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Mugabe's war with UK is decades-old

[ Posted On: 2008-06-17 ]

The current situation in Zimbabwe tempts one to agree with a view once articulated by Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere, "there is a devil somewhere in Africa."

How can the country's liberation leader sustain such protracted and massive hardship on his own country?

Robert Mugabe is clearly a man on a warpath. The recent so-called 'ship of shame' was a vessel full of arms from China destined for Zimbabwe. This was within weeks of the country's elections, which the opposition claims to have won. How did the fresh arms fit into the political equations? After all, the opposition is composed of Zimbabweans. How could Mugabe import arms to maim and kill fellow Zimbabweans?

There is no way to defend or justify what is happening in Zimbabwe. We can only try to understand. To do this we must look into the psychological make up of Robert Mugabe.

How does he perceive reality?

To some, Mugabe is a demented man, and that derangement has progressed into a major psychological sickness, an uncontrollable hatred of all things British. The root-cause of these sentiments are deeply personal (injury caused to Mugabe as a person) and also national (injury incurred upon his country) by the British.

To Mugabe, the opposition is an installation of the British in Zimbabwe's political scene. To that extent, that opposition is enemy of post-colonial Zimbabwe and must be resisted by all means necessary, including force. Hence, the 'ship of shame'.

Is there a justification to Mugabe's claim or is it mere distortion of reality by a leadership under siege?

Mugabe is convinced that the British have been against him and his leadership from the start. And their attacks have been aimed at the personal and national levels. In Mugabe's psyche, British assaults on both have blended and became indistinguishable: if you are against Mugabe, you are anti-Zimbabwe, and vice versa.

In 1964, Mugabe was sentenced to a protracted prison term by the regime of Ian Smith. At that time he was married to Sally Hayfron whom he had met in Ghana. Upon Mugabe's incarceration, Sally left for Britain where she felt safer and potentially helpful to her imprisoned husband.

But in Britain, Sally ran into immigration problems and faced the danger of deportation. From prison, Mugabe wrote detailed letters pleading with the British Government to grant Sally citizenship privileges as she was married to him, a British subject.

The White settlers issue

The British Government did not respond to Mugabe. From Mugabe's standpoint it did not help matters that their three-year-old son had died from cerebral malaria and Sally suffered from a mental breakdown. He was irreversibly hurt by the heartlessness and never forgave the British.

To clear the way for independence, a critical issue to be resolved in Zimbabwe was that of white settlers. Under Margaret Thatcher, Britain agreed to resolve the issue within 10 years. Zimbabwe had a larger number of white farmers to attend to than Kenya did at independence. Yet, Kenya received twice the financial support from Britain while Zimbabwe had five times as many farmers to buy out. Mugabe felt betrayed.

To make things worse, Tony Blair's regime would later renege altogether on the resettlement agreement. The logic was that, first, Blair's government was not bound by a commitment made by Thatcher's government and, second, that previous grants released to Zimbabwe had been marred by corruption.

Zimbabwe's war veterans responded by launching what came to be known as invasion of white farms. Mugabe first turned a blind eye on the lawlessness and then politicised it by giving it his full endorsement. In response, the British hyped their anti-Mugabe campaign, and had international sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe.

The Anglo-American decision to punish the country indiscriminately convinced Mugabe that the British agenda was to oust him and install the MDC to reverse his policies, especially on land.

To Mugabe, the current crisis is a struggle against re-colonisation; losing it is not an option. Many African leaders, perhaps including Thabo Mbeki, are sympathetic to the view that the Zimbabwe elections are a war within a bigger war.

Unfortunately, when two elephants fight — Britain and Mugabe — it is the grass (little people of Zimbabwe) that suffers.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: James N. Kariuki - is head of the African Diaspora Unit at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria.

| View Profile & All Articles By: James N. Kariuki |

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