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Langton Mabhanga Correspondent
Zimbabwe has remained a target of notorious foreign foes whose attitude towards the country is toxic, provocative and a glaring violation of sovereignty.
What baffles the mind is why a country like Zimbabwe, in southern tip of Africa, a sovereign one for that matter is targeted for policies it has put in place to benefit its ordinary citizens.
This provokes a fundamental question that must fill conversations on the African continent. While history has recorded various liberation struggles against colonisation and subsequent independence of African states, was the continent freed?
Why did the West colonise Africa by the way?
Weren’t the key factors for colonisation land and mineral resources? Could the erstwhile colonisers have found alternatives for these envied resources? Of course, they must have lost all these as African nations supposedly gained independence. Did the erstwhile colonisers give up on Africa? In fact, prospective colonisers have since multiplied both in quantum and agility during the 21st Century.
The only consistent variable is that Africa is still home to rich minerals, wildlife and land resources. Thus the magnitude of threats on Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular has exponentially multiplied.
This has given rise to induced instability that will grow to be greater and thicker if the respective African governments do not collectively put their foot down. I hate to think about the “Africans divided against each other” scenario. This might be prevalent right from the internal politics of respective States to induced government to government chasms and the role of evil foreign money that can be exchanged to usher in divisions.
God forbid. It’s a conversation for another day!
Stop the Racism Anathema
It’s amazing how the US staved off the international radar after the cold blooded massacre of George Floyd. In fact, the activism and widespread reactions to the maiming of George Floyd by police almost seemed like it was just the only such incident. Alas, there is a sustained and systemic trait of racism that starts inside a country, across continents and to Zimbabwe.
Baltimore experiences can provide a self- test for democracy and principle of equality. Blacks equal to Whites!
I find the #BlackLivesMatter slanted towards an admission that black lives are inferior to those of whites, but must merely matter, be reckoned.
Why not #BlackLives=WhiteLives? Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to be increasing, with a total 558 civilians having been shot, 111 of whom were black, as of July 29, 2020.
In 2018, there were 996 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 this figure increased to 1,004.
Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity.
The inequalities slanted against blacks go beyond the borders to Africa and her resources, minerals and wildlife.
No to imported Ideology
With the advent of Internet and social media, African youth have been targeted as the major consumers of the Western poisoned chalice against own governments.
These are being used as instruments of entrenching radicalism and extremism to destabilise countries, including Zimbabwe where they seek certain interests, however unfairly and of course unjustly.
African Governments must ensure orientation of our young people that the continent is theirs. Leaders on the continent in political, religious, business and civic sections, too, must be ready to involve and work with the youth to defend and develop their motherland.
Let’s bring our youth into the mainstream of all socio-economic and political spheres, in a broad pluralistic and inclusive fashion.
People-Centred Negotiation
African governments must appreciate that if we do not make our own youth aware of the onslaught and the more emerging threats, the foreign foes will do so and induce their own narratives that inflict self-hate.
We must drive our own agendas, unapologetically.
We must also own and exploit our land, minerals and wildlife unapologetically. We must work with our people to exploit these.
Some foreigners must not be trusted. They are just divisive and destructive to blacks, more so to Zimbabwe.
We should not discuss the secrets of our treasures in the presence of strangers. Our youth and our people must be at the core of all development exploits. Foreigners must come to aid Zimbabweans to do more and more efficiently. Deals must not forsake natives.
President Mnangagwa sided with his own people in the Chishawasha Hills dispute with foreigners — a clear sign of a people’s leader!
Every deal penned must be for the people of Zimbabwe — thus national interest.
Sanctity of National Security
National security must be made impervious and unbreakable, rock solid.
Every State is founded on the basis that its President shall ensure security of the entire establishment. It is the mandate of a Head of State.
Statecraft must secure its own citizens in all forms and manner to ensure collective and personal development.
President Mnangagwa has every right to fully discharge his mandate as any other head of State.
The growing international political gimmicks of “big brother” attitude by other governments over Zimbabwe is both toxic provocation and glaring violation of her sovereignty and that of Africa’s institutions of AU and regional constructs such as SADC.
Similarly, Zimbabwe’s sovereignty is equal to that of the provoking polities.
The magnanimity demonstrated by President Mnangagwa and the Second Republic, through the sustained policy of engagement and re-engagement, must not be taken for weakness and surrender.
Fair partners must partake of this gesture with mutual respect. Zimbabwe will walk and work with fair and just friends and partners.
Langton Mabhanga is a Board Member of the Pan African Chamber of Commerce.
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