MUGABE... facing vicious press attacks

THERE has been an all-out press attack on President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe for the last few years. The attacks have been vicious, unbalanced and unwarranted. Reading the reports, one would say the attacks were because President Mugabe was resisting democratic change and he wants to take land from whites unjustifiably. If the critics of the president were asked the question, "Are you trying to justify that the white people are entitled to the land which was robbed by their foreparents from the indigenous African people of Zimbabwe? What about the people who were forcefully removed from their land? What about those freedom fighters that sacrificed, fought and lost their lives for the independence of Zimbabwe. Are these people not justified in having some of the land that was stolen from them? Are we saying that we should forget that? I think the words of Robert Mugabe during the height of the vicious attacks against him and his government should be recalled. He stated, "England and the western world feels that what I'm doing is unjustified and that the white land owners should be compensated." He suggested, "Then let England compensate them for the land that I want to give back to my people."

The reason that the west and some African governments are fighting against this so hard is that they know it could have a ripple effect. This could inspire other landless Africans. Taking back land from whites may be contagious.

At this period in our history, the subject of reparations is on the hearts and minds of millions of Africans, not only on the continent but also, throughout the diaspora. The question of reparations at the UN Conference on Racism in Durban last year was blocked by the United States, which tried to marginalise the whole issue of reparations. Reparation is not only an issue for the descendants of the transatlantic slave trade but, reparation and compensation are an issue for those on the African continent who were fleeced, robbed and abused by the western world.

Why would the House of Representatives join the Senate in the last few weeks to talk about imposing sanctions on the country of Zimbabwe? They want to impose the kind of sanctions on the officials of this government such as they did in Liberia. The plan is to increase dissatisfaction amongst the members of the president's Cabinet. They are hoping that due to the curtailment of movement in regards to travel outside of their country, they will turn against their leader. The governments of the western world are specialists at dividing people against leadership hoping that those same people will either vote them out or fight to overthrow their leadership.

In the last OAU Conference before the emergence of the African Union, Minister Farrakhan and I had an opportunity to sit and talk with President Robert Mugabe (one of two such discussions with the president). If one could have listened to his reasoning without the poison of the western press, then he or she would come away with a totally different perception. An example of this poison is the accusation that President Mugabe is older now and just trying to hold on to power at his old age. An enlightened view would be to compare him to a Robin Hood. He is in the waning years of his life and he has looked over his shoulders. He wants to give something substantial to his people. He tried to be balanced and civil when independence came to Zimbabwe. He realised that there were certain things that the white farmers were doing that the country needed for the sake of its economy. Therefore, he was reasonable enough to leave them intact and allow them to function in a country where they previously had oppressed and misused the Black people as well as robbed their land. But, he was willing to forgive and even forget if they would help the economy of Zimbabwe to move forward. They say that hindsight is 20/20.

Hypothetically, if President Mugabe had told the white people to be prepared, for in the near future the land that you have robbed from the African people must be returned to them, would it have been painful? The feeling is that they have helped the country in their own way, but they have also helped themselves without really helping the masses of African people.

This vicious attack on President Robert Mugabe by the western press is perceived by those who understand the political and historical dynamics on the African continent as an attempt to render him unsuccessful before the same mood catches on in other countries. Countries such as Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Zambia and especially in South Africa where the whites from the repressive apartheid regime still own land, business and still oppress many of the blacks. Yet, they have still retained a privileged status in that society.

The real objective of the vicious media campaign depicting the supporters of President Robert Mugabe as thugs in the press throughout the world is designed to stop him so that the confiscation of the land robbed from the Africans will not spread to other parts of Africa.

Akbar Muhammad writes from New York.
E-mail:AATAfrica@aol.com

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