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Author Archive

Smoke and Mirrors

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Monday, March 28th, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

Much has been made in the media over the weekend of the so-called unofficial coup dethroning Our Dear Leader and postulating that in fact it is the security forces who are really in charge of the country. In an exclusive interview with the daily News, the Prime Minister is quoted as saying:

In our bilateral meetings, I have discussed the issue of violence and implored Mugabe to deal with elements in the security organs. His response has always been that we don’t condone violence.  If he doesn’t follow up, it’s either he is in charge or not in charge. That leaves me with a question: Is he part of a conspiracy to undermine the government or his people are defying his instructions?”

It would be very convenient for both parties if Mugabe weren’t in charged wouldn’t it? They would both be exonerated for their failures in upholding their promises to the people of Zimbabwe, to stop the violence and resolve the current political stalemate.

Pain

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Friday, March 25th, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

Your pain is the breaking of the shell
that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder
at the daily miracles of your life, your pain
would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your
heart, even as you have always accepted
the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity
through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the
physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink
his remedy in silence and tranquillity:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided
by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips,
has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter
has moistened with His own sacred tears.

~ Khalil Gibran

African politicians ban media to avoid criticism

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Thursday, March 24th, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

In this article by Issa Sikiti da Silva for BizCommunity.com, Henry Maina, director of Article 19 talks about why African politicians ban media:

The fundamental reason that many African governments ban and harass the media has more to do with personal connotations than other issues, Kenya’s Henry Maina, director of Article 19 Eastern Africa, told delegates at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference last week in Johannesburg.

“If you look closely, you will see that politicians across the continent don’t want to be criticised,” Maina, a specialist in criminal justice, human rights, advocacy and governance, said.

In many African countries, where the head of the state, ministers and members of the ruling party have become the law themselves, and courts exist only to try cases of petty crimes and murder, any journalist who takes on the government will be promptly arrested, tried in a ‘kangaroo court’ for high treason and executed or jailed for life.

Prosecuted for insulting authorities

In other countries, however, where there is some sort of rule of law and social justice, criticism of the government usually end up in courts, with journalists being prosecuted for insulting high-profile authorities.

Maina described these laws as archaic and oppressive, saying Africa should repeal them. “More than 40 African countries still have these colonial laws, including official secret laws. Why? If you are going to keep secrets, you should do it in a progressive manner,” he said.

Maina fired a salvo at South Africa’s ruling party, the ANC, for proposing the creation of a media appeals tribunal and resuscitating colonial laws.

Critics believe the ANC, which brags to be the sole contributor of the restoration of freedom of expression and press liberties enjoyed today by all citizens, has turned from hero to villain by re-enacting some of apartheid’s legislation, including the National Key Points Act, the Film and Publication Amendment Act, and lately the much-hated Protection of Information Bill (aka Secrecy Bill).

Land reform in Zimbabwe not a complete failure

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Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

I read with interest an article published on the Brookings Institution blog. The authors of the article, John Mutenyo and Brandon Routman pointed out the potential pitfalls of the proposed Nationalisation of the Zimbabwe Mining Sector by Minister Kasukwere. Land reform was used in the article as a case in point. The authors charged that:

Most of this land, particularly the parcels located in good farming areas, ended up in the hands of members of President Mugabe’s political party, the ZANU-PF, or in the hands of loyal army officials. Everyone else was given inferior farming land, if any at all.

The authors of the article made an excellent point in observing that nationalisation of the mining sector may be subject to corruption and therefore not benefit the masses, and proceeded to make some policy recommendations that I think if Minister Kasukwere is serious, he should at least consider.

However the premise upon which these conclusions are based is fallacious. As both authors are researchers with the respected and renowned Brookings Institution, it is regrettable that they neglected to use actual research done in Zimbabwe and instead cited a BBC news article on the subject of Land Reform in their blog.

