Zimbabwe is another tragic post-colonial African story. A peaceful transfer from British to African control was accomplished with Robert Mugabe guiding the country to a fairly bright future. Somewhere along the lines things took a turn for the horrible, however. Mugabe went from semi-moderate to radical. White farmers had property stolen from them, famine occurred due to mismanagement, homosexuals brutally attacked by government forces, and now inflation is somewhere around 15,000% a year (41% a day compared to 2.5% a year in the United States). Add onto the tragedy a HIV/AIDS infection rate of 24.6% and an average life expectency of under forty years.
Things are so bad in Zimbabwe that the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, is calling for the United Kingdom to liberate the country by force. This from a man who is noted for his human rights and non-violence record.
Ncube knows the British colonial system made Zimbabwe. More importantly he knows the British left Zimbabwe washing their hands like Pilot. He is praying Britain realizes responsibility and gives Zimbabwe another chance.
Note: Another sad thing on Zimbabwe is how the other African countries treat it. South Africans Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki turn a blind eye to it. They realize the damage being done but are so anti-European they oppose intervention.
1 comment:
I was doing some unrelated research a couple weeks ago, and I was going through a Foreign Affairs magazine from the late 1980s. The article right after the one I was interested was written by Mugabe. Very weird.
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