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BY CHENGE MAHOMVA

In print | October 25, 2007

The first stanza of the African Union’s anthem is:

"Let us all unite and celebrate together,

The victories won for our liberation,

Let us dedicate ourselves to rise together,

To defend our liberty and unity."

These lines exemplify the ethos of the African Union. They speak of a collective brotherhood, where each country looks out for its neighbors, near and far, in order to defend collective African “liberty and unity”- against potential threats. That sounds great. What is not great is howthe African Union seems to define the threats . It appears as though the African Union feels these threats come solely from their old colonial masters and, ironically, not their own misconstrued African leadership. The hype surrounding the next European Union – African Summit exemplifies this in such an ironically sadistically beautiful manner; I could not resist the urge to write about it.

The common theme in some of the more recent headlines in Europe and Africa, have been, “EuropeanÊ Union – Africa summit in danger”, “Gordon Brown threatens to boycott E.U. – Africa summit if Robert Mugabe is invited” and “We won’t let our past colonial masters dictate to us”.

WhatÊis all this fuss about?

In 2002, when faced with the threat of losing the elections in Zimbabwe, President Mugabe resorted to desperate measures.Ê He initiated a disorderly land grab onslaught on the white-owned commercial farms as a crude means of winning the vote of the disenchanted poor electorate. In addition, the once nascent political opposition was forcefully brought to heel with arbitrary arrest becoming the order of the day. Press freedom and freedom of speech were significantly curtailed and the judiciary was circumvented.

This haphazard agrarian reform resulted in a sharp economic downturn. Productivity went down, unemployment shot up and inflation touched the 3500 percent mark. The people’s protests against the economic downturn were met with a violent response from the government. This prompted the European Union to impose directed sanctions against top government officials and their families and it also led to the Zimbabwe’s expulsion from the Commonwealth.

With the E.U. – Africa summit coming up this December, Portugal, the host country, has invited President Mugabe to attend despite the E.U. sanctions against him and his government. Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has said that he would not attend if President Mugabe did as he felt that Mugabe’s presence “would undermine the summit, [and] divert attention from the important issues that need to be resolved.”

This is that ironic sadistic beauty appearing.

What finally brought out a united response from the African heads of state was not the human right atrocities and economic meltdown that Zimbabweans suffered under, but rather that the leaders felt that they were being dictated to by Gordon Brown.

“I will not go to Portugal if Mugabe is not allowed. I don’t know how many of us [African leaders] will be prepared to go to Portugal without Mugabe,” said Levy Mwanawasa, president of Zambia and chairman of SADC.

The plight of the Zimbabweans is forgotten because a political leader’s ego has been bruised. If African political leaders had genuine interest in the welfare of their people, they would be taking a tough principled stand on President Mugabe. We should not need the Gordon Browns, “our past colonial Masters”, to tell us that all is not well in Zimbabwe. It is as if our African political leaders do not seem to see, or at the very least refuse to acknowledge, the severity of their misconstrued leadership. Dr Gertrude Mongella, the Tanzanian president of the Pan-African Parliament, referred to Zimbabwe as simply having “some problems.”

The situation in Zimbabwe pales into insignificance compared to the situation in Darfur. Our continental political leaders have been evading the matter and taken no real strong condemnation of the Darfur situation. The African Union has not taken the necessary urgent steps to halt this ongoing human tragedy. Ironically, the moment that Gordon Brown points a finger at the errant behavior of one of their members they all spring into action and in unison cry “foul.” They strongly protest the erosion of their collective dignity and not the abject welfare of the ordinary African citizen.

The big brothers in the African Union are not watching.

Chenge is a first-year. You can reach her at cmahomv1@swarthmore.edu.

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