By Charles Motsi
As the saying goes “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
African countries refused to be neutral when they fought off the oppressor and gained their political independence from the colonial masters.
This unity is now facing a new type of threat in the form of neo-colonialism which is now packaged in the form of human rights and democracy. The colonial and slave masters now claim to be champions of democracy and human rights, the same principals they so reluctantly ignored for over 200 years while they exploited Africans during the slave trade and colonial periods.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) members showed a unified front when they proclaimed 25 October as Anti-Sanctions Day. This was a clear and decisive action which was meant to send a signal to the United States of America (USA) and European Union (EU) that it was time once again to draw the line and say enough is enough to being under their yoke of oppression.
As expected the oppressor went on the defensive and tried to blame the victim for consequences of their greed and power hungry nature. The US Embassy went on the offensive using the Twitter hashtag #NotSanctions to try and justify the inexcusable action of placing Zimbabwe under sanctions for almost two decades now.
Credit and respect should be accorded to the Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Ministry which refused to be intimidated into silence. Yesterday the Ministry issued a very strong worded press statement reprimanding the US Ambassador for his statements and behaviour in response to the SADC Anti-Sanctions march which was exquisitely executed by the Government of Zimbabwe last Friday.
The Ambassador tried to flip the script and blame the Zimbabwean Government for the country’s current woes. The Government of Zimbabwe never claimed to be saints and they never tried to claim the high ground in as far as problems bedevilling the country are concerned. President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on record calling out corruption and making efforts to improve on past mistakes in as far as improving the conditions of doing business in the country. However, the USA and EU have chosen to ignore all his efforts and maintain a hostile stance of sanctioning the country instead of resorting to dialogue. They have maintained the sanction regime which was called for by their puppets in the opposition.
This is enough to show any sane Zimbabwean or progressive pan-Africanist that the issue is not on the lame excuses being given of democracy and human rights rather it is on the issue of subduing a supposedly “rogue” nation that dared to challenge the imperialist’s white supremacy ideals.
A five-year study published in 2015 by the Equal Justice Initiative found that nearly 3,959 black men, women, and children were lynched in the twelve Southern states between 1877 and 1950. Over this period Georgia's 586 lynchings led all states. Mind you this number has been challenged by so many schools of thought as being greatly understated.
This is the history of the USA and no one has ever placed the US under the hammer for this nasty piece of history. In recent times reports collected from American media outlets suggest that more than 1 100 individuals especially people of colour are unjustifiably killed in the USA each year through shootings and other forms of police brutality. If this is not a human rights violation I do not know what is, but the same USA government is the first to point fingers to others on police brutality.
When it come to the business side, the USA is one of the major contributors to the Saudi Arabian fiscas and yet the same Kingdom of Saudi has been noted for several human right violations from not allowing women to vote, drive or even rent a hotel room alone to the recent connections between the disappearance and killing of journalist and Saudi crown critic Jamal Khashoggi. Yet they still point a finger to poor and defenceless Zimbabwe.
Well, the Zimbabwean Government and SADC have now drawn the line and are unified in their call to end this oppression through unjustified sanctions. The reprimanding of US Ambassador Brain Nichols should be just the beginning and continuation of the African resistance to neo-colonialism meant to extent white supremacy. Enough is enough.
