African Democracy: A Lost Promise

The New Republic: Leaders Pledged To Democracy Allow Robert Mugabe's Reign Of Terror In Zimbabwe

(The New Republic)  This column was written by Joshua Kurlantzick.

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A group once known for meetings where thuggish African dictators gathered essentially to congratulate themselves on staying in power, struck a bold new note. On a continent that in the 1990s had witnessed waves of democratization and the end of apartheid, Africa's young generation of leaders made their break from the past. They announced The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a vision of progress in which fighting corruption, empowering average people, and ruling justly would be critical. For African nations in the future, NEPAD's charter announced, "Good governance [is] a basic requirement for peace, security and sustainable political and socio-economic development."

One of the driving forces behind NEPAD, South African President Thabo Mbeki, made it clear that the leader of Africa's most powerful nation also would no longer tolerate the brutality and human rights abuses of the past. Mbeki helped negotiate peace deals to end the civil wars in Congo, Burundi, and Liberia. He traveled the continent preaching the virtues of democracy. His words seemed to have an effect — when a coup overthrew the elected government of tiny Togo, the African Union, successor to the OAU, condemned the coup plotters. Other new African leaders, like Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, made similar pledges to negotiate peace on behalf of warring groups in other countries and push for better governance.

But when it comes to one of the region's most brutal dictatorships, this new Africa is nowhere to be found. Over the past two weeks in Zimbabwe, the regime of Robert Mugabe has cracked the skull of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and beat up another member of the opposition, putting him in critical condition. Mugabe has pledged to remain in power until he is 100 — he is currently 83 — and has driven the Zimbabwean economy into the worst hyperinflation in the world while also burning down the homes of thousands of urban dwellers. A nation once regarded as the breadbasket of southern Africa now faces widespread famine. As James Kirchick recently argued, Mugabe's terror may even constitute genocide, since he has deliberately organized mass murder against his opponents. All the while, alas, Africa's new democrats say virtually nothing.

The crisis in Zimbabwe has been building since 2000, when Mugabe essentially lost a referendum on his rule and struck out first at a small minority of white farmers and then at the MDC and its urban supporters. But for several years, much of the Western press attention — including The New Republic — focused on the plight of the white farmers. Their situation was indeed dire, and several were killed, but today many of the white farmers already have fled Zimbabwe, and the brunt of Mugabe's wrath has focused on the MDC and anyone else who dares to question him, including the urban middle class and people from minority tribes historically hostile to him and his ethnic group, the Shona.

Since late February, the crisis in Zimbabwe seems to be approaching a peak. Perhaps because Mugabe faces renewed pressure from people in his own party and the MDC, which had been weakened in recent years, he appears to have decided to crack down harder. (Some news reports suggest that Mugabe even fears a coup from dissatisfied elements of his security forces.) Besides the beating administered to Tsvangirai, Mugabe recently prevented four other MDC members from leaving the country, and his security forces shot live bullets at an opposition demonstration on March 11. Police reportedly have been administering random beatings to people across the slums of Harare, the capital.

Other African states could wield leverage over Mugabe. South Africa now holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, the biggest bully pulpit. Zimbabwe's economy has become highly dependent on fuel and other types of aid from Pretoria, as well as cross-border trade with and remittances from South Africa, where as many as one million Zimbabweans have fled over the past several years since Mugabe's brutality increased.

But neither Mbeki nor many other African leaders have stepped up. As Mugabe has fixed a series of elections in recent years, South African observers have blessed these rigged polls. Over the past two weeks, the South African foreign ministry issued a mealy-mouthed statement asking Mugabe to respect the rule of law and to push for "a lasting solution to the current challenges faced by the people of Zimbabwe." Mbeki himself remained silent. As reporters noted, Mbeki's weekly African National Congress (ANC) newsletter prodded South Africans to address the continuing scourge of racism in their own country and made no mention of Mugabe. The ANC even called the Mugabe crackdown "alleged" despite television footage of Zimbabwean thugs beating opposition activists. The African Union, meanwhile, criticized Mugabe's treatment of the MDC but did little else, simply calling for a "constructive dialogue" in Zimbabwe. Ghana's president, another supposed new African leader who also currently chairs the AU, told the press, "Please don't think that Africa is not concerned. Africa is very much concerned. What can Mbeki as a man do?"

"We Africans should hang our heads in shame," Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced this week. "How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa?" Tutu went on. "Do we really care about human rights, do we care that people of flesh and blood, fellow Africans, are being treated like rubbish, almost worse than they were ever treated by rabid racists?"

Why have so many new African democrats refused to criticize Mugabe? Some still remember Mugabe's role as a valiant fighter against white rule in then-Rhodesia and are reluctant to criticize this old lion. This is particularly true for Mbeki, a technocrat whose (wise) neoliberal economic policies have strengthened South Africa's fiscal situation but left him open to attack for betraying poor black South Africans, some of whom may have a quiet respect for Mugabe.

