By Takura Zhangazha*
A friend, in 2003 and much to my surprise remarked that he
supported the United States of America (and its allies) invasion of Iraq. I tried to caution him on believing what the
global media was putting out for his consumption and preferences. He remains unapologetic for his views and still avidly believes that almost all that comes from global Western superpower foreign policy toward the global south can only be good. Or in our best interests, even if we do not know it.
In 2009, I was to watch the first black American president
give a speech at Cairo University (Egypt) on what would ostensibly be the key features
of his government’s Middle East policy .
Barrack Obama, true to form, spoke eloquently about the universality of
human rights and how such a universalism would inform his governments
policy. It never actually turned out
that way. And for all his amazing
speeches, Obama is partly responsible for the continuing break-up of Libya which in turn has contributed significantly (and arguably) to the deaths of thousands of African migrants in
the Mediterranean Sea.
We also now know (and see) the rise of radical white nationalism in the global north that was always
going to counter assumptions of a global universalism for humanity. Hence we now have 'fortress' global north and more stringent and in part discriminatory immigration policies.
But this was all rather distant from us here in Southern
Africa or in particular in Zimbabwe. Except
for the time when a retired British military general mentioned, with hindsight, the fact that
former United Kingdom (UK) prime minister Tony Blair had made a case for military
intervention in Zimbabwe. And also as
reflected upon by former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki’s advisor,
Frank Chikane.
Recalling the latter events with particular focus on
Zimbabwe is not everyone’s cup of tea. Mainly because of a collective African
historical amnesia as to the full import of colonialism and imperialism.
Both as the past and a reinvented latter day ahistorical universalism. As supported by an evidently pro-capital economic neo-liberalism
and liberal interventionism from powerful governments in the global north. And as they seek to compete for diminishing resources
in the global south.
I mention this in the wake of the neo-imperial foreign
policy positions of the United States of America on a country that is now
publicly its new arc Latin American nemesis, Venezuela (after Cuba of-course). Donald Trump’s government has recognized the
now main opposition leader Guardo as the president elect of Venezuela after the
latter had declared himself the same over and above the actual president,
Nicolas Maduro. And at least four other governments
in Southern America took the cue from Trump with the eventual support of some
European governments.
And this is where I return to the examples I cited above in
relation to Zimbabwe. And more significantly
with its particular post 1997 struggles for further democratization which I
have been a part of individually and with many of my elders, contemporaries and
younger colleagues.
We did not quite understand the mechanics of global politics
and how they really work. Especially in
the aftermath of the cold war. And
understandably so.
Faced with as
dictatorial regime as Robert Mugabe’s which also created problems in order to
pretend to solve them (economic structural adjustment was one of the most astounding),
we would more often than not misread our placement in the global scheme of
things. This would occasionally mean our
genuine struggles for democracy would be caught up in narratives that would
limit our ability to negotiate better with either perceived or real
allies.
Or to at least measure what the
interests of these same said global allies are. Together with a strategic
reconsideration of what their support or allegiance would mean for our intrinsic
democratic values and principles together with our right to national self-determination.
A necessary exercise for all activists and as
learnt from the insights of Pan-African revolutionaries of yore, not least, the
inimitable Amilcar Cabral in his speech to the Tri-Continental Revolutionary
conference, Havana, Cuba in 1966.
Hence the situation in Venezuela, based on our own experiences
in Africa during the drawn out Cold War of the 1960s-1980s, should clearly
instruct us to be wary of a return of imperialism of old. Not just by way of global superpower leaders
bestowing presidents on us but in particular reducing our own national and pan
African consciousness to being only important if they recognize it. Or assuming
that theirs are acts that are intended only to serve our national interests.
When the reality of the matter is that we are now faced with the serious
threat, at least in the global South, of unmitigated ‘imperial re-creep’. And we must be wary of that as our struggles continue.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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