|
Freeing a
Nation From a Tyrant's Grip
By Colin L. Powell
A brave man recently met with me and described how life in his
country has become unbearable. "There is too much fear in the
country, fear of the unknown and fear of the known consequences if
we act or speak out," explained Pius Ncube, the Roman
Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Yet Archbishop Ncube
speaks out fearlessly about the terrible human rights conditions
in Zimbabwe, and is threatened almost every day with detention or
worse.
For hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, the
worst has already come. Millions of people are desperately hungry
because the country's once-thriving agricultural sector collapsed
last year after President Robert Mugabe confiscated commercial
farms, supposedly for the benefit of poor blacks. But his cynical
"land reform" program has chiefly benefited idle party
hacks and stalwarts, not landless peasants. As a result, much of
Zimbabwe's most productive land is now occupied by loyalists of
the ruling ZANU-PF party, military officers, or their wives and
friends.
Worse still, the entire Zimbabwean economy is
near collapse. Reckless governmental mismanagement and unchecked
corruption have produced annual inflation rates near 300 percent,
unemployment of more than 70 percent and widespread shortages of
food, fuel and other basic necessities. Is it any wonder that
Zimbabweans are demanding political change, or that President
Mugabe must rely on stepped-up violence and vote-rigging to remain
in office?
On June 6, the police again arrested Mr.
Mugabe's most prominent opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai. They paraded
him in a courtroom in shackles and leg irons before releasing him
on bail on June 20. His offense? Calling for work stoppages and
demonstrations to protest economic hardship and political
repression.
Like Myanmar's courageous opposition leader,
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr. Tsvangirai wages a nonviolent struggle
against a ruthless regime. Like the Burmese junta, President
Mugabe and his Politburo colleagues have an absolute monopoly of
coercive power, but no legitimacy or moral authority. In the long
run, President Mugabe and his minions will lose, dragging their
soiled record behind them into obscurity. But how long will it
take? How many good Zimbabweans will have to lose their jobs,
their homes, or even their lives before President Mugabe's violent
misrule runs its course?
The United States — and the European Union
— has imposed a visa ban on Zimbabwe's leaders and frozen their
overseas assets. We have ended all official assistance to the
government of Zimbabwe. We have urged other governments to do the
same. We will persist in speaking out strongly in defense of human
rights and the rule of law. And we will continue to assist
directly, in many different ways, the brave men and women of
Zimbabwe who are resisting tyranny.
But our efforts are unlikely to succeed quickly
enough without greater engagement by Zimbabwe's neighbors. South
Africa and other African countries are increasingly concerned and
active on Zimbabwe, but they can and should play a stronger and
more sustained role that fully reflects the urgency of Zimbabwe's
crisis. If leaders on the continent do not do more to convince
President Mugabe to respect the rule of law and enter into a
dialogue with the political opposition, he and his cronies will
drag Zimbabwe down until there is nothing left to ruin — and
Zimbabwe's implosion will continue to threaten the stability and
prosperity of the region.
There is a way out of the crisis. ZANU-PF and
the opposition party can together legislate the constitutional
changes to allow for a transition. With the president gone, with a
transitional government in place and with a date fixed for new
elections, Zimbabweans of all descriptions would, I believe, come
together to begin the process of rebuilding their country. If this
happened, the United States would be quick to pledge generous
assistance to the restoration of Zimbabwe's political and economic
institutions even before the election. Other donors, I am sure,
would be close behind.
Reading this, Robert Mugabe and his cohorts may
cry, "Blackmail." We should ignore them. Their time has
come and gone. As Archbishop Ncube has said, "Things in our
country can hardly get worse." With the perseverance of brave
Zimbabweans, strengthened commitment from their neighbors, and the
strong support of the international community, we can rescue the
people of Zimbabwe. This is a worthy and urgent goal for us all.
Colin L. Powell is U. S. secretary of state
Source: NYTimes Op-ED Page -- June 24, 2003
* *
* * *
Launching the Pedagogical History
of Africa Project in Harare yesterday [5 September 2011] ,
President Mugabe said . . .
"The history that must be written by our African scholars and
academics here is the history that focuses on African people in
struggle as creators of their own destiny rather than mere
consumers of stories written about them by passive on-lookers
who oftentimes happen to be non-African outsiders . . . . Real
history belongs to a people in struggle and not to the
interpreters of history. The people themselves are the makers of
history and therefore the real historians. The interpreters are
mere raconteurs of history and not the actual history-makers as
is often wrongly implied . . . Only this way can we avoid
history written by colonialists as 'winners'. Our real winners
are the people, whose real history or struggle the so-called
winners would like to distort and suppress . . . You cannot be a
historian of African people if you do not share their cry or
their laughter. No. The African sensibility, reflected in
African culture and worldview, is the only accurate compass to
guide a historian who is genuine about writing African history.
. . . Slavery and colonisation do not themselves constitute
African history. They disrupt and falsify the trajectory of
African history. They dehumanise Africans to fit into the scheme
of European capital. The ideology of racism is created as a
parallel process to rationalise the oppression of Africans. . .
. I need not stress that it is imperative to edify educational
systems, which embody the African and universal values so as to
ensure the rooting of youth in African culture in the context of
a sustainable and participatory development. This way we
continue to foster the spirit of unity in Africa as embodied in
the African Unity Charter”—AllAfrica
*
* * * *
 |
Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
|
* *
* * *
|
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
|
 |
* *
* * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
update 27 June 2008
|
