When the Group of 8 foreign ministers urged African leaders in June to confront the demolition of shanties in Zimbabwe, a campaign that has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, South Africa, Zimbabwe's southern neighbor, had a ready and caustic response.
"I am really irritated by this kgokgo approach," said Bheki Khumalo, President Thabo Mbeki's spokesman, using a Sotho word that implies scaring a small child into submission. "South Africa refuses to accept the notion that because suddenly we're going to a G-8 summit, we must be reminded that we must look good and appease the G-8 leaders. We will do things because we believe they are correct and right."
Some Westerners who have watched events in Zimbabwe might find that response astonishing....
No kidding!
On the surface this sort of thing is deeply offensive, but consider the circumstances. Mugabe's policies, as horrendous and reprehensible as they seem to us, are widely popular in Southern Africa. This is the legacy of anti-colonialist racism. Governments throughout the region are under considerable popular pressure to emulate Mad Bobby Mugabe, to institute land redistribution policies that would strip whites of their possessions, and to openly defy the West, especially their former colonial masters.
Mbeki and other leaders in the area are walking a fine line. They can't afford to alienate the West, but they have to play to popular sentiment. Defiant, even insulting, language such as above, is necessary when faced with Western demands. So don't be astonished by the rhetoric -- it's necessary. The real tragedy is that popular sentiment precludes any strong action against Mugabe. And the poor of Zimbabwe continue to suffer.
Read the article here.
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