Political freedom not enough

redistribution and economic emancipation as well as self-destiny for his tiny country, a thing which many first generation African leaders failed to achieve. 
Just look at the literacy rate in Zimbabwe!
It is critical for the world in general and Africa in particular, to give credit where it is due. Zimbabwe should make every African proud and, of course, should make any sane Western leader blush, for, if the truth be told, the tables have practically been turned through a massive indigenisation drive.
One only wishes that Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Samora Machel of Mozambique were still alive.
After Africa managed to liberate all its countries from colonialism, the biggest challenge was economic independence and empowerment of its people, for long forced to play second fiddle by the former coloniser.
The obvious dilemma was that some African leaders who had just won independence chose to celebrate their win by staying in the comfortable offices and forgot to implement things that had became the basis of the struggle for independence.
At the end of their tenures, most first generation African presidents had spent their time drinking from the same glasses, eating from the same pots and enjoying the same office benefits without changing the lives of their long-impoverished populace.
Except for President Mugabe and, to a certain extent, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, most first generation African presidents did nothing for their people and where they did, it was just piecemeal. 
This has left Africa very vulnerable and gullible to exploitation by the West as those who have played their part like Mugabe have been singled out as cruel, evil and dictatorial, simply because they defied Western Europe’s proposal to keep the former coloniser’s hegemony on natural resources. Yet, those who have done practically nothing tangible for their people in post-colonialism like Nelson Mandela have been over-glorified by the West, with the simple reason that they allowed the status quo to remain with piecemeal changes to the economic strata.
The time has come for Africa to pool its resources and fight neo-colonialism and thwart the ever-increasing Americanisation of the world and the subtle recolonisation. Africa must learn what the US does. It keeps at bay, even a thousand kilometres, any regime that will have ripple effects on its foreign policy.
Syria is a good example here. America wants a government that is answerable and favourable to its interests and is doing everything to overthrow that government. Africa does not have that capacity but can support Russia and China against the US as a starting point, because, in the end, Syria will have a serious bearing on events in Africa.
During the Conference on Somalia, which took place in London, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that America intends to support the Syrian opposition financially as well as to provide weapons to it, a step that can only be described as an act of co-operation with terrorists. This US intention is yet another evidence of how members of the “Syrian plot” plan to force (at any cost) the Syrian government into acting accordingly to their scenarios. Is this not what the Americans did with the MDC-T? The USA with their Western and Arab allies organised the conference in Tunisia under the pretext of protecting human and democratic rights in Syria.
However, the main goal of this conference, unofficially named “friendly meeting of the enemies of Syria,” was a preparation for the intervention in Syria.
As viewed on Syrian TV, Egyptian political analyst Ashraf Bayoumi stated that the conference of the so-called “friends of Syria” was a part of an information and psychological war of the West against Syrian people. He also highlighted that the instability in Syria concurred with US plans and with those of their Western allies to establish their hegemony in the region.
Ashraf Bayoumi declared that the Istanbul Council, which called for military intervention in Syria, was under control of American, French and Israel secret services and that the real goal of the USA and EU was to establish their dominance in the Middle East.
The West chose the League of Arab States (LSA), that is under the influence of the Arab Gulf, as an instrument for the implementation of its plans. This temporary alliance with LSA reflects the pragmatism of the American government as the USA has always belittled the interests of Arabs.
Americans vetoed more than 60 UN Security Council draft resolutions on the Palestinian problem, occupied Iraq, becoming responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians and in company with known Western countries destroyed Libya and divided Sudan. These so-called friends of Arabs continue to ignore Israel’s crimes in Gaza and in southern Libya.
But in Zimbabwe, which is celebrating its independence today, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would have placed Zimbabwe under the bomber jets of the US, Britain and France, disguised as United Nations intervention forces.
Zimbabwe’s independence celebration should never be restricted to the Southern Africa country alone but should be an emblem of African humanism and prosperity. — DayAfrica.com.
l Professor Guchui Mutendeki is a political scientist based in South Africa.