From Pan-Africanism to Global Awareness

international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Monday May 08, 2006 04:54 by Robbie Sinnott robbiesin at gmail dot com

An Interview with Zimbabwean Activist Luke Chodo

mp3 22 mins 128kbps interview

Luke Chodo charts the history of the pan-Africanist movement, and the trend in recent years to look beyond Africa to global struggles.

Luke also gives an analysis of Mugabe's regime and how it has changed, and explains why he’s not comfortable with the of the MDC.

Recorded in a defunct Westmoreland Street café, Dublin, February 26th 2004.

Background Notes on Zimbabwe:
Almost five times the size of Ireland, Zimbabwe has up until recently, been rich in agriculture. it has an estimated population of 12.2 million, a quarter of whom were estimated to have HIV/AIDS in 2001.

Here are some significant events which have impacted Zimbabwe since the interview was recorded.

2004

Oct 27th: Police expel visiting officials from South Africa’s Cosatu Union on the pretext that they’d over-stayed their visas.

2005

March 15th: Amnesty International report says that Human Rights abuses mean that many will not be able to vote in the forthcoming elections.

March 31st: General election held. 120 seats up for grabs, and President himself nominates another 20..

April 1xt: Zanu PF win 69 of the 120 seats on offer, with the MDC taking the others. The MDC is refusing to recognize the result, but says that legal challenges are a waste of time. Up to 70% of the working population have left the country and this year’s has been the worst harvest yet. Mugabe says that the MDC is a British acolyte.

May 22nd: Beginning of Operation Murambatsvina (Clear the Trash/filth aka. Restore Order), in which security forces clear the slums of Harare – many of whose denizens are refugees from rural impoverishment (much of which was brought about by the seizure of land from white and opposition land-owners).

June 20th: UN given permission to visit Harare to see the effects of the clearance of 200,000 people from shanty-towns around the city on the pretext of erradicating criminal habitats.

July 26th: UNICEF says that 220,000 children are among the est. 700,000 to have been made homeless by Operation Murambatsvina. Today, Mugabe met with the Chinese President in Beijing looking for loans. He expects some funds from South Africa, but most support from China. The economy is in bits, and the IMF meets tomorrow to consider the expulsion of Zimbabwe which owes $290m. Some Zimbabweans see China’s role as that of a colonist, receiving mineral resources and rich agricultural land in exchange for holing up the desparate regime of ZANU PF.

August 7th: New Zealand cricket team begins tour of Zimbabwe.

October 4th: Hundreds of soldiers given leave because the resources
are no longer there to pay them.

November 26th: Elections held for the newly formed Upper Chamber or Senate causes a serious divide in the MDC, with Changurai advocating abstention, and others running as candidates.

December 3rd: UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egelan in Zimbabwe to check on Human Rights.

December 5th: Jan Egelan says that re-housing following Murambatsvina has been very inadequate.

December 7th: UNERC Jan Egeland says that the Zimbabwe is in a state of melt-
down. He pledges aid to housing, HIV/aids and food.

December 10th: Government begins taking the passports of anyone it
feels is undermining the state.

2006

January 10th: Government-run Herald reports that 180 have contracted cholera in Harare, and 14 have died. It also says that the sale of meat has been banned in the city because of the outbreak.

March 19th: Morgan Changurai re-elected as leader of the rump MDC.

April 8th: WHO report puts the country’s life expectancy at the lowest in the world, 37 for men and 34 for women.

April 24th: MDC’s Roy Bennett seeks political asylum in South Africa. He’s been in hiding for a month, having heard that the police were looking for him in connection with an asassination plot against President Mugabe. Bennett’s coffee plantation was seized in the land reforms, and he went to jail in 2004 for pushing a government minister during a heated debate.

April 25th: Government announces 333,200% increase in public health care costs as it tries to come to terms with the world’s worst inflation.

May 3rd: Herald announces a shortage of ARVs (anti-aids drugs) – only a month’s supply for the 20,000 on perscription. National pharmaceutical company blames currency crisis. 3,000 Zimbabweans die of aids each week.

Also May 3rd: Journalists march to the offices of the banned Daily News and the banned Tribune to mark World Press Freedom Day (Guardian UK).

May 4th: Malawian Government name a prominent road the Robert Mugabe Highway in a ceremony that is attended by the Zimbabwean President.

also May 4th: Government is buying technology from China to strengthen its internet censorship. Government has recently done arms and mineral deals with China.

May 5th: Guardian (UK) later reports that 100 women have been arrested for protesting against increased schooling costs for their children.