Oprah Winfrey is in South Africa, schmoozing with Nelson Mandela. She is clearly dishing out large amounts of money for various projects which Mandela has talked her in to and which she believes will help South Africa. There are plans for a big party on Robben Island and various celebrities including Naomi Campbell and various Rock stars will be involved. I couldn’t help but chuckle at a speech given by Bishop Tutu. He said “We beat Apartheid, and we will beat AIDS!” Such is the wishful thinking of people over here with regard to AIDS. But let us not dwell on AIDS because unless medical science comes up with something, AIDS will run its devastating course and all the rhetoric in the world will not change a thing.
I must admit, I often chuckle when African Americans like Oprah come to Africa because they think they are doing something great here, meanwhile, they don’t know how their African cousins are taking them for a big ride. They are so awed by “Africa” that they think they are treading on holy ground. They think they are doing the sacred “black thing”, but meanwhile, their cousins over here were schooled by the Russians and Chinese and are making the very most of their naivete and their standing in the world. They are being played like a piano. One day a tremendous number of African Americans will realize how they were used by those who live in Africa and who have a deviousness that they cannot guess at. One day African Americans will realize that the people who told the truth the most often, were the whites whom so many of them now spurn. Let them learn the hard way. In the meantime, a quiet news snippet reached me. There are plans afoot to build a statue of Mandela in one of our coastal cities here in South Africa, which will rival the Statue of Liberty!
My article on Zimbabwe last week reached the wrong people, and before I knew it, I had an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in Zimbabwe attacking me for making things sound worse than they really were. Then someone else in Zimbabwe let me have it, as well as a South African journalist. However, I began wondering if the NGO was not merely acting like so many Zimbabwe Government officials in trotting out the party line that “there is no problem in Zimbabwe”. I told the NGO official that I thought she was helping to prop up Mugabe, and that people like her had blood on their hands. As word of my e-mail fight spread, an extremely wealthy European businessman with big investments in Zimbabwe gave the NGO a good piece of his mind. This man (who does not want his name spread around), told the NGO that as recently as last week, he had meetings with senior members of Mugabe’s government. He said that my writing style was aggressive, but my facts were completely correct. I had told the NGO that people in Zimbabwe were like someone blinded by the light of an oncoming train which was about to run them over. The European businessman (who is busy lobbying certain governments in Europe) said that he was amazed at the attitude of people in Zimbabwe who were staring an unbelievable tragedy in the face. I also informed the South African journalist that in my opinion, journalists were doing little enough to prevent an unbelievable disaster in Zimbabwe.
An American, with Government/Military connections told me that he could assure me that the “US Cavalry” was not going to save Zimbabwe.
Since that article on the “Total Devastation in Zimbabwe”, new facts have come to light showing that the situation is just getting worse. On SABC news on 7th December, they stated that a tremendous disaster is expected in the first 3 months of 2003 in Zimbabwe. A lady from the UN tried to create the perception that the “drought” had indeed played a role creating the problem. But even she had to admit that there is virtually NO FARMING being done by rural people – the very ones Mugabe had claimed would be doing the farming.
She also mentioned that AIDS combined with a lack of food is a killer. This is something I have been hearing from Zimbabweans the last two months, and it is worth mentioning. 35% of Zimbabwe’s population is HIV+. They say that the lack of food, combined with HIV is causing many people to die. This week I spoke to a rancher whose ranch had been taken over by the war vets. He told me that “the blacks are dying like flies from a combination of HIV and lack of food”. I have been hearing this for the last two months from Zimbabweans. Apparently the lack of food weakens their immune systems even more and then AIDS really takes hold of them and leads to a premature death.
Also on SABC news was how desperate black women in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution. They are worried that this will accelerate the spread of HIV…
The rancher I spoke to this week told me that there is a lot of anger building up. The more reliable news reports have been saying for some time that Mugabe is using food as a weapon to decimate his political opposition. But what has not received enough mention is that a lot of those who don’t support him are from the Matabele tribe. There are two main tribes in Zimbabwe: the Shona and the Matabele. The Shona, of which Mugabe is a member, are the majority. Zimbabweans have been telling me that mass starvation will not only be along political lines but also along tribal lines.
The rancher, from Bulawayo, which lies in the Matabele territory, told me that this week he saw signs of a growing anger against Mugabe from the Matabele. He said he saw graffiti appearing at bus stops which read “F*ck Mugabe” and “Mugabe suck my dick”.
Some weeks ago Mugabe passed a new law whereby anyone waving or making signs at his motorcade can be thrown into prison for up to a year. He is very sensitive to criticism by common folk.
Two months ago I was privy to some information from a Zimbabwean who was planning to create a ground-swell of Ghandi-like peaceful resistance inside the country. This person told me that nobody had the military power to oppose Mugabe but she was going to attempt to get people to show their discontent and suffering in simple, Ghandi-like ways. The main thing she was going to try was a pot-banging exercise, to get women to bang their empty pots as a sign of their hunger – and hopefully, others would join in. She said there was no way he could outlaw such behavior. Another form of peaceful protest was to walk without shoes as a sign of solidarity with those who are hungry. I have heard some news reports that the pot-banging is actually taking place. Whether it could lead to something bigger I do not know.
I do know that many businessmen with investments in Zimbabwe are lobbying foreign governments to put pressure on Mugabe. But in the long run, I don’t think it will help at all.
Instead, Zimbabwe continues forward into one of the greatest man-made disasters of history. In terms of percentage damage to one country, it must surely be worse than anything which Hitler or Stalin ever did. I don’t know of a single instance in history where a ruler targeted 50% of his population for mass murder. The mass media is definitely under reporting on the situation there.
This week, there was a report in a German newspaper regarding an interview between a German journalist and President Sam Nujoma of Nambia. He has been praising Mugabe in recent months and there have been reports and rumors that Namibia will be the next Zimbabwe. Nujoma was extremely nasty to the German journalist, and refused to answer questions about Zimbabwe, South Africa or other matters in the region. He did however say that “whites are arrogant” and that the blacks have the means to take care of them. All in all, he gave the impression that he is out to pick a fight with whites. Here in South Africa, they swooped down on 94 white conservatives last Friday. They arrested people and threw them in jail without following proper procedures nor having any charges against them. It seemed to be a case of arresting them, ransacking their houses and then trying to find evidence of a plot against the government. It seems as if Mugabe’s “Third Chimurenga” (Liberation war), against Whites is taking its first steps beyond the borders of Zimbabwe and into Nambia and South Africa. So keep watching the news because we are headed for some very interesting times here in Southern Africa and for the next round of wars since the so-called “Liberation Struggle”.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”