Maravi

(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) US pledges election funding for MDC-T

COMMENT - Having political parties funded by foreign governments is not democracy. One reason the MDC needs foreign government support, is because their policies, when spelled out, are anathema to the people of Zimbabwe. No one wants to see a return to austerity, privatisation (job losses) and deregulation (corruption and crime). This was tried from 1991-1996, and was resented by the Zimbabwean people to such a degree that it led to the creation of the MDC. Which was then hijacked by those very same mining interests (Morgan Tsvangirai was a miner for Anglo-American De Beers.)

US pledges election funding for MDC-T
Indigenisation fund now US$4bn
China was our backbone against colonial paralysis
Sunday, 16 December 2012 00:00
Nilene Foxworth

For centuries, we Africans were indeed paralysed victims; physically, psychologically, and geographically. Pushed off the precious God-given land of our forefathers, then demeaned and stagnated in the worst crime against humanity (the African slave trade); and African descendants in the colonial diaspora are still being shot and killed at bus stops, murdered (inside) American jail dungeons, and downsized on professional jobs after fifteen plus years of service.

It is hard to understand how some of our people can support such a colonial system, where African-Americans are no more than a tolerated quota of appeasement in the interest of the slave-master’s descendants.

And it is difficult to understand how any indigenous Africans can support sanctions against its own country to appease European descendants of colonialism.

It is unfortunate that far too many of our people choose to embrace systems and people who are responsible for the oppression of African people worldwide.

It is disheartening to hear an indigenous Zimbabwean saying: “China wants to recolonise us.”
One can only question why such propaganda is circulating.

China has never been our problem, and they never colonised Africa, nor enslaved Black people. In many ways they have been our backbone.

I had the pleasure of working with and supporting revolutionaries who ran for their lives from Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid United States in the sixties, when whites were burning our churches down, killing our people over the simple right to vote and sit on a front seat of the bus.

Perhaps some people do not know about the Soweto Massacre, the Sharpeville Massacre, and the 1 200 indigenous Zimbabwean bodies found in a Mt Darwin mine, plus more than 50 000 Zimbabwean brothers and sisters who died for independence.

How can any indigenous Zimbabwean not know about the Chinese support?
China supported Zimbabwe when so-called democratic America was sending mercenaries to Ian Smith in the interest of the white minority, who illegally claimed most of the precious land, while denying Blacks the right to shop and eat in the upper City Centre.

Many Black revolutionaries went to China, and received a resounding welcome. After Ghana received its independence in 1959, many revolutionaries went to President Kwame Nkrumah, who was indeed endowed with a foresight of Pan-Africanism.

However, when we look at the division among our people today, with wars everywhere (religious wars, political wars, gang wars), from the ghettos of America to our major countries in the homeland (Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Mali, the DRC) . . . one can only reflect on the warning of Nkrumah when he said in the early sixties: “If we do not formulate plans for unity and take active steps to form political union, we will soon be fighting and warring among ourselves with imperialists and colonialists standing behind the screen and pulling vicious wires, to make us cut each other’s throats for the sake of their diabolical purposes . . .”

A conscious person can never forget the pleasure and blessing of learning from the revolutionary Pan-Africanist the positives of our historical struggle.

When I made my first trip to the homeland (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) in 1974, my host family was the late Minister Nicholas Maro and his wonderful wife, Jennifer.

Maro was the Minister of Transportation. So, I was invited to tour the newly-built railroad, which was built by the Chinese. One of the railroad engineers explained the beginning stages of the railroad system.

He told me how America tried to disrupt the construction by the Chinese, and their anger became physical, but the Chinese were victorious in building the great railroad from Tanzania to Zambia.

According to researchers, China and Africa have trade relations as far back as 202BC, and in the 14th century an African explorer named Sa’id of Mogadishu went to China.

There are 750 000 Chinese nationals working in African countries, and as many as 20 000 Africans working in China.

