Prison torment of the Zimbabwe farm
hero Christina Lamb, Harare
WHEN the
England cricket team take to the pitch today at Harare cricket club, one
Zimbabwean who definitely will not be watching is Heather
Bennett. Her husband Roy, 47, a white MP and hero to
thousands of black Zimbabweans, recently began a year's hard labour in
Harare's notorious Central jail, just a few miles from the club. His crime:
pushing Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister, who had insulted his
family.
"Roy was appalled last year when the England
cricket team were due to come, asking how could they when so many
Zimbabweans were being persecuted, tortured and wrongly thrown into jail,"
said his wife. "Now he's one of them."
Parliament voted
last month to jail Bennett, one of three white MPs from the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), even though he offered a fulsome
apology. He had lost his temper after Chinamasa called his father and
grandfather "thieves and murderers" and told him that he would never be
allowed back to his farm.
Seeing your husband imprisoned in a
country with one of the world's worst human rights records is bad enough.
But over the past four years Heather Bennett has also been abducted at
knifepoint and miscarried a baby. The couple have lost their property and
been repeatedly threatened, their workers have been brutalised and raped.
Last April the military drove them off their farm.
This
week the couple should have been celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary.
Instead Bennett is crammed with 17 other prisoners in a cell meant for four.
His wife, 42, who runs a pottery in Harare, will be in a rented house with
Casey, their 17-year-old daughter. She is allowed to see her husband for
only 10 minutes a fortnight.
"I couldn't believe it when I
saw him last week," she said. "He looked terrible - completely sunburnt from
the hard labour - and the lice are unbelievable. Roy told me it's more
horrific than you can ever imagine, really filthy. It's full of TB and
meningitis, which I am worried he will catch."
She spoke
amid growing criticism of the England tour, which was delayed last week
after Robert Mugabe's regime initially barred 13 cricket correspondents -
including Simon Wilde of The Sunday Times - from entering the
country.
David Morgan, chairman of the England and Wales
Cricket Board, said the start of today's match would bring "closure". But
Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the MDC, warned that Mugabe would use
the tour for propaganda purposes.
"They will say, 'See,
the English can come and play cricket and go away unharmed. Things are
normal'."
Michael Vaughan, the England captain, said
yesterday his players would not be expected to shake hands with Zimbabwean
government officials.
This would be small consolation to
Bennett. The prisoners in Central jail, where he began his sentence, sleep
with just one blanket on concrete floors. They receive half a cup of gruel
and cabbage stew twice a day. The only items his wife has been allowed to
give him on her visits have been a bar of soap, toothpaste, petroleum jelly
and six apples. He has not been allowed any post.
Last
Friday, without warning, she was informed that he had been moved to a jail
in Mutoko, two hours east of Harare, where conditions are said to be even
worse.
Bennett's real crime seems to have been that he is the
only white farmer in parliament and constantly stood up against the abuses
of the Mugabe regime, despite beatings, arrests and
threats.
A former police officer whose English grandfather
settled in what was then Rhodesia, Bennett bought a coffee farm in the
Chimanimani hills in 1994.
Cricket: England 'pay not to
play' SIMON WILDE IN HARARE The ECB is prepared to
dig into its pockets to avoid another farcical confrontation with Robert
Mugabe's regime
England's stance over the Zimbabwe
crisis hardened yesterday. They are planning to offer compensation to
Zimbabwe's cricket board rather than make another tour of the country while
Robert Mugabe is in power, and they will immediately abandon the current
series of four one-day matches if the Zimbabwean president or any members of
his government turn up at the games, the first of which is in Harare
today. It is understood that the players will simply walk from
the field and end the tour if Mugabe arrives, on the basis that his presence
would breach one of several confidential guarantees given to the team by the
Zimbabwean authorities before the players left home. England were assured
that no attempt would be made to politicise the tour; Mugabe's presence
would be viewed as doing just that.
The team will
also pull out if members of the media are harassed or if any spectators
attempting peaceful demonstrations inside or outside the ground are
arrested. There were 80 arrests when spectators demonstrated at three World
Cup matches in Bulawayo last year. Many were held in inhumane conditions for
several days and were severely beaten before being fined and
released.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is
desperate to avoid another public- relations disaster on the scale of the
current one. It is understood to be looking at offering compensation to
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) rather than undertake another tour of the country.
Under the International Cricket Council's (ICC) tour programme, England are
obliged to play a Test series there some time within the next few
years.
That England have no intention of touring again until
Mugabe is gone was plain from the comments on Friday of ECB chairman David
Morgan about this tour bringing about "closure" to the Zimbabwe
affair.
England recently began building up reserve funds in
case compensation is required for a failure to fulfil fixtures under the ICC
tour programme.
Zimbabwe would undoubtedly claim a
substantial loss in revenue from the scrapping of what would probably be two
Tests, but their national team is so weak that their matches arouse little
interest from broadcasters or sponsors. The figure would probably be well
under £2m - a loss the ECB could certainly sustain.
However, a possible stumbling block is that ZC, which has close ties to the
government, is not as short of funds as some reports suggest, and it would
much prefer to stage the matches, if only to show the world that it can
still host international events.
It has also emerged that the
Australian umpire Darrell Hair, a member of the ICC's international panel
due to stand in the second game on Wednesday, has told the ICC that he does
not want to officiate in matches in Zimbabwe again.
Yesterday, after the team underwent its first full practice session in four
days at the Harare Sports Club, Michael Vaughan, the captain, sought
confirmation from Morgan that the team would not be put in a position to
meet government ministers.
"It was made clear before the
tour, and I've just had confirmation from David Morgan, that the team will
not be put in the position to shake any government member's hand," Vaughan
said. "The (future of the) tour will be really looked at if something like
that happens. We have a plan, but I can't say what that
is."
Mugabe's principal residence is next to the Harare
Sports Club, where England play matches today and
Wednesday.
The tour is deeply unpopular with the public and
with England's players, one of whom, Steve Harmison, refused to come. It was
almost abandoned last week when Zimbabwe refused to accredit 13 journalists
from organisations including The Sunday Times, a clear breach of a guarantee
regarding treatment of the media.
England said the tour
would be off unless there was "significant movement" towards the
journalists' reinstatement. The Zimbabwean government then backed down. An
ECB official confirmed that England would have abandoned the tour unless all
13 were accredited.
Vaughan was clearly disappointed that the
tour was mired in fresh controversy even before it had begun.
Banned, unbanned: when sports hacks get caught in the
crossfire
Cricket writers sent to cover England's tour of Zimbabwe knew
they weren't just dealing with matters on the pitch. But little did they
expect to find themselves at the centre of the storm By Donald
Trelford 28 November 2004
It was us wot won it. Or that is how the
media chose to present the drama over England's on-off-on cricket tour of
Zimbabwe.
