Joe Biden's Departure and Africa

I hold no brief for the politics of the United States of America (USA).  Though I always have a keen interest in what transpires there politically. 

This is mainly because of that country’s cultural hegemony not only in Africa but also across the rest of the world. 

It is an empire since the end of the Second World War in 1945.  It dominates many cultural spheres of perceptions of existence and therefore is always in the limelight about its own internal political, cultural and econcomic events. 

Never mind the fact that its national currency transcends borders in relation to its wealth recognition and retention value for many of us in the global south. 

So it is important to talk about the USA and whatever happens within it. In the contemporary as in the past.

Its wars of aggression and its dominance in the economic sphere of global human existence. 

But to be quick to the point.  The current American president, Joe Biden recently announced he is no no longer seeking re-election for a second term in the same capacity.  

This was after an arduous and drawn out process in which he was reported in the mainstream media and circles of his own Democratic party as being either too old or incoherent to run the most powerful country in the world. 

What has been happening since his announcement and endorsement of his own deputy president Kamaala Harris as a presidential candidate nominee, has been interesting to watch from an African lense.

Mainly because the USA’s cultural dominance over Africa is self evident in the cultural products we consume and the mimicry of specific lifestyles as evidence of material arrival. 

Even if they are not considered the same in their place of origin.  This in many forms. From music, through to fashion and internet/social media mediated memes.

The key political question however for many an African is that should it matter that USA president Joe Biden has decided not to run for a second term in office.  Even if reportedly reluctantly so?

The most basic answer is that yes it matters because USA foreign policy is the sine qua non of global relations.  Even if now it is counter-challenged by that of China and Russia as if we were back to the Cold War period. 

But it remains imperative that as Africans we watch and know what is happening in the USA in order to not only understand our placement in global international relations but also try and glean lessons from not only the internal political dynamics of the USA but also how they play out globally. 

Joe Biden’s political departure from the presidency (not necessarily the reduction of his own personal influence on his chosen successor) is probably unprecedented in USA presidential electoral history. 

Three key issues emerge in this conundrum of North American politics. 

The first being the fact that his immediate rival, Donald Trump is not only a convicted felon but  also a close equivalent of an ‘age-mate’ who wants to get a second bite of the presidential cherry.  Thy are quite literally age mates, but one was accusing the other of senility. 

In Africa, sadly, age is almost considered an ideology.  Your age is supposed to make you eligible for political office, which in reality is a political fallacy. 

But the establishment in for example the USA choses not age but ideological prevalence and agreement as the key priority for leadership.  Hence Biden’s departure from office come November 2024.

The second key point from an African perspective is the fact of Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate.  As a person of colour, it would be easy to say we support her through and through.  The reality of the matter is that she would not change USA foreign policy in the immediate.  

Nor would she have the power to do so even if she wished it.  She is a product of her time and politics.  From the Ukraine-Russian war through to the Israeli genocide in Palestine, there is not much ‘change’ she would either represent or implement.

For lack of a better phrase, she represents the epitome of ‘celebrity politics’.  But it is what it is. 

The third point about this Biden decision not to run for a second term relates to the fact of Donald Trump.  Which is also linked to celebrity capitalist politics.  That is a politics of cultural, economic and consumerist impressionability.   

I regrettably know many black African colleagues who admire Trump.  Most of whom assume that to be some sort of cut throat businessman is a CV for a good political career.  Including the possibility of becoming a president of a country like Zimbabwe.

This is a false assumption about Zimbabwe’s political realities. But sadly it prevails. 

 Entrepreneurship ala carte Trump is assumed to be a key to political success in a country that originally waged a leftist liberation struggle against imperialism and colonialism.  

And now has to wage one against World Bank and International Monetary Fund sponsored neoliberalism.

But back to the key point, the resignation of Joe Biden from the most powerful presidential position in the world, for now, is not a laughing matter.  It is a reflection of the fact of a changing USA. 

One in which assumptions of age, race, political correctness and ideological ambiguity take centere stage for an elitist continuity of global control of specific neoliberal narratives. 

