By Takura Zhangazha*
In primary school we had an amazing headmistress, Ms. Thomas.
This was when we were approaching our final year in that phase of our education. She had decided for reasons of her own that we
needed an impromptu lecture on the import of the Iraq-Kuwait war in 1990.
We were in grade seven (7).
She showed us a map of Kuwait and one of Iraq. And proceeded to explain to us the full
impact of both chemical warfare and also nuclear weapons deployment. If I remember correctly at my young age
then, she indicated the possibility of how after a nuclear weapon was deployed
there would be some cloud that affects not only the Middle East but also drift
toward Africa and eventually drift further southwards to affect us.
We were somewhat shocked and surprised that we had to learn
this. We mainly knew of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. We never thought that a war that far away
from us would affect us.
It was mainly because we did not understand at least two
things at our young ages. We did not
know the global political economy. And
we did not know the global threat that is nuclear war. Nor did we have any inkling
about what was then referred to as the Cold War and its eventual false end on
the assumption of an ‘end of history’.
As we grew up under neo-liberal economic policies such as
the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) and its end cultural
imperialistic effect of us seeking departure to the now “Global North”, we also
learnt of other wars. We learnt of the
globalised war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in which we as
Zimbabweans participated. There were the wars in Eastern Europe that we watched
almost for entertainment on global television networks and of course there was
the ‘war against terror’ in Afghanistan and Iraq. Almost as though we were re-watching the ridiculous
Rambo movies of old.
But here we are in 2024.
And again globalised war is the main international discourse of not only
global superpowers but also their proxies, surrogates or affiliates.
It may seem an abstract point, as far as we are from Global
North centres and here in the opposite Global South in Africa.
But we know what happens in the same said Global north or Global
east affects not only our trade, Diaspora remittances but also our local
politics.
What matters more is our perception of the same. Both historically and in the contemporary.
As Africans we have always been involved in wars that are
not ours. Especially between the west
or the east. Be it the first World War
or the second one, we ended up dying in lands/countries’ that were never going
to be ours. The only important lesson
that we learnt was that we also had to fight to liberate ourselves from
colonialism.
Now we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place as
Africans. We have witnessed and taken sides in wars that are not ours. Except for the Palestinian, Western Saharawi republics
we have not had a direct say in other globalised post-cold war conflicts. Be it in Ukraine, Myanmar or closer to home
in Libya, Haiti, Mali or Sudan.
What is more apparent is that we now need to see what’s
coming. And why. The world is faced with a colossal dangerous situation
in which it is on the brink of global war. Not just globalised as I have been referring
to in this article. But global, whether
we as Africans are complicit in it or not.
From Taiwan to China, Ukraine to Washington, Palestine to Israel, Syria
to Yemen or in West Africa.
The global superpowers that are the United States of
America, China, the European Union and Russia are at loggerheads that they make
it clear are not going to be easily resolved by their own diplomacy or the
internationally recognised channels of the United Nations.
We just should not get caught up in the mix of fights that are
not only not ours but those that have material (oil, gas) and racist overtones
to them.
Finally, even our great African luminary Kwame Nkrumah tried
to warn us in his famous statement,
“We face neither East or West. We face forward!” And indeed that is what we
should do. Face organically forward.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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