One’s freedom fighter another’s terrorist

George Alleyne in Newsday of July 27 gives an erudite commentary on Zimbabwe’s history as it relates to Commonwealth citizens.

Mr Ramoutar may not know that Zimbabwe, the former territory called Southern Rhodesia was expelled from the British Commonwealth due to the racist policies of Ian Smith, who promptly re-invited white settlers to come and get land, African people’s land, for free, and the world did nothing. Now when we hear some people screaming about brutality in Zimbabwe, we have to remind ourselves that they have been carefully taught.

It might be interesting to know whether he has heard of Greater Zimbabwe. It ranks in Africa, with Stonehenge in England, and Machu Picchu in Peru and he can pull up a picture of it on the internet. Greater Zimbabwe was a fortress that was apparently the centre for a civilisation that lived there hundreds, maybe a thousand years ago. The massive walls were built in two circles with openings at different locations, in order to confuse and repel enemies, we believe. Why the civilisation moved on, we do not know. They may have been wiped out by a pandemic brought by outsiders, the way the population of Hawaii succumbed to measles in 1848.

When the people of present day Zimbabwe won a bitter war of independence from Ian Smith and his white supremacist government, they chose the historical name of the region, to celebrate their new status. Like Haiti, Zimbabwe has a bruised history, but it is a proud history of the survival of Africans on African soil. Like Haiti, there seems to be evidence of outside interference in attempts to unseat Robert Mugabe, and the BBC is banned from the country for what is called biased reporting. And all reporting is biased, believe me. The fact that I am responding to this, and not commenting on the continuing struggle in Kashmir is part of my bias, as Mr Ramoutar’s question is part of his. Like Haiti, and Venezuela under Chavez, and Cuba under Castro, one man’s revolutionary freedom fighter is another’s terrorist.

Maintaining contact with Zimbabwe keeps dialogue open, keeps hope alive, keeps ideas being exchanged and all of these could lead to peaceful solutions, where more guns and bullets cannot.

Do you get it now, Mr Ramoutar?

History should not only be the record of the conquests of Europeans over others, but of the others too.

Zimbabwe is important, like the ancient kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhai in West Africa, and Egypt, Kush and Ethiopia in East Africa, Zimbabwe, in its ancient form, represents the greatness that was Africa, a greatness to which it could return, and which, for the time being, may only be memorialised in the name.

LINDA EDWARDS

Port-of-Spain