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Obi Egbuna Jr Simunye
Because Mother Africa has both introduced and completely revitalised numerous spiritual/religious disciplines, her children at home and abroad understand that we are at a moment in history where seeking clarity, courtesy of the decolonisation process, must be approached in the manner we digest scripture and prophecy.

As we are on the verge of posthumously celebrating the 109th birthday of one of our brightest and bravest sons Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, a stern warning must be issued to not only US- EU imperialism, but all their neo -colonialist who are seeking to mortgage our future.

The Osagyefo stated; “By far the greatest wrong the departing colonialists inflicted on us, and which we now continue to inflict on ourselves in this present state of disunity, was to leave us divided into economically unviable states which bear no possibility of real development”.

The Osagyefo goes on to say: “We must unite for economic viability, first of all, and then to recover the mineral wealth of Southern Africa, so that our vast resources and capacity for development will bring prosperity for us and additional benefits for the rest of the world.”

Because many of the revolutionary icons in Southern Africa, Tanzania’s founding president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Zimbabwe nationalist and hero Herbert Wiltshire Chitepo, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe and former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe while at Fort Hare University received a philosophical baptism in the words and ideas of one Mahatma Gandhi.

A further discovery shows that by the time all of these comrades had chosen to dedicate their lives to the African Revolution, the Osagyefo had already emerged as Mother Africa’s most embraceable voice and influence.

As US-EU imperialism would have it, the neo-colonialist African heads of state in concert with Africans in the Diaspora, are expected to mockingly quote the Osagyefo on his actual birthday for intellectual cool points.

They hope that nickel and dime ritual will divert attention away from the fact, on a daily basis, they engage in activity that diametrically opposes what the Osagyefo stood for.

The neo-colonialist masquerade that makes Mother Africa’s most patriotic daughters and sons sick to their stomachs, is not only reduced to puppet governments on our beloved continent, but to diplomats representing imperialist nations whose original cultural make-up happens to be African.

When zanu-pf, first through former president Robert Mugabe and currently President Mnangagwa, began popularising the slogan Zimbabwe is open for business, never in their wildest dreams did they ever envision that Mother Africa’s most bloodthirsty rapists and plunderers would attempt to blatantly hijack their vision in broad daylight.

The manner in which our former colonisers and captors moved to intercept and negatively co-opt the momentum of a concept rooted in revolutionary self-determination, for the purpose of preserving a dying methodology rooted in monopoly capitalism, draws a striking comparison to how the LGBT machine snatched away the concept of the Rainbow from the Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

While Reverend Jackson and Rainbow/PUSH decided to be hospitable and charitable to the LGBT community, as it pertains to propagating the banner of a rainbow, President Mnangagwa and zanu-pf, wholeheartedly accept that the open for business mantra represents the next phase of diplomatic warfare with US-EU imperialism.

This explains why the recently appointed US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Ambassador Brian Nichols did his best impersonation of a burglar and sneaked into Washington DC on September 6 to have a clandestine discussion on business opportunities in Zimbabwe.

Ambassador Nichols’ host was an organisation called the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU). On the very same day BCIU held a briefing with Ambassador Mamadou Haidara, the ambassador of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire to the United States.

The reason for pointing that out is BCIU never extended an invitation to the current Zimbabwean ambassador to the United States Ambassador Ammon Mutembwa, which appears to be an established code of understanding when it comes to US imperialist politicians, diplomats, journalists intelligence agents, or think-tank fellows, addressing developments in Zimbabwe.

For those who pay close attention to the website of the US Embassy in Zimbabwe, Ambassador Nichols has gone on record stating in his expert opinion that this is a momentous time a more democratic Zimbabwe promises closer ties and better future for its people.

If those sentiments are straight from the heart, why wouldn’t Ambassador Nichols insist that his counterpart and equal Ambassador Mutembwa not only be invited but should have shared the platform, and explained from his Government and ruling party’s point of view what the Second Republic is all about?

Because Ambassador Nichols is a 29-year veteran in the US diplomatic corps, he is well aware that US imperialism has had an immensely difficult time, proving that their diplomats will restrain from any posturing that resembles the behaviour and portfolio of a military officer or intelligence agent.

In the spirit of starting fresh, Ambassador Nichols should have insisted that BCIU refrain from such a disrespectful and unfriendly gesture since it is no secret that US – EU imperialism’s candidate of choice in the recent harmonized elections, representing the MDC- Alliance, Mr Nelson Chamisa, was convincingly defeated by President Mnangagwa and zanu-pf,.

If Ambassador Nichols doesn’t have the power to make that demand of BCIU, that too should be brought to the attention of the general public both in Zimbabwe and in Babylon. It would certainly be an eye opener if the main diplomatic representative of his government cannot insist that a private organisation with major Fortune 500 companies not disrespect the top diplomat from the country where he is currently stationed.

We know it is a bitter pill for US-EU imperialism to swallow when the people of Africa, Asia and Latin America let it be emphatically known that imperialist diplomats appear either unwilling or unable to make a departure from the tactics that were common practice at the height of the Cold War era.

This is reminiscent of racist Ku Klux Klan members who would rather die than remove the hoods from their heads in 2018.

What also has to be taken into consideration is that the BCIU was established in 1955 during the Eisenhower administration, with the objective of improving foreign understanding of business practices within the United States.

If experience is the best teacher, Zimbabwe is well aware of why Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines, the tobacco conglomerates RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris, are open participants in the US-EU imperialist agenda.

Without placing all the blame on Ambassador Nichols, the BCIU has a reputation of advertising meetings that are closed to the public. This is primarily because of the slippery slope between private imperialist and governmental imperialist business interests and aspirations.

Based on the protocol arrangement and pecking order, BCIU is a pre-qualified indefinite quantity contractor for the US Trade and Development Agency, which was established in 1961 to help US commercial interests in middle-income and developing countries. Today they work in 66 nations abroad.

BCIU has 200 members including several Fortune 500 companies. They include

3M, AIG, Alcoa INC, Autodesk, The Boeing Company, Chevron,Citi, The Coca Cola Company, Exxon-Mobil Corporation, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, to name a few.

One of the dilemmas that US-EU imperialism has always been confronted with is the strategic divide amongst the business community. The question must be posed was why Ambassador Nichols was being told by Fortune 500 companies that having a presence on the ground in Zimbabwe is essential, even if the government is not one of their lackeys.

Are Fortune 500 groupings with ties to not only BCIU, the Council of Foreign Relations and The Corporate Council on Africa, willing to tell the White House, Senate and Congress that they are tired of waiting for MDC to take power in Zimbabwe before they can do some real business in Zimbabwe?

As we have seen in Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, China, Vietnam on a global front and even domestically during the Montgomery bus boycott, the shrewdest of imperialist businessmen and women do not allow the political terrain to prevent them from their bottom line.

As long as imperialism recognizes Zimbabwe, saying they are open for business is not a departure from their revolution, let the corporate big shots feel comfortable openly lending their voice to the movement to lift US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe. In the spirit of transparency, let Ambassador Nichols and his staff not attempt to suppress this shift in thinking from the corporate big wigs in Washington.

Obi Egbuna Jr is the US correspondent to The Herald and External Relations Officer to Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association (ZICUA) [email protected]