Oppression and Tyranny
Sometimes I am astounded by the injustices and atrocities of the world, which is rare as I am not easily surprised when something happens in our often cruel world. We should live in a better world, we have the power to do so, but collective greed prevents it. Greed exists everywhere within every person, more in some then the others. These people that indulge in excessive amounts of greed, are often the worst people, who have the power to do the worst things.
Africa has always been a horrible place. The societies of the continent constantly fought one another in tribal warfare and these tribes would sell prisoners of war into slavery. Then came colonization, which wasn’t much better for the people of Africa. The colonial powers of the world viewed Africa as ripe in resources and available to be exploited. For many years Africa’s resources were used to fund wars and pad the coffers of the countries who had grabbed their piece of the colonial pie. A primitive continent was used and abused for years, not only by colonial powers, but their very own leaders as well. In a society of people with limited education and other basic necessities, they can be easily manipulated.
Over time, with such conditions, hatred and radicalism festers. Once we arrived at the modern age, colonies started to become a thing of the past. Replacing these colonies were countries with factions, each picking up where the colonial powers left off. They continued to abuse and take advantage of the people of Africa. This all led to a gap, the poor and the powerful, and that is what we have today. Men with power, consumed by greed, that do nothing to advance their society, only to advance themselves and their own agenda.
The country of Zimbabwe is one of many examples of these conditions. Robert Mugabe has held control of the country since 1980 after the country was released from British rule. He was a strong supporter of independence from the colonial powers throughout his life, which has earned him some fame among Africans. Last June, he won another 5 year term, however not without controversy. There had to be a runoff between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader. However before the runoff vote, Tsvangirai withdrew from the election as many of his supporters were killed and their homes set on fire by Mugabe forces. This in turn led to a landslide victory for Mugabe. Since then, a power sharing deal was reached between the two men, however currently there is deadlock over which ministers each of them will control.
Mugabe continues to run the country, unopposed. The country has fallen on severe hard times, with hundreds of thousands dieing from a Cholera outbreak as the country’s healthcare system has crumbled, millions are starving as there is no food. The country’s economic sector is nearly non-existant, as the inflation rate has skyrockted to over 14 mill percent. A loaf of bread costs 33 million Zimbabwe Dollars, which amounts to roughly 1 US Dollar. The country is in shambles, with many in the world calling for Mugabe’s resignation, he has refused. However the African Union refuses to do anything to intervene in the situation. Some AU leaders, such as the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, have called for intervention though and support an AU or UN force going into the country to intevene. One can only hope that people such as PM Odinga, can be an agent of such change.
What should be done in this situation? It’s complicated, but a few options exist. An ideal situation would have African forces going in to help stabilize the country and bring about a new government. This would be the most beneficial solution, however at this point, the AU has rejected such actions. A UN force could be sent in, however the UN has miserably failed in its past and current peacekeeping missions in Africa, so I do not believe this would be any better. An independent group of nations could send a massive force to try and stabilize the country, however this could possibly cause a scenario similar to Iraq, which is not ideal.
I have my own solution though, and while some may not agree, I believe it will probably be the only way. The people of Africa need to unite against such leaders like Mugabe and lead a revolution to overthrow these people in order to help provide a better future for themselves. As it stands, the people of Africa face a very bleak future. They alone have the power to free themselves from such oppression and tyranny. Throwing money at this problem isn’t helping either, it just empowers these warlords and oppressors, giving them more money to put towards arming themselves even further against the poor.
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Its not as easy as merely uniting… you mention tribe warfare and the like in your post. That was fine until colonialism came in and rewrote the borders of Africa. It forced tribes to live in the same area, even if they opposed each other. This is one of the many contributing factors of why entire regions explode into genocide, which I think would more than likely occur if a revolution did occur. While I agree that they do need to unite, it is much more complicated than that as getting them to unite would prove to be a challenge in itself.