Contrary to what is stated as fact in the article, Land Reform was not a failure.  The empirical evidence of two studies conducted by two separate teams: one with the UK based Institute for Development Studies in the UK, and the other with the African Institute for Agrarian Studies, show that the supposed elites and cronies of Mugabe constitute less that 5% of the beneficiaries of Land reform. The IDS study reports that:

The composition of land reform beneficiaries is highly varied. The claim that land reform was dominated by politically well-connected “cronies” is simply untrue…the majority came from rural backgrounds where they had been farming in the communal areas…and farm workers too have been important beneficiaries.

In addition the reasons for the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy post 2000 cannot simply be ascribed to lower levels of agricultural productivity. In addition to bad economic policies there are other factors that contributed to the failure of the economy, which began well before the farm invasions occurred. For example, in the five years of ESAP reforms, unemployment reached 50%, no new jobs were created, numerous companies were shut down, and Zimbabwe’s debt increased to 100% under ESAP related borrowing which was encouraged by Zimbabwe’s then donor partners. After Land reform these partners were nowhere to be found. The article itself notes that ‘foreign direct investment declined from $435 million in 1998 to nil in 2001′.

Having said that, there is no denying the corruption, mismanagement and bad governance that has resulted in Zimbabwe’s present predicament. But, if we are to criticise Zimbabwe’s leaders or discuss her future, her economy and her policies then let us do so with the correct facts in hand.

The politics of hair

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Monday, March 21st, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

The first time I realised that my hair was not my own was when I was twelve. The school holidays were a week away and as such, my very conservative headmistress relaxed the school rules on hair. All my friends arrived for the last week of school with long braids or relaxed hair. Being a conformist then, I wanted straight hair too. But my father, being of the Bob Marley ‘black and proud’ generation forbade it. My pouting, pleas and final resort to the blackmail of crying did nothing to move him.

‘You are an African princess’ he said, ‘you must be proud of who and what you are.’ I wasn’t comforted.

Regardless of geographical location or history all women of African descent have at one time or another succumbed to the notion that good hair is long and straight. Quoted in a New York Times article on the good hair debate Associate professor of Black Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Ingrid Banks said:

“For black women, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t, if you’ve got straight hair you’re pegged as selling out. If you don’t straighten your hair, you’re seen as not practicing appropriate grooming practices.”

That our hair is a political statement, and that in its natural state it is not considered desirable is probably one of the few things that we all have in common. So we struggle with extensions and weaves, hot combs and relaxers, in a never-ending battle to be seen as beautiful. The multitude of women on the streets of Harare with an imitation of Rihanna’s straight asymmetric-cut weave is proof of that.

It seems that beauty, as defined by the cosmetic companies that services the industry, has everything to do with being less black. Even here in Zimbabwe, amid indigenisation and empowerment, black women do not feel beautiful without some enhancement that takes away something of what makes them African. And through all of that not once have we stopped to ask ourselves “what is beautiful for me?”

Public Perceptions on Constitutional Reform in Zimbabwe

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Friday, March 18th, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

The Afrobarometer is an independent, non-partisan research project that measures the social, political, and economic atmosphere in Africa. The project conducted a survey to gauge the public perception of the Constitutional Reform Process during the final stages of COPACs Constitutional Outreach. The report, titled Public Perceptions on Constitutional Reform in Zimbabwe, focused on the perceptions of Zimbabweans on constitutional reform in terms of both the process and the content.

Some of the findings of the survey were that that awareness of the Constitution and associated issues was along the main partisan lines: 81% of those sympathetic to the MDC-T said they had heard about the Constitution compared to 73% of those aligned to ZANU-PF. Non attendance of outreach meetings was higher among MDC-M and ZAPU sympathizers at 67% and 100% respectively. Further, the survey shows that only 3% ZANU-PF sympathizers reported that anyone prevented them from attending an outreach meeting, while 7% of MDC-T sympathizers indicated the same. Popular awareness of the constitution rose with education: 66% among those who had no formal education; 70% among primary school graduates and 84% among those who completed secondary school.

Contrary to general opinion about the Constitutional Reform Process, the report is optimistic, concluding that ‘ the process can still be salvaged in such a way that the final product is a constitution that people want.’