Is blood really thicker than water?

It was Christmas sometime in the year of 1966, and I was glad I had reached home in a European country, where I was invited to spend some holidays. On British Television, was Mr. Harold Wilson, (soon to be knighted), and Prime Minister of Gt. Britain. From Southern Rhodesia, a man called Ian Smith had unilaterally declared Independence from Britain.

Ordinarily, this was tantamount to treason, and Britain was expected to send troops down to S. Rhodesia , to quell the situation, and arrest the culprits. All that happened though was that, Mr. Harold Wilson gave a friendly piece of advice to the Rhodesian rebel, “to think again.”

That was all. Mr. Ian Smith was white, and his family had settled in Rhodesia since several generations, and it was a society, in which the indigenous Blacks had nothing to say, on themselves, or others. It was“apartheid”, next to South Africa . For many years, diplomatic wrangling went on, and on, and on, but nothing changed in the system.

Two men decided to do something about the impasse. One was an older man, bulky, and his name was Joshua Nkomo. He was a man of theologian credentials. The other was a brasher and younger man, who had gathered degrees from Ghana , and as if those were not enough, he took a woman from Ghana for a wife, as well.

His name was Robert Mugabe. Both men were black Rhodesians, and they took their destiny into their own hands, and decided to take on the system, head-on. If your guess was guerilla warfare, you were damn right. The battle went on, and on, and on. Getting to the Christmas of 1979, school children, with their teachers, some of them nuns from Britain were kidnapped by the guerillas, and the matter got international credentials.

Negotiations started in earnest, until at a summit conference in an English colonial edifice called Lancaster House, S. Rhodesia got Independence under the name of Zimbabwe, (and please, don't ask me what it means). 1980 was the year, and there came a Baby-Nation in Africa , that the world was soon to hear, and learn a lot about. The Union between Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe did not survive beyond the attainment of Independence . Joshua Nkomo went into self-imposed exile to Britain , and later returned to be given a subordinate role in the Government. He later died, not so happy on this earth. Robert Mugabe has relished in a mode of solo running of the Government since then. Nothing was an exaggeration, if it was said about Zimbabwe . Good Agriculture, robust economy, exemplary health care delivery, and if you were a man of very few words, you said, “ Africa 's bread basket!” Yes. People, both young and old flocked to the new Zimbabwe .

They were teachers, Land-Economists, they were Doctors, and they were Engineers. Farmers, most of them whites, who were born there did not leave en masse, but stayed, -most of them. So, the Rainbow Nation talked about in South Africa by the revered Archbishop Desmond Tutu emerged in Zimbabwe , before S. Africa , a decade later. But things have not stayed that way. Today, the run-away inflation people talk about is in thousands of percent. On a CNN-report shot from South Africa , a pregnant woman, twenty years of age, travels to Botswana to have her baby delivered. She did so on moneys borrowed from relatives residing in the USA .

She gave her reason for doing so, as “the excessive risk of losing the baby, if she were to try and have it delivered in Zimbabwe ; plus, she could lose her own life too.” As if that was not disheartening enough, there was the case of two young men, one with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and the other a Pharmacist. Both having obtained their degrees from Bulawayo , had escaped from Zimbabwe , sometimes steeple-chasing through the bush, and other times riding on a car which was sent by a benefactor for that purpose from Botswana .

Having arrived, they did any job they could find, on daily basis. The jobs talked about here excluded what they had learned in their various faculties. It however included such assignments as cleaning the stall of a farmyard, or transporting crates of fish to famous restaurants in different parts of the country. If caught, the penalty was not light.

The Zimbabwean saga was one among many such tragedies coming from Africa in the period following World War II. Nations which did better economically when they were colonies included Zimbabwe , (and let us stay there, for the sake of lack of time and space).

Autocracy or Dictatorship came to be the method which appealed to some leaders, Asian, Latin American, and African leaders, who might have fought with their compatriots, to achieve “Freedom.” They, (freedom-fighters), had died in their thousands on the battlefield. The new battle, this time at home, and sadly for them, against the man they had taken for a patriot, would be endless.

The picture of an opposition leader, with his head battered, and his face so disfigured, that you would recognize him by his voice, more easily than by his face, is fresh in the pictorial memory of many people across the globe.

The same opposition leader had been put on a “sham-treason trial” prior to the beating. If you sat down one night, and tried to imagine, why people would want to stay in power, disregarding all circumstances, you would end up the next morning, just as wise as me, and say that, you did not find an answer. From another report on Zimbabwe , (a CNN-REPORT), chipped together in South Africa , people have appeared on registries for the impending election, ( 29th March, 2008 ), who have died as long ago as twenty years. They will vote on that day also. Indeed, their grave-stones were shown at cemeteries, where they were buried.

One theory evolved by me says that, “it is possible that, some people may believe, their way to heaven is closer, when they die as leaders of their people, no matter what.” But then, this theory is flawed, when you say, “some Monarchs opt out of the race.”

A few examples are: Edward VIII of England , who in 1936, took the baffling decision, to marry the lady he loved, rather than become King. Prince Mohamad Ibn Abdulaziz, of Saudi Arabia , who in the early seventies, frowned at the Saudi Monarchy, so his younger brother Khalid became Crown Prince, and subsequently King.

My confusion escalates, when I remember that, “Titles distinguish the mediocre, embarrass the superior, and are disgraced by the inferior.” (George Bernard Shaw). Archbishop, Desmond Tutu expresses his sadness, that Africa has not done much to alleviate the suffering of the Zimbabwean Population. That is as far as it goes. But, perhaps, we should read what Voltaire had to say, “The only way to compel men to speak well of us, is to do it.”