Isdore Guvamombe Reflections
Back in the village, in the land of milk, honey and dust or Guruve, villagers pride themselves in identifying with the village, its values, ethos and all. But in many parts of Zimbabwe, Africans are an objectionable lot. Western Europe has been able to rip open our value system and destroy what defined us as a people.

Our people now always want to see things the Western Europe way, not the African way. They now have a dearth of African humanism. A dearth of that sense of belonging. A death in Afro-centricism and indeed a dearth of self-esteem. A dearth of self-respect. I am a villager myself, but each time I enter political discourse about my country, I have been pained to notice that most people I talk to and claim to be educated are indeed not learned. Their political story is a European narrative of the events in Zimbabwe. Their story is that version seen through Western European spectacles; not village spectacles, not Zimbabwean spectacles.

This week, the discourse was on President Mugabe being awarded an ambassadorial role for the United Nations World Health Organisation and its subsequent withdrawal. The greater part of this story is a stupid European narrative that has dominated the discourse. The discourse does not portray President Mugabe as a victim of deep-rooted hatred by the West, instead it seeks to mock him. The first decision by WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, albeit without consulting President Mugabe, was correct.

The second decision, that of withdrawing the role, was clearly sponsored by a fraudulent, malicious and inspired by the fetish craving to forever paint bad the African liberation icon, President Robert Mugabe typifies. Surprisingly, some Zimbabweans enjoyed the tomfoolery and ran with it, typical of devils running away with the Bible. Zimbabweans should be worried about the behind the scenes manoeuvres that forced WHO to rescind its decision.

There is no doubt from my village standpoint that the Ethiopian director had, in his rightful senses, always revered President Mugabe, the last standing liberation icon who has done a lot for African people. Our story as Zimbabweans in our broad totality should question UN systems and, in fact, see reason in the need for the much needed and much delayed UN reforms. What happened in WHO is even a more glaring insight on how UN systems have been and continue to be manipulated by Western European powers.

The continued assault and insult of smaller nations and their leaders has continued unabated. The truth is that the WHO director, an African himself, was cowed into rescinding his decision. The man who is on his new job is actually running scared. He was arm-twisted into submission.Everything being equal, the UN being run professionally and countries being given equal respect, President Mugabe would be recognised and highly regarded in UN circles for his outstanding debates and contribution to progressive thinking in UN governance.

But the world we live in, the fragile and forever manipulated UN system we work under and indeed our stature as small Zimbabwe, means we can be forever pummelled by bigger and stronger nations and the biggest culprit in this regard is the United States of America.

To be Robert Mugabe in UN is to stand for the truth that will give Africans more voices and more powers and that is dangerous to Western Europe foreign policy. To be Robert Mugabe is to say the stubborn truth at the biggest fora, the UN General Assembly. To be Robert Mugabe is to perpetually call for UN reforms against superpowers, who wish to maintain hegemony on world power. To be Robert Mugabe is to articulate issues that many African leaders identify with, but are afraid to articulate. To be Robert Mugabe is to be the spokesperson of the downtrodden. So, to be Robert Mugabe means to be under the Western Europe microscope all the time. It is indeed to be identified as a champion of things that make Africans better at the expense of Western Europeans. It is, therefore, to be dangerous to European supremacy.

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