South-South Survival

Perspective Stephen Mpofu
The chemistry of international dynamics is taking on an increasingly imperialistic, hegemonic tempo with even those in the West who were previously colonised taking a lead in the hate-love of African and Arab nations richly endowed with natural resources that the so-called industrial North desires at any cost.

The hate-love paradox gets even more conflictual with some imperialists stirring up conflicts to try to weaken poor, smaller nations so they can exploit the latters’ resources for a song if not by force — witness political turmoil in the Middle East and in some African countries targeted for exploitation of their abundant resources to further swell the bellies of the so-called rich North.

Under the circumstances, it becomes imperatively incumbent for people in Africa and in the Arab world to constellate and share their natural resources in a South-South co-operation for their own survival, while at the same time remaining too close with their God-given minerals, oil and other strategic resources that Western imperialists seek with red eyes.

Already meetings that have taken place in the Middle East between Africans and their Arab brethren point to a step in the right direction of cooperative efforts between and among the so-called have-nots — a warning that those who talk of a “global village” but act in a manner indicative of a divided village had better come to terms with the reality of interdependence as the only way of survival for that global village.

Closer to home, Zimbabwe has hosted at its staff college the training of military officers from the Sadc countries to enhance her independence and sovereignty against imperialist intervention and destabilisation.

In the 1960s when “the winds of change” blew across Africa, bringing freedom and independence to a colonised people, black new governments were invited by former colonial powers to send their bright young men for training as officer cadets at so-called elite Western military academies.

Upon arrival there the Africans were immediately indoctrinated by being told that African military culture was “primitive” and that they were now in the West to receive “civilised military culture”.

Returning home, the Africans remained black only in their colour but had become white inside so that they now despised not only African military culture but also their black government leaders who proceeded to rush them up the ladder to top ranks in the military.

Once ensconced at the head of the army the “new-born” military officers overthrew their governments because these were led by “primitive” leaders as their Western indoctrination dictated, and a rush of military coups resulted in some West African countries the “anthrax” spore remaining buried in the ground to cause military take-overs at opportune times.

The reluctance of Western countries at the recent climate talks in Oslo, Norway, to provide adequate financial support for Africa and elsewhere to combat the devastating effects of global warming, demonstrates beyond any shadow of doubt the selfishness of people who bear harsh indictment over the demise of the ozone layer rendered wafer-thin by the irresponsible conduct of some Western nations.

They stand in condemnation for their stubborn reluctance to modify factory chimneys that spewed dangerous fumes into the atmosphere, trapping the sun’s rays and preventing them from bouncing back from earth, thereby causing global warming and climate change which has spawned recurrent droughts, especially in Africa with Zimbabwe included, as well as floods elsewhere and both of which have resulted in food shortage in the developing world.

The culprits did not wish to spend more money to curb atmospheric pollution by their factories, fearing that the move would render their factory products more costly on account of money paid for improvements, thereby making the goods produced less competitive on the world market.

Now smaller countries bearing the brunt of the irresponsible acts of Big Brothers must hold their heads in their hands and bemoan their plight in a forlornness resembling a road without end.

Yet in spite of all that, developing countries, our own included, must play their part to minimise the boomerang effects of global warming and climate change to which they also contribute, albeit in a relatively smaller way, through deforestation and uncontrolled veld fires, etcetera.

For over three decades President Mugabe has led Zimbabweans each December in planting millions of trees meant to prevent desertification. But wanton deforestation continues unabated in spite of the tree-planting campaigns.

Trees protect water resources in addition to binding the soil to prevent erosion, and it is this life and death gospel that must continually be preached to every Zimbabwean for environmental protection and de-escalation of the devastating effects of climate change that need to be mitigated altogether.

Meanwhile, efforts by the Government in trying to make Zimbabwe transcend her status of underdevelopment appear to be taking on a braver face, thanks in particular to Zanu-PF’s electoral manifesto and lately to the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio- Economic Transformation, (Zim Asset), a blueprint of emancipating our people from the woes of illegal economic Western sanctions among other impediments and to a bolder future in which we manage our economy and resources in an act of self-realisation and fulfillment of the revolution that wrested the motherland from an otherwise implacable and racist colonial regime.

The decision to set up refineries in various parts of the country to produce final products from the country’s raw materials is but one of several bold moves by the ruling party to emancipate our people from a legacy of underdevelopment – a bequest from colonial Rhodesia.

Detractors of the Government will predictably say the refineries and other economic development models by the Zanu-PF government are measures come too late — 33 years on.

Of course, any such sour grapes are to be expected, especially from political parties that bit the dust in the last elections and must now clutch at straws to try and discredit the party that trounced them, just to save face as it were.

The uninitiated no doubt believe that the plethora of primary industries are the way forward in “industrialisation” but nothing can be further from the truth as secondary industries that process raw materials to finished products as a way of adding value are what account for industrialisation, and so with the planned refineries Zimbabwe will have embarked on a broad road to an industrialised economy.

Consider also food security and nutrition in that same vein.  Production of cash crops is all very well and must be encouraged as the people need the money to meet other needs.

However, a balance must be struck by growing so-called traditional food crops that held sway before Portuguese explorers introduced maize which has virtually supplanted other crops as both a staple and a cash crop.

In fact even maize has now been elbowed away and into the shade by cotton, which people do not eat but grow it to earn money, and in some parts of Zimbabwe the growing of tobacco for cash has taken precedence over the staple maize and no one needs a prophet to say what happens when the staple vanishes from the dinner table.

This suggests, therefore, a need to supervise in  some way the growing of food crops to enhance nutritional values to a growing population, not withstanding the production on the side of some cash crops to sell in order to tide over our people as the needs arise.

Thus, a strong return to the cultivation of millet, sorghum, rapoko, all of which are also recommended diets in combating HIV in addition to “staying longer in the belly” as the old people would say, should be supervised, so to speak so that these food crops will not eventually become proverbs in Zimbabwean society.

Ideally, nutrition committees might have to be set up in the villages to ensure that children and the elderly in particular receive nutritional foods – balanced diets, to be exact.

Members of political parties and teachers and nurses at district hospitals or clinics could constitute such committees supervising people’s eating habits for a healthy nation with the stamina to develop the economy.

A need therefore also arises to oversee the use of  seed distributed by the Government to ensure that recipients do not sell it, as some people in Binga reportedly sold donated seed maize to Zambians for cash instead of sowing it at home for their own food security.

All in all, it is becoming abundantly clearer that with non-believers in the inclusive government’s journey now out of the way, Zimbabweans are becoming more and more focused on doing just what any determined people must do to rid themselves of the vestiges of colonialism, oppression and political estrangement in order to fulfil a developmental agenda.