Poor, deluded, unhappy man - Mugabe thinks he is the only one in step. Let him allow just and lawful treatment for the people he oppresses with his iron fist.
The news from Zimbabwe that his `close confidant' Nathan Shamuyarira is still helping to prop up this pathetic old man's ego does not bode well for Shamuyarira's place in history. His name will be recorded beside that of his crazed boss, Zimbabwe's first executive President. The tyrant has already entered the category of shame and ignominy that fits men who are utterly corrupted by power. Like his patron, Nathan promised nobility but has delivered a land which will be fit only for scavengers after its surviving liberation heroes and true democrats have died or fled the country. Oh yes, as Stephen Talbot,indicates in his piece `From Liberator to Tyrant: Recollections of Robert Mugabe'[he means `on' Mugabe,surely?], the smooth-tongued politician had us all fooled at the beginning. Talbot confesses to being a starry-eyed worshipper when he met Mugabe in 1977 at the Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I was in that same hotel, collecting nationalists' biographies for my book in late 1975, shortly after the assassination of Herbert Chitepo in Lusaka. At that moment the destiny of Mugabe and all other contenders for the prize of ruling the future Zimbabwe was still being debated by all parties involved in the matter. Bishop Muzorewa's men were there in the hotel,losing ground as the military men in the camps at Mgagau declared `We will choose our own leaders'. Ndabaningi Sithole was there also, giving interviews but already on the ropes. He had confessed it himself. He had told us,a deputation of white liberals in Rhodesia's capital city, Salisbury, quietly and without emotion:`You are talking to the wrong person (about future leadership), I am regarded as a spent force' - or words to that effect. I have a record of the meeting in Jeremy Broome's Jameson Avenue office with that old warrior, founder of ZANU. The golden light of late afternoon bathed us all. Sunsets in Rhodesia were always portentious. We had a rare close up of this one. Eddie Cross leaned forward and tapped Ndabaningi's knee and called him `Sekuru' (uncle).
Besides me, Eddie is the only one still alive to report it. We knew that Joshua Nkomo tried to do a deal with Ian Smith. Meanwhile, Mugabe, showing only contempt for the white men who had imprisoned him, had not yet been recognised by the Frontline States as the man destined to lead the future Zimbabwe African nationalist Liberation Army (ZANLA). Fast forward, we know how that story ended. But I have news for Stephen Talbot: men like Joshua Nkomo had experienced the power and the potential for absolute ruthlessness of his brother in arms. Why else would he have preferred to try to tame the white man? Unlike Nkomo, Smith was incapable of understanding what he was up against - the advance of a great wave, the ultimate expression of slavery's retribution. Mugabe used centuries of African history to his own advantage, cleverly disguising his personal ambitions until, with infinite cunning, he had gagged and bound us all - even his so-called confidant, Shamuyarira.
As for the reason he went to Lancaster House to negotiate with the colonial master - Talbot seems unaware of the role of the late, great Samora Machel. It was he who advised that Mugabe should negotiate. It was he who had provided the important base in Mozambique from whose borders the war on the Rhodesian Front regime could be waged. He talks, on film in Granada TV's `End of Empire'- if proof of this is needed.
And now, Mugabe's end is near, he cannot live forever. His legacy: the destruction and misery he has brought to the beautiful country he inherited from his former oppressors is assured. But he rages on, like the blind King Lear:
"We tell the world from this sacred (National Heroes') Acre that Zimbabwe is not about to die, in fact it will never die. What Zimbabwe needs is a just and lawful treatment by the Western world, a recognition that it is a full, sovereign country which has the right to own and control its resources, the right to chart its own destiny unhindered".
Yes, a thousand times yes. Zimbabwe has the right `to own and control...' Robert Gabriel Mugabe has usurped it.
Copyright © 2006 Diana Mitchell
Friday, June 30, 2006
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
COPYCATS, PLAGIARISTS large and Small
I have been copied. Am I flattered? - since imitation is supposed to be the highest form of flattery.
My recent blog, giving unsolicited advice to Dan Brown's publishers re charges of plagiarism has elicited a comment or two. Right now the media reports are working us up about students copying their assigments from internet sites. Now this is a skill that requires you to be a dab hand at `surfing the net'. This is a habit I have not developed, neither the surfing, nor the skilled copying. But when a new friend asked if I had ever had a book published, I referred him to the internet and told him to type my name and add Zimbabwe on the end of it. {MMPZ}It dawned on me that I myself had not taken this ego trip for several years and now was a good time to check. I found, very flatteringly, a substantial body of work. Most rewarding was the occasional reference to my published Who's Whos of Rhodesia's and Zimbabwe's African nationalist leaders. (End of commercial). Most satisfying, however was to discover that my work is being plagiarized by Zimbabwe's state media. Nowadays, I have no time at all for the Herald, that grossly defective instrument for the disemination of information. Its daily dose of ruling party propaganda is so blatant as to be fairly harmless - but have a look at this which appeared on the internet in the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe Report No.38, after the ste madia's eulogising of the dead Vice President Muzenda:
"ZBC also changed its programming to make way for documentaries on Muzenda. For instance, ZTV devoted time from 7pm to 8pm from Monday to Thursday to a special programme where ZANU PF officials discussed their selected positive personal experiences of Muzenda.
