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President Mnangagwa

Obi Egbuna Jnr Simunye
Reflecting on the untimely and tragic assassination of his beloved Cde, the African revolutionary prince and former Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Emory Lumumba, in his book “Toward The African Revolution”, the bold African warrior Frantz Fanon in his essay titled “Lumumba’s Death: Could We Do Otherwise”, made the following statement; “Lumumba believed in his mission.

“He had an exaggerated confidence in his people. The people, for him,not only could not deceive themselves, but could not be deceived. And in fact everything seemed to prove him right.

“Every time for example, that the enemies of the Congo succeeded in arousing public opinion against him in a certain region, he only needed to appear, to explain, to denounce, for the situation to become normal. He only forgot that he could not be everywhere at once and that the miracle of the explanation was less the truth of what he set forth than the truth of his person”.

Fanon’s lucid assessment of Lumumba in the Congo draws a similar comparison to former Zimbabwean President and liberation icon Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe who because of his rigorous traveling schedule abroad and extremely long office hours on the home front, was continuously deceived by those in the G40 cabal who, while wearing his face on their party regalia and shouting revolutionary slogans at the top of their lungs, were in diametrical opposition to his plans for Zimbabwe and Africa’s future and zanu-pf’s long term aims and objectives.

Very similar to Academy Award winning performances in Hollywood or a Tony Award winning performance on Broadway, these masqueraders and hypocrites risked the credibility of their President, party, Government for the finer things in life.

When going through the process of African revolutionary frontline service, we too often forget that this is the ultimate political blessing, because we are presented with the opportunity to correct our mistakes and rebound from setbacks. There is only one Osagyefo (the word redeemer in English) Dr Kwame Nkrumah, but thanks to the African fighting spirit we collectively possess, the attributes and characteristics that made the Osagyefo the warrior that he ultimately became.

History has a special way of opening our eyes on the mass level, for the purpose of confronting our political reality, to ensure we address the challenges and contradictions that are without question unavoidable.

When looking at Zimbabwe in the 21st Century, both the casual observer and the spiderweb of public policy analysts, independent journalists, and organisers, who have taken a jack in the box approach, whenever discussing what the former President and liberation icon Robert Gabriel Mugabe and current President Mnangagwa consider a lifetime mission, can justify talking out of both sides of their mouth by resuscitating the old mantra “No permanent friends, just permanent interests”.

Based on this approach for the next few months to come, President Mnangagwa and zanu-pf should expect to see these groupings one day call them neo-liberals who have abandoned the Third Chimurenga, only to have this followed up by a pseudo-radical condemnation of the West for carrying out diplomatic measures aimed at demonising and isolating Zimbabwe.

One way to keep these chameleons honest when addressing the Zimbabwe question is to demand an inventory of any practical and concrete programmes they have created from the ground up, aimed at building and maintaining bridges with the Government, ruling party and everyday people of Zimbabwe.

What will be discovered is with the exception of a few articles and interviews or projects that never gained momentum and were abandoned many years ago, they have nothing to offer Zimbabwe, but a tonne of small talk, which is primarily aimed at getting a better standing in their self-serving quest to be experts and analysts for the purposes of climbing the ladder leading to more gainful employment in think tank circles.

As seven years have come and gone since the assassination of the leader of the Great Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamarhiriya Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. We have to admit that images of Brother Gadaffi becoming politically cozy with former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair aroused suspicion for Africans at home and abroad.

These overtures resulted in Libya-US resuming normalised relations with the faces of Western imperialism. After this in 2008 former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi signed an agreement to pay Libya US$5 billion over 25 years as a complete and moral acknowledgment of damage inflicted on Libya during the colonial era.

Thanks to the monstrous cycle of betrayal and capitulation, the rumour of a nation with a revolutionary pedigree making nice with US-EU imperialism, jeopardises whatever networks that represent solidarity and support in your enemies backyards.

Let us not forget how our Revolutionary Sister Assata Shakur’s supporters behaved when the mere mention of former US President Barack Obama wanting to relax the blockade on Cuba, could lead to our sister and Cde’s extradition, forcing Cuba to state the obvious that Assata’s asylum wouldn’t even be a discussion point with US imperialism.

At some point President Mnangagwa and zanu-pf will have to re-evaluate not only Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who in the US and UK-EU are primarily regime change agents, but the support and solidarity efforts in the devil’s backyard. Fortunately, Presidential spokesperson and permanent secretary for the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services George Charamba can be extremely helpful with this area of importance.

One rather concerning issue was that during former President and liberation Icon Cde Mugabe’s visits to New York City for the UN General Assembly between the years of 2005-2017, there were no face to face meetings with support and solidarity workers based throughout the US.

The explanation that was given was how strenuous the UN programme was and the President was in New York primarily for UN business. However, it was the only time since US-EU sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe that the former President was on US soil and even in that instance could not travel 25 kilometres outside of Manhattan.

Based on Zimbabwe’s illustrious history, a common sentiment existing both on the party and governmental front, is that the former coloniser, Britain should garner the bulk of their attention, meaning that when it came to US imperialism a wait and see approach was the order of the day.

Due to the special bond zanu-pf established throughout the Diaspora at the height of the Second Chimurenga, we the children of Mother Africa, with all respect and humility want all engagement with President Mnangagwa and zanu-pf that is heartfelt and transparent.

What President Mnangagwa will discover are three groupings; the first are so-called African Americans, who are shakedown artists that believe Africans born on the continent are intellectually inferior to Africans born in the US, the second are those, who under the guise of building a support and solidarity network, but at some point became preoccupied with monopolising the Zimbabwe issue all by themselves, and third those, who function from the understanding that the network must be opened up at all costs due to the complexities and needs that Zimbabwe has at this historical moment.

Because so-called African Americans‘ present political position is regrettably the doormats of the Democrat Party, coupled with the fact that even those among the ranks that embrace self-determination, the ceiling peaks at justice and not power. This means so-called African Americans have never had a taste of the power both former President Cde Mugabe and current President Mnangagwa, have enjoyed since April 18, 1980.

This is the reason that would-be whistle-blowers, who were never serious about embracing Zimbabwe under President Mugabe are so comfortable discrediting current President Mnangagwa before the ink on his business cards has even dried.