We could argue that the centre cannot hold.  What is apparent with Joe Biden’s move is that the centre is trying to hold.  And a decent majority in Africa, save for newfound West African Pan Africanism, will probably hang on its coattails. 

The reality of the matter is that USA foreign policy in Africa never changes,  Ever since the Cold War.  

Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangzha.blogpspot.com)

Aftermath UEFA 2024: Spain, Europe, Africa and the Graveyard Mediterranean Sea.

By Takura Zhangazha*

The UEFA 2024 tournament recently held in Germany is now over. The Kingdom of Spain (Espana) are the new European champions.  They won it in what many sports pundits referred to as an admirable and entertaining style, not only against their eventual finalist rivals England but generally throughout the tournament. 

Most colleagues and friends I would interact with about this tournament were avid England supporters.  

Mainly because they are also fans of the English Premier League (EPL) and their favourite players that were also in that country’s national side. 

Others were somewhat nonchalant.  They just wanted to enjoy what they referred to as good football.

From the many competing teams which sometimes included Spain, Netherlands and Germany in random order.  And depending on the game they were watching, interested in or in some cases placed speculative bets on.
But truth be said, it was a decently exciting tournament for many Zimbabwean and African soccer fans. 

I mention the national or continental locations of the fans because I can only debate my next points on that basis. That of being a Zimbabwean and an African fan of the beautiful game that is global football. Even with all its inequalities and controversies around race, colour and class.

 
My particular interest in the tournament was accentuated by the Spanish team at this UEFA 2024.  While it had not generally been expected to do well in the tournament because of either its youthfulness or the fact that it did not have the usual big name and game stars as of old, it managed to reach the finals undefeated in all of its seven (7) games. 

From its very impressive team two young players of colour stood out as the tournament progressed.

 And as most football fans in Zimbabwe and Africa will know these were Nico Williams and Yamine Yamal. 

They are both Spanish players of African origin with their own unique stories of their parents’ emigration to Spain to tell. 

With Nico Williams being particularly unique because his parents are emigrants that crossed from the Spanish enclave in North Africa, Melilla, via the graveyard Sahara desert and the callous/ evil/ slave trade like Mediterranean Sea. 

Yamal on the other hand is said to have a mother from Equatorial Guinea and a father from Morocco.

Now you may ask so what does this have to do with football, since most of us view the game as mere entertainment?

In the global scheme of things, the fact that these young emerging football stars Williams and Yamal (also at a global level) are the children of emigrants to Spain is an important point in how the issue of immigration is being handled not only in their country of birth but also in the broader European Union (including with the Brexiters in the United Kingdom)

But even more importantly the contradictions between the pride that their host country is showing to their sporting prowess while at the same time having even across Europe  the equivalent of a ‘turn back the boats’ policy in the Mediterranean sea.  Or the English channel. 

I am sure this issue may not directly matter to either of them or even other soccer star children of emigrants across various leagues in Europe or North America who get their due recognition for their talent. 

But this does not change the contradictions and borderline hypocrisy of playing for countries that are increasingly right wing, racist and anti-immigration. 

Now when I posted about this on social media accounts that I do not own but use for free expression, a decent number of African colleagues asked about why we have Africans leaving the continent and dying in the Mediterranean in the first place. 

Others were a little bit more brazen blaming African failures whether via political leaders or even hinting at their own inferiority complexes about how Europe is almost always the best place to either be or to have a modicum of material success.  Even through sport. 

It was like an almost ‘sort yourselves out in Africa’ to stop the emigration of young families.   I did not ask how they thought that we should, as Africans ‘sort ourselves out’  But the tone and approach was clearly that we should mimic the global north (Europe and North America). 

The only problem is that historically, colonially, neo-colonially and neo-liberally the global economic system will not allow us to do that without being subservient to either international capital as in its current fiat state.  Nor will a majority of the people in the global north accept us as equals given their newfound majority rightwing and racist voting patterns. 

Except perhaps as with the case of the Euro 2024 final tournament, when it comes to sport.  And this probably not just for football.  We are going to see the same trend at the Paris Olympics 2024 that also begin later on this month.

