Most African countries were better off under colonial rule, but few have people alive today who are still able to remember what that was like. The only reminders are remnants of once decent roads, and other infrastructure essential for civilisation – like dams to store water, pumping stations, electricity, sewerage treatment plants… and all the other things western people take for granted.
With the death last week of former Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith aged 88, many people had occasion to pause for thought on what has changed in the 27 years since President Mugabe of the renamed country, Zimbabwe gained power in that once prosperous and beautiful place. Comments in British media range from sorrowful reflection: Ian Smith has sadly been proved right, and became an unlikely hero for the black Zimbabweans, to downright stupid Ian Smith: Man whose folly unleashed Mugabe. These articles were all published within a few days of each other! The last one – about Smith being responsible for Mugabe (whose terrorists Smith and the people of Rhodesia – both black and white – fought a civil war against for thirteen long years) is typical of ‘liberal’ apologists who (until communism went out of fashion) saw Stalin’s Soviet Union as the only decent way forward for humanity. They conveniently forget that they unanimously praised Mugabe’s enlightened approach when he first assumed power from Smith back in 1980. Now, 27 years later, it is all Smith’s fault. Hmmm… like all liberal thinking it is disingenuous.
So we were reminded again that impoverished Zimbabwe’s mega-rich President Mugabe flaunts his power by riding in a bulletproof limo, flanked by motorcycle outriders, followed by an armoured personnel carrier, with lots of flashing lights and sirens. His predecessor, Rhodesia’s (modest to a fault) Prime Minister Ian Smith, drove himself around in an old Renault 5 in what was (despite sanctions and war) once one of Africa’s most prosperous countries.
Today, the people of Zimbabwe suffer the consequences of a failed Marxist state. Its Capital City, Harare (and pretty much everywhere else) has been without electricity for weeks on end; and soldiers and policemen have been drafted to mark examination papers because teachers are boycotting (or have left the country); water supplies are in danger of pollution by raw sewage; and garbage collections have been severely curtailed due to lack of fuel and spares to keep the fleet running.
The International Bar Association (the largest grouping of legal practitioners in the world) condemned Zimbabwean police conduct; Zimbabwe’s own Attorney General has been arrested on the orders of Mugabe (he was implicated in a struggle for succession); and the government has threatened to sack striking magistrates (local judges).
Meanwhile the ordinary people face starvation (again) because, at the beginning of this year’s growing (rainy) season, Zimbabwe suffers seed shortages and has to import maize with non-existent foreign currency; and they resort to barter in an effort to secure scarce commodities including food on the streets, because shops are empty and the currency valueless. And they can’t get treatment for AIDS or food for the starving unless they first buy a (Mugabe) Zanu PF party membership card.
END
Readers who would like to make a contribution to help innocent pensioners, who are unable to buy food and other basic necessities in Zimbabwe, should please contact Patricia Williams by email patashnix@btinternet.com.
Peter Davies was a soldier in Rhodesia from 1963 to 1975, where he took part in the capture and interrogation of terrorists.  Davies’ novel, Scatterlings of Africa, is based on his own experience during Rhodesia’s war on terror, and personal observations of how terrorist activities impacted Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and its people.
7 users commented in " ZIMBABWE – The African country where people wish it was still under white minority rule "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m a black Zimbabwean and I respectfully disagree entirely with your analysis.
No matter how bad things are now we are no longer treated like slaves as we were under Ian Smith.
Like many, I would rather wake up tomorrow to a Zimbabwe without Mugabe but only in my most black Zimbabweans worst nightmare would we allow Rhodesia to return.
The following article on the BBC website entitled “Zimbabwe: We Were The Enemy” should further elaborate on this reality.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7105176.stm
Please make no mistake (as you appear to do in the title of your posting): you will not find black Zimbabweans who seriously miss the misery, mass graves, war and conflict of the Smith era.
Furthermore I think you will find few modern, progressive white Zimbabweans willing to display much more than the human sympathy most people feel for a man of historical significance who has passed away.
