Forget the thousands of heads of state, government officials and NGO representatives who descended on Johannesburg for the UN Earth Summit (26 August - 4 September). The real showmen were the Africans. Pusch Commey in Johannesburg and Tom Mbakwe in London report.

For many years to come, the UN Earth Summit in Johannesburg will be remembered for three things.

First, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia pointing his index finger in the direction of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and telling him: "The Honourable Tony Blair is here, and he created the situation in Zimbabwe."

Second, the prolonged applause and the standing ovation that President Mugabe received from the 1 500 heads of state, government officials and NGO representatives for his "land-redistribution" speech, the only leader among the 100 who spoke at the Summit to be so accorded a standing ovation.

Third, is the booing and jeering of the US Secretary of State, Collin Powell, the highest-ranking black person in the Bush Administration, when he took a swipe at Zimbabwe a day after Mugabe's landmark speech.

No matter on which side you are on, these were truly landmark incidents that will make the powers that be sit up and look at the way they are currently running the world.

For three years (since 1999) Western governments and their media (with Britain leading the charge) had created the impression that Cde Mugabe was existing in splendid isolation and that the whole world was against him. The world spoke loud and clear, when they gave Mugabe the standing ovation.

And it was not even President Mugabe who started it all. It was President Sam Nujoma from Namibia.

Before coming to the Summit, the Namibian president had warned white farmers in his country who own "80 percent of the farmland" there, to look at Zimbabwe and read the writings on the wall.

"If those arrogant white farm owners and absentee landlords do not embrace the government's policy of willing-buyer willing-seller now, it will be too late tomorrow," Nujoma said, showing that his and his nation's patience was running out.

At the Earth Summit, Cde Nujoma continued in the same vein, this time batting for Zimbabwe instead. His five minutes at the podium (as allotted to all the other 100 leaders) started inauspiciously - until he lifted his head from his prepared text and went extempore.

Pointing in the direction of Tony Blair, sitting in the audience, Cde Nujoma told the packed hall: "We here in Southern Africa have one big problem created by the British. The Honourable Tony Blair is here, and he created the situation in Zimbabwe."

This was an obvious reference to a letter that the Blair government, through the secretary for overseas development, Claire Short, had sent to the Zimbabwean government on 5 November 1997, repudiating British colonial responsibility for funding land reform in Zimbabwe.

"I should make it clear," Claire Short had told Harare, "that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised, not colonisers.

That letter stung the Zimbabweans like a bee. They tried to seek clarifications, but the Blair government, only seven months in office and still puffed with the triumph of its landslide electoral victory that May would not budge.

"We sent delegation upon delegation," Cde Mugabe told New African in May this year. "The sad thing is that they don't want to examine and analyse what has gone wrong. They want to go inexorably on this path of hard attitude."

Cde Nujoma knew about this, and he was not going to let Tony Blair get away with it, not at the Earth Summit convened by the UN to talk about "sustainable development".

Still wagging his finger at Blair, President Nujoma told him: "The British colonial settlers in Zimbabwe today, they own 78 percent of the land in Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe is a tiny country. It has 14 million indigenous people who don't have land.

"We, the African people, have suffered more than anyone in the world. The EU (which) has imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe must lift them immediately, otherwise it is useless to come here."

You could hear a pin drop in the packed hall. The colour in Blair's face had gone from pink to almost red. And Cde Nujoma went for the kill: "The 21st century," he continued "demands equality of people. If whites think they are superior, we condemn them and reject them. We are equal to Europe and if you don't think that, then to hell with you. You can keep your money. We will develop our Africa without your money."

Surely that was tantamount to throwing the book of diplomacy out the window, and Blair (who spoke 10 minutes after Cde Nujoma and pointedly refused to reply to the points raised by the Namibian) was reported to have refused to talk to Cde Nujoma afterwards.

But for the Namibian president, the deafening applause in the hall was enough. When he returned home, he told his newly appointed prime minister, Theo-Ben Gurirab, and foreign minister Hidipo Hamutenya at Windhoek's Eros Airport, in the presence of journalists: "I told them off. We are tired of insults from these people. I told them they can keep their money . . . that these political good governance, human rights, lesbians, etc that they want to impose on our culture, they must keep those things in Europe . . . I had about 40 minutes with the BBC, I told them off.

President Nujoma's star performance set the stage perfectly for a President Mugabe special, an hour later. And what a special it was; The battle-hardened Zimbabwean president is known for his eloquence, and he knew that the five minutes allotted him at the podium were possibly some of the most important moments in his life. And he seized the occasion well.

Like Cde Nujoma, President Mugabe started by reading his prepared text. Blair had left the hall for other business in the township of Alexandra, but that did not dampen Cde Mugabe's appetite at all.

Blair had, in fact, been lobbied by the Tory opposition at home, to boycott Cde Mugabe's speech, and though Downing Street had dismissed the suggestion when it was made two weeks before the Summit by Ian Duncan-Smith, the Tory leader, Blair did leave before Cde Mugabe could speak a word. And he could not be blamed. He had had enough in a day from Cde Nujoma.

