Opinion / Columnist
Joining the George Ayittey Society is a step towards fighting for real change in Zimbabwe
15 hrs ago | Views
My recent acceptance into the George Ayittey Society is an honour that fills me with immense humility and gratitude.
To be part of a distinguished group of scholars, intellectuals, and researchers who share a deep commitment to Africa's self-reliance and prosperity is both inspiring and profoundly meaningful.
This is not just a recognition of my work in social justice, human rights, and anti-corruption advocacy - it is also a reaffirmation of the ideals that have driven my unwavering pursuit of justice in Zimbabwe and across Africa.
Professor George Ayittey, of Ghanaian origin, was a visionary, a man whose intellectual rigor and fearless advocacy made him one of the most formidable enemies of corrupt African leadership in the 1990s.
His ideas were so radical - so uncomfortably truthful - that they earned him enemies among the very people who claimed to be leading Africa's liberation.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
His university office was firebombed, he was banned from entering several African countries, and he was vilified for daring to articulate an Africa that worked - a continent that did not have to mortgage its future for the selfish gains of a few elites.
Ayittey's so-called crime was believing that Africa was capable of solving its own problems.
He rejected the notion that African leaders needed to perpetually seek financial aid from Eastern and Western powers while squandering the vast resources that the continent already possessed.
He envisioned an Africa where politicians did not sign away their people's rights to minerals, land, and economic sovereignty in exchange for loans that would ultimately be embezzled and spent on luxury mansions, fleets of expensive cars, and private jets.
Instead, he championed an Africa where self-sufficiency was not just a distant dream but a tangible reality.
He believed that Africans had the capacity to build roads, schools, and hospitals without groveling at the feet of foreign donors.
He saw a continent where national budgets were not sustained by loans and aid, but by properly managed natural resources, export earnings, and an end to corruption.
Ayittey was not just a critic of foreign exploitation - he was an even harsher critic of African governments that enabled it.
His magisterial work, Indigenous African Institutions, drew from extensive research conducted during his tenure at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
In this book, he painstakingly examined Africa's traditional systems of law, governance, arbitration, and economic exchange, demonstrating that African societies had long possessed the mechanisms to govern themselves effectively.
These institutions had been systematically eroded - not just by colonial powers but by post-independence governments that continued the same bureaucratic oppression and corruption under a different name.
This is precisely the battle I have been fighting in Zimbabwe.
My work has always revolved around challenging the gross mismanagement of our national resources, exposing corruption, and demanding accountability.
Zimbabwe is one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa, yet its people are among the poorest.
How does a nation with over 60 known minerals - some of them among the most valuable on the planet - continue to suffer from economic deprivation?
Why should a country with vast reserves of gold, diamonds, platinum, and lithium be scrambling for foreign aid to feed its people, buy medical supplies, and educate its children?
The recent humanitarian aid cuts by the United States under Donald Trump threw Zimbabwe into panic, revealing the sheer dysfunction of our leadership.
Why did we need aid in the first place?
Why is a nation so richly endowed unable to take care of its own citizens?
The villages surrounding Zimbabwe's mineral-rich areas remain some of the most underdeveloped and impoverished.
These communities lack basic healthcare facilities, quality education, and even fundamental services like electricity and clean water.
How can a country with so much wealth be unable to provide the bare minimum for its people?
The answer lies in the very problems that George Ayittey spent his life fighting against - corruption, mismanagement, and a political elite that thrives on the suffering of its own people.
Zimbabwe loses over $3 billion every year to corruption.
This is money that could be used to build modern hospitals, ensure reliable electricity supply, and transform our education system.
But instead, it is siphoned off through illicit financial transactions, smuggling, and fraudulent public tenders where contracts are awarded at highly inflated prices, often for work that is never completed.
The looters, protected by their proximity to power, remain untouchable.
Ayittey repeatedly emphasized that Africa's problems were not of foreign origin.
While external factors certainly exist, the real enemy lies within - African leaders who plunder their own countries while shifting the blame elsewhere.
Governments that consistently blame sanctions, colonial legacies, or Western interference for their failures are either completely incompetent or deliberately deceptive.
Zimbabwe's leaders have mastered this art of deflection, using external excuses to evade accountability for their own disastrous policies.
The current exploitation of Zimbabwe's resources by foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, is yet another glaring example of this betrayal.
