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Analysis: Liberation from Africa's Liberators

Council on Foreign Relations

April 16, 2008
Author: Stephanie Hanson

As a rule, African leaders are loathe to criticize one of their own. So when Zambian President Levy P. Mwanawasa called an emergency meeting of the fifteen-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) to discuss Zimbabwe’s postelection deadlock, some experts were cautiously optimistic (IRIN) that the region was stepping up its role in crisis management. After years of watching silently as President Robert Mugabe’s policies drove Zimbabwe into economic crisis, the regional body seemed poised to speak out. Yet the outcome of SADC’s April 12 meeting was seen as weak: a communiqué that called for immediate release of the presidential poll results (NYT), but failed to mention Mugabe at all. The result raises new questions about the commitment of African leaders and institutions to democracy and good governance.

Mugabe, who has been in office for the past twenty-eight years, has long commanded deep respect on the continent as one of its liberation leaders. His scathing criticism of the West rang true with Africans of a certain generation who shared his experience of colonialism. But younger Africans respond less viscerally to Mugabe’s rhetoric. “More than half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa was born after the last of the independence wars; that language is lost on them, their priorities are entirely different,” writes Stephanie Nolen in Canada’s Globe & Mail. Some of those who continue to respect Mugabe’s liberation credentials now want him to step down. “History has, with this election, given him a moment of pause and a chance to redeem his legacy,” writes journalist E. Ablorh-Odjidja in the Ghanaian daily Accra Mail.

This change is paralleled in Africa’s political class, where a new generation of leaders has sprung up. The president of Botswana, Ian Khama, is the son of Seretse Khama, who held office when Mugabe first became president.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.