ODE TO MUGABE; A WITTY OLD CHARMER
The late former President Mugabe and I at the Harare International Airport on June 29, 2011. Picture Credit; Tsvangirai Mukwazhi
I received the news of
former president Robert Mugabe’s death with indifference. I had no idea on how
to feel about a man who had ruled over Zimbabwe with an iron fist leaving
behind a trail of blood, tears and economic destruction.
This is a rather strange
feeling because he was an icon of the liberation struggle and was the first prime
minister and president of Zimbabwe who affected my life in many ways. My
reaction is similar to many of my countrymen. People don't know whether to
mourn or to celebrate his demise.
The reaction is
evidently mixed as there are those that belong to and celebrate the liberation struggle will mourn and forgive him for all the evil he
committed and there are those who were victims of his brutality, political
opponents who will not miss him.
Then, of course, there
are the ‘born free’ youths who were born after independence who have no
attachment emotional or otherwise to the liberation struggle. All this
generation know are economic hardships. They have never had a job in their
lives yet they are university graduates. Mugabe means and will mean nothing in
their lives except of course’ the guy who presided over the death of the rule
of law, economic and the collapse of social services’ in the country. Then
there are those who were part of his gravy train, particularly the G40
elements, they will miss him the most. In fact, it would be fair to say that
even during his sickness, Mugabe remained an influential pillar and had comfort
presence for the G40(a faction led by his wife Grace). Now they will feel
orphaned and may disintegrate.
There are also some
elements in the opposition who will celebrate Mugabe not because they love him
but just because they do not like the current president Emmerson Mnangagwa or
ED as he is mostly referred to. They will celebrate Mugabe to chide ED, after
all, Mugabe voted for the opposition after he declared that ‘he would not vote
for his tormentors.’ This move was very uncharacteristic for his background and
principles as a revolutionary. I believe they will celebrate him, at great risk
to themselves of course.
However, Mugabe
also brought about many positive things to the country with one of the key
things being that of education. To date, Zimbabwe has one of the highest
literacy rates in the continent. But, uncle Bob’s legacy will not be
heroic because he totally lost the plot in the end.
Mugabe was power
centred so much that things only made sense if they did not threaten his power
base. He brooked no dissent. He had no permanent friends, only interests and
this can be proven by how he treated his comrades like the late Joshua Nkomo,
Edgar Tekere and current Zimbabwean president, ED to name but a few.
With Mugabe, it was
either his way or the high way, and this is probably why Zimbabwe is a pariah
state today. He leaves behind a legacy of bloodshed, gross human rights abuses
and of course the economy which is in the Intensive Care Unit.
It is not therefore
surprising that I and many journalists of my generation build our careers on
the story of Mugabe, his poor policies, human rights abuses, draconian laws
which sought to criminalise the practice of journalism, bad governance and the economy which remains an albatross on Zanu PF’s neck and may also see to the
downfall of his predecessor ED. I can’t remember writing a story that did
not involve what he was doing or not doing.
In the end, I found
myself writing frequently about his failing health and how he had gone to
Singapore to receive treatment for either eye cataracts or prostate cancer.
I’ll be the first to admit that after 2011, I got a bit weary of writing about
his health especially after our encounter at the Harare International Airport
which has since been renamed after the late dictator on June 29.
Then aged 87, Mugabe
was on his way to Equatorial Guinea to attend to an African Union Summit
and upon hearing that I was a journalist from The Daily News who had been
writing about his health, he reacted by throwing mock punches at me and
naturally, my first instinct was to flee.
He pulled me back to
him and asked me what I was afraid of to which I naively responded; ‘the
degrees in violence’ Mugabe's reaction was totally surprising. Instead of
lashing out, he burst out laughing. I guess he couldn't believe that anyone
could have the guts to say something like that in his face.
I must admit this was
the scariest moment of my life because I had just called the most powerful man
in the country to his face but how he reacted showed me that he was indeed
human after all and that he could turn on the charm if need be. But this
was not all there was to the Zanu PF strong man revered by those around him
who twiddled their thumbs and bowed and curtsied in his presence. He had a
magnetic force that pulled one to him in a magical way.
Normally, I would have
taken this moment to field serious questions about his health or governance but
I guess I was not immune to his charms.
I vividly recall how
firm his grip was for a man his age and thought to myself, this was indeed his
way of proving that he was in good health in spite of all the stories about his
failing health and the fact that at 87, he was a spent force prone to other
health issues like dementia which could, in turn, affect his governance
decisions.
Reading reactions
pouring in from Zimbabweans over Mugabe’s death, one can see the indifference
and that is not surprising that some are even wishing he be tortured by the
souls of those he murdered in his the quest to retain power.
This reaction reminds
me of a novel written by Chielo Zona Eze titled; ‘The trial of Mugabe’ In this
brilliant piece of fiction, the writer portrays a scene where Mugabe is dead
and is facing trial before God and all the people he has murdered bring their
stories before God’s court of Justice.
This gripping account
of Mugabe’s terrible atrocities also challenges post-independence leadership
which uses brutality to retain power. I don’t know if Mugabe will ever have
peace even in death after all is said and done. In Zimbabwe, we say ‘Wafa
Wanaka’ which means that when one dies we remember only the good a person has
done and the eulogy will be about how good the person was. I can’t wait to see
whether this will happen for Mugabe, a Pan Africanist to the core, well
respected by his contemporaries outside Zimbabwe but at home where it mattered
he was despised. He will be remembered as the darling African leader who stood
up to the West jealously guarding the sovereignty of Zimbabwe and other African
States.
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