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Zimbabwe is right to close the chapter on its colonial past says academic
Deborah Gabriel, The Colourful Network
September 08, 2005

http://www.blackbritain.co.uk/news/details.aspx?

Retiring Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa recently said it is time for Africa to shed traces of its colonial past. Yet whilst critics have rounded on Zimbabwe’s attempts to do just that, Dr George Shire says Zimbabwe is doing nothing wrong.

Africa needs a new home-grown democracy
Having served as President of Tanzania for the last 10 years, Benjamin Mkapa is retiring, ineligible to stand for a third term in accordance with Tanzania’s constitutional laws.

Addressing the Ugandan parliament on a recent visit to mark the end of his presidency, President Mkapa said:

"After all those years of colonial rule and the five decades or so of self-rule, with its mistakes of all colours and shades, the time has now come for Africa to go back to the drawing board and try to engender a new democracy for Africa with African characteristics."

He continued: "As I prepare to leave office and as I look back over our recent history, I am convinced that Africa needs a home-grown new democracy.

Our political systems and institutions still mirror, to a large extent, systems and institutions of the former colonial powers. What most of us in leadership in Africa are has roots in this colonial past."

Tanzania was first colonized by the Germans, who were defeated in the Second World War and then by the British, before it won its liberation.

President Mkapa said that one of the undesirable legacies of the colonial era was the old colonial administration with the governor running the country which has led to the emergence of ‘big man’ leaders in Africa.

He said that many of Africa’s dictators were borne out of the influence of the colonial legacy:

"Colonialists did not prepare Africa for self-democratic rule", said President Mkapa, adding that the borders drawn for Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884 as a method of divide and rule was largely responsible for civil wars and political conflicts across Africa.

"Our former colonial masters must be courageous enough to accept part of the blame and support Africa as it seeks lasting solutions to these conflicts."

President Mkapa’s speech won a standing ovation.

The slow process of de-colonization
Commenting on President Benjamin Mkapa’s speech, Dr George Shire, academic, writer and former Zimbabwean war veteran told Black Britain:

"In a general sense I would say that all African countries when they came into independence inherited a constitutional framework largely drawn with the former colonisers."

Referring to de-colonization as an evolutionary process Dr Shire said: "There is no such thing as a complete break, it just doesn’t happen.

One has to pay attention to how things have got to where they are. The de-colonization process does not finish with independence, it’s just a chapter in the process. We still have a long way to go."

Dr Shire told Black Britain that any new "home grown" system of governance would have to encompass "local realities."

The issue, he said is "More to do with whether it reflects the wishes of locals as it is understood. Many people make confusion between the word democracy and constitution."

Whilst Western countries hold up the system of democracy as the only acceptable political structure that they are prepared to tolerate in Africa, or for that matter in any region of the world, Dr Shire said:

"Just because you have a democracy does not mean you produce nice people, it doesn’t follow that way."

According to Dr Shire any debate about constitutional change cannot be separated form the issue of land ownership. He said:

"The minute one wants to talk about de-colonizing the city, you go to the question of making sure people have access to a particular plot and a particular piece of land and a particular property."

Referring to the Lancaster House Agreement in which the constitution for an independent Zimbabwe was drawn up, Dr Shire said this was enshrined in the notion of private property, "as opposed to the public good."

Land was a critical issue in the new constitution as:

"In order to transfer power to the people it had to be in a symbolic way in which people felt that the country had been returned to them."

In Zimbabwe it was not possible until the Land Tenure Act was passed in 1980 following Independence, for an African to have an address or property, or to belong to a place in the Metropolis.

Is Zimbabwe trying to undermine basic freedoms?

On August 31, a 22-clause Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed by the Zimbabwean Government, the 17th amendment of the constitution to take place since Independence in 1980.

The new Bill abolishes freehold property titles and removes the right of landowners to appeal against expropriation.

Zimbabwe Human Rights Director, Munyaradzi Bidi who is in opposition to the Bill said the clause would: "have far-reaching consequences in a country dependent on agriculture."

Since the Zimbabwean government launched the fast-track land reform programme in 2000, several white farmers have challenged the expropriation of their farms in administrative courts, causing a backlog of 5000 cases waiting to be heard.

The Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the constitutional changes would stop the evicted white farmers from blocking the redistribution of land to black Zimbabweans:

"It will close the chapter of colonisation", he said.

Other criticisms of Zimbabwe’s new laws say that they are designed to silence critics of the government.

Joseph James, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe said that the new Bill limits freedom of expression:

"The current legislation attacks the very basis of our constitution", he said.

Reports in the western media also suggest that the new Bill allows the government to deny passports to its critics.

Dr Shire told Black Britain that this is untrue:

"I have looked at the draft of Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Amendment. What it actually says is that is gives the State the right to withdraw a public document if a person is proved to be campaigning on an issue concerning the national interest."

He also said that similar allegations being made about freedom of speech in terms of journalistic reporting is without foundation as the constitution merely states that a report cannot be made without quoting a proper source:

"There is no such thing as freedom of speech without responsibility. This legislation has been introduced in a climate in which the statements being attributed to the so-called independent press in Zimbabwe have been factually false."

I think Mugabe is right in that yes African institutions need to be strengthened, yes they need to be accountable and so on but they do need to reflect local realities."

Dr Shire said that the actions of the Zimbabwean Government have been prompted by: "the way in which the campaign to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe has been maintained."

He said that the UN Charter prohibits developed countries from using economic sanctions to undermine the economic backbone of a member state:

"However, that is exactly what the United States and the EU have done to Zimbabwe", Dr Shire said.

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