They say that those who ignore the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them. And I believe the free and democratic world is blinkered to the mistakes that have put themselves in full view through activities in Zimbabwe.

We don’t have to even delve very far back into history to find examples of where Zimbabwe is going - apart from down the toilet.

The genocide in Rwanda, the post-election violence in Kenya, the indomitable Idi Amin - and if we look beyond Africa, we have Adolf Hitler (someone who Mugabe aspires to emulate)…

But why does the democratic world not do something to put an end to this despotic rule?

The answer is relatively simple. It would not be ‘politically correct’ to make any move that might be viewed as supremacist, racialist, or just the plain ‘we know better’ department.

We must be aware that it was activities of the West that put Mugabe in the position he holds today. In the late 1970’s, the British government decided that it no longer wanted the ‘rebel’ country Rhodesia, and took steps to advance black rule in that country.

I would hasten to remind you that not only was Rhodesia the second-only country to declare unilateral independence from Britain (the USA being the first), but that in 1923, Rhodesia paid Britain two million pounds for the right to rule itself. Why then, did Britain feel the need to involve itself in Rhodesian politics in the late seventies?

Margaret Thatcher, Lord Soames, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Jesse Jackson, Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger - all decided that they had more to offer the world than did the Ian Smith government.

So they orchestrated the Lancaster House Agreement, a document that Mugabe has subsequently all but ignored.

As I wrote in the preamble of my book, “Without Honour”: “History must show that the only people who kept their word, were the Rhodesians. And for their part, they were consigned to the pages of history.”

I have seen a video on YouTube that probably dates back to the early to mid-1970’s and in it there is a very young Mugabe stating: “We are ready to rule. Even right now!” And twenty eight years after he took power (‘took’ being the operative word), he is incapable of any rule, except destructive…

I could spend all day listing Mugabe’s failures and where he has cheated the people - or reneged on an agreement. I could spend all day listing the oppression that he places over the Zimbabwean people, and I could spend even more hours listing the number of times that he blames his country’s ills on the West - but I won’t as we all have heard it and seen it before.

Mugabe led his freedom fighters (a name that would suggest that they fought freedom) against the Smith ‘regime’ - as he said the black people wanted to be able to rule themselves and that the white man had no place in Africa.

Third and fourth parties ensured that the Smith regime was removed, and since that time, Mugabe has systematically stripped Zimbabwe of everything that was good and right, all things that were advantageous and profitable, and stolen everything that wasn’t bolted down.

He also ensured that the people of Zimbabwe - the very people that he ostensibly ‘led to freedom’ - remain cowed and frightened. Cowed at his continual threats, frightened that his previous acts may be repeated. The Gukurahundi, Operation Murambatsvina - just to name two.

The country has gone backwards under Mugabe’s rule. Returned to the dark ages (in more ways than one with the electric shortages). Returned to an age where people are starving, medical services absent, employment non-existent, law and order not worth talking about.

Robert Mugabe is the reason for the disaster that is Zimbabwe today, and no amount of deflecting the truth or ignoring the facts is going to change that statement.

“Those who ignore the lessons of history, are doomed to repeat them.”

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man