Delanceyplace.com 7/21/08-Zimbabwe and the U.S.

In today's excerpt--the view in Zimbabwe of the U.S. Over the last few months, the dictator Robert Mugabe--author of that country's extreme political repression and hyperinflation--has again overcome opposition to maintain his grip on power. Here is an excerpt from a 1999 Zimbabwean high school textbook which presumably captures that government's propaganda on the United States--and supports the storyline that Mugabe stands up for African independence in the face of U.S. and British neo-colonialism. The excerpt is a discussion of the international pressure on South Africa to end the practice of apartheid:

"South Africa responded to international pressure and to the crisis at home by tightening the screws and by exporting terror and genocide to neighboring African countries. At home, the press was gagged. African activists were incarcerated or murdered and new laws to deprive the masses of any form of freedom of expression were promulgated. ... Reactionary groups were sponsored by the regime to fight wars of destabilization in Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and periodically Jonas Savimbi's UNITA in Angola and Alfonso Dhlakama's bandits in Mozambique wreaked havoc in those countries. In this, South Africa was supported by the USA administration which had publicly admitted giving aid to Jonas Savimbi.

"The unholy alliance between South Africa and Reaganism in America gained strength during the early 1980s when the Reagan era began. The Black American Republican, Jeane Kirk Patrick [sic], believed that rightest authoritarian regimes, no matter how oppressive, were natural allies of the USA as they were useful in combating the spread of communism. ...

"Ronald Reagan once asked of South Africa: 'Can we abandon a country that has stood by us in every war we have ever fought, a country that is essentially strategic to the free world?' One might ask, 'how free a world was that of the South African blacks?' The point being made was clear. Thereafter, the USA vetoed every resolution that was intended to bring down apartheid at the UN."

[Note: Jeanne Kirkpatrick served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. under President Reagan from 1981 to 1985. She was part of a Republican administration, but not black.]

M. Sibanda and H. Moyana, The Africa Heritage: History for O level Secondary Students, Book 3, Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Publishing House (Pvt) Ltd., 1999, 115-116.