Zimbabwe Information Center in North America
A project of the North American Coalition for a Free Zimbabwe (NACFREEZ)
MDC
By Stanford G. Mukasa
Letter from America
April 16, 2007
Will the people’s resilience defeat Mugabe?
The successful prayer meeting in Bulawayo last weekend was a loud and clear message to the Robert Mugabe regime and his forces of oppression that the people of Zimbabwe are now ready to demonstrate to Mugabe and that they cannot be held under the yoke of oppression indefinitely.
The prayer meeting was held a few weeks after another which ended with the savage assaults on the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change by Mugabe’s thugs. The world watched with disbelief and anger the pictures of badly injured MDC leadership, Morgan Tsvangirayi, NCA president, Lovemore Madhuku, and other top officials.
Mugabe had hoped to put an end once and for all to demonstrations against his oppressive rule. He had hoped that the brutal beatings, which amounted to attempted murder, would be an effective deterrent for anyone planning similar demonstrations in future.
But the people regrouped and staged yet another prayer session. Despite threats and warnings the church leadership was determined to go ahead and hold the prayer rally in Bulawayo.
Mugabe has an inflated ego. He wants to take on the whole world. He has successfully fooled himself that he has the credentials of a freedom fighter and as such can wrestle to the ground anything that comes against him.
The other day he was threatening to expel diplomats. He is quiet now and probably eating his words because he knows he bit his tongue when he said so.
Mugabe‘s crusade against the opposition movement is not bringing him any luck. To his utter disgust and amazement the opposition is still there. It will not go away and has emerged even more resolute and stronger than ever.
The prayer meeting in Bulawayo was testimony to the fact that Mugabe is emerging more of a paper tiger than anything else. He has used the most savage, barbaric methods ever inflicted by man against man. He has used his entire military machinery to terrorize innocent civilians.
But to his stupefaction, when the smoke cleared, MDC is still there, Morgan Tsvangirayi, Nelson Chamisa, Ian Makone, Sekayi Holland, Grace Kwinjeh and all the others he savagely beat are still there, standing and ready to defy him again.
The only exceptions are those that Mugabe’s cronies killed. But in their death they have become martyrs and were declared national heroes. Their deaths have become a rallying point for more defiance against Mugabe. And this is driving Mugabe even crazier.
The bottom line is that Mugabe is now desperate. He is lashing out right, left and center and even at his shadows. He trusts no one and suspects everyone. Someone suggested that Mugabe has reached such a level of insecurity and dementia that he would have his family frisked before sitting down to a dinner table with him!
In their non violent approach the MDC has mesmerized and shamed Mugabe.
The other day I called Sekayi Holland to wish her a speedy recovery. One would have expected a battered, demoralized and crying woman who might have been ready to give up politics.
That was not the case. Holland came out with, as they say in American West, both guns blazing. Despite her physical pain she was spiritually and mentally very alert, articulate and full of intellectual, moral and political energy.
When she recounted how she and her colleagues had been brutalized, and how one policewoman wearing boots jumped on her causing internal injuries Holland never for a minute during the telephone conversation broke down or shed a tear. Describing how she persevered through this ordeal she gave a somber and humbling description of the strategy for non violence when she said:
“They had us lie on the floor and started hurling abusive language at us.
They beat us mercilessly and nonstop for great lengths of time.
We did not flinch.
We did not cry for mercy.
We did not denounce the MDC as they had hoped.
We did not ask for water.
We did not scream.
This is my definition of defiance.”
To Holland Zimbabweans started a defiance campaign against Mugabe a long time ago.
Grace Kwinjeh was equally blunt in her determination to see the struggle for democracy and freedom to its logical conclusion. In her widely circulated The Woman in Me Grace Kwinjeh demonstrated through the power of words that she was now married to the struggle.
The resilience by Zimbabweans in face of such draconian and primitive repression by Mugabe is a measure of democratic resistance that is affecting even Mugabe himself.
All his brutal dictatorship has not improved anything in the country, except for the lavish lifestyle he and his officials enjoy at the expense of the masses.
But Mugabe knows that all the affluence and wealth will one day come to end. He also knows that the end for him is a lot closer than he is prepared to accept. This is why he is panicking and desperately trying by all means necessary to continue his tenuous hold on power for as long as he can.
Desperate dictators do desperate acts. Zimbabweans can expect an escalation of repression before the Mugabe nightmare comes to an end that many predict will be very soon.
But when it all ends there is no doubt that credit will also be given to the Zimbabweans for the way they contributed with their resilience to the downfall of Mugabe.