Before Judging Zimbabwe

Many people have rushed to judgement in the matter of Zimbabwe. Looking at the information being presented its easy to see why. Much of the information many Americans are getting are in simple and non-complex terms. In the narrative we see a good guy, Morgan Tsvangirai, trying to bring "freedom" and "democracy" (holy words in the United States) to a people who suffer under the hand of a despot, Robert Mugabe. That seems to be simple enough. We should probably align our nation's public opinion and resources against the bad guy.

Unfortunately nothing is that simple and much of the United States media(for whatever reason) has decided to not flush out the complete details of the situation in Zimbabwe choosing rather to retell the narrative in efforts to drum up support for Mugabe's opposition. The only problem with this is that the people closest to Mugabe and Zimbabwe refuse to condemn him in the same way much of the Western Media has.

The Washington Post recently did an article looking at Robert Mugabe's relationship with South African president Thabo Mbeki. Throughout the article they reference Mbeki's association with Mugabe as tarnishing a great legacy. As Mbeki tries desperately to convince Mugabe that retirement is both honorable to his legacy and beneficial to his people, many in the west consider Mbeki "dirtying" his own legacy by involving himself with Mugabe. However, it is not so easy for Mbeki to part with his elder as it is for the world to turn their back on Mugabe.

Perhaps it was the refuge that Mugabe allowed Mbeki to take as the Apartheid government of South Africa had exiled members of the ANC. Perhaps it was the raucous reception Mugabe received at Mbeki's inagural in 2004. Perhaps it was Mugabe seizing control of white owned farms in Zimbabwe in efforts to redistribute the wealth to the common people of Zimbabwe. Whatever the reason, and there seem to be quite a few, Mbeki is not yet ready to call Mugabe the terrible tyrant that the American media has already crowned him.

Let me be clear, this is not a piece about why we ought to support Robert Mugabe. Instead it is a call for all Americans to seek out truth that our media does not always present in its entirety (particularly on matters pertaining to Africa). Just as there are quite a few good reasons why some African leaders still support Mugabe, there are also legitimate reasons why he is unfit to continue being the leader of Zimbabwe. What we must do is try to open our minds to various sources of information in order to come away with the most complete story, not just the narrative that our media paints for us.