Why I laughed when Mugabe fell

via Why I laughed when Mugabe fell – The Zimbabwean 11 February 2015 by Jera

After his usual bluster on the podium at the Harare International airport, Robert Mugabe tumbled – right beneath the stunned gaze of his rented crowd. His henchmen showed greater speed in ordering the journalists to delete photographs of the fall than they did in assisting the geriatric president back to his feet.

But gone are the days of black and white photographs when pulling out the film was sufficient to prevent an embarrassing photograph from making it onto the front page of the newspaper.

Thanks to digital technology, some of the images still made their way past the goons and Mugabe’s camp failed to conceal the truth as they have done over the last 35 years. These are the same people who managed to conceal Gukurahundi for years and hid the existence of Mugabe’s then mistress, Grace, and two whole children, Bona and Robert Jnr.

Social media went into a frenzy, with a flurry of photos showing the long-time dictator in a position to which Zimbabwe has become accustomed – which is down on our knees. The more creative bloggers tweaked the images, showing Mugabe in various poses, from a photo finish with Usain Bolt to some neck-breaking moves on a surf board. To anyone who knows very little about Mugabe, it might seem strange that the world rolled in laughter at the fall of a senior citizen.

A few puritans rebuked those who laughed, quoting scripture and verses about children who laugh at fallen elders. Mugabe’s chief spin man, Jonathan Moyo – who as far as we know is the ‘devil incarnate’ – blasphemously said ‘even Jesus’ would have tripped under the circumstances.