Rhodes must fall, and...
Nov. 21st, 2017 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanter1944Mugabe must go!
I never thought I'd see the day, barring either a truly bloody revolt or a state funeral, that Robert Mugabe would be out of power. As long as I've had an awareness of both world politics and national states of general well-being, Zimbabwe has carried with it a sense of, at least to me, both extreme deprivation and repression. I never knew Rhodesia, and I missed the earlier days of independence due to being too tiny to have a clue. If, growing up, someone had asked me where the bread basket of Africa was, I would've had no idea what to tell them. Stories of people boiling leaves for dinner, eating spoiled cabbage, and being thrown in prison for dissent, I knew. That doesn't even mention Matabeleland, which I only found out about later in college.
Even the name Zimbabwe evokes - evoked, and I'll hopefully have time to get used to that, depending on what Mnangagwa does with himself - a sense of foreboding for me, not of the people, only of their government. It's always, to me, been a vibrant nation ground under the heel of a shameless tyrant with a paranoid, prideful and gluttonous streak to rival Malawi's Banda (the first, not Joyce Banda). Elephant served at birthday celebrations, anyone? I know, I can't ignore the fight for independence and the role both Mugabe and Zanu played, but I was never aware of that side of the story, even later. It had been soundly eclipsed by the time I took an interest. Mugabe was a despot, and Zanu was a mouthpiece with a stranglehold. His stranglehold, more or less. Mugabe, Zanu, same thing.
... Maybe not anymore?
I know Mnangagwa is no angel; the man's in the thick of Zanu himself, even though that party sure seemed to be turning on Mugabe before his resignation came in, and Matabeleland gets a second mention for Mnangagwa's role in the horrors--but I can't help but be at least a little hopeful here. We'll see. At least they've set a clear term limit he'll be serving out, with elections still going ahead in September 2018. I'll be hopeful until I'm given proof of why I shouldn't be. Because the tyrant is out.
Time will tell if a second tyrant is in. It... does not feel like it, though. Not yet.
Congratulations, Zimbabwe!
Wow, this is a strange feeling.
I never thought I'd see the day, barring either a truly bloody revolt or a state funeral, that Robert Mugabe would be out of power. As long as I've had an awareness of both world politics and national states of general well-being, Zimbabwe has carried with it a sense of, at least to me, both extreme deprivation and repression. I never knew Rhodesia, and I missed the earlier days of independence due to being too tiny to have a clue. If, growing up, someone had asked me where the bread basket of Africa was, I would've had no idea what to tell them. Stories of people boiling leaves for dinner, eating spoiled cabbage, and being thrown in prison for dissent, I knew. That doesn't even mention Matabeleland, which I only found out about later in college.
Even the name Zimbabwe evokes - evoked, and I'll hopefully have time to get used to that, depending on what Mnangagwa does with himself - a sense of foreboding for me, not of the people, only of their government. It's always, to me, been a vibrant nation ground under the heel of a shameless tyrant with a paranoid, prideful and gluttonous streak to rival Malawi's Banda (the first, not Joyce Banda). Elephant served at birthday celebrations, anyone? I know, I can't ignore the fight for independence and the role both Mugabe and Zanu played, but I was never aware of that side of the story, even later. It had been soundly eclipsed by the time I took an interest. Mugabe was a despot, and Zanu was a mouthpiece with a stranglehold. His stranglehold, more or less. Mugabe, Zanu, same thing.
... Maybe not anymore?
I know Mnangagwa is no angel; the man's in the thick of Zanu himself, even though that party sure seemed to be turning on Mugabe before his resignation came in, and Matabeleland gets a second mention for Mnangagwa's role in the horrors--but I can't help but be at least a little hopeful here. We'll see. At least they've set a clear term limit he'll be serving out, with elections still going ahead in September 2018. I'll be hopeful until I'm given proof of why I shouldn't be. Because the tyrant is out.
Time will tell if a second tyrant is in. It... does not feel like it, though. Not yet.
Congratulations, Zimbabwe!
Wow, this is a strange feeling.
