Just 10 years ago Zimbabwe was the fastest-growing African country, possessing some of the richest farmlands. Today the country has deteriorated into chaos. Inflation is over 165,000 percent, among the highest in the world, its GDP has shrunk by over 45 percent since 1998 and 80 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed.

Once, Zimbabwe was a strong exporter of maize, cotton, tobacco, roses and sugar cane. Now, it hardly has anything to export and the population of approximately 13 million needs international assistance to stave off starvation, as the country has increasingly been unable to produce food to feed itself. Life expectancy has fallen to a serious low of 37 years for men and 34 for women, down from 61 for both genders in 1990.

While national malaise has set in, President Robert Mugabe, 84, has grown increasingly despotic and delusional. Meanwhile, his people who once revered him grow weary and want a change from his 28 years leadership – from 1980 when he led Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) to Black majority rule and independence from Britain. As Zimbabwe sinks into despair, Mugabe becomes more intolerant of opposition, ultimately blaming his failures on his former Western colonial and imperialist masters. But, the evidence indicates that Zimbabwe’s problems in recent years are largely Mugabe’s and have little to do with White neo-colonialists or imperialists.

Sadly, the great hope existing when Mugabe liberated Rhodesia to create Zimbabwe has fallen the way of other post-colonial African leaders who transformed from caring democrats, promising to rule for the good of their people, to autocratic, cruel despots. This hope was profound those early years of Zimbabwe’s independence, long before Nelson Mandela was freed and Apartheid was dismantled in South Africa. Mugabe and Zimbabwe was symbolic of Black African supremacy. It became a beloved country, and its leader stood strong and tall. Unfortunately, Mugabe has become like a favorite uncle that has grown senile, losing touch with reality.

The sadness deepens when it is recalled that Jamaica, through its late Prime Minister Michael Manley was instrumental in the birth of Zimbabwe. Manley was a member of the committee that created the Lancaster House Agreement that led to Zimbabwe's independence.  Bob Marley gave one of his more impassioned performances at the country’s independence celebrations to the delight of Mugabe and thousands of Zimbabweans. 

Mugabe, at the birth of Zimbabwe, promoted peace, assuring Whites that although “yesterday, I fought for you as an enemy today you have become a friend and ally.”

But his people have grown weary of his leadership and the once icon of African politics has determined that it is “only God” who can remove him from power. To maintain this power, despite the evidence of majority votes against him in March 29 general elections, he has turned against the Black people of the country resorting to torture, intimidation, violence, and murder. His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, dropped out of the run-off election held last Friday through fear, and Mugabe succeeded in being reelected unopposed for another presidential term.

Since 2000, Mugabe’s apparent fear of neo-colonialists increased after he seized farmlands from White landowners and gave them to Black farmers. But, Mugabe did little to implement a farming policy to ensure that the lands would continue to provide food for domestic and export markets.

Mugabe and his supporters feared that the former landowners would seek help from the West to drive him from power and retrieve their lands, but there have been no overt signs of this happening. While some four million Zimbabweans fled the country, many to neighboring South Africa, former Mugabe supporters turned to the opposition party – the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Tsvangirai.

Even if it were true that British neo-colonialists and the US imperialists were retaliating, why didn’t Mugabe act differently and rally the support of his countrymen and other African leaders to defend against the threats?  Instead, he has wreaked violence against his own people and alienated his fellow African leaders.

Despite the usual anti-colonialist and anti-imperialists rhetoric used by African dictators to justify their transformation into cruel dictators, eventually the people recognize tyranny and retaliate to remove them by the ballot or other means. When a leader is determined to remain in power despite opposition to his rule then moral, social and economic decay sets in without outside help.

There is not much that the West or the African Union, can do to remove African leaders who refuse to demit office through the democratic process. There will be the usual economic sanctions and condemnation, but sanctions only hurt the people, not the despot. South African President, Mbeki has spoken to Mugabe to ease the atrocities, but he has continued to deny his people their rights.  It often takes a bloody revolution before a despot sneaks away in exile, leaving behind a destroyed country, which ironically may be rebuilt by the neo-colonialists and imperialists.

Much was promised by Mugabe on Zimbabwe’s birth.  A Black African leader had successfully negotiated independence from Colonial Britain, Black Zimbabweans, liberated from White oppression, would rule their destiny and live the African dream. Tragically, Mugabe, the man that created the dream, turned it into a nightmare.