After months of anguished breast-beating, President Robert
Mugabe's ban on the entry of 13 British journalists at last produced a
decisive and apparently principled reaction - the players said no and the
beleaguered chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), David
Morgan, persuaded the Zimbabwe government to do something it had never been
known to do before: to change its mind in the direction of press freedom. As
one headline put it, "Player power forces U-turn".
Except, of course,
that it wasn't a bit like that. Press freedom had nothing to with the
England players' reaction. Had that been the case, they would have reacted
earlier to Mugabe's closure of newspapers and jailing of editors. No, their
concern was that the media would not be reporting them - and the effect this
would have on the economics of the tour. To quote captain Michael Vaughan:
"Through giving the game exposure, and with TV rights, they bring the game
60 per cent of its income."
When Richard Bevan, chief executive of the
Professional Cricketers' Association, and John Carr, cricket operations
director of the ECB, went before the cameras in Thursday's dramatic press
conference in Johannesburg, they stressed their serious concerns over safety
and security - the safety and security of the England players and officials,
that is, not the safety and security of the terrorised people of
Zimbabwe.
As for Morgan, why did he seek to overturn the ban? Here was a
long-awaited opportunity to cancel the tour without any blame. The players,
who never wanted to go, saw that immediately, but their benighted officials
blundered on and let Mugabe off the hook.
Morgan didn't do anything
as heroic as fight or even threaten the Zimbabwe authorities: he simply
pleaded with them, as he had earlier pleaded with the players, to let the
tour continue because of the feared (or imagined) financial penalties the
English game might otherwise incur.
Money, not principle, was at the root
of it all - at least as far as the ECB was concerned. For Mugabe, there was
no serious loss of face: he secured the international recognition he sought,
and in a way that made him look almost reasonable. He also exposed the
England cricket management as the opportunist pragmatists they are
("buffoons and charlatans" was The Guardian's description), rather than the
moral champions that the media made them out to be.
I should perhaps
declare an interest, having been banned from Zimbabwe myself for reporting
on Mugabe's atrocities in Matabeleland. That was 20 years ago now, so nobody
can argue that there hasn't been time for the whole world, let alone the
narrow world of cricket, to think through a civilised and rational way of
dealing with this monstrous regime.
The ECB was, in fact, offered a
civilised and rational response earlier this year in the eloquent paper
prepared by Des Wilson, one of its own committee chairmen. Its publication
brought the most positive press reaction the cricket authorities have ever
received. So the ECB, in its infinite wisdom, promptly dumped it without a
debate.
As it happens, when I was consulted on a draft copy of this
paper, I suggested the inclusion of a clause about media access and making
this a sine qua non of any tour. The media and the ECB described Mugabe's
ban on journalists last week as a "bombshell". It was nothing of the sort.
It was entirely predictable. He bans pretty well all foreign journalists -
and what tyrant wouldn't, when he is starving and murdering his people and
stealing their land?
Cricket is sometimes seen as a last hurrah for
British colonialism. In fact, it has become the Commonwealth game, managed
no longer from Lord's by the MCC but by the multiracial countries involved.
Some see the recent emphasis on money, rather than the traditional values of
the game, as a consequence of this change.
The truth is that it was
probably inevitable anyway, given the global power of television money. But
the International Cricket Council has aggravated the problem in two ways: by
choosing not to care about moral or political issues (even though Zimbabwe
has been banished from the Commonwealth) and then forcing that attitude on
countries who don't agree by threatening severe sanctions against
them.
The ICC director, Malcolm Speed, an Australian, condemned the
Zimbabwean regime after a recent visit - not for blatant racial
discrimination in their selection policy or for the starvation and denial of
human rights in the country at large - but for refusing to meet
him.
Morgan, having at first appeared to accept Wilson's case against the
tour, then panicked at the threat of a huge fine by the ICC or the
suspension of England from Test cricket. The ECB looked supine in the face
of these threats, yet it is doubtful if they have any real force in
international law. The ECB should have called the ICC's bluff by at least
testing the legal arguments.
With a winter tour of South Africa
already sold out and a mouth-watering Ashes series here next summer, does
anyone seriously believe England would be banned from Test cricket - or that
South Africa and Australia would support such a self-destructive
move?
This is now a big media story, but where was the media when it was
building up? The press, with a few honourable exceptions, have failed to
expose the issues, challenge assumptions, ask the right questions and call
the principals to account.
Sport eats up mountains of newsprint but
the politics of sport, which is increasingly important, only attracts
attention when the gloves are off. Then we get dramatic confrontational
headlines, but little original analysis. In all this one feels sorry for the
players, many of whom find themselves out of their moral and intellectual
depth and used, as the cliché has it, as pawns in a political game. They
have been browbeaten into going on a tour of no sporting value whatever.
They have done so in the genuine but mistaken belief that they were acting
in the best interests of English cricket.
The authorities - chiefly
the ICC and the ECB, but also the Foreign Office (who can ever forget Jack
Straw's sinister handshake with Mugabe?) - have bowled them a googly. And
now that they are official guests of the president of the Zimbabwe Cricket
Union, one R G Mugabe, that may not be the last one they have to
face.
Donald Trelford was editor of The Observer, 1975-93, then professor
of journalism at the University of Sheffield. He has written several books
on cricket
BULAWAYO - PRESIDENT Mugabe on Friday openly said he would "deal"
with Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity,
setting the stage for what Zanu PF insiders say could be the beginning of
the end for this 'famous' turncoat of the Zimbabwean politics.
For
the first time in his four years as Mugabe's information czar, Moyo was
singled out at a stormy meeting held at Elangeni Training Centre in Bulawayo
on Friday. Mugabe's ire at this mafikizolo was touched off by news of a
secret meeting between Moyo and the six provincial chairpersons, which came
up with a "Tsholotsho Declaration", a document Mugabe said was secret to the
party's top echelons.
"As I speak right now, these chairpersons are
guilty. They were not acting alone but were invited, so we shall take
drastic measures against them all. We shall determine the form of
punishment.
"When Moyo came he worked hard towards improving people's
lives, helped develop some schools in the constituency, and we all liked
that. What is frightening now is the meeting of six Zanu PF provincial
chairpersons he allegedly convened without the mandate of the people,"
Mugabe said.
The six Zanu PF provincial chairpersons are from Bulawayo,
Matabeleland North and South, Masvingo, Manicaland and Midlands.
A
livid Mugabe, who was out to quash dissent in Matabeleland where provincial
leaders defied a Politburo directive to nominate a woman for the post of
Vice President, was told Moyo had plotted the secret meeting held in
Tsholotsho a fortnight ago.
Mugabe was told Moyo hired a helicopter
that took the participants to Tsholotsho just before the nominations for the
ruling party's top leadership.
The ruling party officials who
attended Moyo's meeting distanced themselves from planning the meeting and
heaped the blame squarely on his shoulders.