CCTV recently interviewed Kenyan Ambassador to China Julius Sunkuli. He said Kenya has traded with China for more than 600 years. He talked about the diversity of China and its beauty.

He said: “The Chinese have lots of generosity and are very friendly toward mankind.”

In essence, he was also saying: If the Chinese are doing a project in Africa, they only want information on the project, not on the governance of sovereign nations.

It is no secret that China was a great supporter of Zanu (Zimbabwe African National Union) during the struggle for independence, and President Mugabe responded to an inevitable question at that time (middle of 1976) regarding what China would demand in return for their support.

According to his biography, Mugabe, by David Smith and Colin Simpson, the President said: “Our war could not be waged without the assistance of China. But the Chinese have never attached any conditions to their supply of weapons . . . there is an understanding between the Chinese and us, that we are free to choose our friends and pursue any policy which we thought best suited for our country. We will not give in to any pressure to abandon our Chinese friends.”

In 1972, I was asked to organise a small group of African-Americans to meet the legendary Black Power revolutionary, Stokely Carmicheal, who had travelled to Cuba, China, North Vietnam, Ghana, Guinea and America, and was born in Trinidad.

With only a few hours to organise, I invited only 15 people to meet at my house, but over 200 people squeezed themselves into my house to meet (for the first time) a strong Pan-Africanist and fearless revolutionary, who worked hard against colonial evils and their double- standard racist practice.

Stokely Carmicheal was like a son to Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure, so he changed his name to Kwame Ture. Through his organisation AAPRP (All African Peoples Revolutionary Party) I was introduced to PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress) members, and quickly learned that PAC was very serious regarding the South African Land issue and tangible goals.

So, I supported them from 1972 until I came to Zimbabwe in 1997. I cooked my best meals for PAC, and organised speaking tours for PAC exiles when they came to Colorado.

It was an honour and blessing to host strong Pan-Africanist leaders like Stokely Carmicheal, Vusi Ndlovu, Adabisi Ayola, Mekki Mtewa and Elizabeth Sibeko, who taught us about the ruthless Apartheid system.

So much more was learnt at the exile camp in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, where the deep scars of Apartheid on the bodies of the youth made me work harder toward the struggle.

PAC Secretary for Defence Sabelo Phama and Vusi Ndlovu both praised the Chinese for their training.

Vusi Ndlovu (now late-PAC), became a Karate Black Belt in China and opened the first Karate school in Harare.

Sabelo Phama (now late-PAC) became a military strategist trained in China. The late Stokely Carmichael also loved China and is buried in Guinea.

We have witnessed here in Zimbabwe lots of Chinese support: bicycles, tractors, computers, and so much more.

It was China (in the eighties) who shipped some of the most beautiful black statues to the USA, when there was nothing with such beauty for our people in Colorado’s major stores, nor anywhere else in America.

I bought a beautiful black African queen sitting on her throne — Made in China, and a very beautiful lamp with a black angel protecting little children — Made In China.

I could not believe that such beautiful images of our people were at last in US stores. In the past, such artifacts were only white images, not of our people. However, whites did make ugly demeaning Black artifacts of our people doing dirty work.

The bottom line is the colonial world was too racist to show the beauty of our people in such a creative way like China has; and unfortunately, conscious African-Americans did not have the technology to do so.

We are so grateful for such beautiful Chinese artifacts today. Apartheid America cloned the brains of the world to believe that everything that is melanin-mutant (white) is most precious and most beautiful; like white hair, white skin, white rhinos, white sharks, White House and etcetera.

We conscious Africans understand the colonial game of mind control, and we are most grateful to China for its strength, its generosity, and its insight.

Richard Dowen, director of Royal African Society said in 2005: “China and mobile phones are going to reform Africa . . . China has brought more people out of poverty than anyone.”

It is important that we search for the positives of this politically-disturbed world and be grateful for our genuine friends.

Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), BRUCE WHARTON, MDC TREASON

posted by MrK @ 6:07 PM