When the
first Gulf War occurred in 1990, there was limited satellite television access
for many a Southern African, let alone a Zimbabwean. I was in my last
year of primary school at that time and our headmistress, walked into the class
with a seriousness that we would only come to understand with the benefit of hindsight.
She pulled out a map of the world and pointed somewhere to what we now know as
the ‘Middle East’ and talked of something referred to as ‘nuclear war’.
Or at least the dangers of it and the potential ‘global apocalypse’ that would
occur.
Her
warning, for the age we were, obviously had a very religious tone. But she
did make mention of a ‘dangerous cloud’ that would move all the way from the
Middle East to where we were in Africa, killing everything in its wake.
It is a
primary school ‘lecture’ that always pops up in my mind whenever there is talk
of nuclear war or where nuclear powers are reportedly at loggerheads. Ditto the recent and hopefully subsiding
diplomatic rows and military threats between North Korea and the United States
of America.
They had
me in a silent panic. Not only because the leaders of the two nuclear countries
are reportedly erratic and prone to act on whim. But also because of the catastrophic
devastation to not only human but all forms of life that a war of that nature would bring on to the world.
Another thought that struck my silent panic mode was the
reality that the general imagined narrative where a monumental catastrophe occurs in the Global North, there is always the option of mass movement of survivors to, you
guessed it, the Global South or in some specific cases, Africa. It’s a narrative
that is found in some movies on climate change, where after massive flooding,
ships find themselves docking in some Africa port or the other. And in most cases Africa will have had a
minimal role in causing a specific climate crisis (this is also the reality,
Africa has a comparatively miniscule role in causing global climate change).
And again where we look at the current nuclear power impasse
and its consequences, Africa and African countries will be nowhere near trigger
‘red buttons’ or special codes and keys. In fact, it would be trite to note
that no single African country has a nuclear warhead. The last and probably
only country to have these was apartheid South Africa which got rid of them in
the run up to national independence in what some have described as controversial
circumstances. Suffice to say we have a non proliferation treaty to show for it.
I am glad no African country has these weapons, even if by
default or in keeping with the interests of global superpowers. Even if some will argue that having them may
keep liberal interventionists away, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is an
absolute ‘no-no’.
The key consideration however is that given the reasonable probability
that should a major man-made catastrophe such as nuclear war occur between the belligerent
USA (plus allies) and the even more stubborn North Korea (plus allies), there
would be an initial global trek southwards.
At least to where a liveable environment would still exist, even if
temporarily. This, I might add, is a point that has been raised by renowned
Australian journalist, John Pilger in one of his most recent articles.
This is why Africa has to talk back to the nuclear superpowers. And very loudly so about any threats of ‘fire and fury’ from the world’s holder of nuclear weapons.
Our talk back, in keeping with the progressive world would,
as we have always done, be calling for nuclear disarmament and
non-proliferation. But it would also be
diplomatically to say, we know what will happen to us and our people in the
event of nuclear war decimating cities and populations in the global
north. It would be a return to
occupation and depending on what of the superpowers remains, a return to
colonialism. Not as an option, but as a
life and death matter.
This is because in Africa’s placement in the world, we are
not negotiating hard enough to make our own interests and stance against
nuclear war patently clear. On paper and in practice. Sometimes to the extent of viewing or
thinking that its well-nigh impossible that there would be a nuclear war. Or
that it would only between those that have these dangerous weapons or those
that live in close proximity to them. In
extreme cases, I know and regrettably so, some colleagues who have viewed wars
(Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia) and threats of wars (even nuclear ones where this
is no winner) as though it were like watching a random American movie.
We must therefore deal our own hand before we are dealt
with. We need a united people centred voice that says no to nuclear war not only
because of its decimation of humanity but also because it is never going to be
in our best interests as Africans. Nor
have previous wars of global super/nuclear powers.
Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
