Zimbabweans must draw inspiration from Obama’s election as USA President

Pic: USA President and Vice President elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the acceptance celebration in Chicago on 5 November 2008

Barack Obama has been elected American President. The first ever descendant of the injustices of Western imperialism and slavery to make it to the most powerful position in the land of the once oppressors of his generations.

I could not help but shed a tear of joy at such a monumental milestone in world history.

Amid all these emotionally compelling developments I could not help but reflect back to my beloved Zimbabwe.



I listened to the hitherto vile McCain conceding defeat an imploring his supporters to o likewise in the most dignified manner I never thought he was capable of articulating.
He turned the supporters boos into instant applause. The greatness of America was restored in an instant. Democracy had once again been upheld and demonstrated.

I watched USA President elects Barack Obama deliver an electrifying unifying speech where he reminded the nation that the change they yearn for was theirs to drive under his leadership.

I looked back to 29 March 2008 when my country went through a similar process of choosing our national leadership and my tears of joy for Obama suddenly turned into streams of sorrow and anger and revulsion.

Mugabe was defeated by Tsvangirai in that election. He would not concede and plunged the nation into 32 days of uncertainty as he and his surrogates devised shameful schemes to deny the people he fought for so hard to liberate from colonialism the right to choose their leadership in no different ways to how the colonists used to deny the same people to choose their leadership.

I wondered what would have happened had McCain and his ruling Republicans had refused to announce the Presidential results in the USA election as happened in Zimbabwe.

Then it dawned to me that developments in the USA could just be the tonic needed to resolve the Zimbabwe political impasse.

Not that I have any expectation that Mugabe would learn anything from the USA electoral process but because change had proved to be unstoppable when the people think it was time for change as is the case in Zimbabwe.

In electing Obama the Americans have shown that their might is not just in gun totting and force but a conviction in the power of change and its benefits.

At a time when Mugabe clings to power on the spurious allegation that his removal from office would result in the colonists from America and Britain and their EU friends recolonising the country, the Americans are opting for none White leadership for their country.

How ironic? If the Americans are choosing a President of Kenyan and African descent, where would they get the leadership to mastermind recolonisation of Africa and more specifically Zimbabwe when among them they are finding it difficult to find a leader capable of leading them to prosperity and global leadership they have become accustomed to?

Because Americans have held their elections and smoothly effected regime change their country is going to focus on social, political and economic challenges facing their nation and stand a enhanced change of prevailing using fresh ideas than relying on tried policies that had failed them in the past and created many enemies for them worldwide.

Meanwhile because Mugabe refuses to accept change yearned by the people and uses brutal force to deny people the chance to realise benefits of regime change our country has been plunged into the abyss of economic catastrophe, humanitarian abuse and political turmoil.

If this is the price Zimbabweans have to pay for Mugabe participating in liberating them from British and American colonialism, it may be necessary for Zimbabweans to consider fighting him and stripping him of the leadership mantle he has bestowed upon himself.

There is a serious need to revise the strategy of dealing with Mugabe’s resistance to change and it can be overcome as has happened in America.
Can we do it? Yes we can, to borrow inspiration from Barack Obama’s rallying cry to his nation.

There will be obstacles and loss of life but nothing near the sacrifices we are making to keep Mugabe at the helm.

The sooner Zimbabweans wake up to this reality the faster we will realise the change we yearn for.