Mr dear friend,
A human dung is a human dung, whether it is laid in a golden bowl at a 
Hilton hotel near you or in a humble out-house somewhere in "darkest" 
Africa. By asking us to look at the big fat dung in "the west" before 
looking at our own backyard is not going to help. While Mr Mugabe must 
be commended  for his contribution to liberating Zimbabwe, and believe 
me even his  great nemisis Ian Smith or those in the current opposition  
acknowledged that, his current status as one who do not want to leave 
power cannot be ignored. And bytheway are we saying there are no 
Zimbabwean out there to lead the country if Mr. Mugabe is gone? Or is 
that the perception?  Another thing that gets drowned in this debate is 
the suggestion that black  Zimbabweans  ANYWHERE would give up their 
right to land taken away from them by settlers less than a century ago. 
I have never met a Zimbabwean who would and believe me I have met a 
few!  Mr Mugabe or no Mugabe the land issue will continue but perhaps 
under a  better person the transition will be much less painful.


Malanding


Lamin Darbo wrote:

>Kabir:
>   
>  Yours is a critically educative and interesting perspective.
>   
>  I continue to celebrate Mugabe's role in the fight against, and defeat of, white minority rule in Zimbabwe. He is the last of the great southern African liberators, that generation of fighters who made it to the very top in their various countries. Some of the others included Mandela of South Africa, Machel of Mozambique, Nujuma of South West Africa (Namibia), terrorists one and all, according to Thatcher and a succession of American presidents. 
>   
>  In a book on Africa's fifty years of independence, I read about Mugabe going to his mother and saying his goodbyes, telling her that he resolved to join the fighters in Mozambique, and that although he was not sure about surviving, he refused to live under white minority rule in Rhodesia. Unless we vainly search for purity in our political leaders, the man deserves celebration for helping end the tyranny of the minority in his homeland! The alternative was Bishop Musorewa and his ilk!
>   
>  Although currently of the view that he overstayed his useful years, I do not understand this to constitute any disagreement with your perspective. Even here, the dilemma must be whether any successor of Mugabe could muster the requisite clout in credibly resolving the land dispute that is interwoven with municipal white  brutality of epic proportions. 
>   
>  For the educated Zimbabwe watcher, the critical question is whether any credibility should be accorded the leaders of key anti-Mugabe countries like the USA, the UK, and Australia. In light of their own defacto domestic policies on race relations and equal opportunity, the answer has got to be negative. As their most testing assignment must be their individual and collective abilities to navigate the global scene, Africa's future leaders must open their eyes to the realities of international politics and its intersection with domestic race relations in so-called "key democracies". 
>   
>  On Zimbabwe, I do not think Africans should take lectures from the Anglo-Saxon tripartite of the USA, the UK, and Australia. This is not to say I do not wonder at the fantastic magic of the "rule of law" in these countries regarding matters touching on the white majority. We are simply incidental beneficiaries of the protection of the law, and even here the system routinely malfunctions with tragic consequences as in the case of  the "Jena Six". And in the area of mainstream economic opportunity, the non-Caucasian is generally excluded. 
>   
>  In a 2006 speech I gave on comparative "Rule of Law" to a Gambian group in the UK, please refer to the excerpt below:
>   
>  "For a dramatic demonstration of the rule of law in recent times, I suggest we foray into a systemic challenge to, and vindication of, the concept in the United States, that trail blazer jurisdiction of the all-encompassing principle of the sanctity of the human person. For the discernible student of modern international affairs - and we have many in this immediate audience and beyond - the United States stands for carnage and abuse. I accept the partial validity of any such observation, and for good measure, I readily concede that like our host nation, the United States stands legitimately accused of pervasive institutional racism against its non-Caucasian peoples. I am willing, at some future date, to discuss the institutional racism clearly prevalent in the United States, and the United Kingdom, in particular, and western liberal democracies, in general, but for present purposes, I am happy to confine my excitement to dilating on the critical significance of  the rule
> of law  in public life."
>   
>  I urge you to relentlessly continue your crusade for Pan African consciousness in that  political Gambia must be educated about its salvation not residing in the British gathering of the Commonwealth of Nations, or the global gathering at the imperialist instrumentality of the United Nations, not to mention the Arab gathering at the Islamic Conference.
>   
>  I agree that we must unshackle our minds, and thank you for your perspective!
>   
>   
>   
>   
>   
>  LJDarbo
>   
>   
>  
>

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