Biti: The burden of the sun on your back
bititendai

Mr Biti

THE OTHER SIDE Nathaniel Manheru—
A small aside. Yesterday’s issue of the Zimbabwe Independent carried an opinion under its Editor’s Memo. The opinion was written by Itai Masuku, and was titled “The Rand’s Fall Worrisome”. It upheld the broad observations I made last week, themselves a repeat from one instalment I penned last year. Clearly Masuku grasped the argument, augmented it even, taking the whole discourse on our ailing economy a stage higher, further. I am most thankful. After reading this piece I flipped on, only to be slapped  by a headline: “So Manheru is back: Who cares?” Of course this was from our indefatigable Muckraker, the only other being around town who seems to care about Manheru. I am sure a cursory reading of his Editor’s memo now gives him an emphatic answer.

The history he does not know
Does Tendai Biti know anything about Namibia and its most moving chapter in African history under German colonialism? Has he heard, read, about one Hendrik Witbooi, son of Moses Witbooi, chief of the Kowese Hottentots, also known as the Namas? Or Kamaherero, chief of the Hereros against whose people Germany committed untold atrocities in colonial days? I doubt. Biti luxuriates in Caucasian history, and will recite for you, back to back, America’s luminaries as if he is preparing for the American blue card! But whether known or unknown to Biti, these two giants of African history once existed as men of flesh, still exist and shall always exist as key figures of Africa and its buffeting encounter with Europe.

When retribution precedes sinning
I have no problem when God’s mighty hand smites offenders. It is when His anger and judgment outruns the commission of sin, when His harsh retribution precedes sin, that I really begin to worry as a mere mortal. Capable of seeing our futures in their varied misdemeanours, no one would be safe when judged by sins to come. And the good Lord did just that this last Thursday at a local hotel. As if inebriated by that potent liquid which gave his forebears a surname, Tendai Biti toppled and fell backwards, all from a lofty executive chair that gaily swivels in comfort on a good day, that turned and turned, apparently in a fatal, widening gyre on that fateful Thursday. The turning created a swoon that felled him flat. He was part of a panel discussion on the state of affairs in our beautiful country. But the mighty hand of God intervened, smote him, seemingly just ahead of abominable utterances soon to issue from his ungodly mouth, first in spurts, and then in torrents. “We are paralyzed by a crisis of leadership; that you can have the chief executive officer of the country at 90. I know that there has been debate about the President’s health but it is my respectful submission, being 90 is illness on its own,” Biti said, apparently unable to explain what falling from a firm chair, right in front of an audience, at an age decidedly below 50, means in the scheme of human maladies. At below 50, age cannot have anything to do with it, surely? God does interpose in swift, mysterious ways, I tell you. Lesson one, why throw stones from an ailing, wafer (not wafa!) castle?

When man-mountain slumps
He went on: “This is a government that is founded on vicious circles of exclusion, slogans of hatred, slogans of attrition personified in the head of state….. The man (the President) goes to the United Nations, the man goes ‘shame, shame, shame, shame, shame.’ You go to the Heroes’ Acre, when you read the speech, you just wonder who has been the target of his speech.” Of course Tendai was a finance minister in the just-ended Inclusive Government, itself a loud illustration of “vicious circles of exclusion”. Of course Tendai, that Thursday evening, was spewing hate, desecrating man and God, apparently without realizing it, certainly without noticing or wiping away a sickly yellowish froth forming on the margins of his restlessly clipping scarlet lips. His hate was too righteous to pass for “slogans of hatred”. And watching the man leave the podium was really painful, heart-rending. Feet pointed outwards, as if in a permanent state of quarrel, as if to disable and immobilise their haver, frame dwindled, leaving one with a distinct impression of an once-upon-a-time “man-mountain” slumping small atop the rabble of an exfoliating being. But that is typical Biti, a being of vintage derision only rewarded by laughter, never engaging forethought. His effort was to sway, and sway he did that with the powerful broiler imagery, apparently in irreverent tribute to those that sought to teach him the art of pursuing a more dignified livelihood.

The illiteracy we all share
But give it to him, he had some thoughtful moments, flashes of insights even. “The biggest problem with Zanu-PF is that they don’t understand money and the economy. They are functionally illiterate. They think money grows on trees”, he said. They should court FDI, kowtow for overseas development aid. I would probably agree with him, largely, but warning that such is the bane for us all, he included, for all he thinks he knows. Functionally literate economists don’t lean on the likes of John Robertson, or servilely feel duty-bound to come to their defence as behoves an honest, dutiful native. True, we don’t understand money and the economy. And we need to, urgently too. We can’t brag by what white man advises us. And far worse than thinking that money grows on trees, is thinking that money grows on Europe and Europeans, grows all for your asking, all for your taking so you eat, eat, eat and eat like broiler, in the end eating yourself to death! Zimbabwe must kowtow to the West in order to get development aid, FDI.

