A CONVERSATION one of our contributors had with Ian Douglas Smith in 1995, reported in this edition, offers a succinct insight into the thinking, not only of this notorious Rhodesian rebel in particular, but of the white colonialists in general.
They are a breed of committed racists.
This commitment to racism is amply demonstrated by Smith who was an unrepentant racist right up to his grave.
His philosophy, that blacks were inferior to whites, was the basis of black oppression during white rule by successive white colonial regimes.
The unrepentant nature of Smith can be seen by his defence of the racist policies of the whites 15 years after independence when he was interviewed.
He was still oblivious to the fact that thousands of lives had been lost in fighting his racist policies during the liberation struggle.
This is the policy through which Smith unashamedly encouraged the flooding of white immigrants into a country where blacks were denied education and other opportunities to advance themselves, as reported in his conversation published in this edition.
Fifteen years after independence we still hear an aging Smith still defending his belief that Britain had to grant independence to a minority white regime.
And if blacks were to be granted majority rule ‘in a thousand years’ it had to be those who had internalised the whiteman’s thinking at the expense of their indigenous philosophy.
That is why he was prepared to have a country whose name was double-barrelled (Zimbabwe-Rhodesia) so long as the blacks in ‘power’ were his puppets.
Puppets with black faces and white minds have always been darlings of these racist colonialists.
Converting blacks into quislings was an art, mastered not only by Ian Smith and his regime, but by colonialists who partitioned this vast continent of Africa also.
That is why after being granted majority rule – even after shedding blood like here in Zimbabwe – there are still black opposition political parties which are surrogates of our erstwhile colonial oppressors.
And our colonial masters are united in their bid to make their supremacy perpetual.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have flooded former colonies are not primarily for humanitarian purposes as we are made to believe.
This is part of their grand strategy to drive people away from faith in their governments’ capabilities and instead transfer their allegiance to those financing the NGOs.
White colonialists, of whom Smith was kith and kin, will never tire of making their way of thinking, which looks at their former colonial subjects as inferiors, predominant.
To achieve their objectives, they are very meticulous in their planning.
That is why imperialists have such establishments like the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and Chatham House all meant to rein in non-compliant governments.
Zimbabwe is familiar with these organisations for they have not been at rest in their endeavour to bring about regime change.
And the reason is simply because we are a sovereign state which decided to right the wrongs that had been created by white racist regimes like that of Ian Smith.
It is for this reason that we hail the Third Think-Tank Summit being hosted by Zimbabwe, which tries to exploit African knowledge to come up with African solutions.
Let’s show these imperialists that what they can achieve with their think-tanks like Chatham House, African think-tanks can come up with even better constructive ideas.
As we celebrate our independence shortly, let’s value our sovereign status.
We were all created by one God, whether we are white, black, pink or yellow.