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Obi Egbuna Jnr Simunye
FROM the exact moment that US-EU Imperialism’s media and propaganda apparatus decided it was open season on African nations who believed in and practised one- party democracy, it was no longer a secret that our former colonisers and enslavers felt the time had come to show the world Mother Africa’s children were politically uncivilised and intellectually unsophisticated.

On February 1 1966, exactly 23 days before he was overthrown by US and British Intelligence, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah – addressing Ghana’s National Assembly for the very last time – made the following remarks:

“There is a growing tendency towards the establishment of one-party states, and rightly so. Because of our egalitarian society, this development becomes natural ad understandable. The multi-party system which exists in Western countries is, in fact, a reflection of a social cleavage, and the kind of class system which does not exist in African countries.”

The Osagyefo goes on to inform us that “a one-party system of government is an effective and safe instrument only when it operates in a socialist society. In other words, it must be a political expression of the will of the masses working for the ultimate good and welfare of the people as a whole”.

After all these years certain petit bourgeois historians cannot resist the temptation to attack the Osagyefo, pretending to highlight what they perceive to be well-intentioned mistakes strategically and tactically speaking, however deep down they dread the day Mother Africa’s children decide to re-embrace the ideas and values that were abandoned by reactionaries and cowards alike.

This illustrates some very crucial points about our political strengths and weaknesses. The first is only those among us who have bought into the neo-colonialist paradigm hook, line and sinker, that feel obligated to show US-EU imperialism how democratic and humane we have become.

The second is US-EU imperialism’s ultimate goal was to entice every African government that remaining true to socialism was indeed a political deathtrap and the key to prosperity was embracing the economic roadmap prescribed by the IMF and World Bank.

At the grassroots level whether this discussion takes place among rank and file members of our political parties, or in classrooms, barstools and dinner tables, it is extremely important to remind ourselves that the bravest and boldest liberation movements produced in Mother Africa at one time were all devoutly socialist.

It is becoming more and more difficult to monitor the high-level discussions, during sessions and conferences hosted and facilitated at the African Union, that focus on our political and economic challenges, where it is implied that abandoning socialism was the equivalent of replacing spears and shields with the most advanced German Russian and US weaponry money could buy.

For those among our ranks who believe that President Mugabe and zanu-pf remain under attack from US-EU imperialism, because Zimbabwe lacks a transparent democratic process and has no regard for basic human rights, we want to pose a few questions that more than likely they are not politically equipped to answer.

The first is what African nation has held more democratic elections in the 21st century? The follow-up question is where is it written that African nations must go economically bankrupt proving to our former colonisers and enslavers we are more democratic that they are?

When Africans at home and abroad learned that at the heart of Zimbabwe’s indigenisation programme an extremely important contradiction was brilliantly magnified. After all these years of flag independence not even five African nations owned and controlled their mining industries. To add fuel to the fire let African students everywhere research who finances the elections in African nations.

During the 2002 Presidential elections was it President Mugabe and zanu-pf or the US State Department who insisted that the NAACP not publish their report on what they observed on the ground in Zimbabwe, because it exposed that the US-EU media and propaganda apparatus were blatantly exaggerating to the world about intimidation and violence in Zimbabwe.

We remember 2005 after Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections that US-EU imperialism along with the NGOs on their payroll, created such a fuss that the United Nations sent Dr Anna Tibaijuka of Tanzania on a fact-finding mission concerning Operation Murambatsvina was a vindictive measure, carried out by President Mugabe and zanu-pf that supposedly left 500 000 Zimbabweans homeless in Harare where 1,5 million people reside.

When the truth was revealed we discovered that Dr Tibaijuka was asked to travel all the way to Zimbabwe and observe a slum-cleaning method that she once passionately prescribed for all of Mother Africa to adopt, this exposed a plan was in motion to persuade then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lend his voice to the US-EU imperialist chorus whose hymn was entitled “Mugabe Must Go”.

The gut punch to their baseless rhetoric occurred when President Mugabe and zanu-pf invited Mr Annan to Zimbabwe to see things for himself, while this historic visit never materialised, Mr Annan announced in Banjul, Gambia, that there was no international crisis in Zimbabwe. What existed was an unresolved bilateral dispute between a sovereign nation and its former coloniser.

As we have learned, US-EU imperialism’s blood money has made many Africans change their tune. For this reason, President Mugabe and zanu-pf were hardly shocked when Mr Annan was part of the attempt to force his way into Zimbabwe along with other high-profile members of the Elders Group in 2008, which was bankrolled by Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson who believes a regime change in Zimbabwe will give him full control of the tourism industry.

We now arrive at the Presidential elections in 2008 which initially appeared to be a setback as Morgan Tsvangirai and his faction of the opposition MDC performed well enough to achieve a power sharing agreement that would be known as the Global Political Agreement which led to the inclusive Government.

While US-EU imperialism prematurely celebrated, the entire African world discovered that not only was Mr Tsvangirai politically inept and unqualified to ever lead Zimbabwe, but that the MDC who assumed responsibility over the Health, Finance and Primary and Secondary Ministries were never genuinely invested in governing Zimbabwe. They were created for one primary reason – to oust President Mugabe and Zanu-PF from power.

Who could forget in 2014 how former US Secretary of State John Kerry seething with anger openly voiced his displeasure with the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was chosen by the African Union to lead the team who would observe the elections in Zimbabwe. Mr Kerry spoke and behaved as though Mr Obasanjo was an employee of the US government, who failed to meet his job requirements, which was grounds for immediate termination.

Based on the annals of history, US-EU imperialism’s obsession and preoccupation with how President Mugabe and Zanu-PF governing their sovereign affairs makes all the sense in the world, because resilience is the cornerstone of genuine African resistance. Zimbabwe remains unfazed by their efforts to undermine the path to true sovereignty rooted in unity and self-determination.

• Obi Egbuna Jnr is the US correspondent to The Herald and External Relations Officer of the Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association (ZICUFA). His email is [email protected]