Black Londoners in solidarity with Zim

Peter Mavunga (28/04/08)

Those who fought in Zimbabwe’s war of liberation taught us never to give up in the face of adversity. For when the struggle appears so tough that giving up is the only option, it is then that rallying round in unity to the cause is crucial.

The massacres at Nyadzonia and Chimoio in Mozambique, for instance, were of such a grand scale that the squeamish would have quit the struggle. The Thomas Nhari rebellion was another huge setback to the struggle, but the fighting cadres and their leaders never gave up.

They might have reached the depth of their despair. The world around them might have seemed so hostile; but their pledge to hang on in there meant they survived to see some glimmer of hope when they scored successes, however modest, in the future.

Imagine their relief when they achieved some victories against the enemy soon after such tragedies! It would have given them hope that the struggle that seemed so meaningless and futile only recently, was suddenly worthwhile.

Imagine their joy at hearing, for instance, words of support from other progressive forces. It would have lifted their spirits in a big way.

It is the lifting of the spirit of a people under attack that was ringing in my head when I was listening to Radio Gallaxy last Sunday afternoon.

Radio Gallaxy is unique in two respects. First, it is a small broadcasting service targeting Black people who live in London. Second, its name, the "de-brainwashing radio station", is probably the antidote Zimbabweans need in light of the propaganda machine that is working for regime change.

Last Sunday between 1pm and 4pm, there was a "phone-in" and the subject was Zimbabwe. As you can imagine, the phones never stopped ringing. What was surprising to me, I hasten to add, is the strength of solidarity expressed by the callers, especially Black women.

It was a complete role reversal in that those who were jamming the phones with their enthusiasm to express their views were not the anti-Zanu-PF and anti-Mugabe brigade, at least the part of the broadcast that I listened to.

I heard a woman ring to ask the presenter, Bongo Tete, what natural resources Zimbabwe had. When she was given a list, the caller then pointed out that these natural resources were the reason why Gordon Brown, on behalf of Britain, was interfering in the affairs of the country.

Another Black woman was so appalled by the prospect of seeing Zimbabwe’s gains lost through the elections of March 29.

"Since Mugabe is out of the Commonwealth, why did he bother with elections? Castro handed over to his brother; and they cannot tell Putin what to do. Yet they still go to Africa and point a finger. Why did Mugabe bother to have these elections," she asked?

It was a rhetorical question put forward for effect. And the effect was that yet another Black sister phoned to complain about the distorted image of Zimbabwe and Black people generally that is portrayed in the mainstream media while white people were presented as whiter than white.

This elicited an interjection from the co-presenter who asked: was it not Bill Clinton, former US President, who said he had not had sex "with that woman!" Was he not the one again who reported smoking drugs but not inhaling?

The message the caller was making was that "these people are liars". The problem, she said, was that we Black people tend to buy into these lies, which was a shame.

But she went on to say that Black people tended to fight among themselves but that they were generally not war mongers who went out to conquer other nations.

Then the caller asked why so many Zimbabweans had fled their country to come and live in the Diaspora? Again this question was asked, not in the way mainstream media would have asked the question, basically to show how bad and corrupt Mugabe was but rather to urge all Zimbabweans to "go home and rebuild your country — now."

"Don’t allow people who do not have the interests of Zimbabwe at heart to dominate you," she said whilst at the same time commenting that she did not even know what Tsvangirai’s policies were.

The uniqueness of the show was that most of the callers were non-Zimbabweans though not exclusively so. For instance, the only male Zimbabwean I heard on the show was scathing in his criticism of the mainstream news media which he said had taken over our issues.

Tigere was also mildly critical of President Mugabe for being too lenient with the white people in Zimbabwe. He said from independence, the president was keen on reconciliation, a policy that ensured the erstwhile privileged class continued to enjoy those privileges.

"We have relatives who died during this period, we do not even have their bones to bury them properly, yet the thrust of the policy at independence was not to redress the imbalance," he said.

The presenter, a Jamaican man who never the less sees his real home as being in Africa, went a bit further in criticising President Mugabe.

"He did not do enough to defend our people," he said in agreement with Tigere. He is the leader, he should have used troops to remove the whites from the farms by force.

But Tigere continued to explain that the war vets invaded the farms in 1999 of their own free will and not on the president’s instructions as some would like us to believe. The West in fact urged President Mugabe to send in army troops to remove them. The President had a choice to have them removed but to his credit, he supported them.

This drew a comparison of Presidents Mugabe and Museveni where, in a similar situation, the latter put his weight against the struggling people.

Tigere, in conclusion, said it would be a shame if Zimbabweans lost through elections what they gained through their revolutionary struggles.

The commentator agreed.

The next caller let it be known that her preference was to let the African come first in matters relating to African development, not puppets, she said.

Another caller referred to the President’s Independence speech from which she drew the inference that he was doing no harm to his people. How could he when he was challenging his people appropriately: "do not let the white man steal our land."

A second Black man after Tigere called to express his concern about Zimbabwe and wondered whether the southern African state belonged to the UK? He suggested that if the British are so keen on repossessing their former colonies, they should try to re-acquire Hong Kong

His point was that the British would not dare do this for fear that all hell would let loose from the Chinese. The man expressed his passion for Zimbabwe and said that the west "should leave Zimbabwe alone."

Another caller said what Black people the world over are going to do about Zimbabwe was important. As this phone-in programme showed, it was likely to be no more than "hot air" unless we were prepared to act on it.

Referring to the "Isis Papers", she said Black people usually did nothing about their situation because of their failure to critically analyse their situation.

This prompted another caller to say that she was ready to go and demonstrate, not at the Zimbabwe Embassy as do the anti-Zimbabwe brigade every week, but at Downing Street to tell the occupant to stop interfering with Zimbabwe and to stop the sanctions.

A London-based Ghanaian woman also called to say she had studied Advertising. She said this was a discipline concerned not with truth but about image. The main issue for them was to convey their message to you and their message about Zimbabwe, whether true or not, is that there should be regime change.

This is a taste of what I heard on Radio Galaxy last Sunday. The De-Brainwashing station has been providing this service to Londoners for the past 28 years. It was formed by Bongo Tete, a Jamaican man with a military background. When he left the army in 1982, he realised there was no community radio serving the Black community in London.

Having first joined a hospital community radio station in south London, he decided he could run his own community radio station. The station is funded by the people who give voluntarily.

He has been to Ghana four times and hopes one day to be in Zimbabwe. He is very keen to link up with people in Zimbabwe so that they can speak to Londoners directly through his de-brainwashing station.