He did that during his time as Finance minister in the Inclusive government. Today he runs from that era, sprightly pursued by a monument of utter failure. He set the scene for the millions he says now survive on food handouts, many of them proud peasant families who with minimal support, could have grown their food as they were wont to, as they are beginning to, before the advent of Biti and his times, after the fall of his era, respectively. And the condition from the West was simple: Mephistopheles-like, sell your soul, your sovereignty, by declaring yourself a full protectorate of Anglo-Saxon might, all against the evil Zanu-PF, the Witbooi of Zimbabwean politics. I now explain.

Goering, Kamaherero and Witbooi
Once upon a time in history, there was a German fugitive called Dr Goering whose sole vocation was to secure Namibia as a German colony, warding off Cecil John Rhodes’ avaricious hand, represented in that land by one Robert Lewis, a prospector. Lewis had skilfully upset the nebulous agreements German imperialists had struck with various African chiefs who ruled that land. Outmanoeuvred by Lewis, Goering decided to exploit the rivalry between two African chiefs, immemorially fighting for better pastures, thanks to arms sold to both by entrepreneurial German missionaries and traders. One was Hendrik Witbooi in charge of the Namas. The other was Kamaherero in charge of the Hereros. Witbooi had won previous contests, all of them bloody, and Kamaherero obsessively sought vengeance against his Nama bete noire. Fatally, at that time of mutually ruinous hate, Goering came by, tantalizing German military might to a defeated African leader bitterly vengeful. Kamaherero bit the bait, and declared himself a subject of the mighty Kaiser, represented by the fugitive Goering.

Message from man of iron
Fearing Lewis and the Rhodes he fronted, Goering wasted no time in writing Witbooi a menacing letter, curtly urging him to cease his wars against the Hereros, all of them now snugly sitting pretty under German protection. “The German Government cannot tolerate your constant disturbance of the peace of a land and people which are under German protection, and whereby work, trade, and travel suffer. You will therefore be compelled by all means to restore Peace, which is necessary in the entire Land . . . That the German Government possesses quite other powers to damage you, will be made plain. Therefore, I again earnestly request you to make Peace if you wish to preserve yourself, your land, and your people”. It was a chilling message from the representative of a mighty potentate whose guns were known to shoot far, shoot well.

The missionary trader
Historians have long noted that in all her colonies, the missionary has always been Germany’s advance agent. What is more, unlike for the British empire, the German missionary was also the pioneer of her trade. The Rhenish Mission Society of Berlin, itself a forerunner to German colonial imperialism in Namibia, was more real as a roving trader than as a proselytising force. From 1840 when it took notice of Namibia, up to 1870 – a good thirty long years – it only managed one convert among the Hereros. This came in the form of one pious old lady, reportedly of Otjimbingwe, who one day forsook the worship of her ancestors, in the process embracing a new German god in whose beginning was trade, well before the Word. So the reference to travel, trade and work by the man of iron called Goering went straight to the heart of German mission (no pun intended) abroad, and Witbooi had better listened.

The day Witbooi answered back
It was Witbooi’s response which was amazingly prescient. Firstly, in who he chose to address in his response. And it was not to Goering he wrote, that the German fugitive and scoundrel. It was to Kamaherero, his fellow Namibian and rival. Its contents did not address the German threats against him, his people and his land. Rather, it addressed the German threat to Namibian’s sovereignty, German threat to both him and Kamaherero, the chief who falsely, has glowed under imagined German protection. To Kamaherero, Witbooi wrote: “From the contents of Dr Goering’s letter I hear and understand that you have placed yourself under German protection, and that thereby  Dr Goering has acquired full influence and power to order and arrange things and to interfere in the affairs of our land, even to intervene in this war which of old existed between us. You astonish me and I greatly blame you because you call yourself the Paramount Chief of Damaraland and that is true. Because our arid country has only two names “Damaraland” and “Namaland” that is to say Damaraland belonging to the Herero nation and is an independent nation and is an independent kingdom, and Namaland belongs to all the red coloured nations in independent kingdoms, just as the same is said of the lands of the white people, Germany, England, and so on. They are independent kingdoms and all the different nations have their own heads and each head has his own land and people, over which he alone can rule, so that no other person or chief can order or compel him…

You now carry the burning sun
“For in this world each Head of a nation is merely the representative of our Almighty God and stands responsible alone to that God, the King of all Kings, the Lord of Lords, before whom we all, who live under Heavens, must bend the knee. But Captain (Kamaherero), you have now accepted another Government; you have surrendered to that Government in order to be protected by another human Government from all dangers, chiefly and foremost to be protected from me in this war . . . You are to be protected and helped by the German Government, but dear Captain do you appreciate what you have done? . . . You have looked upon me as a hindrance and a stumbling block and so you have accepted this great Government in order to destroy me by its might . . . but it appears to me that you have not sufficiently considered the matter, having in view your land and people, your descendants who will come after you and your Chieftain’s rights. Do you imagine that you will retain all the rights of your independent chieftainship after you shall have destroyed me (if you succeed)? This is your idea, but dear Captain in the end you will have bitter remorse, you will have eternal remorse, for this handing of your land and sovereignty over to the hands of white people . . . But this thing which you have done, this giving of yourself into the hands of white people for government, thinking that you have acted wisely, that will become to you a burden as if you were carrying the sun on your back.

