I have only been to Kigali, Rwanda, once. I was impressed by
its cleanliness. I was slightly traumatized,
by seeing soldiers with FN rifles on various street corners after dusk. Its for security they said. I felt, though I really couldn’t say it out loud, that this is probably a reflection of who has power in this country.
And so when the Zimbabwean government invited the chief executive of the Rwanda Development
Board (RDB), I raised an eyebrow. Apart
from the fact Rwanda currently chairs the African Union (AU) Assembly and
recently hosted its meeting there, I am very curious as to the new found and
apparently enthusiastic relationship between our two governments.
Rwanda, the country, is one that is now regarded as an African ‘miracle’. From the international
tragedy and crime against humanity that was the genocide in the 1990s it has
arguably come to be regarded as a role model, not of democracy, but free market
economics.
I know the latter point will startle some of my colleagues in the blogosphere who are very supportive
of not only Rwanda as an African role model country but also in awe of its long
serving leader Paul Kagame.
The international community, particularly the Global North
and East through their various governments also hold Rwanda and its ‘strongman’
leadership of an ‘entrepreneurial state’ in high esteem. Not just because of the controversy of their
arguable complicity (the United Nations included) in that country’s tragic genocide.
But more significantly because of its embrace of neoliberalism or the free
market.
For them it remains a stellar African (country) example of
how to rise from the ashes of the equivalent of a national holocaust to being a
model free market economy/country. Never
mind concerns about the abuse of human rights and the detention of opposition presidential
candidate Dianne Shima Rwigara.
And this is why our ‘new dispensation/era’ Zimbabwean government leaders are latching on
to Rwanda. They want to be part of that country’s
story not only by way of economic policy deeds but also political action. That is to say, to be immune from political criticism
in the name of running what global capital would consider, for now, an ‘efficient
free market economy’.
But behind this shared ‘spirit of entrepreneurship’ is also
a firm shared understanding about the retention of political power. Though this will never be publicly announced
by either governments. What obtains
behind the scenes is an assumption of the significance of ‘strongman leadership’ in order to retain the necessary political
power that enables free market economic policies. And this with the support of global superpowers
and global capital.
It would however be instructive to recall the political character
of both ruling parties in the two countries.
They both have a strong if not organic military background. Their party leaders, Mnangagwa and
Kagame, are former freedom
fighters. One from the liberation
struggle for independence, the other from a post-independence struggle for ‘democracy’. And both believe the military to be integral
to political power, i.e, they are advocates of a re-emerging military-political
complex in Africa. In aide of free
market economics or the expansion of global capital.
So context matters in seeking to understand the relationship
that Zimbabwe and Rwanda are trying to re-define. This is apart from the fact that we were protagonists
during the first major regional inter-country war since the end of colonialism
in Southern and Central Africa in 1997 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC). It would appear we have made ‘business
peace’ and are letting bygones become bygones.
For now.
So we would be correct as Zimbabweans and Rwandese to look
behind the curtain of our newfound governmental friendship. And ask about its basic values beyond the
dictum of international relations studies of ‘no permanent friends but
permanent interests’. We must query the military-political complex
that informs it and its specific intent at long duree hold on political power to
not only promote neoliberalism but also by default, personal/political aggrandizement.
It would follow that in the short term, after the visit by
the RDB executives (who it turns out report to that country’s cabinet), there
shall be a state visit by either of the presidents to our respective countries. Again, this will raise some eyebrows
especially south of the Limpopo river, but new era’s tend to be fraught with attempts
at deceiving the people as to their motivation.
This is the beginning of a shared ‘spirit of
entrepreneurship’ by former military but now political strongmen. With the support of global capital. And truth be told, we should be more worried
than we accept it as the norm. While at the same time remembering political
prisoners/victims of state repression.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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