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african dislocation: flashpoint in zimbabwe by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - May 30, 2001 |
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| The blood-soaked ghost of exploitative colonialist Cecil Rhodes has returned with a vengeance to haunt Zimbabwe. Nepotism, mismanagement, corruption, and increasingly brutal despotic leadership by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe have placed the country on a razor's edge. Violent clashes in April 2000 between the minority white elite and embittered blacks over controversial 'land-reform' edicts proposed by Mugabe have revealed that kinship and lineage still determine political administrations. The lack of stable legal infrastructures has made resolving historical inequities and disparities (1% of Zimbabwe's population owns over 60% of the land) difficult. A member of Zimbabwe's dominant tribe (the Shonas), Mugabe is now resorting to exploitative tactics to suppress competitors (such as the Mbedeles tribe) and ruthlessly control bio-survival niches and resources. 'Black majority rule' without compensating moral compasses and transitional autocratic institutional structures will mean that the much-needed First-World infrastructures will quickly migrate elsewhere. Luckily, recent developments in Biopsychosocial Systems evolution applied to nation-states and societies suggest new options that may lead Zimbabwe out of anger, hopelessness, and looming anarchy. The malignant hot-spot challenges the much-heralded African Renaissance model proposed by South African leaders Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki: the 'quantum' change of an entire society from agrarian clan and tribal structures to a flowing Global Meshwork. The South African microcosm suggests a unique solution to Zimbabwe's crisis: macro-manage the hot-spot by synergizing the conflicting groups using Both-And worldviews in a predominantly Either-Or world. Re-frame ethnic, national, and ideological identities through an understanding of the complexities of cultural evolution and microcosmic Life Conditions (the interweaving of Historical Times, Geographic Place, human Existential Problems, and Social Circumstances). Without respect for personal property and rights, a strong work ethic that values individual initiative, and global education opportunities, Zimbabwe is unlikely to make the healthy up-shift from Mugabe's exploitation of ancient animistic tribal bands. By drawing upon the South African experience (which dealt with many worldviews and belief systems simultaneously), Zimbabwe's rulers may create a healthy new form of Pan-Africanism that could be the invisible 'glue' that binds schismatic locales together. Pan-Africanism would also transcend the aritificial national boundaries imposed by colonial Europeans, freeing untapped energies and insights which could dramatically re-shape the post-Cold War geopolitical landscape. Will Zimbabwe be amongst the vanguard nations ushering in an African Renaissaince, or will it regress inevitably into an African Dislocation? Whilst the world waits, learn to detect the underlying subcurrents. The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd. |
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Africa News Online: Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Government Online OneWorld Africa Africa Analysis Africa Online: Zimbabwe Forum BBC News: Zimbabwe MSNBC: Africa Front Page The Financial Gazette CNN: World Regions: Africa The Shame of Zimbabwe Abantu For Development Witness The Search for Cohesion in the Age of Fragmentation U.S. Department of State: Human Rights Report for 1999: Zimbabwe The Arlington Institute World Game Institute Democratizing South African Media: The Power Of Research Global Economic Crisis Instructional Encyclopaedia Britannica Online: Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Crisis: The Battle For Land Commercial Farmers' Union Zimbabwe Land Issue in Zimbabwe Mugabe Hires US Spin Doctors The Black World Today Virtual Zimbabwe ZimWEB Mute Humanitarian Intervention: A Forum Everybody Must Get Stoned Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwe's Vice President, Dies at 82 One Presidential Term and No More Zimbabwe Independent Online CIA World Factbook 1999: Zimbabwe |
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