From this situation, several questions were raised in my mind. It seems that Mugabe is an African leader gone wild; the man appears to have turned into a pure savage and is now murdering whoever opposes his will. The man has been in office since 1980, that is, twenty eight years, and has done nothing to improve his people’s lives.  Apparently, despite his abysmal record, he still believes that he can do something worthwhile in the future. A man who did nothing significant in twenty eight years is less likely to do any good in the future.  Moreover, considering that he is now in his eighties, an age when most people’s creativity is diminished, if not gone, it is doubtful that he is going to do anything productive while in office. As such, he is probably seeking to stay in office for the sake of being in office (apparently, that makes his over sized ego feel important and powerful).

Morgan Tsvangirai had planned to win the presidential election and replace Mugabe. All along my view was that even if he succeeded and replaced Mugabe that given what we know about African leaders he is not going to do anything to improve the people’s welfare.

African leaders seem to seek office for only God knows why but certainly not to serve their people, not to develop their countries and improve their people’s standard of living. If any of them have been devoted to public service I am not aware of him.

I was not excited by whoever replaces Mugabe, if he was going to be a do nothing ruler; one do nothing ruler replacing another is no reason to work ones self up.

In a situation where African leaders are essentially self serving thieves, cynicism appears appropriate behavior towards them.

Cynicism, however, is dangerous for it leads to do nothingness; cynics are often cowards, for they are afraid of taking action; it is action that changes events on the ground, not despair.

Given my skepticism towards African leaders, I said to me: let the thugs of Zimbabwe duke it out among themselves and may the more powerful one win over the other.

Now that Morgan Tsvangirai has fled and sought refuge in a foreign embassy I am wondering if he is a coward. If he was a courageous person should he have sought refuge in a foreign embassy, shouldn't’ he have allowed Mugabe’s goon squad to pick him up and, if necessary, kill him and he become a martyr?

Tsvangirai's death would have become a rallying cry for those opposed to petty African dictators.

But, no, Africans so want to live that they not only tolerate brutal dictators oppressing and starving them but run and seek refuge in foreign countries.

Given what Morgan Tsvangirai did, it seems that he is not fit to be a leader of Zimbabwe . May be the old rogue, Mugabe, was right in seeing him as an agent of foreign powers. Mugabe contends that Tsvangirai was planted in Zimbabwe by those who disapprove his wanting to make Zimbabwe a “revolutionary” country.

Given Tsvangirai’s apparent cowardly behavior in seeking refuge in a foreign embassy, what do you think of him, a hero or a fifth column? Earlier on he had fled to South Africa and was only later persuaded to return to compete in the June 27 election.  Is this man a bloody coward and, as such, contemptible and not worth a bother?

Since it takes one to know one, am I a coward?  Considering that I live in the West rather than in Africa where the struggle to improve African politics should be taking place, perhaps I am a coward?  My motivation notwithstanding, can we consider Tsvangirai a coward hence dismiss him as not worthy of our support?

I have this sneaking suspicion that the main reason why no African country is well governed, why no African leader can be given a C grade in leadership, is that Africans are ruled by fear, are a cowardly people?

Africans tolerated slavery to Arabs and Europeans and did not prefer to fight and, if necessary, die rather than become slaves.

This tolerance towards oppression continues today in Africans tendency to tolerate their abusive rulers, the petty tyrants that exist to oppress their people rather than serve them.

I suspect that, may be, Africans are cowards and, if so, that we ought to concentrate on finding a way to heal them of their fear and get them to know that men should not fear death. We are born and must die so why fear the inevitable, death? What matters, it seems to me, is to live freely, doing what serves the public interest.

I am in no way suggesting that only Africans are fearful. White folks are fearful. See, Arab terrorists attacked America and the country went into fear mode and now practically devote most of its resources protecting itself from further attacks and the people are encouraged to live in fear.

Fear is what makes it necessary for there to be governments. As Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan) pointed out, people are afraid of what other people could do to them and set up governments (police, army, courts, jails etc) to protect them.

On the negative side, governments know that people are prone to fear and manipulate it. Many governments are terrorists; many states are terrorist states that use terror as an instrument in intimidating the people into going along with what the leaders want them to do.

