Yero Mama,
You've made some very interesting observations vis-a-vis what perceptions different people have with regards to some of our current problems as we live them and certain perceptions held by some interllectuals/philosophers.
Whereas I agree with many of the writer's opinion of what is missing in Africa, thus perpetauating our inenviable plight, I totally disagree with the sweeping statements that "Except for Nelson Mandela and the recently deceased Leopold Senghor of Senegal, what more-or-less democratic leaders has Africa produced? And now we see another African super-tyrant on the move — Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who is ready to exterminate his opposition rather than surrender his despotic power.
Is this writer for real? Is he/she telling us that both Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry got their independence on a silver platter? Was the former President of Botswana forced out office or relinquished power voluntarily? As for the demonization of President Mugabi, nowadays a common course for most western journalists, all I can say is that had the victims of Mugabi's land redistribution programme not been whites, the west wouldn't have given a hoot. They watched and even encouraged their nationals in pre-independent Zimbabwe pass one repressive law after another depriving the original occupants of the country vital land they needed for survival. Now that Robert Mugabi is trying to address those injustices, they are calling him all sorts of names. None of them seem willing to talk about the reason white-stolen land is being forcebly returned to their rightful owners namely the reneging of an earlier pledge to fund the land redistribution programme by Britain. Mugabi, mad? I doubt it very much.
Have a good day, Gassa.
There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve. -Mike- Levitt-