Online Reporter
Isdore Guvamombe
Reflections
“Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another, inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war, me say war.’’ — Bob Marley
Africa has gone through a lot in colonial and post-colonial eras to the point where until this day, the continent struggles to liberate itself and give its people more meaningful life.
Independence came, but liberation is still the biggest struggle. Independence is once off, but liberation is a continuous process. Former colonial masters still abrogate themselves the right to decide which direction the continent must take and which friends it should deal with.
This is the continent’s daily reality. Our liberation is taking a route dotted with dangerous landmines and stumps.
Africa is a continent of negative media narratives, mainly sponsored by the West, itself a bunch of ruthless former colonisers, whose interests are in perpetual conflict with the liberation of Africa and its people.
Behind the news headlines lie patterns of systemic violence, extraction and manipulation. Whether it is Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, or foreign security firms in Mozambique, the message is the same: Africa’s enemies are armed not only with bullets, but with contracts, media narratives and economic traps.
Each country, from Zimbabwe, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and South Africa, which has tried to gain total liberation through control of natural resources, has become a subject of ruthless attacks militarily, or economic and these are real threats that we find the continent grappling with.
Africa cannot freely do business because the West in particular, wants to dictate how things should go and business contracts are abused to bring Africa to its knees.
The “post-colonial” moment has long expired — what remains is a managed crisis, policed by the IMF, militarised by AFRICOM, and sanitised by the African Union’s silence.
AFRICOM is a superior US military structure, meant to create space for manipulation of vast untapped natural resources in favour of the US.
Zimbabwe has gone through a lot after undertaking the land reform programme that gave the black majority prime farming land previously allocated to minority white farmers.
Until today, Zimbabwe is struggling with total international acceptability, despite land being a birthright for its citizens.
For more than 25 years, Zimbabweans have suffered. The economy has been under attack and the country was only saved from collapse through a carefully crafted Look East Policy, premised on China, Russia and India, among others.
Russia and China have done well to sustain Zimbabwe while the West continues to try this and that dirty trick to bring down the Zanu PF Government. Elections in Zimbabwe are no longer just elections, the West wants to manipulate and get rid of the Zanu PF Government and detests the ruling party’s links with Russia and China.
The Sahel region, premised on Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, is battling liberation from France. France gave these countries and others peace-meal independence and the new generation of politicians there has risen against this.
This is the real liberation of the region. France must never pretend it does not know exactly how it has ill-treated people under the pretext of Francophone Africa Pact.
It defies logic, even by an iota of human thought, how France still thinks it is sustainable not to have Sahel totally liberated from its shenanigans.
A bit of background here will help.
For many years, France’s security strategy towards sub-Saharan Africa has evolved in light of historical legacies, shifting international conventions and impractical factors.
France’s military engagements in the region were previously marked by unilateral efforts to retain influence and uphold stability, without regard to what the people in the region think or feel.
Now, there has been a shift towards total liberation due to changing African conflict dynamics, increasing global disapproval of neocolonial actions, and France acknowledging the constraints of acting unilaterally.
France’s security policy in the Sahel region with a particular emphasis on Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, is being challenged and rightfully so.
France is now abusing its European Union membership and gangster to deal with these countries but the uprising is too big for it.
Many more countries in the region, are going to join the resistance and France must wake up and smell the coffee. Africa is no longer the same, the liberation mood is there and strong.
In fact, all progressive thinking Africans should support Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in their latest liberation struggle. This is a real struggle, a people’s struggle and it is clear France has been cheating, brazenly.
And to South Africa
Before the dust of that infamous ambush in the Oval Office and indeed before the ink dried on newspapers, it was very clear that US President Donald Trump was given a dummy.
That kind of dummy is not befitting a president of the most powerful country, and hence powerful economy. This villager, the son of a peasant feels pity for Trump.
Boy oh Boy, this was tantamount to searching for a needle in a haystack. Trump needed haystack pin to justify future drastic action on South Africa. This turned out to be a damp squib.
While the ambush unsettled South African President Cyril Ramaphosa a bit, after collecting himself, he did so well to avoid extending the drama. At the end Ramaphosa did not give it to Trump.
South Africans deserve to run their country and to be saved from savage narratives, that are meant to justify sanctions.
That a small group of white people called Boers ratchet pressure by crying genocide in a country where many black people die of xenophopbia is uncalled for. That Trump thinks those white Boers are more important than any other people in South Africa is highly misplaced and utter crass. Crass!
Bob Marley was right.
“Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another, inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war, me say war.’’
