Malawi 2004 - 2007 |
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The Demise of the Vendors
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When Robert Mugabe decided to 'remove the trash from the streets' in Zimbabwe he was widely condemned by the West. As people were driven from their street stalls and buildings were demolished, some with occupants inside, Jack Straw and the E.U. were, quite reasonably, outraged that human rights had yet again been trampled under the mad dictator's police boots. The African Union refused to intervene. This is an internal security matter and nothing to do with the A.U. they said as Mugabe defended his position by attacking the old colonial powers. They were not about to stop him from cleansing the streets of illegal traders and thieves who used the stalls as a cover for crime. It was obvious that Africa did not buy the British media caricature to hang in its gallery. Instead Malawi purchased a finer, more flattering, portrait of the man who taken Zimbabwe from the maize provider of Southern Africa to starvation and from a bedrock economy to the melt-down of 1000% inflation. President Bingu Wa Mutharika, who has farms in Zimbabwe and married a relative of Bob, welcomed him to Malawi as a hero of the struggle against imperialism and named a new road after him. The usually emollient tone of the ex-UN economist changed to West-bashing rhetoric and African countries started to copy the fashion for removing trash from the streets. The Human Rights Civil Society in Malawi bared its milk teeth prior to the visit, but Bingu called them in and explained that they should not annoy a traditional partner which hosted over 2 million vulnerable Malawians. They saw the reason of the argument and subsided. Vox pops on the radio came out wildly in favour of a welcome to Mugabe. I could not for the life of me see how anyone could justify the methods used by this man even if the message was worth listening to. It was not as if he was really a nice man. Karel, our friend in Holland, had hosted him on a visit to Phillips in the past and described how he had found fault with everything - five star hotels, limousines and everything - in the most unpleasant and overbearing manner. However, on my recent trip back to the U.K. I finally found a champion for this tyrant. I was holding a loud conversation with a young Zimbabwian woman across a lightly populated airport restaurant room. " What do people really think about Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe?" I shouted across the room. She said in more hushed tones that it was difficult to say as you do not know who is around. I nodded in acquiescent apology. But, then she warmed to the theme. " We are in a war against you colonialists. You have to suffer to fight a war. Things are bound to get worse before when you are in the middle of a war. You whites do not have our experiences how you expect to understand? Where do you think the gold on Buckingham Palace came from - England?" " But how can you respect a man who has taken the country from food exporter to starvation. Hasn't he used the wrong methods to achieve a laudable aim?" " Look when the whites took our land I bet they didn't know how to farm and learnt by their mistakes. We will do the same.?" " What about the 'sweep the trash from the streets' ?" " He is just sending people back to their villages. Look our history is subsistence farming. We know how to feed ourselves. He knows that these people will be better off in their villages than coming to cities to get poor and turn into thieves." She was passionate and committed in our megaphone debate. Other diners had their gazes firmly fixed on their plates, hardly daring to lift their eyes. It was time to go. " Are you on your way to Zimbabwe?" " No I'm off to Quatar. I have a job as a graphic designer there."
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