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Never Matata Correspondent

Zimbabwe has done everything in its powers to re-engage with the international community, but the reasons why the United States, especially, is not removing sanctions is mere arrogance and the hard desire to rule everyone in the world.

After all, the conflict was a bilateral one between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom over the land reform and the US latched on it because it was self-serving to be involved and effect regime change.

The regime change motive is not democracy because the same ruling party Zanu PF had to go to war to fight and win simple democratic trinkets like one man, one vote and equal access to land.

The US’ arrogance and hard-heartedness comes from the desire to conquer Zimbabwe, effect regime change and then gain access to the country’s vast untapped natural resources. Plunder is the word.

The diamond, the gold, the coal, the chrome, the uranium and prime farming land, among others, are the US’ target, not democracy, good governance, accountability, rule of law etc. NO! 

The main problem is that the US does not respect other nations that refuse to stay under its wings. Things must go its own way, always. 

Every government must toe its line or suffer. But the good thing is that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (the BRICS) have emerged as another alternative that Zimbabwe can work with and get fair treatment and fair business deals. BRICS are the way to go for now while the US and its allies play their dirty politics.

Wherever you go in the world, the US foreign policy stinks and has caused untold suffering to innocent people and also death for millions of people using lies, deception and muscle to justify military interventions and sanctions.

The US has footprints of deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya and many other countries and yet it has the audacity to preach sanctity. 

It is a case of a devil preaching sanctity. Suffice to say, it takes a lot of courage and big-headedness to preach what you cannot practice. To preach human rights, democracy and good governance when your hands drip of blood, is heartless. The US  is heartless.

The people of Zimbabwe have suffered under illegal sanctions and their crime is that their Government dared address a historical land imbalance, a historical land tenure where a few whites of western origin owned more prime land than the majority blacks. 

Addressing that historical land imbalance was the greatest gesture of independence and should be applauded. Black Zimbabweans are people too. 

They have rights. They have birth rights. They cannot be treated like second class citizens so that they are deemed democratic, NO. It should not be too hard for indigenous people to benefit from the land of their forefathers and other natural resources. 

It should not be hard for indigenous people to decide who to do business with. They must not be sanctioned for deciding to do business with Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa if they feel the deal if good for them. They should not be sanctioned for trying to manage their own natural resources.

Going forward, Zimbabwe has been squeezed too much by these sanctions. Most of the things, the Zanu PF Government has been accused of failing to deliver are as a result of sanctions. They constrict the capacity to do good for the people.

Going forward, the world must understand that the US itself is trying to be the policeman of everyone and to suppress countries that choose their own destiny outside US influence. 

It is bad politics. Look at who is behind the conflict brewing between Russia and Ukraine. It is the US. Look at who killed Saddam Hussein and thousands of Iraqis? It is the US. Look at Libya. It is the US. The US has single-handedly committed more international crimes than any other country in the world. 

The US has accounted for more suffering of people under sanctions in many countries in the world. The US has plundered more natural resources from many countries to enrich itself and hates other countries such as China and Russia and their counterparts in BRICS, because they are fair players.

The other aspect is how the US handles political riots in its own country and how racism has come up against black people again and again. 

The interest is the US’ handling of riots, versus how other countries it has condemned and even sanctioned. 

The US uses the same heavy-handedness, the same intolerance and indeed the same methods it normally condemns when done by other countries under the same circumstances. 

When all is said and done and when this chapter is gone, it will be world class crass for US to still claim to be the world’s best democracy, without putting up a brave face. The US world image is in tatters.

The same violence, the same crudeness, the same savageness that the US has scripted for many opposition parties in countries whose governments it dislikes, visited them right in their house. 

Did anyone see the images of that rum on the chair of the speaker of congress, his legs on the table two years ago in those invasions of Congress? Did you see the other rant using the flag to beat up police? Did you see those rats, scaling walls and foraging the chambers? In America? Great America?

And yet, we have been told again and again that protesting against the perceived injustices is what the US nation was built on. Indeed, the savageness that has become the oddity of American sponsored opposition parties like MDC Alliance, which the US congress flaunted as pro-democratic action, suddenly founding itself in the grandmaster’s chambers.

The difference is that the grandmaster was shaken to the core. The grandmaster never saw it coming. The grandmaster tasted the nasty concoction and did not like it. Today, the grandmaster must know that we all don’t like it. No country in the world likes that chaos. So, the US must stop sponsoring that chaos.

Then there was the eventful departure of Donald John Trump’s tumultuous term. The country degenerated into some kind of a war zone, the fast deployment of armed troops, speedy erection of high walls, barricaded streets and razor wires.

The transition from Trump to Joe Biden, became a turning point in the history of America; a power transition marred by allegations of a stolen election, unprecedented violence and an invasion of the Capitol Hill, the nerve centre of the country’s governance. Fear has gripped the nation just a few days before the handover of power. 

Security had to be beefed up and the streets in many states resembled a war zone. There were more armed soldiers deployed on the streets of some states than there are troops in say, troops Afghanistan. Does this speak to democracy?

One outstanding issue is that whenever the pro-US opposition has claimed elections rigging and election theft, the US has quickly moved in to support and protect that opposition, even where it is clear that the election was not stolen.

Never Matata, is a Tanzanian professor of African History and International Relations. He writes in his own capacity.