Zimpapers Logo

SINCE the millennium’s earliest days it became abundantly clear that self-determination and indigenous people’s rights would define and characterise this moment in history.

The dogmatic and white supremacist posture of the Bush administration concerning the UN Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia in 2001 and other related intolerances without question validates this assertion.

We will always remember their imperialist shenanigans when they demanded that slavery reparations and the Palestinian question not be part of the discussion. While this outraged so-called African-Americans living inside US borders, unfortunately due to the historical, cultural and geographical disconnect, many of them failed to see how discussing slavery reparations and Palestine in Durban, South Africa, was inextricably linked to the Third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe and lifting the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA)of 2001 imposed by the Bush administration against President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

While grassroots nationalist forces like the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika, National Conference of Blacks for Reparations in America, New Afrikan People’s Organisation who had without question been on the forefront of aggressively championing the question of reparations, experienced a boost when mainstream support came from Congressman John Conyers who introduced a Bill HR 40 Commission to Study Reparations Proposals for African Americans and the publication of “The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks” written by Trans-Africa Forum (TAF) founder Randall Robinson.

When we reflect it appears that a conclusion was reached not to merge reparations efforts with the fight to defend Zimbabwe because Congressman Conyers voted in favour of ZDERA and TAF was in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy pursuing a US-EU-engineered regime change campaign in Zimbabwe, this automatically put the December 12 Movement based in New York who have championed both the Zimbabwe question and the push for reparations in an awkward and vicarious predicament.

The so-called African-American advocates for reparations read the writing on the wall where the following numerical year at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg President Mugabe told then British Prime Minister Tony Blair to ‘‘Keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe”.

Because our call for reparations strongly and unapologetically emphasises land rights, the late indigenous icon Wabuinini also known as Vernon Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement/Grand Governing Council came to Washington and raised both the question of reparations and Danny Glover’s portrayal in a film about the Buffalo Soldier with Mr Bill Fletcher who had replaced Randall Robinson as president of TAF. Mr Glover at the time presided over TAF’s executive board.

Before he transitioned, Wabuinini was planning to bring a delegation of indigenous leaders to Zimbabwe and meet with President Mugabe and Zanu-PF, Wabuinini made an historic pilgrimage to Venezuela where he said high-level discussions were held concerning indigenous forces in the Americas not only rallying around Bolivia, but also defending Zimbabwe because the Third Chimurenga could serve as the catalyst that intensifies the bond between Africans and indigenous peoples in the Americas.

The leadership and people of Zimbabwe triumphantly rejoiced when Cde Evo Morales became president of Bolivia in 2006 and when the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted on September 13 2007. Once again US imperialism could not resist the temptation of remaining true to its white supremacist origins by voting against the declaration. Only Canada New Zealand and Australia were stupid enough to follow suite.

Cde Morales from his teenage years has lived by the revolutionary slogan “Causachun Coca Wansuchun Yanquis”, which means in English “Long Live Coca Death to the Yankees”, for almost his entire adult life predating his presidency, Cde Morales has been a trailblazer in defending the right of Bolivians, Colombians and Peruvians to use the coca plant for spiritual, agricultural and medicinal purposes, which refutes the theoretical basis for the US imperialist war on drugs prop- aganda.

Just like President Mugabe, Cde Morales has been accused by US-EU imperialism of using the land question to bolster their images politically. However, in the case of Cde Morales he grew up on a farm growing rice, oranges, grapefruit, papaya, bananas, and eventually coca. Cde Morales remembers first hand when US imperialism was offering $2 500 for each acre of coca eradicated and when the Bolivian government in 1993 was offered $20 million from US imperialism to do away with 12 500 acres of coca by March of 1994.

Cde Morales can relate to President Mugabe’s diplomatic challenge of having to remind the US Embassy in Zimbabwe that any attempt at political heresy will not be entertained or tolerated. The international community remembers when the US Ambassador to Bolivia at the time, Mr Manual Rocha, said US aid to Bolivia would be cut if Cde Morales was elected to power by his people.

Africans and indigenous people must maintain an inventory and archives of such inflammatory rhetoric whenever Democrats and Republicans want to get on their soapbox and lecture our people about democracy, transparency and human rights.

Both President Mugabe and Cde Morales understand the importance of indigenisation as a self-determining tool for Zimbabweans and Bolivians. Cde Morales introduced Supreme Decree 2870 which broke the cycle of private corporations paying only 18 percent of profits from the hydrocarbon industry to the state. This was reversed to 82 percent of profits going to the state. When Democrats and Republicans hurl insults at President Mugabe and Zanu-PF it appears the Indigenisation Bill angers them even more than the revolutionary land reclamation programme.

Both President Mugabe and Cde Morales understand the value of never giving the appearance they are politically beholden to structural bodies controlled by US-EU imperialism. Both US-EU imperialism were left with egg of their faces when Zimbabwe decided to withdraw from the Commonwealth when suspended. Cde Morales made Bolivia the first nation to officially withdraw from the Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and refused to join the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Both President Mugabe and Cde Morales understand the immeasurable value of defending Zimbabwe and Bolivia on the world stage.

In 2012 Cde Morales convinced the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to declassify coca as a deadly narcotic. In 2008 President Mugabe and Zanu-PF prevented US-EU Imperialism from manipulating the UN Security Council from legalising sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Both President Mugabe and Cde Morales were in a minority who condemned former US president Barack Obama for leading the US-Nato invasion of Libya. Cde Morales stated Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize should be withdrawn, when addressing the UN General Assembly. President Mugabe let it be known the death of the US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens could never be the equivalent of the thousands of Libyan children, women and men who lost their lives due to the genocidal attacks spearheaded by Obama.

President Mugabe with Cde Morales right by his side raised three points at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009, the first being: “When the capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions it’s we the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die.” The second was: “Where are the sanctions for eco offenders? When a country spits on the Kyoto Protocol by seeking to shrink from its diktats, or by simply refusing to accede to it, is it not violating the global rule of law?”.

The third why is the guilty North not showing the same fundamentalist spirit it exhibits in our developing countries on human rights matters on this more menacing threat of climate change?

The leadership of Zimbabwe and Bolivia also share an affinity for the Cuban revolution after Cde Morales shocked the world and emerged as the first indigenous leader in modern history. Cuba offered 5 000 Bolivian students medical scholarships. This is identical to the thousands of Zimbabwean teachers who were trained in Cuba between 1986-1996.

When Mother Africa and the Americas completely emerge from the bloody trail and filthy shadows of colonialism and imperialism the legacies of President Mugabe and Cde Morales will be remembered as trailblazers and staples due to the path they choose when it came to governing the affairs of their respective nations.

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