Zimbabwe: Glamour, Ego, and Slippery Alliances
DEVELOPMENTS
The Orwellian Big Brother Africa, a reality show aired in October of this year throughout Africa, gripped the attention of the continent, as it voted down the contestants to two survivors not yet “evicted” from a home they shared with others. Emotions got tense as the Nigerian Uti and the Zimbabwean Munya battled it down to the wire. At last, viewers voted for Uti. Munya – who had said it was a dream of his to meet Zimbabwe’s president – finished in second place. He did not get the $200,000 prize money.
The outcome must have sorely disagreed with the Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, the helm of the dominant political party ZANU-PF. He shocked Munya with a $300,000 gift and an expensive diamond ring, and a platoon of good-looking women were arranged to welcome the brimming young man home. Such personal largesse bypassing national treasuries is not unusual. Sizzla – a Jamaican reggae star who performed for the president’s birthday and hyperbolically applauded ZANU-PF’s catastrophic land reforms – got offered farmland, complete with the necessary equipment.
There seems to be plenty of cash in this penniless country these days. After some initial controversies, Zimbabwe is now hoping to sell large quantities of diamonds openly from recently discovered fields. By some estimates, the current diamond inventory is worth billions of dollars and may help the country get out of its economic quagmire – if properly channeled into development efforts. Conversely, activist groups like Partnership Africa Canada worry these precious stones are yet another blood-stained curse, and argue that the income generated will only sustain human rights abuse.
BACKGROUND
A landlocked nation in southern Africa, Zimbabwe was formerly a part of the British crown colony of Rhodesia; it won its independence in 1980, ending the self-declared sovereignty of Ian Smith’s white Rhodesian government from 1965. After a guerilla war of liberation with large pan-African support, elections granted Mugabe and members of ZANU-PF full control of the state.
Until the late 1990’s, Zimbabwe’s economy registered stellar growth, relative to most African countries. The small but rich population of white Zimbabweans continued to own large commercial farms that produced agricultural products for export. Then, in 1996, Britain ceased providing for the funds that paid for resettling poor Zimbabweans on farmlands, as part of the terms of the country’s independence.
Radical policies soon followed to reverse land ownership, restructuring and devastating Zimbabwe’s economy. The resulting protest sanctions by Western countries have been grim. Zimbabwe struggles to feed its population, with more than two million depending on food aid – despite the existence of fertile land since the early 2000s. It has lost precious human capital to brain drain, as thousands of much-needed healthcare workers and tens of thousands of teachers fled the country. Foreign Direct Investment stood at a measly $45 million dollars in 2010, and unemployment climbed to an unfathomable 95%.
Yet, encumbered by disastrous financial crises, international markets failed to notice Zimbabwe’s economy showing small signs of revival – partially as a result of policy changes from a government that now includes opposition politicians. For starters, the hyper-inflated Zim dollar is eliminated in favor of the U.S. dollar and other currencies. According to an IMF report, the country boasts a budget surplus for the first time.
What’s more, Zimbabwe is flush with huge inventories of diamonds currently hitting hungry representatives of the diamond market in India, Israel, and Lebanon. To cap it all, Mr. Mugabe’s image as liberator and pan-Africanist has, to a degree, now been enhanced – many Africans believe redistributing farmlands to black Zimbabweans was, after all, not an unjust act.
A newly invigorated Mugabe is now enlisting the friendship of non-Western countries, whose sympathy he cherishes. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already paid him a state visit, reportedly seeking uranium for the Shiite nation’s nuclear projects. In April, China’s embassy in Harare threw Mugabe a birthday party, for which he made a protocol exception to attend. Cuba expressed its comrade commitment to a former socialist ally, while Venezuela maintains an embassy. Not surprisingly, the octogenarian Mugabe reciprocated with lucrative business deals and presents, such as the pairs of precious wild animals he sent to Korea’s Kim Il Jung (allegedly, the ailing Korean feasted on one or two of the rare giant rabbits shipped to Pyongyang for breeding). These new companions have one thing in common: their interests are short-sighted and focus on cheap natural resources.
It took a lot of hard work to both turn around Zimbabwe’s crumbling economy, and enable the main opposition group MDC-T to share power. Much of these developments can be attributed to regional mediation. ANC, South Africa’s leading political party maintains a friendship with Mugabe that goes back to the years of Apartheid. The efforts of Africa’s elder statesmen – like Thabo Mbeki, and Armando Guebuza of Mozambique – saw the swearing in of MDC-T’s ill-treated Morgan Tsavangirai as the prime minister of Zimbabwe. Yet, these changes failed to bring donor dollars to rebuild the paralyzed country and the sanctions are still firmly in place.
ANALYSIS
Mugabe’s perceivably puerile actions reveal that Zimbabwe’s leader might be trying to seek approval by giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars to those who still think he is doing the right thing. In the same vein, there is no guarantee that he will not use his new diamond fortune to lengthen his or his supporters’ stay in power for as long as possible (or undermine the opposition). Regardless, his critics may still assume the time-out imposed on the former-teacher could pressure him to give up at some point. More likely, the West will be forced to wait until the aging Mugabe leaves the scene, and a more favorable government takes root. The new diamonds, unfortunately, will probably lengthen Mugabe’s tenure.
The lessons learned can, however, have reverberating impact across the globe. Resource-rich countries in the developing South – with ideologically ambitious leaders – may feel they can live with sanctions, by forming alliances with political gamblers in the global market. Yet misguided domestic policies that cause human tragedy can be neutralized by leveraging historic regional relationships (such as those of South Africa and Mozambique). Early consultation of amicable neighboring states ahead of adverse measures may go a long way to counteract the formation of deviant alliances. If not, things like diamonds surely cut deep, and have a history of causing much bloodshed. With Africa as a rising priority, the U.S. should take note.
Mohammed Hamid Mohammed is Africa Regional Editor of Foreign Policy Digest.
