Posted by
Bert Chapman on Thursday, November 29, 2007 2:34:07 PM
Ian Smith, the former leader of Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe) died recently in South Africa. Smith lead the former British colony's unilateral succession from Great Britain in 1965. This act was greated with indignation by the British Government and much of the politically correct "right thinking" international community in the throes of anti-imperialist sentiment of the 1960s and the utopian belief that all African countries could be successful members of the international community once European "colonial shackles" were thrown of.
Smith sought to promote Rhodesian national sovereignty in the face of this indignant international opposition. He presciently warned that the tribalism in his country made black majority rule a highly problematic proposition.
Yet the international community lead, sad to say by Britain, ignored Smith's insights and subjected Rhodesia to an international array of sanctions. Despite these sanctions, Smith's country enjoyed a relatively prosperous and politically democratic existence by African standards. Civil war in the 1970s took its toll and Smith conceded to a transition to majority black rule by 1980, while warning of problems that would lie ahead.
After Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe in 1980, the country's leadership was assumed by Robert Mugabe whom history will remember as one of the most criminal, incompetent, and sadistic dictators in Africa's contemporary history. Smith remained a member of his country's parliament for a few years in the 1980s, but was forced to resign after a falling out with the increasingly paranoid and tyrannical Mugabe. Smith wrote his memoirs in 1997 which bemoaned the condition his country was falling into and died in exile in South Africa.
Zimbabwe, if properly managed and run, should be one of Africa's shining stars. It has good agricultural potential and had, at one time, an educated populace. Zimbabwe's agricultural, industrial, and human capital potential have been squandered by Mugabe and his goons in a fit of ethnic tribal victimology, Marxist influenced dictatorial skullduggery, and international indifference. South Africa, which has the political, economic, and military capability to topple Mugabe's regime on its own, sits in smug indifference because it doesn't want to be seen as vindicating Smith and other critics who warned of the problems of black majority rule in ZImbabwe.
The Organization of African Unity sits on its smug posterior and tries to excuse Mugable and his henchmen.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, a few prescient observers such as Smith warned that Zimbabwe's transition to black majority rule would not be easy and that there would be problems. For their sagacious insight, Smith and these observers were denounced as racists, imperialists, colonialists, and other terms of opprobrium from the leftist dictionary. Yet these critics were right and can now say "we told you so." White run Rhodesia was far from perfect and Smith was not without flaws, but his country was becoming more prosperous and was on its way to becoming more democratic if it could have been allowed to work out its own development without external interference from a jealous British colonial power and power hungry leftist mobs such as those headed by Mugabe.
Eliminating Mugabe and his despicable regime, whether done by South Africa, or some combination of British Commonwealth powers, would be a signal that African countries are serious about reforming themselves and creating more prosperous and democratic futures for their citizens. Keeping Mugabe and his criminal thugs in power demonstrates to the world that African countries are more concerned with protecting their political and economic power base at all costs, regardless of their impact on their populations, that they aren't interested in being a constructive part of the broader global community, and are more concerned with engaging in ethnic tribalism and anti-colonial rhetoric than trying to honestly face their problems and improve the lives of their citizens.