Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was held by police for the third time in a week while campaigning for the June 27 presidential run-off election.
I have read the letter to Mugabe from Africa former big pottatoes former presidents to prime ministers,former UN secretaries to people of the people of Africa.These people participated greately in the liberation of Zimbabwe even if they are not zimbamweans but they have a word for Mugabe and it shows that they are feedup with this Mugabe.They are not Britons nor American as per Mugabe song.Please Mugabe turn away from your sin do not kill your people.My Country Tanzania was one of the front line states in the liberation strugle under the late president Nyerere,we suffered a lot for the sake of Zimbabweans but we agreed to suffer hoping freedom,security to our Brothers and sisters but you have turned to be a hyena to your people.Please Mugabe comedown and reason! Your were not born to be life president. Some people the older he goes confused he becomes being enemy even to the very children of his.Do not go to such stage leave your sons and daughters of Zimbabwe to manage the country trust them and you will enjoy the fruts of thier leadership.
What can I do to save mother Africa??
As the saying goes, “East – West, Home is best”. Day in and day out, the blunt of bad leadership is continuously destroying a continent already strained by disease and other social catastrophes, as the international community looks on. Media coverage, like the one on Zimbabwe today seems to mean nothing to the Zimbabweans who are brutally murdered in cold blood. From Kenya to Zimbabwe; Somalia to Sudan; Rwanda to Burundi; Uganda to DRC; South Africa to Western Sahara; Angola to Chad; Central African Republic to Congo Brazzaville; and many other sham democracies around the continent continue to threaten lives of majority of poor Africans at the benefit of the small ruling classes. Poor citizens part with their small earnings to pay taxes to contribute to their own brutality, suffering and exploitation. Though colonialists exploited and continue to exploit the continent through neo-colonialism, the ruling classes in African countries surpass colonialism. Open murders, intimidation, harassment, mutilation and human rights abuses continue under the nose of the international community. Media coverage and strong worded statements by world leaders do so little to change anything.
Zimbabwe is a current phenomenon that is happening as everybody witnesses. African leaders seem to sound patriotic support to their fellow murderer, intimidator, tyrant, undemocratic leader at the cost of the majority of Zimbabweans. All they can talk of is a government of national unity without due consideration of the many people that have been mutilated and killed. Kenya is a story that is still fresh in our minds. Though a government of national unity was formed, the poor people were mobilized against each other while the government security forces mercilessly murdered people in front of media cameras. The sham democratic practices intended to legitimize such governments continue to be funded by the international community with evidence that they will never be free and fair. When stiff sanctions are sought, some world leaders claim that those are internal affairs of the individual countries. It’s easy to think that international structures are intended to strengthen and support such practices. Sovereignty claimed doesn’t have meaning to the Africans that suffer the impact of oppression.
It defeats where a common African can run to for help since they don’t have means to reach the capitals of the international community. They don’t have the mechanisms, but sometimes resort to whatever is in their reach. Tribal militias and brusque militant groups take up arms in self defense, and suffering continues. The international community again facilitates such uprisings by arming these groups against each other, as world leaders give empty statements that are impact-less.
It’s a great shame that Africa hasn’t yet recovered from the blunt of the apartheid in South Africa, the Burundi and Rwandan genocide. Also to remember are the recent Kenyan massacres; the munjiki militia in Kenya; the ongoing brutality of the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda and neighboring countries; the black mambas and kibooko squads in Uganda; the janjaweed militias in Darfur, the Islamic courts in Somalia, the DRC tribal militias, to mention but a few. Empty statements from the presidents of the US, the UK, the EU, and above all the United Nations have had so little to cerebrate about, but fueling further suffering of poor African people.
Therefore as we seek to find a lasting solution to peaceful Africa, we the Africans have to do something. Starting with the upcoming presidential runoff in Zimbabwe, Africans need to be mobilized into peaceful and non-violent social disobedience. Non-violent means should be explored at continental level. The struggles of our fore fathers like Mzee Mwalimu Nyerere, Kwame Nkurumah, and the living Nelson Mandela should be taken to a new level of action and demand for freedom of the African continent. The struggle and movement should start now!
The African continent should unit under the slogan “they all must go, we want freedom” meaning that the entire bad leadership and their partners leave the continent to create room for freedom, the bad political leaders; the states funded coercive mechanisms, their international partners, their multinational partners, and every oppressive entity out, so the African people can decide the fate of their politically and economically crippled continent themselves. In the face of ever increasing poverty, suffering, mutilation, brutality, oppression and total economic meltdown, the African people have found enough purpose to continue resisting, and will muster sufficient creativity to start building practical alternatives to the despair of bad leadership and neo-colonialism.
