President Mugabe: Villain or Hero?

Mugabe declared in his inaugural speech that his win was a '...Victory against British Imperialism'.

Officially Mugabe won the last week's elections with his Zanu PF party gaining 56% of the vote. His opponent Morgan Tsvangiral and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - backed by Western governments including the UK and the USA - received 42% of the vote.

But even before the count was announced, Tsvangiral argued he would not accept the result because his supporters had been intimidated by Mugabe's henchmen. He also argued that many were wilfully prohibited to vote, particularly in urban areas where MDC support was strong.

Not surprisingly Western governments agree. The Foreign Secretary Jack Straw declared "Mugabe thought he could cheat his way to election and no one would notice". The UK along with the USA are beginning to unleash economic sanctions they hope will cripple and eventually crush the twenty two year old reign of Robert Mugabe.

But what is the truth? Is Mugabe a freedom fighter turned despot dictator? Or are Western governments rearing their colonial head because Mugabe will no longer play ball and protect the interest of the land rich white farmers?

It was the Englishman Cecil Rhodes who landed in Matebeleland. Rhodes ingratiated himself with the Ndebele King, Lobengula, whilst stirring up trouble with the King's enemies, the Shona people. Warning the King of danger from other Europeans and the rival tribes, Rhodes convinces the leader to hand over huge concessions to mine the resource rich land, including diamonds, in exchange for 1000 rifles, ammunition and one hundred pounds.

Lobengula believed that he had bought security only to find the UK Government and its troops ready to move in and colonise the land. In a final insult they renamed the land Rhodesia after its founding thief, Cecil Rhodes.

Enter Freedom fighters and African Nationalist Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo in the late sixties. For more than ten years they waged a Marxist style guerrilla war against Rhodesia's racist regime, under Prime Minister Ian Smith. Smith's beleagued Government, already isolated by the United Nations, looked to the UK to broker a transition of power.

The now infamous Lancaster Agreement, signed in the UK at Lancaster House in 1979, would hand over power to the African Nationalists under a new Constitutional settlement. A settlement however, that would not adequately address the inequality of land ownership: 2% of the population (white) owned 70% of the land.

Nevertheless, a year later Robert Mugabe became the first President of the former colony renamed Zimbabwe. Twenty years later the unresolved question of land redistribution (2% still owned 50% of the land) would push Mugabe to forcibly take the white farmers' land and give it to his war veterans.

To many Black African's Mugabe is a hero. Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate (85%) of any African nation. His insistence not to be bullied by Western governments or by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) only adds to his David against Goliath status. And yet there is an ugly side to Mugabe. Many have chosen to forget the Matubeland massacres perpetrated by Mugabe's brutal Fifth Columnist.

7000 people were reportedly massacred including pregnant women and children. Mugabe himself dismisses the period as 'an unfortunate consequence of insurrection and war'. His views on homosexuals cause outrage to decent minded people around the world. And the final charge often levelled at despots is that they never want to give up or hand over power.

Whilst much of these charges against Mugabe have some validity, one cannot ignore Western governments' (particularly the UK) self-interested intervention. Their cries of fraud and racism against white farmers ring shallow when one views their domination and appalling treatment of African people throughout many centuries.

The biggest loses of course are the 12 million Zimbabweans Black and white. The legacy of colonialism and its inability to redistribute land empowers men like Mugabe to portray himself as an anti-colonist, long after that struggle has been won. As a result, Mugabe ignores pressing issues such as, hyper inflation, corruption, unemployment, AIDS, and a better educated society that demands action.

The future is not bright. But it will be the African, not the Western countries, that will help Zimbabwe reform. Those neighbouring countries such as Nigeria and South Africa, who have showed Mugabe solidarity, must now demand reconciliation between Mugabe and the opposition party, MDC.

Western governments have their part to play. They must give Mugabe a chance to reform including help to redistribute land. Draconian economic sanctions will only plunge Zimbabwe into chaos and perhaps civil war. Robert Mugabe himself must plan to step down, sooner rather than later. The life blood of a modern nation and a continent demands it.