Ba Karang, a revolutionary from West Africa, writes as Robert Mugabe's regime initiates another series of crackdowns against opposition forces inside Zimbabwe and human rights groups in anticipation of the run-off election for president on June 27. It has also appeared in Africa Link, a journal dedicated to African liberation.

By Ba Karang

Let’s hear Frantz Fanon speak;

“History teaches us clearly that the battle against colonialism does not run straight away along the lines of nationalism. It so happens that the unprepared ness of the educated classes, the lack of practical link between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and let it be said, their cowardice at decisive moment of the struggle will, give rise to tragic mishaps.”

Fanon had the courage to say this more than 50 years ago, in the midst of a revolution he dedicated his life to and at a time when the contradictions of the failed revolutions were not so deep and brutal as they have manifested themselves in our own times. He was not only talking to his comrades of the time but to generations to come. There is no doubt that the Wretched of the Earth was able to move a whole generation of Black Consciousness activists in South Africa, with Steve Biko at the center of the movement.

There is no doubt that the tragedy of the African revolutions stems from the political opportunism of the leadership, their refusal to ground the revolution with the masses. The leadership chose instead to isolate themselves from the masses and consolidate their political power, in some cases with brutal military force.

The position of leaders who excused themselves from the noble task of the revolution by arguing that the counter-revolution can be summed up as the logical conclusion of the revolution is nothing other than political opportunism. It is our generation that witnessed the disasters brought about by all these failed revolutions and it is only we who can speak about them in our search for their reasons and for new ideas.

Only genuine African radical left groups and individuals will be able to do so without being carried away by the false assumptions that it is imperialism, not the Zanu-PF leadership,that betrayed the revolution in Zimbabwe. The struggle between the Zanu-PF and British imperialism in fact ended when the two met at the Lancaster House in camera for political power and friendship.

It is not too far from the truth to say that Mugabe has been part of a great history, the Zimbabwean revolution. He sat in prison for 11 years for believing in the liberation of his people and the aspirations of the revolution. Yes, so great was Stalin too. He was part of the world’s most beautiful revolution ever witnessed. but he died as no better than a blood-thirsty fascist with no regard for human life, history and culture. How can you celebrate such men in the name of social justice?

Many people fought and died for the Zimbabwean revolution; they did so for a better Zimbabwe: a better Zimbabwe where men and women are equal and are not judged according to their race or social class but according to their desire to build a new society in Zimbabwe. They fought not for only their people and the continent but in the interests of the whole of humanity. It was a revolution fought for humanity, for a non-racist society, for equality and justice.

When the Zimbabwean farmers were raising the issue of land reform, Mugabe was a regular diner at No. 10 Downing Street in London, crowned as one of the most respected leaders not only in Africa but the whole world by the very people with whom he is currently at war. Why should a genuine African activist dirty himself in this “Family Dispute”?

Tony Blair and successor Gordon Brown are just like Mugabe—power-hungry politicians. Do they care about the suffering and death of thousands of Darfurians, let alone the constant suffering of millions of Zimbabweans whose plight they highlighted for political consumption at home? When the demand for land teform in Zimbabwe started gathering momentum, Mugabe knew better than anyone that this was a direct threat to his political power and he wasted no time in acting.

Both Blair and Mugabe chose their battleground to the detriment of millions of Zimbabweans. Blair trumpeted democracy, even though he was able to roll out the red carpet for China’s dictatorial leaders, visit Egypt’s General Musharaf, warm the bed for Chile’s General Pinochet, and sent soldiers to participate in the killing of over half a million Iraqis against the will of his people. Mugabe decided to return to old rhetoric—bulldozing people’s huts in the name of national development while seizing land from white farmers and distributing them to his political power base.

African leaders who have stood by Mugabe are more aware of the nature of this crisis than many may be conscious. It is false to believe that their support for Mugabe has to do with taking a stand for African solidarity against the West. Take South African President Mbeki: He dares not open his mouth to talk about land reform in Zimbabwe. Land reform was fundamental to the revolution in South Africa—the ANC’s rhetoric was also that the stolen land would be returned. After all these years with the ANC in power we know what happened to that promise.

What they did instead was to relocate the leadership of the ANC to live in white areas as a sign of the end of apartheid. What would Steve Biko have made of this? There must have been a good reason why he did not join the ANC, and now we see the return of South African Townships (“Shack-towns”). Millions of Blacks are hungrier today than in the days of the apartheid regime, so why should we expect that the ANC would not stand by Mugabe?

Just like Mbeki, Gordon Brown also needs Zimbabwe—especially now that the polls are not so exciting for him. The white British settlers impacted by this crisis are one of the largest settler communities in Africa. Their call for help will be taken seriously by any British Prime Minister, and more so when the British media—like the BBC, the Sun newspaper etc.—see in the Zimbabwean crisis a patriotic duty to support “kith and kin” far away in their struggle for farmland in a foreign country.

The Zimbabwean people are those suffering; it is them we must listen to. There are genuine forces in Zimbabwe who need all the energy we have. Their struggle is to empower the Zimbabwean masses for a genuine revolution. That which is left now is the experience of the masses and it is on these experiences they are building on to rescue the hijacked revolution.