Why Africa won't rein in Mugabe

African leaders recently chose Zimbabwe to chair the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, despite strong objections from Western countries.

from the May 16, 2007 edition

Reporters on the job: Scott Baldauf shares the story behind the story.

Andy Nelson – Staff/File

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Johannesburg, South Africa - When African leaders nominated Zimbabwe – a country with 2,200 percent inflation, looming famine, and authoritarian tendencies – to chair the UN Commission for Sustainable Development this past week, they may have been sending the world a message.

By giving Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe the yearlong chairmanship, Africa has signaled defiance of the West, which has attemptedto isolate Zimbabwe for alleged human rights abuses and economic mismanagement.

Many African nations have grown increasingly frustrated by the development policies of Western donors that they see as intrusive and harsh. When Australia cancels a cricket tour to Zimbabwe, as it did this week, or when the European Union refuses to hold an EU-Africa summit, as it has for the past six years, because of Mr. Mugabe, many Africans see the pressure as neocolonial habits that must be broken. For many across the continent, Mugabe's muscular land confiscation from white farmers and talk of social justice still have appeal.

"This is African brinkmanship with the West," says Peter Kagwanja, a senior researcher for the Human Sciences Research Council in Tshwane (formerly Pretoria). "Many African nations are still struggling to get over the economic and political legacy of past colonial and racist regimes, and so they are more or less sympathetic with the bold moves taken by Zimbabwe," moves that "they are not capable of doing themselves."

While most African leaders recognize that following Zimbabwe's anti-Western stance would be an act of economic suicide, Mr. Kagwanja says that Africa is throwing its support behind Zimbabwe to show its disinclination to be pushed around by the powerful West. In practice, this means that the nomination of Zimbabwe for the UN agency this year is just the beginning. "All these things that come up, Zimbabwe will be promoted as Africa's choice," he says.

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