Instead of ensuring that mineral wealth benefits Zimbabweans, those in power have struck opaque deals that allow foreign firms to extract resources with minimal benefit to the country.
Entire communities have been forcibly displaced to make way for mining operations, workers are underpaid and mistreated, and environmental destruction is rampant.
The government, far from protecting its people, has facilitated this plunder because many of its officials have direct stakes in these ventures.
Worse still, Zimbabwe's leadership has mortgaged the country's mineral wealth to China in exchange for loans that the government has failed to repay.
This means that even the future generations of Zimbabweans will not benefit from their own resources, as they are already tied up in debt agreements that only serve the ruling elite.
This is the kind of predatory governance that George Ayittey spent his life condemning.
In fact, in 2009, Ayittey described then-President Robert Mugabe as a "disgrace."
He said that, in power for 29 years, Mugabe devastated a once-prosperous economy, silenced opposition, and forced over 3 million of his own citizens into exile.
Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence of his failures, he (Mugabe) refused to take responsibility.
Instead, he continually blamed "greedy Western nations," the World Bank, the IMF, and "snakes" (whites) for his problems.
"His arrogance is staggering - utterly impervious to reason, shockingly blind to the suffering around him, and deaf to the cries of his people.
"As the saying goes, a vampire state cares nothing for its people; it drains the economic vitality from them.
"Eventually, however, it morphs into a "coconut republic" - a hollow shell that implodes under the weight of its own corruption and incompetence."
His call for an Africa that works - one that is self-reliant, accountable, and free from corruption - is precisely the vision that drives my work.
It is the belief that our continent does not have to be trapped in cycles of dependency and underdevelopment.
That our resources, if properly managed, can lift millions out of poverty.
That our leaders, if held accountable, can create nations that thrive instead of beg.
Being part of the George Ayittey Society is not just a personal achievement - it is a responsibility.
It is a commitment to continue exposing corruption, to challenge the systems that oppress our people, and to advocate for an Africa that truly works for its citizens.
The best way to honor Ayittey's legacy is to carry forward his fight, to refuse to accept the status quo, and to demand a continent that finally takes control of its own destiny.
Africa does not need more aid.
It needs leaders who will stop stealing.
It needs citizens who will stop tolerating theft.
And it needs intellectuals, activists, and ordinary people who will stand up and say: Enough is enough.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
To be part of a distinguished group of scholars, intellectuals, and researchers who share a deep commitment to Africa's self-reliance and prosperity is both inspiring and profoundly meaningful.
This is not just a recognition of my work in social justice, human rights, and anti-corruption advocacy - it is also a reaffirmation of the ideals that have driven my unwavering pursuit of justice in Zimbabwe and across Africa.
Professor George Ayittey, of Ghanaian origin, was a visionary, a man whose intellectual rigor and fearless advocacy made him one of the most formidable enemies of corrupt African leadership in the 1990s.
His ideas were so radical - so uncomfortably truthful - that they earned him enemies among the very people who claimed to be leading Africa's liberation.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
His university office was firebombed, he was banned from entering several African countries, and he was vilified for daring to articulate an Africa that worked - a continent that did not have to mortgage its future for the selfish gains of a few elites.
Ayittey's so-called crime was believing that Africa was capable of solving its own problems.
He rejected the notion that African leaders needed to perpetually seek financial aid from Eastern and Western powers while squandering the vast resources that the continent already possessed.
He envisioned an Africa where politicians did not sign away their people's rights to minerals, land, and economic sovereignty in exchange for loans that would ultimately be embezzled and spent on luxury mansions, fleets of expensive cars, and private jets.
Instead, he championed an Africa where self-sufficiency was not just a distant dream but a tangible reality.
He believed that Africans had the capacity to build roads, schools, and hospitals without groveling at the feet of foreign donors.
He saw a continent where national budgets were not sustained by loans and aid, but by properly managed natural resources, export earnings, and an end to corruption.
Ayittey was not just a critic of foreign exploitation - he was an even harsher critic of African governments that enabled it.
His magisterial work, Indigenous African Institutions, drew from extensive research conducted during his tenure at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
In this book, he painstakingly examined Africa's traditional systems of law, governance, arbitration, and economic exchange, demonstrating that African societies had long possessed the mechanisms to govern themselves effectively.
These institutions had been systematically eroded - not just by colonial powers but by post-independence governments that continued the same bureaucratic oppression and corruption under a different name.
