Chronicle Editor
Pathisa Nyathi
Interest in Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence grew as it became patently clear independence was nigh. The Internal Settlement of 1978 comprising the rejected African leaders could not hold. It dawned on Western countries that without the involvement of the Patriotic Front (PF) no internationally recognised political solution would subsist. Efforts were made to rope in Joshua Nkomo, the co-leader of the PF, a move that drove a wedge between the two partners.
Edgar Lockwood was in Lusaka at the time and was introduced to the ZAPU leadership who soon discovered he was not primarily a journalist. He was doubling up as something else which he did not disclose. The chances are that he was working for some intelligence organisation for some Western country, most probably the United States of America.
He was keen to sniff out what was taking place within the Patriotic Front and, in particular, relations between the two partners but also their relations with the Western countries.
Lockwood sought to get some information about the political stance of the United Kingdom’s Foreign Affairs Minister David Owen who was working in cahoots with the United States Secretary of State, Zambia and Nigeria’s former Foreign Minister Garba.
In the context of the Cold War, he and his handlers were keen to sound the level of support that the eastern bloc countries were lending to the PF. What were the relations between ZANU and the China? Was the Soviet Union having some second thoughts regarding their support for ZAPU? All this had to be unraveled as these were matters that would determine, to a very large measure, the political outcomes after attainment of independence in Zimbabwe.
Sometimes it was hazardous to reveal one’s real identity, preferring to masquerade as some journalist of sorts, seeking news and no more.
At the time when Lockwood arrived in Zambia it was soon after the Rhodesian bombings. As he correctly observed, it was an emotional time and a time of crisis.
ZAPU officials were suspicious of journalists who they viewed as seeking to kill more than one bird with a single stone and retrieve it. “Davis Martin, a journalist for the London Observer urged me to make my contacts with ZAPU through Mr. Edward Ndlovu the Head of Research and Special Projects. Unfortunately, Mr. Ndlovu took me as a journalist and referred me to Mr. Ncube who expressed great interest in our work. He is particularly anxious to receive any information we have regarding American corporations which have investments in Rhodesia.”
Politics is but a key that unlocks the doors to economic resources which come in varied forms. Politics is well equipped to defend those interests using state machinery including covert measures to conceal the real intentions behind the key players on the economic front. Southern Africa was geopolitically important to antagonists in the cold war.
Whoever had his proxy winning the elections and forming a government would remember those who extended some helping hand. There have to be political proxies that open economic doors and the resource-hungry powers ignore the type of government in power. Democracy is not an important consideration but their access to resources within a given country.
“I gave him some of our materials and the Corporate Data Exchange book on bank loans to South Africa. When Mr. Ncube realised that I was not primarily a journalist, he was most anxious for Edward Ndlovu to set something up for me with the ZAPU political people at Zimbabwe House (ZH), but this did not prove to be practical as the latter had already left.”
Lockwood did observe the vulnerability of Zambia to external pressure. That was as a result of economic interests of certain multi-national corporations who had business interests in Zambia and at the same time in Rhodesia and South Africa.
The two such conglomerates were Anglo-American and Tiny Rowland’s Lonrho. “Lusaka is filled with foreign spies and intelligence operations. Its air force is only 24 planes; its Rapier anti-aircraft system is outmoded and in bad state of maintenance. Five missiles fired last April malfunctioned. The IMF has apparently not only insisted on opening the route to the south but also on less defence spending.” The IMF which controls the purse strings seems to play a part in arm twisting some nations to commit economic suicide and in the final analysis political suicide by playing the game of the powerful multi-national corporations. Those who try to resist to play ball end up with their economies collapsing and, in the end, approach the financial institution with crumpled hats in pockets.
The rich world seems well connected at some level beyond the sight of poor countries. Missions like the one Lockwood undertook to the Frontline states and the liberation movements was part of that scheme to fine tune the policies of independent countries to concentrate on politics while in the economic dining hall there is joyous feasting by revelers who have blindfolded themselves so that their identities are concealed. Weak leaders dare not challenge the rejoicing leaders to prematurely end their party.
If one tries to play a Kwame Nkrumah their life is cut short and the blame pushed to some obscure operative who himself may be sent to Kingdom Come for being privy to top secrets.
“At a meeting in Kano, Nigeria this summer between Callaghan and Kaunda, arrangements were made for Britain to send in military assistance on a grant basis. The first shipment amounted to some #2 million of anti-aircraft; other equipment was scheduled to arrive on October 28, with a contingent of British technical assistance troops. Reports in Europe say that 4 000 Nigerian troops are to be sent to Zambia… “These developments were perceived as ominous by ZANU, Mozambique and Tanzania.
In their view the West is intent on splitting the Patriotic Front. The West seems to them intent not only splitting the Patriotic Front, but on some form of military intervention using Zambia as a base. The West has apparently persuaded Nigeria to be the spokesman for a Western-oriented moderate (i.e. capitalist) solution to Zimbabwe. Not only did former Foreign Minister Garba sit in on the Smith-Nkomo meeting, but Obasanjo himself has intervened with the Frontline Presidents to argue that Nkomo must be “imposed”.
“These maneuvers are seen as primarily the work of David Owen with the support of the American Secretary of State. Owen faces criticism from his backbenchers such as Alex Lyon, a barrister MP from York who has recently returned from a month’s tour of Africa.
He is reported to have said, ‘It is worrying to hear from many sources that David Owen is trying to install Joshua Nkomo as President of Zimbabwe and has intervened to undermine the fragile unity of the Patriotic Front and the Frontline States’(Guardian, November 7).”
Real politics is not what we read about in newspapers. It is kept underground where the chosen few access it and release snippets to the media as news of what is happening when that is no more than a drop in the political Pacific Ocean.
Online Reporter