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Leadership which is born out of truth is long-lasting and enduring. Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara and many other visionary African leaders have actually outlived their own death.
Edgar Allan Poe, the American writer and poet, wrote — truth crushed to the ground will always rise, and error crushed to the ground writhes in pain. You can never suppress the truth. They always say you can fool the people for some time but you cannot fool them all the time. David did not seek for power from Prophet Samuel but it was God who bestowed that power on him through Samuel the great prophet.
In this corrupt age, we should be very careful of political charlatans who clandestinely go to faraway lands to seek prophecy over issues concerning political office. Such politicians are a total disgrace to all progressive and right thinking Africans. Thomas Hobbes, the English political philosopher, rightly argued that — man seeks power and that pursuit for supremacy over his fellow man — only ceases or stops at death. Lord Acton warns us that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The demon for power that had gripped King Saul blinded him into seeking for advice from a sorceress merely as a way of maintaining his unquenchable and insatiable appetite for power.
Mobutu, obsessed by the power seeking evil spirit, the same demon which once manifested itself in the white man Hitler, actually helped Europe and America in the brutal slaughter of some of Zaire’s most promising nationalist leaders.
This treacherous Western controlled marionette sold Zaire’s abundant wealth to the white world for mere pittance. Such is the danger or peril of having hand-picked Western stooges to lead the African masses. They help loot, plunder and pillage Africa’s resources to prop up the economies of their Northern masters.
Africa should never trust leaders who have a Saul and Absalom mentality. We should not accept leaders who seek power from sorcerers nor those who want to get in power through treacherous means. Political power can either be good or bad. The goodness of power can be seen in leaders who use it to address colonial injustices through the formulation of policies which are pro-poor.
These strategies include indigenisation, resource nationalism, black economic empowerment and advancement of pro-youth policies. Bad power is usually seen in leaders who fight fiercely to reverse the hard won gains of Africa’s independence.
This misguided group of “white washed” leaders is in favour of giving away Africa’s copious wealth to the former white colonialists. See how the National Transitional Council is giving away Libyan oil and also how Cote d’Ivoire’s abundant cocoa profits are ending up in French hands. Mobutu did the same to Zaire and so did Ben Ali to Tunisia and Mubarak to Egypt.
Africa should no longer tolerate being driven by suicidal economic drivers. Mobutu crushed Zaire into abject poverty. Mubarak plunged Egypt into destitution. Ben Ali drove Tunisia into madness. Africa’s economic road has had enough casualties mainly because of its tolerance for reckless “black-skinned” leaders who wear “white masks” and whose fake Western economic drivers’ licences have plunged the whole continent in the dungeon of absolute poverty.
When Mobutu, Mubarak, and Ben Ali were stashing away billions of dollars in European and American banks, no single Western country raised alarm bells over such thieving. As long as an African leader steals his own country’s wealth to benefit Europe and America, such a leader is always glorified by these Western hypocrites as being “democratic.” Mobutu and Mubarak gave Europe and America heaven on earth while most Zairian and Egyptian people were living in hell on earth.
These traitorous African leaders usually talk of Euro-centric rights which are centred more on protecting and safeguarding the interests of the minority white groups on the African continent. Such leaders are more concerned in pleasing the Western leaders at the expense of their own people. Hosni Mubarak, Ben Ali, Bongo and Mobutu suffered from such a disease.
This “Mobutonisation of power” involves leaders who help plunder their country’s resources in order to benefit and stabilise Western economies.
These leaders are fascinated by the white world in such a way that they rarely go out to meet their own people as they are always visiting their so called Northern friends. Europe and America are more of a second home to them. During their trips to the Western countries they are always seen on television grinning and smiling foolishly whilst in the company of Western leaders. One actually wonders if the whole purpose of such visits is to sell out or to smile in front of cameras. These “white washed” African leaders’ speeches in the white world are always a great insult to their own people back home.
These misguided African elites always talk to their white friends on the issue of foreign investment which is more of a guise or smokescreen to plunder the continent’s resources. Never do they mention anything to do with the equitable distribution of scarce resources in their own country nor do they seek for assistance to empower their own people.
Mentioning such programmes is seen as an embarrassment to their white friends. Many Zimbabweans who are opposed to homosexuality were shocked when their Prime Minister during one of his many visits to the white world spoke in support of homosexuals.
