Mugabe-ites Still Blame Colonialism For Current Emergency

Many of you are aware that I have been away from the coalface for almost two weeks as I recover from radical surgery on my left forearm.

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I have endeavored, as far as is possible, to keep a watching brief on events in Zimbabwe. But this has not been altogether easy.

Perhaps I was woken from my private reverie by a comment posted on one of my older editorials.

“This article really makes a point: just like colonial rule cost the lives and blood of millions of Africans or please correct me if their blood is not human enough, and you totally give a big hi-five to the death and displacement caused by colonial rule or is that too far back and ancient history for you to recall?” wrote Adebola Owo.

My editorial was calling attention to Mugabe’s destructive rule, but this commenter would rather fling the blame in my face, seeking to excuse Mugabe’s excesses upon the colonial era, rather than recognising Mugabe’s murderous intent and the evidence of his failures.

Granted, perhaps those that colonialised Rhodesia were incorrect in their manner of that colonialisation, but to suggest that I need a history lesson to see where they went wrong is ludicrous.

I lived in Rhodesia during the bush war and left school around Zimbabwean independence. I then joined the new ZRP and was based in Matabeleland districts.

I saw first hand just what Mugabe’s rule did within the first ten years - the Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and the Midlands, I left the ZRP in 1985, but continued to live in Zimbabwe until late 1997.

I saw what Mugabe was doing and realised that he thought the nation’s success was his own and we saw him begin to strip the very lifeblood out of everyday Zimbabwean life.

My family left Zimbabwe before the land grab began, and we never experienced the terror of the land invasions, Operation Murambatsvina, the political beatings, the abductions and the murders carried out by Mugabe’s brigands.

But does that make me morally responsible for colonialisation in Africa? Does that make me responsible for the political mismanagement we see in Zimbabwe today - or even the political inequalities during the Rhodesian era?

I challenge this commenter to prove just what I was responsible for. Show me the error of my ways…

Blaming me for all that he perceives as wrong in Zimbabwe is counter-productive. I would say that the majority of my friends in Zimbabwe are blacks = and they are fine people.

I am sure that they do not point the finger at me.

They point the finger of blame at Mugabe - and quite correctly too!

Whilst I understand the standpoint of this commenter, I refuse to take the blame for ancient history - just as I cannot take the blame for Mugabe’s current line of thinking.

One day - when the dust and smoke has settled, the commenter will realise that the demise of Zimbabwe was not caused by me or my forebears, but by one Robert Gabriel Mugabe…

People like me await a call from the wings where we can contribute to the common good, the rebuilding of the country and the positive outcome of Zimbabwean affairs, domestically, regionally and internationally.

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man