Fear is a human phenomenon, not just a race thing. Without fear human beings, indeed, all animals would not survive. Fear is built into all animals and alerts them to threats to their lives and urges them to take defensive measures so as to survive. Those children born with less pain hence less fear tend to die young. Simply stated, fear is a necessary mechanism for human survival. Nevertheless, there is such a thing as excessive fear.

Are Africans cowards? Put differently, if you are an African, are you a coward, and if not what are you doing to improve Africa , what may endanger your life? Do you prefer safety to freedom?

I do not believe that we can have responsible and accountable governments in Africa until Africans are willing to risk their lives for such governments.  In on Liberty , John Stuart Mill made a similar argument; he observed that liberty thrives where the people are willing to fight and die for it. The tree of liberty is watered with patriots blood, said Thomas Paine (see his book, Common Sense)

Let us have a discussion on this subject.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji

June 24, 2008

ozodiosuji@gmail.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 Ozodi Thomas Osuji Morgan Tsvangirai, the opponent to Robe...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 24.06.2008 21:20

Tony  Villager

# 2 congrats osuji, this is a very balanced article. if you continue writing good articles like this rather than the usual ethnic bashings and generalizations you would become a hero in no time. Posted by Tony| 24.06.2008 21:42

BBalogun  Villager

# 3 Mugabe was probably a nationalist with good intentions for his people but somewhere along the lines when the British turned on him by reneging on earlier agreements, he lost his focus. He needs to go and set the people free. Morgan Tsvangari on the on the other hand has found himself in a weakened position that he never truly bargained for. In my opinion, he is not a coward but simply a man that realises the reality of his position vis a vis the copulation of African nations by the colonialist. Both are victims of the same set of circumstances. Posted by BBalogun| 24.06.2008 21:56

DoubleWahala  Villager

# 4 This is a very deep, meditative piece from Osuji. DW Posted by DoubleWahala| 24.06.2008 22:53

fxo  Villager

# 5 When in Kenya, the 2 titans faced off and each refused to back down. Thousands die and lost their livelihood. Kenya lost its reputation as a stable and decent society, when the world saw the mayhem and the mindless indecency exhibited by both sides of the conflict. Morgan said he didn't want to ride into power with the blood of innocent people on his head. I respect that, he is not a desperate man who will die if he didn't become president. It would have been cool to see him stand-up to Mugabe and wake him up to the facts, but it was not meant to be. Its the spineless African leaders like Mbeki and Yar' Adua are the cowards I expect you to talk about not a man who has been exhausted fighting alone for years. But what do you expect of Mbeki, Yar 'Adua and the rest "Darfur" is happening on their watch. Still happening ... Posted by fxo| 25.06.2008 01:37

pappilo  Villager

# 6 I didnt read the whole article as I was put off by you calling Morgan Tsvangarai a coward. How else can the man prove he is no coward, wear a suicide bomb belt? If you have followed the Zimbabwe story long enough you will surely know the man is no coward. You probably have no clue what the man is about and you are just riding on the recent media coverage of the zimbabwe crisis Posted by pappilo| 25.06.2008 01:51

aringaranso  Villager

# 7 Calling Morgan Tsvangirai a coward is just hitting below the belt.His situation is quite different and wasn't like that of Odinga,Abiola,e.t.c. Mugabe made him his major target,he has been battered,assaulted,beaten and he couldn't have bothered eliminating him in the process.And his quiting out of the race is no cowardice. Morgan Tsvangirai is just living to fight another day. Posted by aringaranso| 25.06.2008 02:40

philipikita  Villager

# 8 My main issue with Morgan is, why run to a foreign embassy? Is that the only safe option for him to run to? What does this signify of African "leaders"? Posted by philipikita| 25.06.2008 02:57

