THERE are many things that have never been really told about Africa, especially its many success stories because the rise of Africa is a serious threat to the legacy of colonialism that the continent is today vigorously trying to shrug off.
For instance, the 8th anniversary of the demise of the great Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi naturally and, as expected, came and went quietly and it was for reasons which have never really been hidden, especially when the West is involved.
When Western powers are either involved or interfere in the affairs of other nations, it is almost always a given that they try to steer the course of the enduring, glowing history of Africa with an uncanny plan to change it, all to suit their agenda of recolonising the continent.
A seemingly insurmountable challenge is left firmly on the continent’s doorsteps.
What we do with it as victims of that grand theft is entirely up to us as Africans.
But whichever way one looks at it, Gaddafi was by no means an ordinary leader.
He was not only Libya’s leader, but an African leader in that vein.
Here was a man who redefined the continent’s trajectory, gave it a pathway to break away from the ugly horrors of colonialism.
Zimbabwe embarked on that path through the historic Land Reform and Resettlement Programme of 2000.
Despite the programme’s many success stories, it has been lampooned, especially by the Western media, all to scare other developing countries from embarking on the same.
The case is the same with that of Gaddafi, who miffed the West through his attempt to establish a single currency for the continent.
Added to that compelling fact was his support for the United States of Africa.
We bring below Global Research’s March 22 2018 interview between Alex Knyazev, of Russia TV24 and Peter Koenig.
Koenig says: “Mr Muammar Gaddafi was certainly not killed for humanitarian reasons.
Mr Gaddafi wanted to empower Africa.
He had a plan to create a new African Union, based on a new African economic system.
He had a plan to introduce the ‘gold dinar’ as backing for African currencies, so they could become free from the dollar-dominated Western monetary system, that kept and keeps usurping Africa; Africa’s vast natural resources, especially oil and minerals.
As a first step, he offered this lucrative and very beneficial alternative to other Muslim African states, but leaving it open for any other African countries to join.”
At the time of Gaddafi’s atrocious murder by Hillary Clinton, then Obama’s Secretary of State, and the French President Sarkozy, driven by NATO forces, on October 20 2011, Libya’s gold reserves were estimated at 150 tonnes, and about the same amount of silver.
The estimated value at that time was US$7 billion.
It’s your guess who may have stolen this enormous treasure from the people of Libya.
As of this date, it is nowhere to be found.
Gaddafi also wanted to detach his oil sales from the dollar, so he no longer could trade hydrocarbons in US dollars, as was the US/OPEC-imposed rule since the early 1970s.
Other African and Middle Eastern oil and gas producers would have followed suit.
In fact, Iran had already, in 2007, a plan to introduce the Tehran Oil Bourse, where anyone could trade hydrocarbons in currencies other than the US dollar.
Unpacking the Zimbabwe situation
When it comes to uplifting the masses, there is no escaping the fact that Zimbabwe ranks high.
First there was the iconic President Robert Mugabe paving the way for the immense and unprecedented economic empowerment that the people enjoy today.
As said above, that is a story that we are never really told.
It is our story and, as such, our mandate as the people of Zimbabwe to tell it.
Current Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa finds himself in that situation.
He has a story that has not been, and might probably never be, told unless Zimbabweans step up to the plate and tell it themselves.
Two years after taking over the reins, President Mnangagwa has been confronted by an economy that has endured almost two decades of abuse by Western powers through their widely discredited illegal economic sanctions.
This is an economy that is in dire and desperate need for restructuring.
He has been doing that with aplomb; constructing roads across the country, rehabilitating dilapidated infrastructure, re-engaging with a stubborn West and cutting Government expenditure, among other issues.
He has established a US$12 billion mining plan and on Saturday last week, as he was in Chiredzi, launching yet another mega agriculture project, the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) was giving a positive update on the rain season.
When all is said and done, Zimbabweans must learn to seize the opportunity in order to tell their own story.
Let those with ears listen.