Entered on 09 June 2003 at 8:30 a.m..
One for the history books
Most of the time when I listen to the news and a story about Africa comes on I inwardly grown and then tune out for the duration. Why? Because typically it is depressing and just frustrates me. The recent reports about Zimbabwe have been about par for the course. Mugabe is still in power, but the opposition groups have been calling general strikes and have succeeded in bringing the country to a halt several times in the past month. This morning however was different. Last week the leader of the opposition party (the MDC) was arrested for treason again. He's already in the middle of one trial for treason, so this one is just in case the first one fails.
So because he was in prison, the BBC interviewer was asking the opposition's deputy head about their goals for the next round of strikes that had been called. The interviewer wanted to know if the opposition thought the strikes would succeed in getting their leader out on bail. The deputy opposition leader said something to the tune of, 'You don't get it, do you. The strikes are not being called to free our leader, they are being called to free our people. As long as Zimbabwe is contry where people cannot freely elect their government the strikes will continue.'
Ah, the stuff history is made of. I felt very proud of Zimbabwe's opposition party at that moment. It gave me great hope that should the opposition ever succeed in overthrowing the Mugabe regime, that good governance and democracy might take root in Zimbabwe once again.