Zimbabwe

It is not hard to understand Robert Mugabe.  He spent decades struggling for power and decades holding onto it.  Now he does not want to let it go.  Besides, he is eighty four.  After retirement comes what?  So whatever we might feel about fact that gangs of Mugabe supporters have been murdering members of the opposition with impunity, it shouldn't be wonder or surprise. 

It's a little harder to understand why he has always received so much outside support, and why it took so long for the rest of the world to wake up to the kind of man he is.  For that, I recommend V.S. Naipaul's superb novel, A Bend in the River.  Mugabe was supposed to be a hero.  But no one outside Zimbabwe believes that anymore, let alone outside of Africa. 

It's not clear what to say about Africa's other leaders.  South African President Thabo Mbeki is trying to engineer some sort of power-sharing compromise between Mugabe and his opposition.  That is not a stupid or morally bankrupt idea.  It worked in Kenya.  But of course it means rewarding Mugabe for his gangsterism.  Nelson Mandela's silence is more depressing.  But Mandela, for all this greatness, has always had a blind spot for whoever supported his side in the South African struggle.  He has never been willing to breathe a word against Fidel Castro.

The leader of the opposition and the man who would certainly succeed Mugabe in an honest election, Morgan Tsvangirai, has pulled out of next Sunday's runoff election.  This is probably a shrewd and decent thing to do.  Mugabe is determined to steal it and has made it clear that he won't surrender power in any event.  Tsvangirai's capitulation may reduce the level of violence, or at at least he will not be a party to it.  He may have some hope of waiting Mugabe out. 

Some years ago a colleague of mine from Nigeria defended Africa's "big man" political culture.  He thought it a better fit with Africa's traditions, and more likely to work than Western democracy.  Well, the results are in.  It turned Africa's breadbasket into an economic basket case.  Democracy is not a cultural choice.  It is the only means whereby a government can be forced to serve the interests of its people.  Making government work means making democracy work.  The nations should do whatever they can to help Zimbabwe emerge from its long nightmare.