So yes, congratulations to Spain.  Even greater congratulations to their nascent superstars Williams and Yamal together with their parents, their team mates.

   
But as Africans we need to understand the contradictions of sport and mainstream racism in those societies that we most admire to either be a part of or to be recognized by. 

And the fact that despite our own conflicts on the African continent, and even our desires to emigrate to wherever and by many modes of transport, including in our naivety being smuggled, we should not be dying or being made to die like slaves in the Mediterranean sea. 
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com )

Conversations With Zimbabwe’s National Liberation War Veterans. In Passing

By Takura Zhangazha*

I have had an awkward relationship with War Veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. Sometimes in conversations with them, I feel the pain of what they experienced.  From Chimoio, Nyadzonia, through to Mavonde.  

 
I always ask myself if I would have had the courage to take to arms for my country.

I also ask myself if I would have had the courage to understand that a left leaning  labour backed movement had decided that there is also an alternative to what Zimbabwe can be.

But back to war veterans of what was a protracted liberation struggle. 

Like I said I enjoy having conversations with them. Moreso when they outline not only their personal engagements in battle but also when they explain their own dissapointments as to how the struggle turned out. 

  
I always jockingly argue with them that I do not like War Veteran comrades.

  Mainly because when I was really close to cde Dzinashe Machingura and Cde Freedom Nyamubaya, it really hurt when I had to be part of how they were buried.

But this does not change the fact of the importance of the fact that we must respect our own war veterans.  Even as we allege that they were were involved in atrocities in not only 2008 but also as serving members of the military and police during what is now referred to as the Gukurahundi years. 

But I laugh out loud at the fact that I have many Zimbabwean War Veteran friends.   And I am not shy about it.  My  only gripe is the fact that there are to many to always remember and probably bury.

A number of us forget that Zimbabwe came via a liberation struggle.  And it was not easy to fight a guerilla war.  In most instances, those that chose to go to war. Against Rhodesian and British imperialism, chose the high road of sovereignty and independence. 
But these may appear to be abstract observations. 

The key point I would like to make is that we do not respect our War Veterans enough. 
We watch many movies about people fighting in the second world war.  Others in in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Libya and we imagine that there are specific harbingers of war and force globally that are based in the global north. 

In reality, and with history and memory we are reminded of our own arduous struggles’ against imperialism and colonialism.  Particularly as Africans.

It is however awkward to have to remind Zimbabwean comrades that we fought a liberation struggle to free ourselves.
History cannot and should never be wished away.

But lets go back to the key  point about being a friend to War Veterans.  I have a brother who was a war veteran.  

His name was Cde Tito.  He is buried at Harare’s provincial heroes acre.  He fought in the liberation struggle.

I have another brother Kenny Zhangazha, who is also a war veteran.  He is still alive. 

But the issue is why would I ask about his struggle history?  There are those that I meet and ask where they were.  I will not mention their names. But indeed they mention Chimoio, Mavonde and Nyadzonyia.

And in any event it remains abstract.  I am an avid believer in war veterans.  By this, to be clear, I mean people who fought for the freedom of Zimbabwe.  Whatever they did after our national independence in 1980 is their business to discuss. 

What I know is that there was a liberation struggle waged. It produced independence however ambiguous it became.  But in reality we became free.

As a general rule, I do not question war veterans of Zimbabwes liberation  struggle.  No matter how you spin it.  These are cdes who fought a protracted war for national liberation in different respects and different areas. And these are cdes who eventually won the war.

If anyone is a genuine war veteran.  A cde who fought in the struggle, I will always listen to whatever they say,  even if I disagree with it.  I have never faced death for freedom.  I just do not want to continue to have war veterans as my friends.

It was cde Dzino.  Then it was cde Freedom.  And some of their key cdes were not there.   It hurts me deeply.  But it is what it is. 
It is an abstract observation. 
But I am worried about how many War Veterans I have buried.  And what I had to say at Dzinashe Machingura’s funeral. 