Or the answer is worse. By refusing to question Mugabe's vote rigging and intimidation, these new African democrats may believe they can insulate themselves from similar treatment. After all, so many of these new leaders have fallen far short of their promises. Nigeria's Obasanjo tried to rewrite his nation's constitution to obtain another term in office. Uganda's Museveni continues to fix the political process in order to stay in power. Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi, another supposed new leader, has turned increasingly authoritarian. Little wonder, then, that Mugabe remains confident.

[bluestardad]

FACTS ARE STUBORN THINGS! DO A LITTLE RESEARCH BEFORE YOU POST OR JUST GO ON TALKING ABOUT RELIGION!

LETS TAKE SOME BRUSH N I G G E R STRAIGHT OUT OF THE JUNGLE AND PUT IN CHARGE OF THE COUNTRY BECAUSE HE WILL GIVE US SPECIAL IMPORT EXPORT TREATMENT! NOW ALL THE HISTORIC FARMS AND FAMILIES THAT SETTLED RHODESIA ARE GONE! HOW DARE THEY STAND UP AGAINST THEIR COLONIAL MASTERS IN BRITIAN!

Racial equality is just another means of subjugating the people by government. I know lets put a person in power just because of the color of his skin and see how that turns out! What about Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Put in power in Rhodesia by America and Britain under the Christian Crusade of Racial Equality where once in power he kills all the white farmers gives their land to peasants so the economy collapses now people are eating rats in the streets of the capitol. Oh yea he hires North Korean Army for body guards and has them kill his own people! This turn of events may have had something to do with the fact that originally Rhodesia was the first African Country to Break away from British Colonial Rule under the White minority earning their countries rights to keep the profits of their farming and mineral deposits. So Britain teams up with America and deposes their government for this outrage.

[fredgrad2000]

Bluestardad - Just tell me what GED class you're in (I'm sure for the 3rd or 4th time) and I'll come teach you some actual knowledge vs your namecalling, MoveOn.org fiction rhetoric...maybe this time you'll pass!!

Grumpas - Try reading posts all the way through before you comment - you'll see my point is that the lefty nutties keep actualy running commercials even on Super Bowl Sunday about telling George Bush to get involved in Darfur, and this article and certain posters complain we don't confront Mugabe in Zimbabwe, while calling Bush a warmonger for taking out Saddam, who was worse to his people and democracy than the Sudanese or Zimbabwean regimes, and killed more of his own people...I don't say get involved in Sudan or Zimbabwe, I just want to know why the "humanitarians" that keep urging action there think our removal of a genocidal dictator in Iraq was so bad if they're urging us to do something to stop the same kind of abuses in Sudan or Zimbabwe

[bluestardad]

LETS TAKE SOME BRUSH N I G G E R STRAIGHT OUT OF THE JUNGLE AND PUT IN CHARGE OF THE COUNTRY BECAUSE HE WILL GIVE US SPECIAL IMPORT EXPORT TREATMENT! NOW ALL THE HISTORIC FARMS AND FAMILIES THAT SETTLED RHODESIA ARE GONE! HOW DARE THEY STAND UP AGAINST THEIR COLONIAL MASTERS IN BRITIAN!

Racial equality is just another means of subjugating the people by government. I know lets put a person in power just because of the color of his skin and see how that turns out! What about Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Put in power in Rhodesia by America and Britain under the Christian Crusade of Racial Equality where once in power he kills all the white farmers gives their land to peasants so the economy collapses now people are eating rats in the streets of the capitol. Oh yea he hires North Korean Army for body guards and has them kill his own people! This turn of events may have had something to do with the fact that originally Rhodesia was the first African Country to Break away from British Colonial Rule under the White minority earning their countries rights to keep the profits of their farming and mineral deposits. So Britain teams up with America and deposes their government for this outrage.

[drinuk]

TimJones, Words Fail me after reading your infantile comments. If you think that Mugabe is on the right track then you are a mis-informed idiot. Employing North Korean Troops as personal protection and sending them to slaughter thousands of black tribesmen, women and children is the right track, Is It ??? If you take a look out of your window you will see two men in white coats about to take you to somewhere nice. You are a dangerous lunatic.

[beniam12]

It%u2019s truly an outrage to hear the African leaders who kill their own people in the streets of their capita and steal election in front of the public celebrated as democratic, Whiles people like Robert Mugabe who is no saint demonized mainly, because he has gone against western interest (British). Any observer would tell you their is more democracy in Zimbabwe then say Uganda and Ethiopia where the opposition have been killed or locked up. I say Zimbabwe is in the right path to democracy while other are failing miserably. But if you ask me, if the policy of Robert Mugabe, in respect to the land issue and white settlers he is dead wrong, no if no buts. But I don%u2019t think western duplicity will not help the cause of democracy in Africa or anywhere else.

