When the military tanks rolled into the streets of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and a dour-faced General appeared on State television reading from a prepared text declaring what seemed to be a coup, it had set the stage for the sad end of President Mugabe’s 37 years rule in the country. Since then matters have moved at a frenetic pace culminating in his sack as leader by his comrades in the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) which would be a prelude to his removal as President.
It was an unmaking of a hero. For the generation of many Africans who came of age in the 1970s and 80s, Robert Mugabe was a hero of substantial proportions. His profile was probably only marginally dimmed later by the emergence of Mandela as President of South Africa in the 1990s. Looking back I can say I considered him a hero myself but I must confess that I hardly heard of him in 1970s. In that period the heroes for the struggle for independence in the then British colony of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) whom we heard and read about were principally Joshua Nkomo, Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole and Bishop Abel Muzorewa.
As students in the University in the mid-1970s we were passionate about happenings in Africa. After all the military government, particularly after the 1975 coup had declared that Africa was the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy. There was even a day, officially set aside, annually called Africa Day, when Nigerians were sensitized on particularly the atrocities of Apartheid regimes. The Foreign Minister in those years, Major-General Joe Garba would make a broadcast to the nation and dwell extensively in graphic terms the oppression of our brothers and sisters in the Apartheid enclaves of South Africa, Rhodesia, South West Africa (now Namibia) etc.
In Rhodesia in particular we followed the tragedy of that beautiful country of Matebele and Shona land that was captured in the closing years of the 19th Century by a British South African, Cecil Rhodes, and colonised for the British Crown. Cecil established one of the most brutal colonial regimes in Rhodesia with colour bars and denials of other civil and economic rights for black citizens. In the 1960s the white-dominated government felt even strong enough to thumb their colonial power Britain in the face and unilaterally declare the country independent. The so-called independent Rhodesia was never officially recognized, but the white minority leadership was undeterred. They clamped the leading black agitators into jail and held on to power by unleashing a great deal of brutality against the black population.
The black nationalists resorted to guerrilla warfare and withdrew to the bushes. They also camped in the sympathetic neighbouring countries attacking Rhodesia from many directions. This, plus the economic sanctions imposed by the International community made Rhodesia a pariah state and pretty much ungovernable. By the 1970s the white minority government realized the difficult situation they were in and came up with an ingenious contraption called internal settlement which produced a black Prime Minister, Bishop Abel Muzorewa. He was also never recognized by the international community.
By the end of the 1970s the Conservative Party just coming to power in the United Kingdom was agreeable to a Commonwealth Summit proposal to a round table conference of all the contending forces in the Rhodesian imbroglio. Thus in September 1979 leaders of the black nationalists groups Nkomo, Sithole, Mugabe and the white minorities, Ian Smith, David Smith, General Peter Wells were invited to London for talks. The delegation also included Bishop Muzorewa who had agreed to an internal settlement and won an election and was even installed as Prime Minister but was never recognized by the international community. The conference held in Lancaster House, London, for three months, September to December, under the sagacious leadership of Britain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lord Carrington.
By some fortunate coincidence, I happened to land for the first time in the United Kingdom that same September to attend a two-year Master’s Degree program in the Swansea University. Being African and Nigerian with a lot of interest in the Rhodesian issue my attention was riveted on what was happening in Lancaster House which was lavishly carried by both the print and electronic media. The long distance between Swansea and London was what prevented me from frequenting Lancaster House to catch a glimpse of Rhodesian black leaders. But I kept keen eyes on developments there.
I found that it was in that conference that Mugabe actually emerged from his shell and assumed the leadership role of his people. Hitherto Nkomo with his huge physical presence and engaging manners had usurped that role. Mugabe was smallish, hardly spoke and was disdainful to, and would not even court the Press. But when the Press realized that he was the leader of the largest party, ZANU, all attention turned to him.
Respect for Mugabe upped when it turned out that deep beyond that inscrutable face he projected, lay one of the most educated minds among all the Zimbabwean leaders at the conference. Mugabe had seven degrees which he laboured to acquire through correspondence when he was in prison for over ten years. The degrees were in subjects ranging from administration to education, economics and law and most of them from universities within the United Kingdom. No wonder at the Lancaster House negotiating table he, along with his colleague Edgar Tekere, another brilliant mind, then the Secretary-General and spokesman of ZANU, were the most notable and outshined all the others. They became the darlings of the international press and consequently made an indelible impression on many of us.
To cut a long story short, the long drawn negotiations culminated in granting independence to Rhodesia, renamed Zimbabwe. There were celebrations all over Africa and the black world. An iconic singer of the times, Bob Marley, travelled all the way to the new nation for the independence ceremonies where he was hosted by Edgar Tekere. Readers may recall that it was at the Independence celebrations that Bob Marley serenaded the country’s struggle for freedom in that famous song, ‘Zimbabwe’.
When Mugabe assumed leadership of Zimbabwe at independence his stature as a liberation hero expanded and was sustained by a clear-headed policy of national reconciliation which exhorted both blacks and whites to come together to build the new Zimbabwe. The country prospered particularly in agriculture and mining. They were able to raise enough resources to invest heavily in the provision of social amenities such as hospitals and schools. At a time Zimbabwe was adjudged to have the highest literacy rate in Africa. Mugabe was hailed in Africa and around the world as a model leader of a developing country.
Unfortunately matters for the country and Mugabe got out of control as he grew more despotic at home and also drew the ire of the Western world when he seized the white-held agricultural lands to redistribute to blacks. The western powers colluded to impose economic sanctions particularly on export of minerals from the country which in the long run crippled the economy and ruined its currency. Mugabe limped on as the country’s leader and it was only a matter of time for what is happening now to occur. He had grown too conceited and self-centred, refusing to leave after 37 years in power and was even trying to install his wife as successor. He got his comeuppance from his own Generals, though matters are still unravelling. We shall return to the subject again. Keep a date with this page.