This abject eulogizing saw The Herald (22/9) carry (sic) a plagiarised obituary, Life, tribulations of relentless fighter. The article, which was written by Shingai Rukwata Ndoro, was apparently lifted from Diana Mitchell’s book entitled African Nationalist Leaders in Zimbabwe - Who is Who 1980...
and
(re the closure of the independent Daily News):
"While the government-controlled media [avoided such analysis and] gave the impression that the closure of the paper was lawful, The Standard (28/9) tried to expose how the State was selectively applying the law by failing to reprimand media practitioners working for the government-controlled media. It reported that Zimbabwe Union of Journalists had petitioned ZIMPAPERS to take action against its circulation manager Rukwata Ndoro, who plagiarised Mitchell’s book in his obituary of Muzenda. According to ZUJ, Ndoro “ is neither trained nor registered and has been churning article after article, sometimes as a columnist and the latest as a reporter.” Despite this, no arrest has been made so far. Ends"
Now that was something I lifted from the internet. With attribution of course.
As to talk of arresting the hopeless Ndoro, I must say I am more flattered than offended. His bosses in the ruling party would never have allowed my tribute to Muzenda, written 25 years ago when things in the Zimbabwe garden were rosy, to appear under my name in today's screwed up Zimbabwe media. But plagiarism is plagiarism and is not to be recommended.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
My recent blog, giving unsolicited advice to Dan Brown's publishers re charges of plagiarism has elicited a comment or two. Right now the media reports are working us up about students copying their assigments from internet sites. Now this is a skill that requires you to be a dab hand at `surfing the net'. This is a habit I have not developed, neither the surfing, nor the skilled copying. But when a new friend asked if I had ever had a book published, I referred him to the internet and told him to type my name and add Zimbabwe on the end of it. {MMPZ}It dawned on me that I myself had not taken this ego trip for several years and now was a good time to check. I found, very flatteringly, a substantial body of work. Most rewarding was the occasional reference to my published Who's Whos of Rhodesia's and Zimbabwe's African nationalist leaders. (End of commercial). Most satisfying, however was to discover that my work is being plagiarized by Zimbabwe's state media. Nowadays, I have no time at all for the Herald, that grossly defective instrument for the disemination of information. Its daily dose of ruling party propaganda is so blatant as to be fairly harmless - but have a look at this which appeared on the internet in the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe Report No.38, after the ste madia's eulogising of the dead Vice President Muzenda:
"ZBC also changed its programming to make way for documentaries on Muzenda. For instance, ZTV devoted time from 7pm to 8pm from Monday to Thursday to a special programme where ZANU PF officials discussed their selected positive personal experiences of Muzenda.
This abject eulogizing saw The Herald (22/9) carry (sic) a plagiarised obituary, Life, tribulations of relentless fighter. The article, which was written by Shingai Rukwata Ndoro, was apparently lifted from Diana Mitchell’s book entitled African Nationalist Leaders in Zimbabwe - Who is Who 1980...
and
(re the closure of the independent Daily News):
"While the government-controlled media [avoided such analysis and] gave the impression that the closure of the paper was lawful, The Standard (28/9) tried to expose how the State was selectively applying the law by failing to reprimand media practitioners working for the government-controlled media. It reported that Zimbabwe Union of Journalists had petitioned ZIMPAPERS to take action against its circulation manager Rukwata Ndoro, who plagiarised Mitchell’s book in his obituary of Muzenda. According to ZUJ, Ndoro “ is neither trained nor registered and has been churning article after article, sometimes as a columnist and the latest as a reporter.” Despite this, no arrest has been made so far. Ends"
Now that was something I lifted from the internet. With attribution of course.
As to talk of arresting the hopeless Ndoro, I must say I am more flattered than offended. His bosses in the ruling party would never have allowed my tribute to Muzenda, written 25 years ago when things in the Zimbabwe garden were rosy, to appear under my name in today's screwed up Zimbabwe media. But plagiarism is plagiarism and is not to be recommended.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
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