INSPIRATION ON THE WAY
Friday 27th 2008 marked the celebration of 90th Birthday of Nelson Madiba Mandela, which will be on July 18th. His well known track record of exemplary leadership set the pace for African democracies. One might assume that he stepped down too early from his rule of South Africa. This is why everyone looks up at the Nobel Peace Prize winner with awe. Even after 21 years in prison due to his active involvement in the anti-apartheid movement, he knew when to step down and leave his legacy at the prime of his life. We might also argue that he is still at the prime of his life judging form the elaborate power that the celebration of his birthday, which was held in London, emanates on world renowned artists. His wife, the multi-lingual, women and children rights advocate, Graca Machel is considered one of the strong women of Africa. I didn’t catch the celebration from the beginning on Channel 1 but I watched the awesome end of show performances from 5-time Grammy Award winner Amy Whinehouse, Ragga artist Bebe Cool of Uganda, legendary rock band Queen, Paul Rodgers and Bono.
Bebe Cool lifted Ugandan music on the world arena by hyping up an English audience, who knew very little about him. He began by kneeling down and honoring the crowd and praising the life Madiba in a tradition he said was true to Ugandan culture. He grabbed their attention by bringing them to Africa with ear bursting African drums and then proceeded to urge the African leaders to wake up to the icon fondly known Madiba (oh, yeah. I can’t mention enough of Africa because his song went on to praise our continent). He stirred hearts by mentioning what went on in Kenya and what’s currently happening in Zimbabwe. Judging from the crowd reaction, he left his mark on an international stage attended by thousands and watched by millions around the world.
Despite all the bad press about her, Amy Whinehouse continues to be a world class live singer. She upped the crowd to its feet even before she stepped on stage. Although her initial notes were shaky due to technical hitches, she stepped up to her earth shaking edgy ‘60s vocals and timid gestures of pulling her trademark short dresses. Queen ended the show with a classic rock performance that reminded me why attending a major rock concert is one of my goals in life. And by “major” I mean a top international rock band, mega live sound and a stadium of thousands.
Madiba grabs headlines every time he speaks and he recently lent his very negative perception of the illegitimate President of Zimbabwe. After all, he lost the initial general elections. He was once mentioned in the same breathe as Haile Selassie, Kwame Nkrumah or Jomo Kenyatta. Now Robert Mugabe has turned into the horned dictator of a people in desperate need of liberation. Zimbabwe has diminished to one of the (if not the worst) worst economies of the world. 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars is approximately equal to 1 US Cent, an inflation rate of 2million percent and a land of poor millionaires. Those are some of the phrases used to describe the poorest rich nation. Zimbabwe is abundant with minerals such as diamond and coal yet the nation has been brought down to its knees by President Mugabe. This story is too much of a cliché in the motherland.
Meanwhile, the African Union is still sitting back on its laurels to say the least. The fact that they waited this long to extend a merely poking finger to Mugabe’s rule is proof that they are a toothless dog. The man at the centre of this appalling diplomatic mess is South African president Thabo Mbeki who is barely scratching Mugabe’s iron clad skin in the name of opposing his oppressive regime. It was just a weeks ago that we saw the xenophobic attacks on fellow brothers and sisters in South Africa. No matter what we think, what happens in Zimbabwe affects all of us. We must protest via all avenues possible, arcct, wordplay, street marches etc even while our more well positioned leaders prove to be inactive in their roles. We could even see how our foreign minister never openly criticized SA for not doing enough to mitigate the attacks on Kenyan citizens living in South Africa. This simply proves the butterfly effect i.e. one butterfly flapping its wings in the southern hemisphere of the world might indirectly be connected to a typhoon in the northern hemisphere.
It has come to the level that SADC (Southern African Development Committee) has proved to be exactly that just a committee (formed to waste time in the name of finding a solution that is already known to the people). You just need to follow the history of Kenyan investigative committees to see this.
We are a few steps to doom if this is the attitude our cream of leadership takes towards a regime that belongs to the gnashing of teeth in hell. Mugabe is a murderer of his own people. The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai can only do so much despite marginally winning the first elections, which led to a run-off. The run-offs took place without his candidacy since Mugabe took advantage of the time in between to intimidate and kill allies and supporters of Tsvangirai. What we see is a man who seems to be wondering whether he is the only African leader who wants to act against Mugabe. Real action, not sanctions that will only further starve the Zimbabwean people, is what we need. We innovative solutions from Africa, is there inspiration on the way?