Why do #Zimbabweans Pray So Much?

By Takura Zhangazha*

A friend warned me about writing on religion. His argument was that you cannot win against it.  Be it Christian, Muslim or African tradition in preferential populist order. 
I thought about this for a while.  And with my basic secular perception of Zimbabwean and Southern African society I realized that indeed our Gods or perceptions of the same will always matter in our lifetimes. 

This is because there are many angles to religion.   With most of these angles of perceptions being related to our births or our deaths. 

At the same time, in the same instance, my friend asked me, why does religion matter so much for us in Africa. 

I wanted to reply that in our context it is the legacy of colonialism that makes, for example, Jesus a colossus in our lives.   

I also wanted to explain that it is our mothers, wives and sisters that remain the beating heart of our religious consciousness.  The latter for the fact of not only how they were brought up. But also because of colonial practices of what was then referred to as ‘cleanliness’. 
The emergent question however is why do Zimbabweans pray so much? 

It is a rarely asked question.

Midnight prayers, so called pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Christian rock bands in the middle of the night, consultations with various prophets or na’ngas and the recognition of Friday prayers for Allah. 
Zimbabweans are a very prayerful people.  For many pragmatic reasons.

The foremost being the fact of our desire for belonging beyond the state. That is to create meaning out of our own existence beyond the fact of waking up and going to the toilet or the risk of going to jail. 

We pray to belong and to be.  If the church did not exist we would not have either that social circle of friends nor that elder/priest who assuages our social and in part life/mortality fears.

The primary challenge however emerges with the emergence of assumptions of politics and religion being combined elelements for individuals to assume they are Godsent.
And cdes reading the bible as a convenient political manifesto. Almost as though they want to instrumentalise it for political and economic capital as most have done in the last four years.  Be they pastors or politicians.

I probably need to make it clear.  I have no problems with the freedom of worship and religion that we all share in Zimbabwe.  Even in naivety and the fact that it may give your life a new meaning.  Either via a prophet or traditional healer. 

What astounds me though is the general religious naivety with which we approach our everday existence. 

We assume there is a witch or wizard that is affecting our lack of adequate wealth.  We also assume that there is a person who is working with some prophet or traditional medicine to prevent us from becoming rich like those that live the former white suburbs. 
Religion is integral to how Zimbabweans view themselves.  

A majority of us were brought up as Christians and in admiration of a white image of Jesus. This is a cultural and by default spiritual reality.

What we have to understand in our prayerfulness is that there is a political economy to religion.  Both historically and in the present.  The mainstream churches are not established by faith.  

They are established by an accompanying historical and repressive colonialism. 
The newer Pentecostals ones are established on the back of the global cultural imperialist project of not only the CIA but also an assumption of black people’s inferiority complexes. 

That’s why we have so many of these new pastors demonstrating not only faith but also their wealth. And a definitively white Jesus. While claiming to be the way the truth and the light on his behalf.

The big issue is relatively abstract.  Karl Marx was correct when he said “ religion is the opium of the masses.”  In Zimbabwe’s case, it is not the opium, as it were.  It is the false reality deliberately, in part organically imposed on the masses 

.For what is clearly political convenience.    Wherein fake assumptions of wealth and wealth generation are pushed out by people who do not understand the harsh reality that is neoliberalism. 

Educated or uneducated.  And on this I revert to Kwame Nkrumah who taught us that if you educate an African Woman You liberate an African Nation” .   We do not have as may progressive female cdes as we had before.  Moreso because they have found ideological homes in Jesus. 

 But religion is part of our everyday social fabric.  Even when you don’t mean it to be at a personal level, you will inevitably encounter it. 
That is why Zimbabweans pray so much.  It is by default.  Almost like you have no historical, contemporary or future option.  But to pray. Insh Allah.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)

Writing on Class and Class Struggle in #Zimbabwe

By Takura Zhangazha*

I once took a flight to South Africa from what was then referred to as Harare International Airport around 2013.  As always, I was used to flying in and out of that country because there is a morning flight and an evening one that made one able to meet and do the necessary meetings in at least eight hours. 

