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(TALKZIMBABWE) Diaspora dvpt groups are mere proxies

Diaspora dvpt groups are mere proxies
By: Sihle Dube
Posted: Sunday, November 14, 2010 12:14 pm

THE madness that characterises the Zimbabwean diaspora has reached extreme proportions. I live in the diaspora, but I often commute between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom for business and family reasons.

What boggles the mind is that there are groups in the diaspora that have mushroomed during the last two to three years purpoting to "represent Zimbabweans". When one looks at some of these groups, one wonders which diaspora or who in the diaspora they really represent.

Every time I hear about these groups, I cringe. This happens for a number of reasons.

I tend to see the same names and same people representing these groups regardless of what name their organisations have. It is one of the following names: Ephraim Tapa, Dewa Mavhinga, Thamsanqa Zhou, Alex Magaisa, Luke Zunga, Daniel Molokele, Stan Mukasa, Promise Mkwananzi, Daniel Molokela, Tamuka Chirimambowa, Ken Mufuka, Brian Kagoro, Glen Mpani, etc.

These men represent whatever group, in whatever form, you can think of that purports to speak for all Zimbabweans in the diaspora. Whenever you hear of women, it's either Grace Kwinjeh or some Nora Tapiwa, that's all.

The adverts flighted for diaspora meetings, if any, are through some email list compiled from former MDC structures outside Zimbabwe or are on SW Radio - a virulently anti Zanu-PF outfit. Many of these characters (men) have had some association with the MDC, in one form or another, or some protest politics (through writing or other expression) that is anti-Zanu-PF.

The diaspora is not made up only of MDC supporters or men for that matter; as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai found out at the Southwark Cathedral. Some of us do not even want to hear the name MDC or Tsvangirai.

It is troubling that some of these characters also work for some anti Zanu-PF stable or organisation. For example Dewa Mavhinga works for Crisis Coalition Zimbabwe, Thamsanqa Zhou is a member of Zapu, Stan Mukasa is a regular on SW Radio and Alex Magaisa writes extensively criticizing Zanu-PF. Ephraim Tapa was once MDC-T chair in the UK and now works for an outfit called Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR).

Recently he was elected to represent a grouping of Zimbabwe diaspora organisations in the UK. That is their right to belong in these groups and I will not question that here. But, they should never act like they represent Zimbabweans' views. They represent their own views and their own interests, whatever they are.

If we agree, for argument's sake, that there are a million plus Zimbabweans outside the country (MDC says three million), then surely, there should be a more representative process for Zimbabweans and a more diverse grouping; not this anti Zanu-PF Boys' Club.

Interestingly, these people, whatever group they belong to, take pride in their diaspora networks which include, among others, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other British outfits (discussed below) that helped their careers one way or the other. One wonders whose voice they represent in these diverse organisations, when they have not carried out a sustained outreach process in the UK, USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand or anywhere else where Zimbabweans are found.

We have never seen the results of that process on any website or elsewhere and their meetings, according to reports, have never had the diversity that characterises the diaspora.

Recently, I was troubled to hear that there will be a conference in Victoria Falls entitled: “Engaging Zimbabweans in the Diaspora: Towards Economic Reconstruction and Development”. This conference will be held under the auspices of a "new diaspora organisation" called Development Foundation for Zimbabwe (DFZ). This organisation was launched in South Africa, hosted by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation (IJR). Why was it not hosted in Zimbabwe by the Ministry of National Healing and Reconciliation? Whose initiative was it?

This is the first time some of us heard about this organisation. There are now more organisations than necessary purporting to represent Zimbabweans abroad; and same names again cropped up in this organisation; and the funding links are still the same.

Alex Magaisa was the Chair of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Development Interface; or maybe still is. Now he is the spokesman of this new organisation. Brian Kagoro is the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of this organisation. The partners of these organisations are also groups that have nothing to do with the diaspora. These include a George Soros funded outfit, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. One wonders why we needed a new organisation when all other disapora organisations now seem to only exist on the internet, and at the British FCO.