I cannot say whether you have sufficiently pondered over and whether you actually understand what you have done by giving yourself into German protection . . . You will not understand and will be dissatisfied with Dr Goering’s doings, because he will not consult your wishes or act in accordance with your laws and customs. This you will discover too late however as you have already given him full powers.” The year of the foreboding letter was 1890, around May, a mere four months before Zimbabwe fell to the British. Before long, Namibia also fell, with it the chieftainship of both Namas and Hereros, all of whom lost their leadership, land and lives.

White interest in opposition politics
I read from the Zimbabwe Independent that JOMIC cars have now been repossessed by some western embassy and redeployed towards a programme of reuniting the opposition in our country under a team of elders. I happen to know preliminary efforts took place yesterday, here in Harare. I am also aware that the wage agreement struck between Government and its workforce, disrupted a major western funded project through which opposition would have been revived through a series of street actions meant not just to disturb the peace, but also to give the EU good reason to perpetuate sanctions.

I also recall a piece done by Noreen Welch (remember her from old, ZBC days?) in which she assessed many MDC-T aspirants to leadership after Tsvangirai leaves, or is pushed out. I was struck by her assessment of Chamisa. She said: “Chamisa would have been a complete politician and a realist that the MDC needs at the helm of the party had it not for his occasional idealism shaped by his addiction to strident neoliberal views and disturbingly constant reference to the Bible at political rallies. His religious views shaped immutably and meticulously by his born again Christianism will compromise a tragic view of politics, something required  to succeed in Zimbabwe’s brute political scene. But these are the things that can be worked on as he matures further.”

Noreen is writing from the safety of some faraway white country, wishing us here violent politics, fawned around a pan-Africanist agenda so pro-white, anti-African politicians gain admittance to power. Time was when MDC used the pulpit to marshal politics. Apparently this overly softened its leadership, making it fear a bold and bloody view of politics, all to the detriment of white interests that must be served by all means necessary. The new thrust is to banish God and bible, to infuse a tragic view of politics.

One Greg Mills
Not to be outdone, Greg Mills, another voice of white interests, pushes in a piece which sees Tsvangirai’s departure as foregone, with debate arising only around how much disruption he is likely to leave in the wake of his departure. “If Tsvangirai has nothing to go to and everything to lose by staying on, it is likely to be a bitter contest”, frets Greg. Much worse, the Greg vision sees a model that not only joins past foes across the political divide, but one that makes both Zanu-PF and MDC face the same requirement for “change”, if foreigners are to regain a foothold in Zimbabwe.

Why does the argument sound familiar from my Zanu-PF standpoint? I thought what is being asked of Tsvangirai is exactly what was being demanded of President Mugabe a few years back? Why are the two adversaries facing such Siamese demands? Kamaherero and Witbooi thought they were each other’s greatest enemies.  That belief consumed them. Until it was too late for both, their land and their people, it never occurred that their fates intersected, making them a tragic people of a cruel history. Much like Biti who, glowing in the freshness of an under-fifty, suddenly realised such a tender age could on its own be  deadly malady. We sometimes think we are describing an ailment over there, a cruel fate targeting your enemy, yet that false distance disguised shared victimhood.

The coup I fear most
Mister Biti talks about the real risk of provoking a coup in the country, citing an invisible leadership, exclusion and social dislocation. Far more frightful, Mister Biti, is that coup occasioned not by a leadership vacuum, not by exclusion in the internal sense in which you use the term, not by social dislocation arising from a failed economy. Far more frightful is a reoccupation coup by the West, using all of the above while projecting them as local failures. We are not likely to have a leadership vacuum in the sense absence, but in the sense of a false presence by way of a caretaker figure doing the bidding of aliens, of the white man. We are not likely to face exclusion of locals by locals for locals, but exclusion of locals by locals for outsiders.

Indeed, the economy shall fail for locals, while thriving for those abroad. That is the coup I mortally fear, done by a false leadership against their people. There is something in your thinking which suggests such a baneful DNA. Thank God the westerners don’t see you going very far. They have discounted you, concluding merely creeping towards 50 on its own, is an illness. And your falling off the high chair does not buoy your prospects at all, under western eyes. That way you are the man you deride, the Witbooi you cannot see in yourself, dear Kamaherero.

Icho!

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