[grumpas]

I don't know why right wing nut cases like fredgrad2000 don't get a life????? They spend their time worrying that the rest of the world isn't a democracy! They seem to have the misguided notion everyone wants to be one if given the right opportunity! While democracy here at home withers and dies on the vine from people like him who no longer seem to know what it's all about without help from left wingers! At one time we had the best system on the planet, but that was before the fascist George W Bush! Now we are in serious danger of sinking into the mire of despotism ourselves! So, don't people like fredgrad2000 think we need to clean up the mess at home before we go telling other people how to live! I will be glad when they grow up to realize the world is full of despot's! When you get rid of one he is replaced by something worse! I would imagine that will be the final chapter in the Iraq story! They just wind up Islamic fundamentalist's because Bush couldn't leave well enough alone!

[drinuk]

So ! Desmond Tutu has finally spoken with regard to Zimbabwe, well it took him twenty years Hooray!! Perhaps he will now follow his comments by admitting that almost the whole of the African continent is tribal and despotic. A sponge for aid and charity from well meaning people worldwide, aid used by it's leaders to enhance their personal wealth and in the purchase of AK47 assault rifles to protect their infamous distortion of democracy. As for removing Mugabe, it would be pointless, as there is another, equally as evil waiting in the wings to emulate his wealth by sucking up to the rest of us for the aid money to invest in Swiss banks, in NY and London property and in whatever
worldwide business takes there fancy.
Go away Desmond, you are too late, you saw the Gonocide and did nothing.

[bluestardad]

LETS TAKE SOME BRUSH N I G G E R STRAIGHT OUT OF THE JUNGLE AND PUT IN CHARGE OF THE COUNTRY BECAUSE HE WILL GIVE US SPECIAL IMPORT EXPORT TREATMENT! NOW ALL THE HISTORIC FARMS AND FAMILIES THAT SETTLED RHODESIA ARE GONE! HOW DARE THEY STAND UP AGAINST THEIR COLONIAL MASTERS IN BRITIAN!

Racial equality is just another means of subjugating the people by government. I know lets put a person in power just because of the color of his skin and see how that turns out! What about Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Put in power in Rhodesia by America and Britain under the Christian Crusade of Racial Equality where once in power he kills all the white farmers gives their land to peasants so the economy collapses now people are eating rats in the streets of the capitol. Oh yea he hires North Korean Army for body guards and has them kill his own people! This turn of events may have had something to do with the fact that originally Rhodesia was the first African Country to Break away from British Colonial Rule under the White minority earning their countries rights to keep the profits of their farming and mineral deposits. So Britain teams up with America and deposes their government for this outrage.

[bluestardad]

fredgrad2000; GO GET A GED THEN COME BACK WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! DO BASIC RESEARCH BEFORE YOU WRITE! MAYBE YOU SHOULD STICK TO TALKING ABOUT RELIGION.

[fredgrad2000]

Please, blame America and Britain?! We just can't win - the world and our looney lefties would bash George Bush and our nation again for "an illegal invasion" if we did anything to remove the tyrant Mugabe or the Sudanese leadership fomenting the genocide in Darfur. Why would it be ok to remove those genocidal regimes, but it was an "illegal" invasion to remove the genocidal Saddam Hussein, who killed far more people that have died in Darfur or in Zimbabwe?

[wubshets]

The Hypocrisy of the west in Ethiopia

The West has been mute as Meles and cabal dribbled election results, rerun elections again for Bereket Simon and other fallen and disgraced comrades, and as European observers and the Carter center concluded the elections "fraudulent" in diplomatically palatable jargon.
On top of all this duplicity, there is the patronizing argument about the impressive gain of seats in parliament from twelve to one hundred seventy five. They seem to neglect the fundamental principle of democracy: an implicit, inviolable contract that must be respected - the verdict of the electorate. What is at stake is this fundamental contract that underlies all elections. The Ethiopian people unequivocally decided they do not want Meles & EPRDF for another five years after fourteen years.

Despite the impending gloom and doom, the status quo continues and the West seems more bent on appeasing a dictator for the sake of stability. Stability maintained through dictatorship is transitory, and it is only a matter of time before it blows apart and creates more havoc ultimately. Why Westerners fail to perceive the stability that will accrue from democratic governance is hard to fathom. May be instead of the unknown good, they would rather stick with the known evil. And such myopic policy could stump out the buds of democracy.

[us_infidel]

African Democracy = an oxymoron

[bluestardad]

LETS TAKE SOME BRUSH N I G G E R STRAIGHT OUT OF THE JUNGLE AND PUT IN CHARGE OF THE COUNTRY BECAUSE HE WILL GIVE US SPECIAL IMPORT EXPORT TREATMENT!

Racial equality is just another means of subjugating the people by government. I know lets put a person in power just because of the color of his skin and see how that turns out! What about Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Put in power in Rhodesia by America and Britain under the Christian Crusade of Racial Equality where once in power he kills all the white farmers gives their land to peasants so the economy collapses now people are eating rats in the streets of the capitol. Oh yea he hires North Korean Army for body guards and has them kill his own people! This turn of events may have had something to do with the fact that originally Rhodesia was the first African Country to Break away from British Colonial Rule under the White minority earning their countries rights to keep the profits of their farming and mineral deposits. So Britain teams up with America and deposes their government for this outrage.