THE fact that President Robert Mugabe will chair the African Union (AU) only for a year as per AU regulations has generated a number of reactions in Europe which should be of interest to us:
First, there is embarrassment that the man they wanted to isolate from the West and from the rest of Africa and even from Zimbabweans as a ‘bad guy’ has been catapulted into the centre of African politics and into the strategic decision making of the whole continent.
This means that the more than a decade-long badmouthing and economic sanctioning which they funded to the hilt has gone down the drain!
Second, there is confusion in Europe in regard to how to respond to this elevation.
There are some Europeans who feel that the AU should be punished for daring to be so independent minded to a point of disregarding Western views on President Mugabe!
These are the colonial types who feel petulant at being slighted.
Then there are those who feel that everything should be done to play catch up with the Chinese in Africa and, as such, the Mugabe elevation is no big deal; after all his chairmanship will be only for a year.
Again these are also colonials who are desperate to secure long term economic interests in Africa for the benefit of a resource poor Europe!
Third, there is overall fear in Europe and the West in general that President Mugabe’s chairmanship could generate the much dreaded tipping point in the development of politics in Africa.
Below is why!
When all is said and done, there are only two possible paths which Africa could follow in pursuit of its development: these two paths point in opposite directions and sooner rather than later Africa has to make a clear-cut choice as to which one to follow!
The first path is the dependency one which Africa is currently following but becoming more and more uneasy with!
To remain on this route means that Africa will forever remain an appendage of the West, a hunting ground for Western fortune seekers who will continue looting African resources for the benefit of Westerners at our expense!
On this route we are likely to meet fortune hunters putting on the garb of human rights activists.
We are also likely to encounter those so-called Western well-wishers determined to donate cash, donate democracy and human rights as well as donate values and systems-all designed to swindle us of our resources.
These types are driven by the white saviour complex, people who do not believe that Africans are capable of thinking for themselves and finding alternative models of development and that Africans cannot survive unless their senior white brothers donate something to them!
Donations and donating have become a multi-billion dollar alms industry keeping many Westerners busy and purposeful!
Unfortunately for Africa, such a path to development is lined up with insults all the way; it is a path leading to the perpetual exploitation and impoverishment of most of us!
The other route which President Mugabe prefers is the route to total independence in all our political, social and economic affairs, the route which inspired the founding fathers of the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, but which the West has since then worked hard to block left right and centre.
The blockade has so far taken various forms, ranging from Western-inspired military coups-cum-murders which removed Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba and many other progressive African leaders from power to brazen dictation of economic policies and values to Africa using the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, donor aid etc.
The logic of this kind of approach is a perverted one and deceitfully designed to blackmail Africans into believing that the West is giving more to Africa when in fact it is the West which is taking far more from Africa and giving little in return-like the way a fisherman deploys enticing, but very small worms in order to catch very big fish!
The fact that President Mugabe has seen through all this perverted Western logic and that he now knows the full contents of the tool kit which the West uses to control Africa makes most of these Westerners wary of him.
The truth is the West would prefer Africa to be run by greenhorns with little experience, the so called young leaders whose understanding of the West is innocent, if not downright naive!
This preference partly explains why the same West insists on micro-managing African politics on a daily basis and choosing who should become leaders for Africa!
Those leaders who have run their countries for long are considered despots and demonised accordingly, but the real background story centres around its need for young and malleable leaders who are still impressionable and willing to carry out orders from the West at Africa’s expense!
More worrisome to the West is that President Mugabe has become a living legend, an iconic symbol of resistance to Western machinations against Africa, a figure whose vision of total liberation strikes terror in the West.
By elevating President Mugabe to chairmanship, Africa has availed him numerous platforms from which to tell his story to current generations about economic empowerment.
President Mugabe is an articulate and eloquent speaker who is well known for making the most of communication opportunities which come his way and this frightens imperialistic characters hell-bent on exploiting Africa in order to make profits.
The worst thing which could happen to Africa as far as the West is concerned is for Africa to become a united and strong continent capable of setting its own agenda and following it to the letter, a continent confident enough to look after its own without having to put up with a lot of nonsensical economic blueprints manufactured from the West for the benefit of the same West!
So far Africa has not been able to shirk off the obscene intrusiveness with which the West dabbles in our affairs.
And the same West knows that they have been intruding into internal affairs of Zimbabwe for over a decade but not getting much joy from such efforts.
For example, the way the Land Reform Programme was implemented in Zimbabwe, notwithstanding all the intrusiveness of the West is something which the West would not like to see repeated on a continental scale!
The worry is that President Mugabe might teach Africa a few key examples of how to handle the West and examples such as these may have consequences detrimental to Western interests in Africa.
Last, but not least President Mugabe is a tenacious leader who has demonstrated moral courage in circumstances where others would readily back off and start obeying the West.
The latter fears that such an example may not only inspire but also fire up the imagination of young generations who in turn might begin, in due course, to look for the kind of leadership which President Mugabe has amply demonstrated as being possible in Africa.
In other words, the Chairmanship gives President Mugabe the kind of visibility and prominence which unsettles the West the most.