From across the sea, watching her homeland implode

 by Allison Denny
 published on Thursday, April 24, 2008

Wadzi Muzwidzwa

Just months after a political uproar in Kenya over what many in the nation deemed a marred presidential election, citizens of Zimbabwe find themselves in the a similar position.

Less than a month ago, incumbent candidate Robert Mugabe's government blocked the release of election results from the March 29 presidential election, a move strongly protested by Morgan Tsvangrirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for a Democratic Change.

Tsvangrirai has claimed victory in the election, but no official records have yet been released — a delay the international community has criticized.

Since the election, the country has been overwhelmed by violence and separatism.
Journalism sophomore Wadzi Muzwidzwa spent the first eight years of her life in Zimbabwe, when she said the country was in an economic boom.

"When I was there, it was very, very peaceful," she said. "I remember everybody loved the president."

But problems arose as Mugabe became too entrenched in his office held and fervently opposed anyone who sought to take away his power, she said.

A couple years ago, Muzwidzwa said, Mugabe instituted a policy of driving white farmers and business owners out of the country and giving their farms and businesses to black Zimbabweans.

"The problem with that was that he gave them to people who didn't necessarily have the kind of experience they needed to run businesses and farms," she said. "It started a political outrage. Economically we went down the drain because of that."

Zimbabwe has an inflation rate of more than 160,000 percent — the worst in the world — according to news reports. According to the State Department, 80 percent of the population is unemployed.

And among the people of the southeastern African nation, there is little question Mugabe has taken the electoral system into his own hands, Muzwidzwa said.

"I don't think you can find very many Zimbabweans who think [the election] wasn't rigged," she said.

Every election since Mugabe took power in 1980 has ended with him getting almost 100 percent of the votes, Muzwidzwa added.

Though some have called for a unification of Mugabe's nationalist party and the opposition party, she said, it is impossible to work with a man determined to remain the sole power in Zimbabwe.

"Finally the world is seeing what Zimbabweans have known, and that is the political power shouldn't be in power," Muzwidzwa said. "The only way the country can even start to be restored is if he is removed from power."

Caribbean and African politics professor David Hinds, though, said the only way to achieve a peaceful ending to the dispute is through party unification.

"There is a crisis in the political system that is being used in these post-colonial societies," Hinds said.

Many African nations employ a winner-take-all system, he said, giving the party who wins the majority of the vote complete political control. Those that lose are left out of the system.

"When you win, you win everything — and when you lose, you lose everything," he said.

And in countries as deeply divided as Zimbabwe, there needs to be a mean that satisfies both sides of the political spectrum, Hinds said.

"When you have such divided societies, the only way to guarantee stability and peace is to have unity," he said.

For Mugabe — in power since his party overcame the racist apartheid system in 1980 — losing political power would mean the end of a part of Zimbabwe's history, Hinds said.

"One may argue with some justification," he said. "At some point, leaders of a previous era should know when to take an exit.

"That world that he came from has changed dramatically."

Reach the reporter at: allison.denny@asu.edu.