If the popular rebellion in Africa succeeds, it could show the world that African people are able to live through severe crisis and come out the other side, not merely having survived, but stronger, and happier for struggling for new ways of living. For like three or two days in the coming week or even coming months, human rights movements at country levels should mobilize tens of thousands of Africans to take up non-violent means to start up the struggle to fully liberate mother Africa. Actions and events can take place across the world in solidarity with the African people.
What can you do on these days? All African lovers should stand up and either stay in doors on the Zimbabwean election day; or just place a placard in front of their homes claiming for freedom; tie black bands on their hands or heads to mourn those who have been victims to bad leadership, etc, etc, etc. Let this be the start of a struggle for the liberation of Africa. Here are some additional ideas ...paint and take pots and pans by the road side with the message “they all must go, we want freedom now”, start up a local strictly non-violent neighborhood assembly with the slogan of “We want freedom NOW!, report to your workplace or college/university with the slogan “We want freedom NOW!, display the slogan all over the place of your reach, ....the options are endless..., but strictly ensure that they are non-violent and peaceful.
The aims of the Days of Social Disobedience include: 1) To show that there is a movement of movements against bad leadership and neo-colonialism and move beyond insurrection towards a real social revolution. A social revolution, made of thousands of revolutions, where people are beginning to build the life that they want and preparing to defend it rather than simply protesting against what they don't want. And that Africa is an inspiring model of this. 2) To build a powerful global network of solidarity for Africa. The movements in Africa may be in danger of isolation; without the security and the mutual inspiration of international solidarity, they will suffer further repression. We should strive to portray to the many movements worldwide we've had our hopes rekindled in the dark days of neo-colonialism, most of the people on the streets of African cities and those in rural communities have no idea that they can provide such widespread optimism. By seeing the world’s social movements acting in concert and solidarity with their struggle, the African people will be inspired to continue their struggle for freedom. 3) To learn from the events in Africa and apply these lessons to building our own autonomous spaces, neighborhood assemblies, alternative non-violent mobilization, slogan covered work places etc. 4) To spread the stories and information about the movements in Africa to social movements across the world.
Let us struggle to spread the movement to many groups with actions/events: ranging from the Disobedient in Africa, to Direct action groups in Europe, Asia, America, etc. The African freedom starts with you. Spread the message like wildfire emphasizing peaceful and non-violent means of the struggle!
William Makamazibu makamazibu@yahoo.co.uk
Dadirai Chipiro wife of Patson Chipiro, head of the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district, mutilated and Pamela Pasvani, the 21-year-old pregnant wife of a local councillor in Harare both burned alive, now the leader and deputy leaders of the opposition arrested.
I was totally against military intervention in Zimbabwe but if these events can begin to change my mind, hopefully they will change someone elses. I hope against hope that the international community do not sit idly by and do nothing in the face of dogmatic pan-africanism while people die.
It gives one a nice warm feeling to imagine mugabe waking to the sound of a tank on his lawn.
Purely as an afterthought, there now appears to be a lobby urging Brown, Bush, Medvedev, Rudd et al to intervene militarily, it could be approaching the point where the embarassment of doing nothing is becoming a motivator to actually do something. Half of me hopes that this lobbying will be successful.
Where has military intervention worked in the world? In Iraq, in Lebanon, in apartheid South Africa, in Afghanistan, in North Korea, in Vietnam. You name it; military intervention is the least effective way to solve a problem like the one in Zimbabwe. And the neighbors will support Military action in Zimbabwe! Wishful anglo thinking!
I find it very telling how Phiri didn't utter one word to condemn the attrocities in my above post, whilst implying that Zimbabwes neighbours would engage in combat to prevent a humanitarian effort by the international community to stop the kinds of attrocities mentioned in my above post.
Phiri is quite correct that Zimbabwe has a problem, the problem is people like Phiri.
"Monsters exist But they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are...the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions"~Primo Levi(Holocaust Survivor).
What "atrocities" are you babbling about, the ones concocted in the minds and media of the people trying to effect regime-change in Zimbabwe?
Talk about constant harrassment. Thats rediculous. Let me guess... another unregistered car that needed explaining?