Themba Ncube, the chairman of
the Zanu PF Bulawayo Province said: "I was just an invited guest. Moyo
convened the meeting and I did not know about the agenda."
Lloyd
Siyoka, the suspended Zanu PF chairman for Matabeleland South, said: "It was
Moyo's function and as invited guests we just wanted him to see we were not
letting him down."
Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of Parliament, who was
challenged by Mugabe to defend allegations that he was aware of he secret
meeting admitted that he was invited by Moyo but said he did not
attend.
Mnangagwa said he only heard that the junior minister had hired a
plane for the six chairpersons and others to Bulawayo en route to
Tsholotsho.
Matabeleland North Governor, Obert Mpofu, told Mugabe that
because of Moyo's actions, civil servants in his province were no longer
reporting to him but to Tsholotsho, implying they were now reporting to
Moyo.
"This Minister of Information and Publicity in the President's
office and cabinet is abusing his ministry and powers. Television,
newspapers and radio stations are always full of Tsholotsho news.
"If
I may be allowed to ask, what's there in Tsholotsho?" asked Mpofu, amid
applause from the delegates.
Zanu PF spokesperson, Nathan
Shamuyarira, refused to say why Mugabe was unhappy with the outcome of
elections in Matabeleland, which saw heavyweights Dumiso Dabengwa,
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu and Mpofu not being elected. "There were some anomalies,"
was all he said.
Zanu PF provincial chairman for Manicaland, Mike Madiro,
who was invited to Tsholotsho, refused to comment
yesterday.
Meanwhile,
Vice President Joseph Msika is unhappy that
Mugabe overturned the decision to suspend war veteran leader Jabulani
Sibanda from the party.
Two months ago, Msika said he had warned Mugabe
about Moyo and Sibanda, explaining: ".these two boys are like misguided
missiles .These boys behave like renegades. President Mugabe must be
wary."
After the Friday meeting, Msika said:" I did not agree with the
president's decision but for the sake of unity, yes. To Jabulani, Mntanami,
asikuzondi, sizonda izenzo zakho.(We don't hate you, we hate your
deeds)."
Sibanda said he was waiting for the review of his
suspension.
Cosatu blockade could hit X-mas, New year holidays By
Foster Dongozi
THE powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) has resolved to blockade the Beitbridge border post for a week in
retaliation for the deportation of its 13-member fact finding delegation
early this month.
The closure of the border is expected to coincide with
the Christmas and New Year holidays. If the border were blockaded, it
would cripple the frail Zimbabwean economy whose largest trading partner is
South Africa.
In an interview with The Standard from Johannesburg, the
COSATU spokesperson, Patrick Craven, said the decision was arrived at during
a three -day meeting of the Central Executive Committee meeting of COSATU
which started on Monday and ended on Wednesday.
The meeting also
resolved that another fact-finding mission should return to Zimbabwe and
this time it will be led by the president of COSATU, Willie Madisha, and the
combative secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi.
"The Central Executive
Committee meeting also resolved that COSATU should stage a series of
demonstrations outside the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria. We are also
working with sister unions in Southern Africa to hold demonstrations outside
all Zimbabwean embassies in the region," said Craven.
The COSATU
delegation, which was on a fact finding mission to Zimbabwe, was driven
overnight by immigration and police officers and dumped at the Beitbridge
border post from where they found their way back to South
Africa.
According to a statement issued by COSATU, the brief visit to
Zimbabwe by the fact finding mission had exposed the appalling state of
human rights in the country.
"It was agreed that the delegation's
short stay in Zimbabwe exposed the regime's paranoia and its abuse of basic
human rights including fundamental basic rights of workers," read part of
the statement.
The COSATU secretary general, Vavi, recently issued a
chilling warning about the union's capacity to throttle the Zimbabwean
economy.
"All the truck drivers who bring goods to Zimbabwe are COSATU
members, it was COSATU which successfully blockaded Swaziland because of
human rights abuses and immigration and police officers manning the
Beitbridge border post are members of COSATU."
The union, a key ally
of the ruling African National Congress is credited with helping bring down
the apartheid regime in South Africa after it staged crippling strikes in
the 1980s.
FINANCE Minister Herbert Murerwa on Thursday unveiled a $27,5
trillion 2005 National Budget that once again failed to shed light on how
the government will deal with the current economic troubles.
The
Budget prioritised national defence and security at a time the region is
enjoying unprecedented peace. The $5 trillion allocated for the defence
ministry is more than the $2,7 trillion allocated to the Ministry of Health
and Child Welfare. Captains of industry say Murerwa's Budget failed to
inspire them at a time when they needed to cheer and sing from the same hymn
book with President Rober Mugabe who has claimed that the "worst is over"
for Zimbabwe.
Although the Minister said an economic renaissance was
underway, industrialists and businessmen questioned the legitimacy of his
declaration. Economic analysts said Murerwa's Budget does not offer hope of
a quick recovery for an economy facing its worst crisis in history. Official
inflation - estimated at 209% and said to be receding - is still the highest
in the region and its softening has not been complemented by stabilising
prices.
"The worst is not yet over. They are misinterpreting the
evidence they are looking at," said independent economic consultant John
Robertson.
Instead of incentivising informal traders, Murerwa proposed to
tax previously untaxed sectors such as the informal sector and new farmers
in a bid to find money to finance the bloated government.
Murerwa's
statement gave the impression that his 2004 National Budget is particularly
influenced by Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono's monetary policy as most of
the proposals the Minister outlined were often referred to by the central
bank chief in his successive monetary policy reviews.
Some analysts
dismissed the tax relief measures such as the extension of the tax free
salary from $750 000 to $1 million per month, extension of the tax-free
component of the bonus to $5 million and retrenchment packages because, they
said, they would "soon be irrelevant in the context of hyperinflation and
delayed application-in cases such as the new tax threshold it will only
apply on January 1 2004".
Union leaders said with the tax-free salary
pegged at $1 million a month and the highest tax rate of 45 percent applying
from salaries above $1 million per month, any salary adjustments will push
workers into a higher band, eroding the take-home component.
Luckson
Zembe, the president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce decried
the lack of comprehensive measures to deal with the perennial problem of
non-performing public enterprises.
Opposition Movement for Democratic
Change's Tendai Biti said the inflationary trends, which are projected to
decline to 30-50% by December 2005 - were misleading since the government
contains no clear anti-inflation measures.
Other critics said the
Thursday Budget speech did not contain any concrete measures to address
unemployment and mass poverty and noted that the revenue target of $23
trillion was ambitious considering that the economy is not
performing.
"We will see a supplementary budget very soon," said one
economist who preferred anonymity.
Nonetheless, Murerwa tried to tilt
the budget towards social orientation by recognising the special needs of
disadvantaged groups such as street children and the elderly.
Shocking new law against journalists By our own
Staff
NOT content with the closure of private newspapers and persecution
of journalists over the past few years, the government is adding more
ammunition to its arsenal of weapons aimed at silencing dissenting
voices.