In the spirit of reconciliation between Black and White Zimbabweans, may Ian Douglas Smith’s soul Rest In Peace.
Kevin Mupindi
Johannesburg, South Africa
I AM A BLACK ZIMBABWEAN WHO WAS TOLD I WAS COLOURED.YES,THATS WHAT THEY DO,SEPARATE BROTHER FROM HIS BROTHER.BLACKS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO WALK ON THE SIDEWALKS,THEY WERE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO DRINK CLEAR BEER JUST TO MENTION A FEW.WHO EVER SAYS THEY PREFER RHODESIA TO ZIMBABWE IS EITHER WHITE OR ON DRUGS,MAYBE JUST PLAIN STUPID.HOW COME SMITH DID NOT GO TO AN INTERNATIONAL COURT IN EUROPE,LET’S GUESS–HE WAS WHITE.I WOULD RATHER STARVE IN MY OWN COUNTRY AND TRY TO BUILD A FUTURE FOR THE CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN THAN KISS THE BEHINDS OF THE WEST.THOSE MASTER/SLAVE OR BAAS/BOY DAYS ARE OVER PHYSICALLY AND NOW WE ARE TRYING TO DELETE THEM ECONOMICALLY AND MENTALLY…VIVA AFRICA
I thank Kevin Mupundi for his comment and accept that everyone is entitled to express his or her opinion in the civilised manner that he has displayed. I also accept that things were not perfect in Rhodesia, but I cannot remember black people in Rhodesia being treated “like slaves”. I loathed South Africa’s Apartheit, and when I visited that country if felt like entering a police state – let us not confuse that with Rhodesia. I do wonder why Kevin Mupundi is living in Johannesburg, South Africa, instead of savouring the “freedom” of Zimbabwe (and most other African states). Thank you again for your comment. Peter
I think SA will become the same as Zimbabwa in the future.The promise that wasa given but,not deliver to the blacks,will some day cause the goverment push out white,to make a job or farm for their former “Freedom Fighters”
Is there any former white-control country that has pospered after forcing out the whites that govern before?
maurice wileaver Champaign Ill. USA
In the USA we refer to it as ‘white flight’. As whites departed from the large central cities those areas crumbled, both economically and socially. In Africa it’s on a country-wide basis. Recently, Uganda with the expelling of the Indian and European industrial class failed miserably and now with the white farmers forced away, Zimbabwe’s fate will be the same. South Africa and Namibia seem to be next. Racist attitudes, criminality, disease and tribal conflict have central and southern Africa on a road to doom.
I’ve been puzzling over this question for some time. There are the obvious knee-jerk reactions, but I wonder if it’s even possible for people to consider the objective truth. I suspect not; whatever one’s personal feelings, they are the product of one’s own experiences.
For Synclare’s benefit, let me answer the one factual question that can be answered. Ian Smith was not tried in an international court because Robert Mugabe agreed for him to stay in Zimbabwe provided he retired quietly. The evidence of this can be found on the day that Smith’s farm was invaded during the second-round land seizures: when so-called war veterans came to his property, Smith called the police, and they were removed immediately.
As to the broader question… what does “better” mean? It would be impossible to claim that today’s Zimbabwe is more prosperous than yesterday’s Rhodesia. But the human spirit has a drive to freedom and the opportunity to thrive, and if black Rhodesians are not subject to the same situation as black South Africans, we can all accept that they were nonetheless held down from realizing their full potential. The passion that one sees today from the MDC and its supporters–in the face of overwheming adversity!–is the passion of people who sense that they now control their own fate.
So, while I’m sure that people who are hungry do often wonder if it was better “back then,” remember that that’s a purely basic reaction. Give them food, give them the essentials, and they’ll quickly remember that they are better off now than they were, simply because they now have the power to decide their own futures.
Hi I have wonder if there has been a country in Africa,that have driven out people(whites) and then came to trive and prosper after the over thrown,of their repressers?
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