom. Today the right to self determination of Zimbabweans has been stolen from right under them through nefarious means by America and Britain. Zimbabwe is under sanctions, America and Britain have formed and continue to fund a political party that is under the instruction of maintaining their interests in Zimbabwe, civic groups have been formed which have been capacitated to lobby against the nationalist government of President Mugabe at regional and international level. Zimbabwe and her people are being sacrificed by a few individuals so that her resources can be under the grip of America and Britain.
Zimbabweans wish for the justice that their grandfathers and grandmothers never had. They want their rights to be upheld not just by their Government but also by those nations in the West who are brutally waging a silent war against them in their name but for their own gains. Words alone of forgiveness and reconciliation cannot replace beliefs, as witnessed in Zimbabwe; racism has not been eradicated with words but it has continued to be perpetuated through a skewed distribution of resources based solely on color and not on merit.
The reality about Zimbabwe is this, President Mugabe kept his end of the bargain to the people who put him in power, the men and women of Zimbabwe, and refused to be bought by honorary degrees and knighthood. By embarking on the Land Reform Program, President Mugabe became the enemy of the West and he and his people are being persecuted for an action that many in the developing world would see not only as justified but long overdue. In 2002 the AU released a communique in which it underscored that Britain was the root behind the problems in Zimbabwe and that it had a role to play in righting its past mistakes instead of seeking to globalize a bilateral issue.
Unity and solidarity among African states should start with African leaders speaking with one voice. For so long African leaders have fallen to the divide and rule tactic of the West which means that as long as Africans are divide they cannot exercise the immense power they hold which is their raw materials. The west cannot survive without Africa's raw materials, which is why it is doing all it can to shut China out of Africa because it realizes that China possesses a threat to all the goodies it has been getting for a song in Africa.
Let Africa consolidate the gains of her independence from colonialism by standing up and taking her place as a global leader. The total emancipation of the African Continent in the political, economic and social fields cannot be left in the hands of those who jump at the voice of Africa's former colonial masters, nor can it be left to those who seek to endear themselves to America and Britain so that they can be given a prize. Political and Economic independence of Africa will only be realized when Africans can look each other in the eye and tell it like it is that "America and Britain are using us for their economic growth and we are fighting each other while our people suffer."
The Zimbabwe that is shown on BBC or CNN is not the true Zimbabwe. The true story of Zimbabwe is told everyday on the streets of a nation whose "economy has been made to scream in order to separate them from the Zanu-PF Government of President Robert Mugabe".
"We must move forward, striking out tirelessly against imperialism. From all over the world we have to learn lessons which events afford. Lumumba's murder should be a lesson for all of us. " were the words of Che Guevara following the murder of Patrice Lumumba by the Belgians with the help of the Americans.
How long will Africa look on as its heroes are killed and its resources plundered by Western war mongers masquerading as democrats?
------------------
Dambudzo Mapuranga is very much interested in debating issues pertinent to Zimbabwe and can be contacted on mapurangad@yahoo.com
Source - Dambudzo Mapuranga
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