Despite pieces of legislation such as the draconian Access to
Information and Protection to Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA) that seek to curtail activities of independent
journalists already in place, the government has proposed what could turn
out to be the most repressive law for journalists. The Standard can
reveal that the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Bill, proposes
punishment of up to 20 years imprisonment for anyone who publishes or
communicates to another statements that are perceived to be prejudicial to
the State.
The Bill, meant to bring under one document all the criminal
laws in the country, has already passed the second reading stage in
Parliament and is now at the Committee stage.
Clause 31 of the bill
criminalises publishing or communication "to any other person a statement
which is wholly or materially false with the intention or realising that
there is a real risk of:
o inciting or promoting public disorder or
public violence or endangering public safety or
o adversely affecting
the defence and economic interests of Zimbabwe: or
o undermining public
confidence in a law enforcement agency, the Prison Service or the Defence
Forces of Zimbabwe: or
oInterfering with, disrupting or interrupting any
essential service."
That person shall " be guilty of publishing or
communicating a false statement prejudicial to the State and liable to a
fine up to or exceeding level fourteen or imprisonment for a period not
exceeding twenty years or both," reads part of the proposed
legislation.
Level 14 calls for a $5 million fine.
If passed into
law, this piece of legislation will make it extremely difficult for
journalists to operate and will certainly be the most repressive piece of
legislation in Zimbabwe's Statute books.
'Vehicles for chiefs' scheme slammed By our own
Staff
IN most of rural Zimbabwe, villagers who ferry sick relatives in
ox-drawn carts and wheelbarrows to clinics and hospitals, say the
government's decision to give chiefs vehicles clearly demonstrates
insensitivity to their plight.
Under a vehicle scheme meant for
traditional leaders, government is set to spend billions of dollars buying
an estimated 269 vehicles for chiefs a few months before Zimbabwe holds
general elections slated for March next year. Critics say the move is
designed to secure the support of the Chiefs who are very influential in
their communities. Over the past few years, Zanu PF has been using
traditional leaders to stop the opposition MDC from campaigning in rural
areas.
In separate interviews with The Standard, villagers said that the
government would have done better if it acquired ambulances for clinics and
district hospitals that cater for a larger number of poor peasants who walk
long distances to seek medical treatment.
They said ambulances had
become very crucial to rural communities in the wake of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic that is wreaking havoc across the country, claiming nearly 4 000
lives a month.
Tawanda Mutsvangiwa from Manyene in Chief Nyoka's area of
Chivhu said he did not see the logic of giving the chief in their area a
vehicle when people were facing acute transport problems.
"Chiefs
work from their homes. It is their subjects who approach them in cases of
disputes that require arbitration, so why should they be given vehicles when
their subjects are dying because there is no transport to get them to the
nearest clinics on time.
"Those cars should have been ambulances, or the
money could have been used to buy drugs which would benefit the whole
community not an individual," Mutsvangiwa said.
Samuel Abudu from
Mukumbura under Chief Dotito in Mount Darwin said the government should have
prioritised ambulances in his area.
"We use scotch carts to ferry our
relatives to clinics, which are very far away. Sometimes we lose lives
unnecessarily due to lack of proper transport. The government has neglected
rural areas most of the times and only remembers when it is time for
campaigning."
Another Mukumbura villager, who only identified himself as
Dzonda, said the chiefs did not even want to use their vehicles for the good
of the whole community.
"Ah hazvigone machief acho haatomboda kana
nemotokari dzavo, havatombotangiki."
Talent Matsika from Gutu under
Chief Nyamande said giving cars to the chiefs did not solve problems faced
by rural communities.
"Even though the chief might be willing to help
what happens to those who stay far away from the chiefs? The distances we
travel for health services are unbearable. Sometimes we take our very sick
relatives to the hospital by buses because we have only one ambulance
covering a large area such that we hardly get its services."
Matope
Chiveso from Bindura, who was coming from Parirenyatwa Hospital to see his
wife, who is ill, said he hired a car for his wife after waiting for an
ambulance that never came.
"We need rural ambulances not cars for
chiefs," said the distraught man who The Standard interviewed as he waited
for a bus home at Mbare Musika on Thursday morning.
A woman from
Zvimba under Chief Zvimba's area said villagers from around the Moleli
Secondary School area ferried their sick to Ohiyo hospital in wheelbarrows
and ox-drawn carts.
"There is one ambulance based at Ohiyo Hospital and
most of the times it will have gone to Chinhoyi, so villagers from Moleli
and Murombedzi use wheelbarrows or ox-drawn carts to ferry the sick to
hospital."
Albert Sibanda (71), a villager from Siziphili communal lands
in Matabeleland North, said it was painful to learn that chiefs were being
given vehicles when eight clinics in their district had no
ambulances.
" How can the government give chiefs vehicles when all our
clinics have no ambulances to ferry patients to St.Luke's referral
Hospital?
"This sad development clearly demonstrated that our government
is not inspired by the desire to uplift the standard of living of the rural
people," Sibanda said.
He said most patients at Mdhlankunzi, Mtupane,
Sobendle, Gomoza, Tshongokwe, Malandu and Gwamba villages died at their
respective homes without seeking help because of transport
problems.
"Truly speaking, 24 years after gaining independence, people in
Mtupane are still using ox-drawn carts to ferry critically ill patients to
St. Luke's Hospital, which is some 65 kilometres away from the village," he
said.
Clinics such as Jotsholo, Dongamuzi, Dandanda, Lusulu, St. Paul's
district hospital, Gomoza, Kanyandabvu, Luphaka and Mdhankunzi have been
operating without ambulances since independence.
One of the
beneficiaries of the vehicle scheme, Chief Nicholas Mabikwa of Lupane, told
The Standard last week that he felt sorry for the rural folk suffering due
to lack of transport in his area but did not regret driving a brand new
vehicle.
"This is a car of my dreams. I am proud of it and do not regret
the manner it was acquired. It makes my travelling easier. However, the
problem I face is that I don't have a driver's licence. I am in the process
of acquiring one," Chief Mabikwa said.
Urban dwellers return to roots as poverty bites By our
own Staff
BITING economic hardships have led to new movement patterns in
Zimbabwe - more urban people are turning to the rural areas where the cost
of living is relatively inexpensive, experts have said.
During the
80's, economic planners were worried by the prospect of towns being flooded
with unemployed rural dwellers in search of employment, but the past two
years have seen a trend that might indicate a shift in population
movement. The Standard has established that scores of people in towns and
cities who lost their employment were finding solace in the rural areas
where life is cheaper. Also, some terminally ill people prefer retiring
peacefully to their rural homes, away from the hustle and bustle of city
life.
"Although we have not done a study on that, there are indications
that more and more people are leaving urban areas to settle in rural areas
due to economic problems.
