Three Panelists debate whether Zimbabwe is “Beyond Redemption”
HARTFORD, Conn. – Three experts on African affairs, including two Rescue Scholars from Zimbabwe, painted a grim portrait of that nation’s political, socio-economic and health conditions, with one professor suggesting that the crisis has deteriorated to the point where Zimbabwe may be “beyond redemption.”
Attributing Zimbabwe’s collapse to “a catastrophic failure of leadership,” George Ayittey, an economist in residence at American University in Washington D.C., said the South African country, with its 94 percent unemployment rate and worthless currency, may not be able to right itself without international intervention.
Ayittey joined two Rescue Scholars from Zimbabwe – Tyanai Masiya, who is teaching under the auspices of Trinity’s Center for Urban and Global Studies, and Jubaloni Moyo, a Rescue Scholar who is a professor of political science at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson in New York – in a Common Hour presentation Thursday, March 5. The topic of the panel discussion was “Academic Freedom and the Political Crisis in Zimbabwe.”
The event was made possible, in part, by a contribution to the Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) from The Hite Foundation Chair for Communication. The SRF is run by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York, and gives safe harbor to academics whose work puts them at risk in their home countries. The SRF was founded in 2002 and has sponsored 260 scholars in 40 countries.
All three of the participants said there is a complete absence of academic freedom in Zimbabwe and that the country’s ruling regime – made up of longtime President Robert Mugabe, his ministers, 400 legislators and the military – have targeted scholars, activists and political foes for retribution.
“There’s been a disintegration of the academic system, the result of intolerance by the state,” said Masiya, who is teaching two courses at Trinity this semester. “Opposition figures are detained and imprisoned and seen as puppets of the West.”
What’s more, Masiya said, Zimbabwe is beset by what he called “hyperinflation” and soaring joblessness, political polarization and violations of civil and human rights. Freedom of speech and association has been suppressed, the public health system has collapsed (leading to an outbreak of cholera) and the national unity government is a mockery.
Masiya is a lecturer in politics and governance at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, and the chairman of the Center for Peace Research and Development, a human rights organization based in that country.
Moyo did not disagree with Masiya’s assessment of Zimbabwe’s political and economic decline, saying that many of the country’s problems can be squarely blamed on Mugabe, who has greatly overstayed his welcome. Mugabe, who became prime minister of Zimbabwe in 1980 and president in 1987, and was once hailed as a liberator, has “essentially turned a government of national unity into a government of convenence.” Indeed, Moyo went on to say that Mugabe is just a figurehead and that the army generals are in total control of the country.
Moyo characterized Zimbabwe as bankrupt, except for the top government and military leaders who are entitled to free houses, cars, maids and chauffeurs and have amassed huge personal fortunes, while the rest of the population is either fleeing, starving or both.
Mugabe has made “powerful political enemies and squandered his good will,” said Moyo. “He should have left [office] after 10 years.”
Ayittey, who founded the Free Africa Foundation to promote development and democracy on the African continent, said the situation in Zimbabwe is not only heart-breaking but makes him angry.
After fighting for and achieving freedom in the post-colonial era, the same theme has emerged over and again: “Africans have traded white masters for black oppressive leaders,” he said.
Out of the 206 heads of state in African countries since 1960, Ayittey estimated that perhaps 20 have been “good leaders,” resulting in “a catastrophic failure of leadership.” Ayittey called Mugabe a “murderous despot” who has forced 25 percent of the country’s people to flee in exile.
Ayittey, who won the 1992 H.L. Mencken Book Award for Africa Betrayed, ended his remarks by pessimistically concluding that Zimbabwe is “beyond redemption.”