These “white washed” black fools are good at showering the white world with all sorts of praises. Nkrumah notes that these leaders go as far as telling their own people back at home that — capitalism, free enterprise, free competition, etc, are the only economic systems capable of promoting development, that the Western powers have mastered the liberal-capitalist technique perfectly . . . that there is no reason to put an end to the policy of “co-operation” pursued during the colonial era; and that any attempt to break away would be dangerous, since the former colonial power is always ready to give “aid”.
How many times have we been told by some amongst us that we cannot survive without British assistance? Zimbabwe was even threatened that its withdrawal from the whitecentric Commonwealth would be disastrous. Many a times, we have also been told by some in our midst that for Zimbabwe to economically progress, it should abandon its radical indigenisation programme and embrace the neo-liberal model of economic development.
These myopic “white washed” politicians never bother to explain to the Zimbabwean populace why the western world is witnessing so many demonstrations which owe quite a lot to the complete failure of the capitalist economic system in improving the lives of the masses.
According to these enemies amongst us, diamond mining at Chiadzwa can only be meaningful if Zimbabwe engages European and American companies in the mining of the precious stone. What a pity that we still have such backward thinking people amongst us. Kwame Nkrumah warned Africa to know the enemy. He pointed out that, it is essential that Africa knows what it is fighting and why it has to fight. Africa, should know the strategies and means being used by the enemy, as a way of continuing its economic exploitation of the continent’s vast mineral rich territories. Progressive Africans should also be aware of the attempts made by the Western imperialists to destroy the nationalist parties and liberation movements.
African people should be very careful of sham independence. Such uhuru, according to Kwame Nkrumah, is whereby a state is said to be a neo-colonialist or client state if it is independent de jure and dependent de facto. It is a state, where political power lies in the conservative forces of the former colony and where economic power remains under the control of international finance capital.
Libya’s abundant oil resources are now being controlled by American, British and French multinational corporations. Cote d’Ivoire’s huge proceeds from its cocoa plantations are now at the mercy of French companies and banks.
Massive funding of western controlled opposition parties in Africa clearly exposes the true agenda behind such false generosity. We can never run away from the issue of national interest. Western sponsorship of such political parties is merely a stratagem to maintain their grip on power in these African states through sham or fake independence.
According to Nkrumah, a puppet regime cannot in the long run draw its strength from the support of the broad masses. It can only stay in power as long as it manages to depend on a foreign power for military assistance merely to keep the fake government physically in power. The Libyan NTC has all the trappings of a puppet regime and so is the Quattara government in Cote d’ Ivoire. Nkrumah notes that the western world usually resorts to all types of propaganda in order to highlight and exploit differences of religion, culture, race, outlook, and of political ideology among the masses.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has had very nasty experiences concerning unprecedented tribal clashes. Nigeria is currently ablaze over religious differences. In Zimbabwe, the tribal card between the Ndebeles and Shonas has been over abused by both the Western sponsored media and the leaders of donor funded political parties.
Africans should totally reject the tribal labels that they are given which actually divide them from other African people. As Africans, we have one common ancestor and there is surely no need to purge each other along tribal lines. Leaders who want to gain political mileage by singing the tribal song should be rejected by the people. We have over the years as Zimbabweans travelled along a thorny, torturous and bumpy tribal road and we should never fall in the trap of being hoodwinked and manipulated by such political misfits or eccentrics.
The mentally unstable Hitler plunged Europe into one of the worst atrocities and nightmares ever committed against a people. Those amongst us, who still day dream along such treacherous and retrogressive lines, should be condemned by all.
If Africa remains submerged in total ignorance of whom the real enemy is, or if it is not well versed with the ways of the enemy, then, it will always continue to be a pawn in the game of politics.
When Julius Malema calls for land redistribution and black economic empowerment, just like what President Mugabe did in Zimbabwe, it is a reminder to the white world that Southern African countries are neither their colonies nor their appendages.
Any opposition political party which thinks it is a very easy assignment or task to return Southern Africa to the colonial era are surely in for a very rude awakening. All progressive Southern Africans are now fiercely calling for both economic and political independence in their lifetime, that is, in this 21st century.

Bowden Mbanje and Darlington Mahuku are lecturers in International Relations, and Peace and Governance with Bindura University of Science Education.