In fact, looking at it, it was President Mugabe who first did the boycotting by leav-ing the hall before Blair took to the podium an hour earlier. So you could say it was tit for tat. In the end, it was Cde Mugabe who thrilled the packed hall with his principal opponent absent.

"The betrayal of the collective agenda we set at Rio (referring to the First Earth Summit in 1992)," Cde Mugabe started slowly, "is a compelling manifestation of bad global governance, lack of real political will be the North and a total absence of a just rule of law in international affairs.

"The unilateralism of the unipolar world has reduced the rest of making to collective underdogs, chattels of the rich, the wilful few in the North who bear, batter and bully us under the dirty cover of democracy, rule of law and good governance. Otherwise how would they undermine at the global level the same values of good governance and rule of law they arrogantly demand from the South?" The audience loved it, and the applause freely flowed.

"Institutionally," Cde Mugabe continued, "we have relied for much too long on structures originally set to recover and rebuild Europe after a devastating war against Nazism. Over the years, these outdated institutions have been unilaterally transformed to dominate the world for the realisation of the strategic national goals of the rich North. That is why, for example, the IMF has never been a fund for poor peasants seeking sustainable development. Even the United Nations, a body that is supposed to give us equal voices, remains unreformed and undemocratic, largely because of resistance from the powerful and often selfish North.

"Comrade President," Cde Mugabe turned in the direction of President Thabo Mbeki who was chairing the session, "it has become starkly clear to us that the failure of sustainable development is a direct and necessary outcome of a neo-liberal model of development propelled by runaway forces that have been defended in the name of globalisation.

"Far from putting people first, this model rests on entrenching inequities, giveaway privatisation of public enterprises and banishing of the state from the public sphere for the benefit big business. This has been a vicious, all-out assault on the poor and their instruments of sustainable development. In Zimbabwe, we have, with a clear mind and vision, resolved to bring to an end this neo-liberal model."

The applause was still flowing, and that was all President Mugabe needed.

"For us in Zimbabwe," he continued, "we are ready to defend the agenda of the poor and we are clear that we can only do that if we do not pander to foreign interests or answer to false imperatives that are not only clearly alien and inimical to the interests of the poor who have given us the mandate to govern them, but are also hostile to the agenda for sustainable development.

"For these reasons, we join our brothers and sisters in the (developing) world in rejecting completely manipulative and intimidatory attempts by some countries and regional blocks that are bent on subordinating our sovereignty to their hegemonic ambitions and imperial interests, falsely represented as matters of rule of law, democracy and good governance. The real objective is interference in our domestic affairs."

The adoring audience wanted more. And Cde Mugabe did not disappoint.

"The rule of law, democracy and governance," he said, "are values that we cherish because we fought for them against the very some people who today seek to preach them to us. The sustainable empowerment of the poor cannot take place in circumstances where democratic national sovereignties are assaulted and demonised on a daily basis."

Applause.

"The poor should be able to use their sovereignty," Mugabe continued, "to fight poverty and preserve their heritage in their corner of the earth without interference. That is why we, in Zimbabwe, understand only too well that sustainable development is not possible without agrarian reforms that acknowledges, in our case, the land comes first before all else, and that all else grows from and off the land.

"This is the one asset that not only defines the Zimbabwean personality and demarcates sovereignty but also an asset that has a direct bearing on the fortunes of the poor and prospects for their immediate empowerment and sustainable development.

"Indeed, ours is an agrarian economy, an imperative that renders the issue of access to land paramount. Inequitable access to land is at the heart of the poverty, food insecurity and lack of development in Zimbabwe. Consequently, the question of agrarian reforms has, in many developing countries to be high on the agenda of sustainable development if we are to meet the targets that are before us for adoption at the Summit.

By now, the hall was lapping Mugabe's every word.

"In our situation in Zimbabwe," he continued, "this fundamental question of agrarian reforms has pitted the black majority who are the right holders and, therefore, primary stakeholders to our land against the obdurate and internationally well-connected racial minority, largely of British descent and brought in and sustained by British colonialism, now being supported and manipulated by the Blair government."

Applause.

"We have said even as we acquire land that we shall not deprive the white farmers of land completely," Mugabe emphasised. "Every one of them is entitled to at least one farm. But they would want to continue to have more than one farm. More than one farm indeed - 15, 20, 35, one person. These are figures I am not just getting out of my mind, they are real figures. So no farmer is being left without land, and there is no one who would want to leave Zimbabwe anyway.

More applause.

"So those operations (Blair sending 250 British soldiers to the South African-Zimbabwean border to evacuate white Zimbabwean should they need it) are really undeserved. We are threatening no one. And therefore, the operation by Mr Blair is artificial, completely uncalled for, and an interference in our domestic affairs.

Applause.

"But, we say this as Zimbabwean," Mugabe paused, and surveyed the adoring crowd in front of him, "we have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are. We have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood in sustenance, maintenance and protection of that independence."

