It is rare for me to hope that the part of humanity that is decent will touch people and make then turn against their initial urges and do the right thing. What is troublesome to me is that I see the opportunity for the Mugabe Legacy to not be redeemed, but be less tarnished.
To hope that a cruel madman would voluntarily give up the power he has worked so hard, and slain so many to keep is absolutely foolish. I can only assume that the pharmaceutical drugs that have been leached into our drinking water are to blame for this momentary lapse of my sanity.
I will attempt to preserve some sense of academic integrity, whatever that is, by saying that despite what he will do, this is a defining moment for Mugabe. He is respected by many across Africa because of his fight against colonialism and to preserve the sovereignty of Independent African Countries.
He gained even more street cred with his obvious support for the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. His involvement is has a direct correlation with the current system/political parties being in power in South Africa, and is why they are so hesitant to criticize his regime.
Only Mugabe can know if he truly believed in these causes, or merely used them in order to gain the spotlight to raise his level of influence to ever reaching heights. However just believing in something doesn’t make it work, kinda like Bush thinking that invading Islamic countries would not be protested by other Islamic countries.
The main fight between the Black Africans, and the White Africans was over equal opportunity. In fact, one may look at this region in Africa and see possible outcomes that the United States could have faced. Violence was advocated among some groups of African Americans in order to balance the violence that had been perpetrated against them. Zimbabwe was not so lucky to have a Martin Luther King Jr. Figure in order to stem that tide of revenge.
Zimbabwe was known as the bread basket of Africa. This was due to the enormous exports of products that came from the White African population that, through colonialism, tamed the land and became very wealthy. With Mugabe’s rise to power, and using a distortion of democracy - it was voted that the land held by White Africans could be seized by their Black African Counterparts.
While Reverend Jeremiah Wright may see this as just retribution, the violence and corruption involved was the fundamental cause for the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy. Mugabe gave these fertile lands to friends, family , and cronies who quickly allowed the land to fall into disrepair because of their ignorance of the trade of farming.
Inflation has risen on average 32% since, and 100,580% in 2008. The average lifespan fell from 60 years to 35 years. While Mugabe himself is 82. He has fixed elections, intimidated and beaten opponents, executed rivals, and thrown Zimbabwe into vast pits of despair.
The one thing that he could not do is kill hope. Much like other tyrants through history this elusive foe is difficult to kill. Blades, bullets, torture, even executions seem to merely make hope weaker, but never fully die out. So the people of Zimbabwe have allowed their hope to be voiced, that they turn the page of history and attempt to true reconciliation with their colonial past.
Mugabe’s moment is to step aside, and be remembered through propaganda as a man who loved his people and defended them against colonial aggression, and championed causes important to all Africans. His presidential reign could be whitewashed as a man who lost his way, power is a tempting mistress and has many victims. Mugabe could at this moment make this a chance to allow his legacy to be allowing democracy to be expressed in Zimbabwe.
The more likely scenario is that he will fix the election to allow himself to participate in a run off, and then allow himself to win a landslide victory, continuing the now all too tragic military coup upon his death in order to maintain the status quo - no matter how deadly that may be.
So the world stands with Zimbabwe wondering what the outcome will be - Hanging by a Moment
