Africa My Motherland XIV

By A.Abeku Haywood-Dadzie

On November 21, 2017, Zimbabwe's octogenarian President Robert Mugabe resigned, ending a 37-year rule of the former British Crown colony of Southern Rhodesia. He is the world's oldest and Africa's longest-serving president. Uncle Bob served as Zimbabwe's first president after the country gained independence in 1980, and he remained in office for nearly four decades before stepping down in 2017. Whether he is Zimbabwe's best president or not, he will have a place in the history books.

During the euphoria surrounding his resignation, I remember very well going on my LinkedIn blog and writing, "Today the bells toll for the Zimbabwean President, but even as we pour onto the streets?to celebrate his resignation, and partners metamorphose to accusers." We should be guided by the admonishing of President Obama: "Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions." Does solving Africa's problems need strong men, strong institutions, or both?

But, before I rudely interrupt myself and deviate from what I planned to write today, let me borrow the words of Marc Anthony, in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Friends, Africans, Zimbabweans, lend me your ears; I come to pay respect to Uncle Bob, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is often interred with their bones. So, let it be with Uncle Bob.

I am paying homage not because I am a disciple of Uncle Bob, who also happens to be my in-law because he married one of my kinsmen, Sarah Francesca Hayfron (Ghanaian), but because I am a piece of the continent, a part of the main, and thus "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind," as John Donne put it.

Uncle Bob was one of six children born to Gabriel and Bona, a carpenter and catechist from the Zezuru clan, one of the smallest branches of the Shona tribe, on February 21, 1924 at the Kutama Mission village in Southern Rhodesia: Miteri (Michael), Raphael, Robert, Dhonandhe (Donald), Sabina, and Bridgette. He was educated at Roman Catholic Mission Schools, went on to become a teacher, and later received a scholarship to South Africa's Fort Hare University, where he earned the first of his seven academic degrees, before teaching in Ghana, where he was greatly influenced by Ghana's post-independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah's pan-Africanist ideas.?The rest of his biography can be found in his memoir and Uncle Bob's annals. But whether you love or hate him depends on whose book you're reading and where the individual stands on the world's geopolitics.

But, be that as it may, old uncle Bob has paid his dues. As William Shakespeare puts it, all the world's a stage, and all the men and women are merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. Uncle Bob did just that, like him or not, he has been the master of his destiny: and the captain of his decision.

So Uncle Bob appreciated who he was, where he had come from, and how far he could go, so he decided his next hero would be himself. To paraphrase a quote by Jonathan Burkett, you know Uncle Bob by name, not his story. You have heard what he did, not what he went through. If you were in his shoes, hmmm! no comment! So, before you condemn him, you will need to walk in his shoes, see what he saw, hear what he heard, and feel what he felt. Then maybe you'll understand why he did what he did and judge him from an informed perspective. Until then, you may be entitled to your opinion.

Again, maybe Uncle Bob epitomised the words of the song famously performed by Bob Marley at Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations in 1980.

Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny. And in this judgment, there is no partiality: So, arm in arms, with arms: We'll fight this little struggle: 'Cause that's the only way: We can overcome our little trouble: Brother you're right, you're right

"No more internal power struggle: We come together to overcome the little trouble:Soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionary: 'Cause I don't want my people to be contrary: And brother you're right, you're right,"

Africans a-liberate (Zimbabwe)

Fare thee well Uncle Bob