Zimbabwe: The Blame Game

10. Coconut Republic

83 10 Coconut Republic OCONUT .n. 1 The large brown seed of a tropical palm, consisting of a woody husk lined with edible white flesh and containing a clear liquid. 2, the white flesh of a coconutorigin Spanish and Portuguese Coco- “grinning face”… Paperback Oxford English Dictionary. REPUBLIC .n. A state in which power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has a president rather than a King or Queen…Paperback Oxford English Dictionary. If we combine the two meanings, literarily speaking, a coconut republic can be summed up as a, “grinning face” republic. Who is grinning at this republic is my question? According to George B. Ayittey (Professor at American University in Washington DC) in his The Sunday Times article on Zimbabwe of 31 August 2008, a Coconut Republic is a nation; where nothing no longer makes sense, where common sense has been done away with and arrogant insanity rampages with impunity. Ayittey feels, rightly so, that Zimbabwe is a despicable disgrace to the entire continent and joins the long list of African countries that we Africans, especially black Africans, have mismanaged to the ground. There is a long list of this gruesome post-colonial African countries road to implosion. Liberia(1990), Mali(1991), Somalia(1993), Central African Republic(1993), Rwanda(1994), Burundi(1995), Zaire(1996), Sierra Leone(1999), Ivory Coast(2000), Togo(2005). The following leaders have been at the helm, of destruction of their countries; Mobuto Sese Seko, Laurent Kabila, Samuel Doe, Charles Taylor, Kenneth Kaunda, Moussa Traore, Andre Koligba, Said Barre, and the list is endless as one leader after another continued destroying these countries. Countries like the DRC (Zaire), Madagascar, and Guinea Bissau have been dealing with political strife in almost their entire histories. The C 84 most important problem has been the stubborn refusal of the leadership to relinquish or share power when their people are fed up with them. African countries laughed off the June 27 2008 “coconut” runoff, which Mugabe, the sole candidate, won a landslide victory. For an idea of the kind of election, and electioning processes, that I personally witnessed, there are particular pieces like TWO WEEKS BEFORE 27 JUNE 2008, and 27 JUNE 2008 you could check on in this book. You can only laugh, grin, or cringe with shame at this election. I agree with Ayittey that the traditional(indigenous) African system was confederacy, such that they was participatory democracy based upon consensus-building under its chiefs, like Songhai, Ghana, Mali, and the Great Zimbabwe. I also feel that even though there was participatory democracy, the problem was still on who would be appointed, as the chief or the king. Chiefs or Kings were appointed from Semi-monarchy families. Like European monarchies, they could only be replaced when they were dead, or were incapable due to an illness. The belief that the chiefs were infallible, and could not be brought before justice to answer for any crime they could have committed was another problem. These traits are still prevalent in many African societies, especially in our leaders. I remember the song from Zimbabwean singer, Clive Malunga, entitled Zunde RaMambo (the King’s Crop Bank). Kings in Zimbabwe used to receive, from their subjects, all sorts of harvests from the fields, as well as domestic beasts, for keeping. This storedup crop bank was used to feed their subjects in the times of hunger, draughts and was sometimes used by the King to pay for fines brought upon him. In this song Clive was saying the king’s crop bank was depleted, so what would the king pay him with, for the wrong he has done to him? The chorus offers him answers to this dilemma. “In our land the King can’t be prosecuted.” “In our land the King can’t be fined.” “In our land nobody disputes the King’s ruling”. The Zimbabweans thought that he was singing about Mugabe when the song was released, but he denied that. He said it was just a traditional Zimbabwean song, and that it had nothing to do with 85 Mugabe. But still, the lyrics bring into clarity our thinking on the Chieftainship, and or Kingship. This is still the thinking of our leaders, as well; that they are above the law. Whatever they say, or do passes. For Ayittey to totally assign this trait to foreign influences like “One party state” or “President for...