This is precisely the battle I have been fighting in Zimbabwe.
My work has always revolved around challenging the gross mismanagement of our national resources, exposing corruption, and demanding accountability.
Zimbabwe is one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa, yet its people are among the poorest.
How does a nation with over 60 known minerals - some of them among the most valuable on the planet - continue to suffer from economic deprivation?
Why should a country with vast reserves of gold, diamonds, platinum, and lithium be scrambling for foreign aid to feed its people, buy medical supplies, and educate its children?
The recent humanitarian aid cuts by the United States under Donald Trump threw Zimbabwe into panic, revealing the sheer dysfunction of our leadership.
Why did we need aid in the first place?
Why is a nation so richly endowed unable to take care of its own citizens?
The villages surrounding Zimbabwe's mineral-rich areas remain some of the most underdeveloped and impoverished.
These communities lack basic healthcare facilities, quality education, and even fundamental services like electricity and clean water.
How can a country with so much wealth be unable to provide the bare minimum for its people?
The answer lies in the very problems that George Ayittey spent his life fighting against - corruption, mismanagement, and a political elite that thrives on the suffering of its own people.
Zimbabwe loses over $3 billion every year to corruption.
This is money that could be used to build modern hospitals, ensure reliable electricity supply, and transform our education system.
But instead, it is siphoned off through illicit financial transactions, smuggling, and fraudulent public tenders where contracts are awarded at highly inflated prices, often for work that is never completed.
The looters, protected by their proximity to power, remain untouchable.
Ayittey repeatedly emphasized that Africa's problems were not of foreign origin.
While external factors certainly exist, the real enemy lies within - African leaders who plunder their own countries while shifting the blame elsewhere.
Governments that consistently blame sanctions, colonial legacies, or Western interference for their failures are either completely incompetent or deliberately deceptive.
Zimbabwe's leaders have mastered this art of deflection, using external excuses to evade accountability for their own disastrous policies.
The current exploitation of Zimbabwe's resources by foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, is yet another glaring example of this betrayal.
Instead of ensuring that mineral wealth benefits Zimbabweans, those in power have struck opaque deals that allow foreign firms to extract resources with minimal benefit to the country.
Entire communities have been forcibly displaced to make way for mining operations, workers are underpaid and mistreated, and environmental destruction is rampant.
The government, far from protecting its people, has facilitated this plunder because many of its officials have direct stakes in these ventures.
Worse still, Zimbabwe's leadership has mortgaged the country's mineral wealth to China in exchange for loans that the government has failed to repay.
This means that even the future generations of Zimbabweans will not benefit from their own resources, as they are already tied up in debt agreements that only serve the ruling elite.
This is the kind of predatory governance that George Ayittey spent his life condemning.
In fact, in 2009, Ayittey described then-President Robert Mugabe as a "disgrace."
He said that, in power for 29 years, Mugabe devastated a once-prosperous economy, silenced opposition, and forced over 3 million of his own citizens into exile.
Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence of his failures, he (Mugabe) refused to take responsibility.
Instead, he continually blamed "greedy Western nations," the World Bank, the IMF, and "snakes" (whites) for his problems.
"His arrogance is staggering - utterly impervious to reason, shockingly blind to the suffering around him, and deaf to the cries of his people.
"As the saying goes, a vampire state cares nothing for its people; it drains the economic vitality from them.
"Eventually, however, it morphs into a "coconut republic" - a hollow shell that implodes under the weight of its own corruption and incompetence."
His call for an Africa that works - one that is self-reliant, accountable, and free from corruption - is precisely the vision that drives my work.
It is the belief that our continent does not have to be trapped in cycles of dependency and underdevelopment.
That our resources, if properly managed, can lift millions out of poverty.
That our leaders, if held accountable, can create nations that thrive instead of beg.
Being part of the George Ayittey Society is not just a personal achievement - it is a responsibility.
It is a commitment to continue exposing corruption, to challenge the systems that oppress our people, and to advocate for an Africa that truly works for its citizens.
The best way to honor Ayittey's legacy is to carry forward his fight, to refuse to accept the status quo, and to demand a continent that finally takes control of its own destiny.
Africa does not need more aid.
It needs leaders who will stop stealing.
It needs citizens who will stop tolerating theft.
And it needs intellectuals, activists, and ordinary people who will stand up and say: Enough is enough.
© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
Source - Tendai Ruben Mbofana
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