"This is clearly a reverse of the situation
in the early 80s and 90s when nearly everyone falling in the working bracket
wanted to go and look for employment in the formal sector," said a
government statistician based at the Central Statistical Office
(CSO).
Currently, unemployment stands at around 80 percent and analysts
attribute this to a worsening economic crisis that has resulted in company
closures.
According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI),
more than 800 manufacturing companies have closed down since 2002, while 25
are currently struggling and eight face closure in 2004.
This
scenario has left many workers without any means of survival at a time when
rentals have shot up.
A small one room costs anything between $100 000
and $150 000 a month.
"Unlike almost every other parts of Africa, the
migration from rural to urban areas has begun to switch directions in
Zimbabwe, and significant urban to rural migration is occurring. Some
households are relocating to informal settlements on farms surrounding urban
centres," noted the Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) in its
October Monthly Update.
Fewsnet which collaborates with national,
international, and regional partners to provide timely early warning and
vulnerability information on emerging or evolving food security issues said
other families were trying other means to survive.
"Households unable
to migrate are forced into the growing informal sector and, if they are
lucky, are able to earn enough to get by. In addition, increasing numbers of
people are looking for opportunities to leave the country altogether in
search of better standards of living," Fewsnet noted.
BULAWAYO - A key reason why State agents bombed a church building
in the then Harare working class suburb (now Mbare) during the run-up to
general elections in 1980 was for Ian Smith to benefit by provoking a
backlash against Zanu PF and PF Zapu among local Christians.
Smith
was clearly aware of the church's potential in mobilizing resistance to a
government that proscribed its ministering activities. For similar reasons,
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Paul Mangwana, removed
the word "church" from the initial non-governmental organisation (NGO) and
Church draft Bill as an acknowledgement of the power of the church in
mobilizing resistance to bad laws.
But church organizations have not been
duped. They appear headed for a showdown with the State, pledging to rebuff
government efforts to stifle criticism where the State errs. They have
chosen to crusade for State observance of human rights.
Says
Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo: "The
NGO Bill seeks to silence the last democratic space in Zimbabwe by
neutralizing church voices critical of the Zanu PF government. Churches
would naturally resist that."
Churches resolved to "light a candle
than to curse the darkness" by fostering a theological framework for
participation in governance and advocacy issues - the core activities which
the NGO Bill seeks to frustrate.
The Bill, which government is likely to
bulldoze through Parliament, targets civic organizations involved in issues
of governance and human rights by prohibiting these organizations from
receiving foreign funds, thus stifling their activities.
Bishop
Trevor Manhanga of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe says: "Zimbabwe is
faced with crises on various fronts. People have criticized the church for
apathy in the area of justice peace and human rights. If the church is to
help resolve the crisis it must cry out to those responsible for what we
witness without fear or favour."
Bishop Manhanga who was part of the
church troika that tried to broker a dialogue deal between the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the ruling Zanu PF said the
relevance of the church must be underscored by practical and vocal
action.
"The church must be the eyes of those who cannot see, the ears of
those who cannot or will not hear and the hands and feet of those who cannot
or will not act," he says.
Two weeks ago, more than 30 clerics
attending the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA) Ethics, Peace and
Justice Commission SADC Regional Solidarity meeting agreed to lobby their
national governments and push for a repeal of "regressive
laws".
Representatives from Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia,
South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia cited the NGO Bill alongside the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA), Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (AIPPA) as some of the laws, which hindered people's
liberties and freedom of expression
The weeklong conference added its
voice to the growing chorus of condemnation of the NGO Bill, saying its
restrictive provision undermined the welfare goals of the church in
addressing the needs of the poor.
Reverend Graham Shaw of the Harvest
Ministries International says the Bill "seeks to place all humanitarian work
under State control" and "threatens to set back God's work among the poor
and the most vulnerable by a whole generation".
"True, it exempts
from the definition of an NGO any religious body doing purely religious
work. But do you think the government has the same idea of religious work as
you do? Will you allow the state to dictate what a church may or may not do
in obedience to God?" Reverend Shaw asks.
With 60 percent of the
population estimated to be church members and numbers seeking solace in
religion growing, the question begs: For how long can the men of cloth and
their constituency withstand pressure from the government to toe the line in
an inevitable test of strength and endurance.
Govt' s chaotic land reform vexes planners By our own
Staff
THE chaotic land reform programme, started by government four years
ago, is proving a big challenge for urban and regional planners due to the
land ownership conflicts and land use policy shifts, The Standard can
reveal.
Rural and urban regional planners who spoke on condition of
anonymity on the sidelines of an Institute of Regional and Urban Planners
meeting held in Gweru recently said they were constantly changing settlement
and land use plans following changes to land ownership and land use
options. These changes were mainly occurring as land was changing hands to
accommodate a host of beneficiaries who are losing their land through
evictions to make way for chefs or the original white owners.
Their
problems, the planners said, were worsened by the archaic Regional Town, and
Country Planning Act which stipulates that the identity of the original
owner of the piece of land in question has to be ascertained before any
change to the land is made.
In the commercial cattle ranching and dairy
farming Somabula area in Gweru for example, rural planners once demarcated
the land for smallholder farmers, but when this proved less viable, they
went back to the drawing board to plan the land for beef or dairy
production. Percy Toriro, president of the Zimbabwe Institute of Regional
and Urban Planners said the biggest challenge for the regional planners was
to come up with a comprehensive housing delivery and refuse management
programme nationwide.
"Waste management is a big challenge in urban areas
because when the plans were drawn, the urban areas were meant to have much
smaller populations."
Due to rural -urban migration and the general high
levels of poverty, urban settlements were experiencing a number of problems,
which included transportation, housing, refuse and waste
management.
Pollution, unplanned urban agriculture, crime, the
mushrooming of unplanned shanty settlements and the general urban decay were
also some of the problems.
Zanu PF youth chairman jailed By Richard
Musazulwa
GWERU - A Zanu PF youth chairman for Gokwe, Joseph Musekiwa,
has been sentenced to an effective eight and half years in jail for raping a
typist at Gokwe Centre during the run up to the 2002 Presidential
election.
Musekiwa, (40) raped the 22-year-old typist at the Gokwe centre
after threatening her that she could be killed by his Zanu PF youths, who
lay in ambush outside her house. The rape took place four days after
Musekiwa beat up and indecently assaulted the woman after accusing her of
being a thief.
Two days after beating her, Musekiwa went to the girl's
residence, forcibly fondled her breasts and also kissed her. Musekiwa
returned the following day to rape the woman.
In court Musekiwa
boasted that he belonged to Zanu PF and nobody could touch him. However,
Regional Magistrate, Garainesu Mawadze, convicted and sentenced him to eight
and half years with hard labour.
He also sentenced Musekiwa to a year in
prison for the indecent assault he committed earlier on his
victim.
The 40-year-old youth chairman shed tears as prison officials led
him down to the holding cells.