What is troubling with the DFZ is that so-called Elders (Graca Machel and retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu) are leads in it. I will not discuss them here, save to say they are also patrons in another organisation called Canon Collins Trust, which has given scholarships to Zimbabweans to study "human rights".

Dewa Mavhinga was one such recepient of that scholarship to study for his LLM in International Human Rights Law in the UK.

The coincidence of having Graca Machel and Desmond Tutu (anti Zanu-PF campaigners) and others in Canon Collins and Zimbabwe Development Foundation is interesting. Dewa Mavhinga was a Deputy Coordinator Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum International Liaison Office (don't know if he still is), but he is in the Crisis Coalition Zimbabwe. He has made his views on Zimbabwe and Zanu-PF quite clear. How can such a partial person ever purport to represent the diaspora?

How can we have these characters under the same roof purporting to represent Zimbabweans in the diaspora?

Remember Ms Machel, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former US President Jimmy Carter were denied visas to go to Zimbabwe for a "fact-finding mission" in November 2008? Their interest in Zimbabwe is unflinching. They will always transform themselves to "help us".

When one considers that Canon Collins Trust is funded by what is called the Zimbabwe Defense and Aid Foundation one then realises the invisible British hand in all this.

The story gets more interesting when one considers that the trustees of the Zimbabwe Defence and Aid Foundation include Channel 4's (UK) Jon Snow, and Glenys Kinnock who replaced Lord Malloch Brown at the FCO under Gordon Brown. Ironically, the Trust also funded Operation Murambatsvina report on Zimbabwe. Channel 4 has churned out various documentaries highlighting their version of the "crisis" in Zimbabwe, including a recent highly flawed report on "ongoing human rights violations in Marange district" -- well timed to coincide with Zimbabwe's fight for Kimberley Process diamond certification.

There are more connections that I have discovered and will show them as time goes on ... in this diaspora representation madness. We cannot include everything in one article.

It is commonsense that any process that purports to represent Zimbabweans should have input from the diaspora. Any diaspora conference should be held in the diaspora, not in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. How many of the diaspora-based Zimbabweans (or those who got asylum) can go to Victoria Falls? What is the relevance of having this process in Zimbabwe where there are no diasporans? What is these people's agenda in Zimbabwe and whose ideas or ideals do they carry with them?

We hear that there have been endless meetings with the FCO in Britain and have never heard of their outcome. Isn't it time we demand transparency from the same people that demand transparency from Copac in Zimbabwe; or these people are beyond reproach?

Who is it that funds this Development Foundation for Zimbabwe; and pays for the flights from the UK, Kenya etc to Victoria Falls? Right thinking Zimbabweans should ask those questions.

The Zimbabwean government has irred in allowing this madness to take place under its nose and should lead any efforts to integrate the voice of the Zimbabweans abroad; not allow some proxies to spread their tentacles on its soil; especially at a time when the inclusive Government (via the Ministry of National Healing and Reconciliation) is fighting hard to bring together all Zimbabweans.

Why is Amai Sekai Holland and other relevant ministries in Zimbabwe not included in these initiatives? Why are the ministries of Youth Empowerment and Indigenisation, Home Affairs, Justice, and Publicity and Information not included in this conference in Victoria Falls?

We are simply sick and tired of being represented by these diaspora-based Boys' Clubs who are paid per diems to take sabbaticals and visit their motherland Zimbabwe (and are palm-greased in many other ways) while wittingly or unwittingly representing other people's interests, not Zimbabweans'.

I am a hard-working Zimbabwean woman and will not compromise my ideals to line my pockets, no matter how hungry I get. I hope the brothers will explain to us whose interests it is they really represent or whether the education afforded by the post-colonial government in Zimbabwe was worth the effort.

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Sihle Dube is a lawyer and banker. She writes from the United Kingdom and can be reached via sihledube *** hotmail.co.uk

Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, NGOs, SIHLE DUBE

posted by MrK @ 6:54 PM