At the airport, I met two long standing colleagues from our student struggle days.  Make no mistake, we were happy to catch up and ask after our stations  in life, family as well as the situation in the country at that time.  This was in the departure lounge of the airport terminal at what is now Robert Mugabe International Airport. 

When the boarding time of the flight was announced on the intercom, we all headed toward the departure gate.  Upon boarding the aeroplane, I assumed all of us, as comrades would go to the usual economy class.  Mainly because there is always a long line with preferential treatment for those that are in first class.

So we all had our carry on bags and I was doing what I considered a twelve hour return trip so I was very happy to be put at the back of the airplane.  What I did not know is that my cdes had a long haul flight to Senegal connecting from Johannesburg to Dakar, Senegal. 

As we walked into the airplane, my colleagues were in front of me, and in my simplistic anticipation, I thought we were going together to what we know as ‘economy class’.  Lo and behold, they started stacking their bags into the Business Class’ overhead lockers and sat comfortably in the bigger and more comfortable seats. 

I was slightly astonished but I understood.  They probably had more flying miles and had been upgraded by the airline.  A development which turned out to be ambiguous.

So I waddled to economy class with a number of questions.  The most obvious being the fact of how an aeroplane is economically segregatory.  

Not only because of the fact that when an aeroplane goes down, it goes down with everyone no matter which class you are in but also how it reflects general inequality in African society.   Both internally and externally. 

My friends in business class had forks, knives, champagne all the way to Johannesburg and we had the plastic cups and red wine.  When we arrived at Oliver Tambo International Airport, they got off first from the bus.  Never mind the fact of us arriving at the passport control office together.  Eventually.

As my colleagues went on to their forward journey I reflected on a number of things. 
The first was the meaning of class as represented by airlines and society in Africa.  In this, the key question was, at least in my mind, so who determines class on an airplane?  Who determines generic class in Africa?

I realized that we were blurring class with material desire.   Cdes that would not normally take a flight to for example Cape Town are trying their hardest to prove either to their immediate families that they can do it, even on a US$500 salary.  They would sooner go broke trying. 

 A personal friend in the aviation business, particularly travel agencies explained that everything is based on the frequency of your personal travel.  And your own desire to be recognized as a frequent airplane traveler. 
Or even in some cases the number of pictures you take next to an airline/ aeroplane if you are considered an ‘influencer”. 

The metaphoric meaning of this foregoing explanation relates to the fact of class in Southern Africa.  And the fact that it is being blurred. 

In order to simplify it, Southern Africa is a class based society.  Regionally and historically. From the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WINELA) through to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and finally through to the fact of Rhodesia itself.   
Many of us as black Africans were laborers.  A majority of us have remained migratorily so.  Even in 2024.  But we desire more.  In an economic system that will perpetually allow it. 

Hence a decent number of us think our political ambitions should match our economic and lifestyle desires.  As designed by the global north. Where we prove our material success but evidence of comparative material well being.

The contradictory point is the fact that we all want to be equal in a society in which equality is not expected let lone anticipated.  By ourselves.

 Everything appears to be a breakthrough moment no matter your education or historical arrival narrative. 

Again this is another complicated point to make.  And I may slow it down a bit. 

 Unfortunately we were taught to have inferiority complexes.  To admire not only white but Western commercial lifestyles’ and religiosity  as either suited a new modernization of the black African or abstract generalizations of the same.

We fought liberation struggles against colonialism but forgot to revert to Biko, Nkrumah, Nyerere, Cabral and Fanon. Not for the casualness of their names. But  for their organic reach to our being in the 21st century and beyond. 

What it means is that we have to return to the source of our consciousness.  As hard as this may be.

Now I am student of Amilcar Cabral.  Moreso when he wrote and said,  “No matter how hot your water it will not boil your rice” as he advised us.  And here I am only quoting him lightly.

What I do know is that we need a new Pan African perspective and narrative  that recognizes not only history, the present and the latter’s future beyond electoral politics.   

Where we learn to combine the three, we will have generational praxis. 
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)