Relatives, friends and party officials
who had come to witness the outcome of the case, were stunned by Musekiwa's
conviction and sentence. They left the court in a huff.
Split looms as Methodist Church saga boils over By our
own staff
THE controversy that has dogged Dr Charles Mugaviri, Bishop-
designate of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe for the past year, finally
caught up with him, scuttling his installation yesterday
Instead,
Margaret James was yesterday appointed the acting Presiding Bishop of the
Methodist Church in Zimbabwe following the suspension of Mugaviri, who is
facing allegations of adultery. The induction ceremony, held at the Trinity
Methodist Church in Harare was very poorly attended, a situation church
members attributed to outrage over Mugaviri's suspension.
James
replaces Reverend Cephas Mukandi, the outgoing bishop.
Mugaviri did not
attend the function.
On Friday Bishop Mugaviri unsuccessfully made an
urgent application with the High Court trying to stop the appointment of an
acting bishop.
However, Justice Antonia Guvava, who heard the matter,
said church issues were best resolved by the churches themselves.
"If
the third respondent (Margaret James) is an acting bishop, there would be no
damage that the applicant would suffer as he has other remedies to follow to
solve this issue. Issues of the church are best solved by the churches
themselves," Guvava said dismissing the application.
Speaking on her
appointment yesterday, James said it was disappointing to note that church
ministers were fighting to become presiding bishops.
She said:"I appeal
to all the people to work together so that we can heal the divisions caused
by the infighting over the past months. It is disappointing that ministers
fight to become bishops."
James was ordained in 1980 and has worked in a
number of provinces and at the time of her appointment, was based in
Karoi.
Sources in the church said the Methodist leadership was forced to
act against Mugaviri because they wanted to discipline two other ministers
accused of improper relations.
Sources said Rev Ranganayi Gara of
Masvingo was suspended on allegations of an improper relationship with a
married female church member.
Shurugwi Methodist Minister, Stephen
Chegura, who is married,has also been suspended for allegedly impregnating a
girl.
Other sources however said that in suspending Bishop-designate
Charles Mugaviri, the Standing Committee of the Methodist Church had not
only acted unconstitutionally but had also based their decision on unproven
facts and information.
Contacted for a comment yesterday, Mugaviri
said: "At this stage, I am under instructions from my lawyers not to speak
to the Press. Talk to Bishop Mukandi."
BOTH the central bank and the police must move in on the
companies and individuals who abused foreign currency they accessed on the
pretext of importing fuel.
Twice in as many months, the Reserve Bank
has said people who were allocated foreign currency to import desperately
needed fuel abused the facility by using the funds for other, as yet
undisclosed, purposes. The actions of these companies or individuals are no
less than those of economic saboteurs and it begs the question why the
Reserve Bank appears reluctant to name the culprits, disclose where the
resources were diverted to, and why the police have not closed in on
them.
Several key players from the financial services sector have been
guests of the state or are on the list of potential candidates for the
state's hospitality because of the harm and prejudice their actions caused
to the economy. Those who took foreign currency and did not use it to import
fuel, have by their actions, contributed to the hardships being experienced
across the economic and social spectrum. Theirs was premeditated
sabotage.
They were aware of the crisis in the supply and delivery of
fuel but sought to exploit the situation to their own benefit. They are no
different from top executives in the financial services sector who are being
hauled before the courts.
It is important that these selfish
individuals are exposed and shamed for what they are. Failure by the Reserve
Bank to do so could suggest several things: One is that no such thing ever
occurred and the central bank is indulging in scapegoating in order to
deflect criticism for the manner in which the State has staggered from one
crisis to another in unsuccessful attempts to deal with the fuel crisis.
Given an environment where we have perfected the art of blaming others for
our shortcomings, this is not far-fetched.
The second reason why the
alleged culprits have not been named - if indeed it is true that they
diverted scarce foreign currency elsewhere instead of importing fuel - could
be that government and ruling party politicians, as well as the Reserve
Bank, are concerned about the repercussions of exposing the culprits and the
impact such disclosure could have on the ruling party's electoral fortunes,
especially a few months before the March 2005 parliamentary
elections.
Ordinary people suffer endless queues to get to work on time
because there are fewer commuter buses on the road to take people to and
from work, while the result of the fuel shortages is that commuters are
paying more from their static salaries.
Businesses suffer when
deliveries are held up because there is no fuel to transport goods to the
market or raw materials from the producers. This crisis also impacts
negatively on the country's ability to earn foreign currency and import
foreign raw materials and inputs.
Horticultural or fresh produce growers
unable to deliver the produce in time for the north- or east-bound freight
traffic will be considered unreliable and the markets will simply look
elsewhere where producers can deliver on time, regularly and reliably. This
is how Zimbabwean companies are losing their share of the world market to
competitors. The market is dominated by players, capable of fast, efficient
and reliable delivery of goods.
Zimbabwe has suffered acute periods of
fuel shortages since October 1999, while visits by the President to Kuwait,
Libya, Nigeria, Venezuela and more recently Equatorial Guinea appear to have
yielded little it is doubtful whether the administration any longer has the
capacity to provide a panacea to what threatens to be a perennial
crisis.
The extent of the crisis was acknowledged inadvertently two weeks
ago by the State-run media when they disclosed that "fuel importation have
seen higher allocations compared to the US$167 million disbursed to the
sector for the whole of last year".
For the first time we are told,
that despite assurances of adequate imported supplies by the government,
Zimbabwe operated on four months' supply of fuel for the whole of last year!
The country requires US$45 million a month to meet domestic requirements of
petroleum products.
The problems that have beset this country enjoins us
to consider more critically whether the dismantling of previous fuel
procurement arrangements was well-throughout or whether emphasis should have
been on ensuring the system was streamlined to deliver more efficiently,
while holding the oil companies accountable.
The empowerment drive in
the fuel procurement sector gave rise to the questionable conduct by some of
the players. It is important that the programme being considered for the
mining sector is informed by lessons from what has transpired in the fuel
procurement sector so that the same mistakes are not re-enacted. It is
critical that in the enthusiasm to promote empowerment programmes previous
gains are not squandered.
Empowerment in whatever form or shape should
result in improvement, not decline or near collapse of a sector, otherwise
it makes a mockery of the letter and spirit of the exercise.
It would
not be surprising to discover that the companies accused of diverting the
foreign currency they sourced under the guise of wanting to import fuel,
actually sold it on the parallel market.
Another change that appears
questionable is the proposed Health Service Bill. The only difference it
will make could be in creating structures and layers of bureaucracies at the
expense of ensuring that health professionals and workers are adequately
remunerated. What might be necessary instead is to ensure that the Public
Service Commission is able to react more expeditiously to issues of salaries
and conditions of service raised by workers in the sector. Otherwise,
teachers would be justified in urging for an Education Service Bill and
those at the Central Mechanical Equipment Department asking for their own
set up.