By now, Mugabe had broken from his prepared text and had gone extempore. It is here that his eloquence showed. "Having said that," he continued, "we wish no harm to anyone. We are Zimbabweans, we are Africans, we are not English we are working together in our region to improve the lot of our people. Let no one interfere with our processes. Let no one who is negative want to spoil what we are doing for ourselves in order to unite Africa.

"We do not mind having and bearing sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans. We have not asked for any inch of Europe, any square inch of that territory. So Blair, keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe."

The audience particularly loved this And Mugabe went for his last hurray.

"Economically," he told them, "we are still an occupied territory, 22 years after our independence. Accordingly, my government has decided to do the only right and just thing by taking back land and giving it to its rightful, indigenous black owners who lost it in circumstances of colonial pillage. This process is being done in accordance with the rule of law as enshrined in our national constitution and laws. It is in pursuit of true justice as we know and understand it, and so we have no apologies to make to anyone."

The audience rose in ovation. They were still applauding as Mugabe stepped down from the podium. It had been some speech, some performance. No wonder, Mugabe continued to sign autographs outside the hall long after the speech, before flying home to an even more tumultuous welcome at the Harare airport.

He had put his Goliath to sleep and also put paid to the lie that the whole world was against him for redistricting land in his country.

Later, the South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who chaired some of the sessions, felt obliged to back Mugabe. In a statement before departing for the annual opening session of the UN General Assembly, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma said: "It is too late to change the path that Mugabe has chosen for land redistribution, and time to focus on Britain's failure to keep its side of the bargain refusing to honour its commitment to fund compensation to farmers whose lands are repossessed for redistribution.

Chinua Achebe, the famous Nigerian novelist, has even added his voice. On a visit to South Africa on the 25th anniversary of the death of Steve Biko, he pointed out: "What we hear in the media is how bad Mugabe is and how bad the attacks on the farmers are. What we don't hear is how all this came about, for instance the agreement that was reached at independence. We hear of stories of farmers who say they have owned the land for two generations. What about those who had owned the land for thousands of generations?"

Before Blair addressed the Earth Summit, he had been to Mozambique on a flying visit. But before he arrived, his host, President Joaquim Chissano, had gone over the border to address an agricultural show in Zimbabwe, where he pledged his support for land reform. He said the programme was sound as it aimed at "achieving a balanced distribution of land among all the Zimbabwean people and responded to one of the main objectives foreseen in the efforts that led to the independence of Zimbabwe.

"We should like to express our solidarity to all Zimbabweans involved in the process, which is aimed at enlarging the number of Zimbabweans citizens with access to land," Chissano said, a day before he hosted Blair. Everywhere the prime minister turned, it was bad news.

So, Collin Powell whose president Blair is standing shoulder to should with, felt obliged to do the Britons a good turn by pretending that Mugabe had had no standing ovation the previous day. But the audience would not have it, and so booed, jeered and heckled him.

It got worse when Powell took a swipe at Zimbabwe blaming food shortages in the country on the lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law. "In one country in this region, Zimbabwe, the lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law has exacerbated these factors to push millions of people toward the brink of starvation." Powell really wanted the audience to believe it. The packed hall responded by booing, jeering and shouting, "Betrayed" and "shame on Bush". Soon anti-American banners were being infurled at the back of the hall, as people streamed towards the exit, murmuring: "This is such a rwaddle." For a good one minute or more, Powell stood at the podium speechless as the chairwoman, South Africa's Dlamini-Zuma shouted, "order order order." But the boos and jeers continued. "Thank you, I have now heard you," Powell finally mustered his nerves to say. "I ask that you hear me." More jeers and boos and people started to stamp their feet on the floor.

"This is totally unacceptable," Dlamini-Zuma was forced to shout above the din.

And all this, happening live on BBCTV and radio - World Service, News 24 and Radio 5 Live. Nicky Campbell, the 5 Live phone-in anchor, an implacable anti-Mugabist, was heard asking the BBC correspondent in the hall in Johannesburg. "Is it what he said about Zimbabwe? The man answered: Yes.

It was really an education for both Powell and the BBC that the world is now tired of being lectured, especially when the lectures fly in the face of the truth. In the end, sections of the British media, stunned by the depth of support for Mugabe inside the hall, blamed the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who chaired the session, for allowing Mugabe longer than the five minutes allocated to every speaker.

But the Africans were not finished. Uganda president, Yoweri Museveni, was yet to empty his chest about the behaviour of NGOs and the IMF.

"The arrogant so-called non-governmental groups who interfere with the construction of hydro-dams in Uganda are the real enemies of the environment," he told the Summit.

And then, the gales of laughter, Museveni rounded on his friends at the IMF: "The IMF sometimes disorganise me. They tell me not to turn left any more, turn right. There is weakness on one side and arrogance on the other.

"When we are praying, we say: "Thou shalt not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. When we are weak we lead others into temptation. We need to deliver America from temptation the people are going to launch a massive resistance movement against double talk. There is little point in holding more summits until governments can co-operate in the common interest," Museveni truly brought the house down - New African.

 http://sustainable.allafrica.com/stories/200210250505.html