Aaron Gono
Countries from the north and south have similar characteristics of governing their subjects.
 They only differ with those from the south, when it comes to handing over power to the president elect. Especially in Africa, parties and leaders lack succession plans. When they are at the citadel of power, they tend to consolidate every government and non-government institutions. These can be witnessed in how courts are packed, changing of the constitution to suit a certain narrative and cadre deployment.
Yes, in politics, all positions of influence are filled by loyalists and people of a feather. That is the normal operations of politicking. Some independent minds; might say it’s nepotism, regionalism, ethnicism and other isms. The schism in Zimbabwe right now is one example which independent minds cite. Yes, from governance it is, but in politics, it is a way of survival. Donald Trump, on 20 January 2025, also began purging supposed enemies and putting loyalists and business partners to positions of influence also court packing saw the day.
Check his choice of, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk etc. At first hearing their orders, you might think you are listening to bots or deep avatars. Then you see them in the west wing of the White House, then you realize they are real human beings.
The western world manufactures deadly weapons daily and sell them around the globe. When those weapons are used in third world countries to suppress the majority of the people in the continent. They are quick to label, third world leaders as, blood thirsty dictators. America, England, Belgium, France, Portugal etc are known for disposing African leaders whom they didn’t favour since time immemorial. They are known for using aid as a tool of subjugation. All those media houses; funding and propagating the so called democratic guardrails to third world countries are tools of manipulation. Do they promote “Ubuntu”? No! They only promote individualism and capitalism and also offer some recipes and options of regime change.
“Kusekana kwana kamba chokwadi!. Deadly viruses are manufactured and exported to third world countries. Look at Ebola, HIV/AIDS and the novel COVID 19 viruses. Luckily enough COVID, was successful in entering the western market, tariffs didn’t stop it and also protectionism. And fastly a vaccine was discovered in record time. Doctor Fauci was called to testify on the origins of the virus, and he acknowledged that it “was their fault with Beijing. The virus entered the Wuhan market by mistake.”I thought third world leaders would pressure him; on the real value addition of experimenting with deadly viruses. But they remained “mute”. Till today it’s business as usual, bashing Trump for abruptly cutting off aid, on food, medicine and financial freebies.
From year 2000, we noticed the capture of third world leaders. From this time to date, we had no credible leader from a third world country to talk about. The so-called junta, Traore, of Burkina Faso, is Africa’s Che Guevara. You can easily notice from the cues of his speeches that he is a man on a mission. His country is now taking shape, not from white man’s crumbs, but from the rare earth minerals which are abundant in the continent. The late Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe, tried it but he lacked support from fellow African muters.
Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, tried it last month and he has a dissertation to submit to Harvard University this semester .Threats were directed at his country and some aid quickly frozen and markets came down crushing. Now he appears to be on a conciliatory tone with Washington. That can be easily deduced from Musk’s silence.
The current American leadership reminds me of the movie “The Predator” acted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Canada very soon is going to be their colony. Greenland too, also features on the map of the octopus. Gaza, very soon will be a tourist attraction. But the same hymn book used by Trump to justify these occupations; had been used by the previous Democratic government as a tool to condemn Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. Manipulation of man by man.
Ramaphosa’s adventure started when he asked why developed countries were hoarding vaccines during the epidemic. His refusal to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and also land expropriation added petrol to the fire. He was viewed as, some clever black who wants to challenge the status quo and imitating brother Traore. His ambassador, Rasool, was deported from Washington for thinking like someone from Saudi Arabia and the South African government blamed the ambassador for throwing stones in a glass house. America simply manipulated South Africa in a polite manner. Even today words of bravado are changing ears without acknowledging that they have been manipulated. Propaganda is manipulation and manipulation is propaganda.
That is how Africa is manipulated by the Western world. A country like Zimbabwe can give a testimony of how playing truancy with the powers to be can leave you in tears. So all birds must be in a roll. Zimbabwe from the days of its liberation struggle, both fighting sides manipulated the povo as the good guys. The Rhodesian Front was fighting terrorists who intended to usurp power from the Aryan race, to destroy the white man’s civilization. And the freedom fighters called them, “Zvigananda, Mapuruvheya, Capricorn, Vadzvinyiriri “meaning a few who were enjoying the fruits of the country, etc”. All this was intended to get likes from the civilians.
Today the same system continues in the country, the members of parliament promising something impossible during campaign times. The opposition, positioning itself as more responsible than the current ruling government. And the current ruling government labelling the opposition as “agents of regime change”. They appear as vanguards of the suffering black population. But alas, both are fixated at power, control, and getting rich quickly.
As political scientist Rene Lemarchand comments, “Where two communities within the same state believe themselves to be victims, the stage is set for endless conflict.”
Asante sana