Sometimes the more things change; the more they remain the
same.
CRICKET returned to the fore in the troubled central African
regime. In a move that surprised no one, officials in the misinformation
ministry refused to accredit sporting hacks from a small patch of mud in the
North Sea.
The refusal caused a furore and Over The Top has it on good
authority that the Most Equal of all Comrades stepped into the fray to
overturn the ban. Slapping the misinformation minister on the wrist, the Most
Equal of all Comrades had to remind his officials that the troubled central
African police state is officially a democracy where the rule of law and
peace to all men prevails.
So . in a move that left troubled central
Africans slightly puzzled, the Zany press said that no sporting hacks had
been banned after all. Instead, they learnt, there had been an
administrative error that caused a delay in their accreditation.
This
means that the rule of law and peace to all men will prevail - at least in
the few city blocks between a well-known hotel much favoured by foreign
hacks and the sports' club where the matches will be held.
Of course,
it will be the sort of rule of law and peace to all men that doesn't involve
peaceful demonstrations against the Zany Party. As for the sporting hacks,
they will have little opportunity to discuss such issues as the legal and
democratic use of rape, arson and murder with troubled central
Africans.
Any troubled central African displaying so much as a hint
of support for the More Drink Party will find himself coming into sudden
contact with a truncheon before spending a night or two in the flea pits
down at Central. The troubled central African basket case is, after all, a
haven of goodwill and we don't want foreigners thinking
otherwise.
Meanwhile troubled central Africans haven't exactly helped
themselves over the controversial subject of cricket.
Half the nation
wants the cricket to go ahead because; well, because nothing else happens
and there's precious little in the way of entertainment these days. The
other half, not surprisingly, doesn't want the cricket to go ahead. They
think the Mud Islanders have displayed their characteristic lack of backbone
by pitching up.
Still, there's an element of the population who,
understanding the usefulness of having the press encamped in the troubled
central African nation's best hotels, might see the opportunity for
something a little more exciting than cricket. Blood sports might now be
banned in Mud Island (along with all other forms of fun), but they aren't
here.
The troubled central African police state's riot cops are only too
happy to wield their heavy truncheons at passers by before putting the boot
in - and that has to be a more entertaining spectator sport than
cricket.
It certainly would be for Mud Islanders who have now been
deprived of the perfectly sensible and enjoyable pastime of watching their
smelly version of jackals being hunted down in the countryside.
Sadly
it's unlikely to happen. Troubled central Africans, tired of being beaten
over the head, aren't likely to congregate in groups to voice their
displeasure with the Zany Party. Apart from anything else, Zany police will
be all too eager to put an end to any attempt at disproving the dream of
democracy in the troubled central African regime.
MAY I express my concern and that of the majority of right
thinking Zimbabweans over the way Bills are being dangerously fast tracked
into law by our Parliament.
I want to cite Edgar Tekere who once
equated this kind of action to building a house with no door or window when
you are inside - obviously you are entrapping yourself. You will not get
out. He said this while commenting on the then proposition to legislate
one-party State and thank heavens Tekere and others fiercely opposed this
proposition until Zanu PF abandoned the idea. Unfortunately, the present
crop of Zanu PF legislators always agree "unanimously" to every piece of
legislation that comes their way. They think contributing critically to
issues at stake is selling out. I salute honourable Charles Majange for once
voicing out the manner in which during Zanu PF caucus meetings the"Riot Act"
is read out and them bills are forced down their throats without debating or
even consulting their constituencies for contributions.
In the 80s
and 90s we used to have a predominantly Zanu PF parliament but debate was
vibrant, what with the likes of Ruth Chinamano, Magaret Dongo, Lazarus
Nzarayebani, Sidney Malunga, Dzikamai Mavhaire, and Moses Mvenge just to
mention a few.
The "Unanimous" crop of legislators is dangerous to this
nation for they are just endorsing evil pieces of legislation that infringe
on our rights at every turn of numbers. MDC MPs are just bulldozed no matter
how brilliant their contributions are.
So to all Zanu PF
parliamentarians I say stop entrapping us all.
ZIMBABWE
Cricket in its advertising is urging us to "watch boys become men".
"Come
and support" states their advert." It won't just be cricket. It's our coming
of age." Have they forgotten that there are already some real "men" among
Zimbabwean cricketers?
There are names like Andy Flower and Henry
Olonga - and look what Zimbabwe Cricket did to them.
The England
cricketers have made it very clear that they did not want to come and
Zimbabweans should make it equally clear that we wish that they had
not.
Personally, I am waiting for Zimbabwe's "coming of age",
something that will not happen until enough ordinary Zimbabweans "become
men" and stand up against the regime from which we so desperately need
liberating.
Only then would I consider watching Zimbabwean
cricket.
Sustainable farming: A personal testimony By Ezekiel
Makunike
WHEN we were growing up in mid 1930s and 40s my parents were
very successful farmers in the rural areas. They grew maize, rapoko,
groundnuts, potatoes and other crops.
They used cattle manure and
practised crop rotation as demonstrated by the government's agricultural
demonstrators of those days. My parents had excellent crop harvests every
year (when the rains were good, of course). Later on in the mid 1950s the new
agricultural demonstrators introduced chemical fertilizer. It came as a
white substance which some of us mistook for table salt. The demonstrators
told our parents: "Now you do not need to worry about the cattle manure. The
fertilizer will do the job for you. Just put a little around each maize
plant and after two weeks you will see wonders!"
The maize crop grew
miraculously and we indeed saw the wonders! The harvest was excellent. The
rural farmers now relied more on fertilizers than cattle manure and crop
rotation.
But as the years went by, the soil became tired and to get a
good yield each successive year one had to apply far more fertilizer than
the previous year. The result was that while the fertilizer trader got more
money from the sale of fertilizer each year, the farmer's take-home cash
dwindled!
His "take-home cash was not even enough to take him home", as
my Ghanaian friend Bishop Kofi Paul Fynn is fond of saying. The reason is
that while fertilizer fed the plant, it did not feed the soil! The miracle
wonder could thus not be sustained! This can be likened to a man who always
goes to his bank to make withdrawals without making corresponding deposits.
Ultimately, the account will naturally be exhausted.
This is when I
came face to face with the negative effects of solely relying on chemical
fertilizer. After spending close to twenty years outside the country I
finally returned to the country in 1980 after our independence. I went to my
rural home, the Nyakatsapa United Methodist Mission Centre in the Mutare
District of the Manicaland Province. On visiting our traditional field I
noticed that there were two distinct patches of the maize crop. One small
patch had an excellent crop of maize but the rest of the field had a very
stunted maize crop as they had been planted at different times.
I asked
my stepmother why they had planted the crop at different times. Said she:
"We planted them the same day but only had enough fertilizer for that patch
where the crop is good. We did not have any left for the rest of the field,
hence the poor growth".
