Scores of people were arrested Friday in Zimbabwe as hundreds of military troops as well as police attempted to thwart an anti-government protest, with streets empty and many people hiding indoors. …
Tensions are rising in Zimbabwe as the economy implodes. Inflation is more than 700%, the second highest in the world. Now the coronavirus burdens the threadbare health system. …
The pandemic has brought a new layer of suffering.
(France24, July 31, 2020)
In fact, the nation-wide crackdown has become so sweeping and brutal that Zimbabweans have resorted to symbolic protests on social media:
Zimbabweans are staging solo protests on social media to challenge human rights abuse in the southern African country. …
The move comes amid growing police brutality and opposition crackdown in the country. …
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has responded to the critics by promising to ‘flush out bad apples’ trying to divide the country as pressure mounted on the government to stop human rights violations.
(CNN, August 10, 2020)
Robert who…?
Alas, I warned it would be thus – complete with the willful acquiescence of South Africa, the purported conscience of Sub-Saharan Africa. Here is what I wrote in “Military Coup Ousts Mugabe in Zimbabwe,” November 16, 2017:
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Unfortunately, for the longsuffering people of Zimbabwe, this only portends more years of kleptocracy and oppression under general administrative incompetence. In other words, this country is fated to continue its 37-year malaise, which has seen it wither away from the breadbasket of Africa to a simple basket case. And it will continue thus despite the vesting efforts of China – its new superpower patron, which reportedly gave its blessing for this coup. ….
I have bemoaned Zimbabwe’s descent into the ‘heart of darkness’ in too many commentaries to cite. They include “Zimbabweans Pray for Liberation from their Liberator, Robert Mugabe,” March 29, 2005, “UN Sanctions Mugabe’s Genocidal Rule,” May 14, 2007, “Zimbabwe: From Africa’s Breadbasket to Basket Case…,” December 5, 2008, “It’s Hail, Mugabe! … Again,” August 4, 2013, and “Zimbabwe’s Black Farmers: Bring Back White Farmers,” September 16, 2015.
Which is why this de-facto coup, especially with its air of déjà vu, warrants no further comment. Except that I feel obliged to note that most Zimbabweans will consider this a second liberation – no matter how pyrrhic
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Surely the saying, better the devil you know…, has never been more apt. I fear the only thing these perennially oppressed Zimbabweans can do now is pray for a third liberation – no matter how pyrrhic.
No Good News Comes Out of Africa
You’d be forgiven for thinking this. But, just as a plane crashing makes news, whereas a plane landing does not, so too Africa falling apart does, whereas Africa making progress does not.
It’s in this context that I’m happy to share the following about Polio:
The independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) for Polio Eradication officially declared on Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region is free of wild poliovirus.
‘Today is a historic day for Africa. The African Regional Certification Commission for Polio eradication (ARCC) is pleased to announce that the Region has successfully met the certification criteria for wild polio eradication, with no cases of the wild poliovirus reported in the Region for four years,’ said Professor Rose Gana Fomban Leke, ARCC Chairperson.
(WHO, August 25, 2020)
No doubt this is good news. But anyone who has seen how flaccid paralysis has hobbled thousands throughout the continent knows that it’s all too belated. After all, the United States eradicated Polio in the 1970s.
I pray it doesn’t take that long for a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine to make it to every corner of that Dark Continent.
Related commentaries:
military ousts Mugabe…