Picture courtesy of https://www.tori.ng/news/21574/i-will-be-president-till-i-die-africas-oldest-pres.html
I write this at the backdrop of the passing of the last remaining among the founding fathers of the OAU – now the AU. The image, when all of us were glued to our TV screens with great anticipation of his resignation is still vivid in my mind.
I do not know about you. As for me I knew he would not resign just like that. So it came with expectation when he finished that speech by saying “Iwe Neni Tine Basa” – Me and you have work to do. Indeed we have.
The man who knew that his resignation will be more to the benefit of the Americans and British than ordinary folks in Zimbabwe stood his ground. He did not resign. Whilst at it did not give any hint of an impending resignation. It was however not to be long. The inevitable happened.
A few days down the line most people’s wish came to pass as it was announced that Mugabe had resigned. A letter read by Jacob Mudenda in the joint sitting of parliament went, “I, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, in terms of Section 96 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, hereby formally tender my resignation … with immediate effect.” All and sundry got excited. There was jubilation in the streets of both Zimbabwe and South Africa’s capital and big cities. Many South Africans thought that the N1 North would be filled with cars headed towards Beit Bridge as Zimbabweans head back home in their multitudes. It was never to be.
No single Zimbabwean went back home. The situation remained the same. Like with many others it was the same picture just with a different frame when Munangagwa was made the interim president and ultimately won the 2018 presidential race.
When he took over many Zimbabweans and their South African counterparts saw a rainbow. As did South Africans in 1994. Remember when Bishop Tutu sold us The Rainbow Nation prematually so? Seeing a rainbow appearing in the midst of a drought. Zimbabweans thought they were seeing a different picture when all that was presented to them was a different frame.
So it was in South Africa in the penultimate ’94 elections. So it was recently when most believed that voting for President Ramaphosa is not voting for the ANC. The more things change the more they remain the same.
Zoe Mafoko in her article The dream of the Rainbow Nation is history, not our reality captures the farce that was sold to us perfectly.
I strongly believe that the man Mugabe deserves an accolade. I am not the only one who believes so.
Baffour Ankomah in emeagwali.com places him on number 3 among the 100 Greatest Africans of All Time. he says this about him, “Robert Mugabe President of Zimbabwe. Fearless pan-Africanist of recent times who is fighting for the land which belonged to his ancestors.” He mentions something profound in his introductory paragraph by saying, “Mugabe’s high score is particularly interesting, given that in the last four years a high profile campaign in the media has painted him in bad light.” What most of us know about Robert Gabriel Mugabe is what has been painted and presented by the media. We have never given ourselves time to know and understand the man and the politics which drove him. There is no sane man who can intentionally drive his country down the drain. A revolutionary for that matter. Never.
In its obscenity the British press outrageously compared him to Hitler. This prodded him to give them a piece of his mind, as always;
“This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their rights to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for.” – Robert Mugabe
Busy Signal in his cover of the 1990 Burning Spear song Recall Some Great men mentions Mugabe among those who have been fighting for our rights.
On the 6th of September 2019, Iyeyakhothama Inkunzimalanga yaseAfrika. Go Well African Elephant. I do not know what will become of the Africa you conceptualized with the other African Greats: Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie, Mualimu Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda, among others. The Africa you envisaged.
As for me THIS SPEECH will go down in my own personal archives as one great speech. As you asked Ban Ki-moon, to go tell them that; “Africa shall no longer tolarate a position of slavery, slavery of any kind” I felt proud.
“What we have loved
Others will love
And we will teach them how.”
― William Wordsworth
Africa must make it. She does not have anyother choice. And when she does that is the only way that we will be teaching them that what we loved they also will love. Your legacy has to be protected.
Go Well Gushungo…
TheWritingDoyen 
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