I further asked, "but mother, several years ago
we used to plant the maize crop and had excellent crop in the entire field
by merely applying cattle manure. What has happened to the soil?" The simple
explanation is that over the several years when chemical fertilizer was
applied with neither animal or compost manure, nor crop rotation, the soil
simply got tired!
As a result of that experience I began practising
natural farming in my homestead garden, which depends on compost manure from
the yard, kitchen and garden refuse. This improved my soil and I have not
used chemical fertilizer since 1982 when we bought our Highlands home in
Harare.
We have also been using foliar or liquid manure from comfrey
leaves and chicken droppings as boosters to our vegetables. We have thus
been using nature to enrich itself with wonderful results. I have been
sharing this sustainable miracle wonder with friends. The results are good
and sustainable. The solution is highly concentrated and we experimented on
the right dilution ratio between the solution and plain water, averaging
between 1:4; that is one cup or can or whatever of the liquid and four cups
or cans etc of plain water.
We even decided to package and
commercially market this liquid or foliar manure. We thus gave it a brand
name, "Miracle Fast Feeder!" We sent samples to the government's Department
of Research and Specialist Services in Harare for possible registration as
our patent or "copyright" discovery! Their reply, "The sample shows a much
higher content of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium than what is currently
available on the market". They went further, "unfortunately however, we
cannot register it as your patent because you have not discovered anything
new in processing the liquid." My satisfaction and joy however arises from
the simple fact that I can share this simple secret with others.
I
have come to know more about organisations that use natural farming, here at
home and in other countries. In Zimbabwe there is the Fambidzanai
Permaculture Training Centre, natural Farming Network and the Zimbabwe
Organic Producers and Promoters Association (ZOPPA). In the USA there is
Rodale Press Inc., Emmaus, Pennsylvania and Doubleday Brothers in the United
Kingdom. I had a small vegetable garden in that Garden State of America as
they call it. I became a member of NOFA (National Organic Farming
Association) and learnt a lot from attending its workshops and reading
various publications on the subject.
I have admittedly not discovered
new ways of farming. I have merely gone back to the wisdom of my parents;
using animal and compost manure and practising crop rotation. Sometimes (but
not always though) old ways are better because they will have passed the
test of time.
My advice to the chemical fertilizer enthusiasts is:
"Please, in addition do also apply animal and biodegradable plant manure
(compost) to feed your soil, so that the soil can thus feed the plants". I
have already completed a manuscript on what I have learned or experienced in
all this.
The manuscript is looking for a publisher so we can share with
more people the results of our practical experiences. The title of the
manuscript is "Africa Need Not Starve: A Challenge for Post-Colonial
Africa!"
The ghost of colonialism lives sundayopinion By Tajudeen
Abdul Raheem
LAST Monday I participated in a segment of the BBC
discussion Programme Four Corners. The topic I discussed with two other
guests (one Portuguese and the other from Netherlands) was whether
relationships between former colonies and former colonial masters can ever
be rid of master-servant complexes.
The immediate stimulus for the
discussion is the tragic situation that has been long unfolding in that
former shining star of former French colonies on the West Coast of Africa,
Cote d'Ivoire. Needless to say, the three of us had divergent views (that's
the whole purpose of a multi-sided discussion, isn't it?). But our
disagreements were not principally due to the obvious on everybody's mind -
that is that because the other two were Europeans and I was an African - one
belonging to victims and the other a descendant of perpetrators therefore
objective and subjective contradictions.
No. We were all opposed to
colonialism and agreed too that the consequences were generally bad for the
victims regardless of who the colonizer was. But that's where the agreement
stopped.
Our differences emerged as a result of what is happening today
and what can be done. Both Europeans were rather sanguine about the impact
of history on contemporary relations between the former colonies and their
erstwhile colonial subjects.
The Portuguese saw no direct influence
for his country as could be found in former British or French colonies.
Maybe because the Portuguese were the first to arrive in Africa and the last
to be chased out!
The Dutch also felt his country had not much control in
their former colonies. Both of them however see moral and political
responsibility to intervene in their former colonies. The Portuguese even
argued that but for Portugal who cared about Guinea-Bissau or Cape
Verde?
When I retorted that even if both countries were not important
internationally or even regionally, they mattered to Cape Verdians and
people of Guinea-Bissau the man was still relentless finally quipping that
he was not even sure about that! He realized the incongruity of his
colonialist template a few seconds later and qualified the absurd claim
with, " I don't think the elite care".
But the Genie was already out
of the bottle. So powerful and consuming is the latter day missionary fervor
of many in the West that they actually believe they care more about Africa
than Africans themselves.
This ideology of being more catholic than the
pope is so pervasive that even many Africans share it. On the surface the
argument is so beguiling and dressed in humanitarian concerns as to be most
seductive. But it is only a latter day repackaging of the old imperialist
"white man's burden".
The relationship between former colonies and their
former colonial masters need not necessarily be a continuing repackaging of
the same colonial attitudes through neo-colonialism or present real
threatening recolonisation.
Looking at the relationship between
Britain and the USA today especially Tony Blair's America right or wrong
servitude to Bush many would have forgotten that America used to be a colony
of the British. The relationship between Britain and the former White
colonies of New Zealand, Australia and Canada are also different.
And
yes too relationship with India is different say from that with the Gambia
or Sierra-Leone. Even within Africa I do not think that Britain can be
presumptuous enough to take South Africa or Nigeria's co-operation for
granted. The Italians can never dream of controlling Libya which is their
former colony. And the French or the Belgians cannot walk like former
masters across present day Rwanda.
What makes African countries
vulnerable to continuing manipulation by former colonial powers is their
essentially unviable nature built as they were to serve foreign interests
and mostly lacking in organic linkages and legitimacy among the peoples
forcibly brought together in these artificial states.
But more than
the economic linkages and in many countries security and intelligence
network residual colonialist ideology on both sides help in retaining
metropolitan hold. This is certainly more evident in many of the former
French colonies where the added burden of French cultural policy of
assimilation made many of their elite believe they were French.
It
must be said that there are so many elite in the former British colonies too
who regard themselves as and mimic the English in many ridiculous ways
including confused middle class elements who refused to speak African mother
tongue languages to their children even in the home because they feared
their English would suffer.
But generally the colonial cultural
project seems more complete in former French colonies. That was why France
has always had far greater neo-colonialist influence in her former colonies.
But in recent years it has gone into retreat but old habits die hard hence
the current situation in Cote d'Ivoire. But that mess is made messier by the
fact that Laurent Gbagbo's government and his leadership is that of a
genocidaire yet to be put on trial.
However, the Ivorians themselves,
their sub regional neighbours, the African Union and support of the
international community, can only sort out that situation. A positive role
for former colonialists is one in which they support African efforts if and
when asked and as desired by the Africans not to justify continuing
imperialism with "the need to do something".
Too many times that
something has turned out to be nothing but old-fashioned imperialism
presented in new robes.