Zimpapers Logo

Hillary Clinton

Obi Egbuna Jr Simunye
When the Pan-African giant Malcolm X voiced his opinion concerning the difference between the Democrats and Republicans, he compared the Democrats to foxes and the Republicans to wolves, and in the final analysis they both belonged to the canine family.

This assertion by brother Malcolm angered so-called African Americans who embrace the traditional narrative, that as long as we remain inside US borders, we must pay our rent, mortgage and taxes, attend Church on Sundays and vote Democrat in local and national elections.

At the Democratic National Convention in 1996 the former US Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, became a political rock star when she used part of an African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child” .

As far as civil rights leaders and organisations go, the decision by Mrs Clinton to use that platform to express those sentiments, put her shoulder to shoulder with Eleanor Roosevelt, who in the context of US Presidential history, crafted the recipe on politically manipulating the so-called African American community.

This explains why when Mrs Clinton in her capacity as a US Senator co-sponsored the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, which was initially introduced by the Republican Senator William Frist of Tennessee and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, it came as no surprise that civil rights leaders and organizations were for the most part as silent as an audience at the Opera.

When Mrs Clinton along with the current US Vice President Joseph Biden decided to support their comrade in arms and fellow Democrat Senator Feingold in pursuing a regime change in Zimbabwe, this revealed disposing of President Mugabe and ZANU-PF was a top priority.

There is no other way to explain why Mrs Clinton would select the notorious fascist and white supremacist Senator Jesse Helms and the elitist Senator Frist as political bedfellows.

It is glaringly obvious that before Mrs Clinton got under the covers, she either was completely ignorant or suddenly developed political amnesia, when it came to Senator Helms’ history on the Zimbabwe question.

When the Rhodesians had truly become desperate and proposed an Internal Settlement Government with the reactionary and opportunist Bishop Abel Muzorewa as its figurehead, the biggest supporter of this political manoeuvre was none other than Senator Helms.

The right wing senator went on to publicly state the US Government was hypocritical for removing sanctions on Uganda after Idi Amin was ousted from power, but maintaining sanctions on Rhodesia under Muzorewa’s leadership.

Another crucial point is Senator Helms sent two of his aides to the Lancaster House negotiations in 1979 because he did not trust the US State Department. One of Senator Helms’ aides Mr John Carbaugh, was accused of encouraging the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith to hang on to power and take a harder line when dealing with ZANU and ZAPU.

Because US-EU imperialism’s political activity past and present has always been shaped by their economic interests, many arrived at the conclusion that the reason Senator Helms hosted Bishop Muzorewa in Washington was done as a political favour to the billion dollar tobacco corporations, RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris.

When Senator Helms chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee.

RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris made frequent financial contributions to the Jesse Helms Center.

If Bishop Muzorewa and the internal settlement Government prevailed, both RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris would have been the main economic beneficiaries.

In the case of Senator Helms, he went beyond the call of duty, by rolling out the red carpet for Bishop Muzorewa when he visited Washington, which showed US-EU imperialism that regardless of the momentum that ZANU and ZAPU had gained on the battlefield, Bishop Muzorewa, due to his treachery and betrayal, had earned his colonial and slave masters support.

If Mrs Clinton’s partnership with Senator Helms comes as a shock to so-called African-Americans, her statement concerning the assassination of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi will make even her most ardent supporters run for cover.

In the calmest demeanor, Mrs Clinton told the world; “We came, we saw, he died”.

This showed daughters and sons of Africa that Mrs Clinton is not only the wife of former President Bill Clinton, but an open admirer of Julius Caesar.

We can only imagine the look on Mrs Clinton’s face when President Mugabe in his opening remarks to the UN General Assembly three years ago reminded the world that while the death of the former US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens had the sympathy of the world, it should not be used to divert attention away from the barbaric and cowardly attacks on Libya by the US-NATO alliance.

When we as Africans examine Mrs Clinton’s position on Zimbabwe, it could be viewed as having pity on the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who on his best day is nothing but a second rate carbon copy of President Clinton.

Because of the political disconnect from Mother Africa, the so-called Mother Africa supporters are in many cases unwilling and unable to take white liberals like Mrs Clinton to task on the contradictions concerning their domestic and foreign policy.

On the question of public education inside US borders, Mrs Clinton says; “The public school system has been, I believe, second to the Constitution, the most important institution in making America the great country that we have been over the the last 200 years”. At the University level, Mrs Clinton on record has stated; “I fully support President Obama’s plan to make community college free”.

The irony of these sentiments is that Mrs Clinton and her colleagues have failed to explain the assassination of Colonel Qadaffi, when Libya was the only nation in Africa that offered its citizens free education.

In each of the hearings on Zimbabwe conducted during Mrs Clinton’s tenure as a politician, each and every one of them have condemned President Mugabe and ZANU-PF as human rights violators, and have failed to acknowledge Zimbabwe has Africa’s highest literacy rate at 97 percent.

The manner in which Mrs Clinton has handled Zimbabwe reminds Africans at home and abroad of how former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt attempted to pull the rug from under Dr WEB DuBois, and our comrades who decided that the plight of the so-called African-Americans needed to be raised at the United Nations.

When Dr DuBois presented what he called An Appeal to the World, the main opposition came from Mrs Roosevelt, who at the time was on the NAACP’s board of directors, and was credited with persuading her husband to start the Federal Council of Negro Affairs which included Mary McLeod Bethune, Lawrence Oxley, Ambrose Caliver, Robert Weaver, Charles Hall and Joseph Hawkins to name a few.

The reason Mrs Roosevelt gave was it would harm the international reputation of the United States, which was the equivalent of her husband President Franklin Delano Roosevelt refusing to exert pressure to prevent an African farmer Odell Waller from being executed for killing a white farmer during a fight. The reason President Roosevelt gave was he feared losing Southern Congressional delegates for his legislative agenda.

One of the key architects of ZDERA is Senator Frist whose father is a founder of the Hospital Corporation of America in Nashville,Tennessee in 1968. The HCA is a for profit agency which controls 162 hospitals,117 free standing surgery centers and was involved in $2 billion fraud settlement, the largest in US history. At the height of the scandal Senator Frist sold his personal shares claiming if he ran for President this could be viewed as a conflict in interest.

In the case of Senator Frist, imposing sanctions aimed at crushing Zimbabwe’s health infrastructure and becoming a multi-millioniare courtesy of a white collar for profit health corporation go hand in hand.

When it is all said and done, Africans in the US must tell Mrs Clinton until she answers for imposing US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe and the obliteration of Libyan women and children.

The African village as a point of discussion should be off limits.

• Obi Egbuna Jr is the US Correspondent to the Herald and a US-based member of the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association his email is [email protected].