DEAR EDITOR―I often hear arguments that China is an evil comparable to the west when it comes to having interests on the African continent and should be viewed with disdain just like the west. I beg to differ.
Yes China might exhibit imperialistic tendencies and might be viewed as a coloniser of the African continent today. China like any other country has foreign interests and is placed in the ‘globalised world’.
There are major differences between China and the west when it comes to Africa an people should never forget these.
When the west colonised Africa it was China and the communist bloc that helped break the ‘shackles of imperialism’. For that, and only that, China has a special place in the hearts and minds of many Africans.
China did not colonise the African continent in a manner which Cecil John Rhodes did. At the grave of Cecil John Rhodes, unfortunately, is the famous epitaph, “So much to do, so little done.” The irony is that even having colonised the country that much, to even warrant the naming of an entire nation, Rhodes felt that he had done little.
This unrepentant attitude towards imperialism is what we see exhibited in Zimbabwe today and it is unfortunate that many Zimbabweans view the colonial debate as a long gone one.
Zimbabwe was occupied by Rhodes and the British South African Company in 1896 ―a process which started with raising the Union Jack at ‘FortVictoria’ or modern day Masvingo. That is only 112 years ago, ONLY. That means President Mugabe’s parents are part of the first generation of those people who were colonised. At 45, I am third generation. So we all know what happened and it is still vivid in our memories.
The west, or anyone for that matter, should not try to downplay our struggles by suggesting that we ‘should move on’.
If the rest of Africa has ‘moved on,’ for example Zambia, why do they have 70% of their people living in poor conditions? Why do they have 70% of their economies still run by foreigners? Why do they have 30% of their productive age group only accessing health care?
This is a very important question Africans have to ask themselves before they start asking who or what China is on the continent.
China developed from the sheer hard work of its people, and did not enslave African people for thousands of years; hence our trust in them. Karl Marx once said, “Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it,” and unfortunately this is how I view the role of the west in Africa; not of China.
Sir Christopher Wren’s famous saying: lector, si momentum requires circumspice, means we should look around ourselves. The evidence is abound, but we refuse to accept the western hand in our own affairs. Such naivety is on of the reasons why the African continent has lacked behind in both material and ‘mentality’ development.
Asia managed to break this colonial mentality a long time ago, yet Africans today still preach that it’s not about colonisation. How can it not be when millions of productive people were taken from the African lands? No other continent has suffered such premature loss, and no continent has so many problems. The two are interrelated.
So when we compare the arrival of the Chinese on the African continent, and the image of Cecil John Rhodes on the Cape of Good Hope we should ask ourselves: Who is invited and who is the intruder and what seek ye?
Those who view this argument as a long forgotten battle will only have themselves to blame when the effects of those questions descend upon them.
Those who refuse to accept that the Zimbabwean problem still is a battle of Rhodes against the peoples of Zimbabwe, still do not understand the environment they are living in.
Those who shy away from these questions should be reminded that the Palestinian Question was at one time viewed as a long gone deal, yet today it threatens peace in the whole world.
Those whose minds have not yet embraced the struggles we are in, are not yet part of the struggle.
Those who shy away from the wider colonial argument and talk of failure to run systems that were introduced by those people who never allowed us to be part of those systems in the first place, refuse to accept and embrace the ‘invisible’ hand that manipulates them today.
For some of us who embrace the past and try to make sense of the present, in order to predict the future, only China is the altruistic visitor.
Like they always say: Africans are the only bunch whose struggle for liberation has been taken over by those who perpetuated their enslavement.
So next time when we smile, let us remember that those who say African are dictators, and perpetuate that dictatorship through their interference and manipulation, only have themselves to blame when they are caught up in the struggles of a long forgotten people living on ‘The Dark Continent’.
Africa stands divided today, by “The River Between” those who believe that they will fight tooth and nail against neo-colonialism and those who think it is no longer relevant; and so does Zimbabwe. That ‘war’ is very much alive and those who try to play it down have to read this. It is still very much alive.
Some of us, unpopular as we become today, have images and memories of the Rhodesian Front massacres at Nyadzonia and Chimoio, despite the attempts to divert attention by focussing on present violence.
Those images become real again when those who perpetuated them take over our fight for liberation. Our internal struggles, in a free Zimbabwe, can never be shunned away from and condoned, but they can never be mortgaged to foreigners, as well. We will fight our own governments if they become evil and brutal, but we will not be helped by those who were evil and brutal to us.
This is because, for someone like me, Cecil John Rhodes is alive and well and I will never allow him to recolonise my mind.
My brother once asked: “British politicians and media institutions defend their propaganda by claiming they are only concerned with saving African lives and are merely speaking on the behalf of ‘poor’ Zimbabweans incapable of expressing themselves. Is this true?”
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