Agidimolaja  Villager

# 9 When Rhodesia{now Zimbabwe} was getting Independence from oppressive Britain,three candidates were contesting for the office of Prime Minister. They were,humble and friend of oppressive whites, Bishop Abel Mozurewa, who would want his Government(if elected}to be half whites and half blacks.Nobody wanted to hear that bunch of useless nonsense therefore he was not a popular contestant. Another contestant was the most popular, tough and strict nationalist/guerrila,Joshua Nkomo. The third was of course,radical but more educated guerrila,Robert Mugabe. Out of the three,the peoples' choice then was Joshua Nkomo,but the British cannot stand him just as they could not stand neither Nnamdi Azikwe nor Obafemi Awolowo. The British crafted and staged managed the election in favour of their choice,Robert Mugabe whom they felt more comfortable with and whom they could remotelty control. As Sir Abubakar Tafa Balewa was imposed upon us in 1960 so also was Robert Mugabe imposed upon the people of Zimbabwe in 1980. Robert Mugabe came into office and was obediently doing the will of his master,Britain, exactly as our Sir Abubakar Tafa Balewa was doing. Mugabe also,according to the dictates of Britain devoted a lot of time into fighting Joshua Nkomo just as our Balewa was fighting Obafemi Awolowo in the sixties. While waging unholy wars against Nkomo whom he percieved as a great threat to his Prime Ministership, Mugabe had no single time left to nurse up newly Independent Zimbabwe while Britain was cheering him all along. After twenty years in office doing nothing good for his people,but rather busied himself doing the wish of Britain, Mugabe all of a sudden woke up from his political slumber.Scales fell off from his eyes as he looked back into the past.He found nothing but wasted twenty years. It was at this juncture that he saw the need to attend to one of the yearings of his people - the stolen farmlands by white settlers. Robert Mugabe's first radical about-turn was to embark on confistication of the farmlands fron the whites and returning them to legitimate owners - native Zinbabweans. Britain,as expected, cried foul! Other Western oppressors sided with Britain and then joined up in the war against Mugabe. As usual,Mugabe was a good man as long as he was doing his masters' will but the moment he backfired and changed his steps to help his people, he is anything else but good. Robert Mugabe was imposed upon his people by Britain as a licensed Dictator but his dictatorship was never spoken about nor challenged.It was quite ok as long as he was doing all that pleased his paymasters. Mobutu Sese Seko was a brutal dictator until the tail end of his life because he did not offend his masters that put him in place.So also was Emperor Bokassa. Gen. Idi Amin enjoyed frienship and fellowship with the West until he kicked against the West. Today Mugabe is a despot,dictator,etc just because he denounced status quo.It is happening to Mugabe today just as it happened to some leaders in the past. Hopefully Africans would learn lessons from the situation in Zimbabwe. It is not Mugabe that is starving his people nor oppressing his people as many are made to wrongly believe. Those who are starving and oppressing the people of Zimbabwe are the "great and mighty" who has economic power of life and death ,who have descended so mightily upon the people of Zimbabwe but not necessarily Mugabe with all sorts of economic sanctions. When sanctions and economic isolations are visited on any poor nation like Zimbabwe because her Prime Minister offended the power that be;who suffers?The poor masses!That is what we are witnessing in Zimbabwe today. Yes,it was quite wrong of Mugabe to have yoked up with oppressive Britain against his own people for twenty years. Mugabe had every opportunity to go to work in 1980 and start to build Zimbabwe with the little the nation has instead of becoming his master's voice - stooge. Mugabe,with his high level of education should be aware of what Britain's reaction would be when he changed his colours especially when he tried to collect back from the white settlers all the lands that they have stolen from the children of the soil. Mugabe came into office as stooge and then went on a long sleep.His slumber lasted twenty years before his self realisation finally came but so much damages have been done. Since Mugabe woke up from his slumber and dicovered that he already messed up greatly,the only option left for him was to leave office honourably and allow someone else with nationalist soul like him to take the driver's seat. It is not unusual though that most African leaders would never leave office honourably until either killed or violently forced out. Mugabe should be fully aware that the game is over.He was already a victim and there is nothing he could do to absolve himself from being a stooge once upon a time. Since the West is now tormenting and starving his people because of the strict economic measures taken against Zimbabwe,the most honourable thing for Mugabe should be to leave office and save the lives of his own people. He needed no African Union leaders or UNO or anyone else under the sun to teach him how to go off the stage. I hope he would do so. Posted by Agidimolaja| 25.06.2008 02:58

dapxin  Villager

# 10 I havent read this article,but a quick comment - Zimbabwe is a huge minus for Africa - and its overstated will to run/do things its own way..... I dey come. Posted by dapxin| 25.06.2008 03:31

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