Another Anglo progressive view below:

'Zimbabwe shows Africa is still in the despots' grip", said the headline in the London Observer over an article by Keith Richburg.

"Thank God that I am an American," writes this former foreign editor of the Washington Post.

An African-American, Richburg says he is very pleased he is not an African.

He reminds me of middle-class black Americans I met when I first travelled in Africa. They were usually tourists looking for their roots and in their behaviour, reactions and ignorance, they demonstrated how quintessentially American they were. For them, Africa was another planet.

A decade ago, writes Richburg, Zimbabwe was "a humming economy" with "impressive growth".

No, it was not. In 1998 Zimbabwe was a profoundly unequal society up to its ears in debt, with the International Monetary Fund waging war on its economy, waving off investors and freezing loans.

Moving his gaze north, Richburg describes Somalia as a "failed state" -- a term Western governments like to use -- while saying nothing about how this oil-rich country was manipulated and abused by Washington during the Cold War.

He mentions only in passing the role of the US and the "international community" as "enablers" in backing Ethiopia's current bloody invasion of Somalia.

It is not surprising he tells us his hero is Barack Obama who, far from defying "conventional wisdom about race in America", as Richburg credits him, almost every day falls in with conventional, white corporate wisdom.

Richburg's view of Africa is from the same conventional, white corporate wisdom. That Mugabe is an appalling tyrant is beyond all doubt; yet there is a subtext to the overly enthusiastic condemnation of him by the "international community", notably in Europe. "Unacceptable!" says British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, having personally distinguished the campaign to morally rehabilitate the concept of empire.

"The days of Britain having to apologise for the British Empire are over," said Brown not long ago.

"We should celebrate." And what better way to celebrate than with highly selective condemnation of uppity despots like Mugabe while fawning before equally awful despots such as the Saudi Royal family?

If nothing else, Mugabe has provided retrospective justification for the glory days. And perhaps his greatest crime is having slipped the leash. After all, both despots and democrats in Africa provide an essential service, or as Frantz Fanon put it in The Wretched of the Earth, "the transmission line between the nation and a capitalism, rampant though camouflaged. [They are] quite content with the role of the Western bourgeoisie's business agent." Those who refuse the role of business agent have often paid with their lives: from Patrice Lumumba to Amilcar Cabral, Ken Saro-Wiwa to Chris Hani.

The wanton underdevelopment of Africa hardly makes headlines, yet its victims outnumber those of Mugabe many times over.

Once known as neo-colonialism, it began more than half a century ago with the rise of European federalism. "It can be argued," wrote Dan Kashagama of the African Unification Front, "that the control of Africa was central to the creation of the EU and its forerunners …

"The six founder members of the EU could not maintain their economies without "association" with the colonial territories … In other words, Africa would never be allowed to have democratic economic choices … Europe would decide what kind of economy Africans were to build. Africa was to supply Europe's needs …"

I recommend a succinct analysis by Africa's Roman Catholic bishops of why 300-million Africans live on less than a dollar a day.

Their list is as follows: "huge crippling debts" mostly to Europe; an "iniquitous" and "atrociously immoral" system that keeps prices for African raw materials artificially low while those for rich-world exports continue to rise; the desecration of the African environment by Western corporations; the withholding by European banks of wealth looted by deposed and dead dictators; colonial interventions by European powers on the side of armed factions; and a devastating arms trade.

While the British government claims it leads the world in the "fight against poverty" it is the major arms merchant to 10 out of 14 conflict-racked African countries.

In South Africa, the Mbeki government has been suckered by British arms companies into buying 24 Hawk fighter jets at £17-million each, "by far the most expensive option", according to a House of Commons report.

Brown, together with his EU partners, is currently demanding free trade deals that will destroy whole African industries, such as Ghana's once thriving tomato canning industry. "Europe," says Gyekye Tanoh of the Third World Network in Accra, "is gaining 80% of our markets in exchange for what is effectively 2% of theirs."

None of this excuses the outrages of Mugabe. But look beyond the West's whipping boy and mark the enduring outrage of an imperial past that remains a war against Africa that Africans must win.

Why is Thabo Mbeki so soft on Mugabe? Is it simply loyalty to a past of "joint struggle", as has been suggested? Here is a clue.

In September 2005, a study submitted to Parliament in Cape Town compared the treatment of landless black farmers under apartheid and their treatment today.

During the final decade of apartheid, 737 000 people were evicted from white-owned farmland. In the first decade of democracy, 942 000 were evicted. About half of those forcibly removed were children and about a third were women.

A law intended to protect these people and put an end to peonage, the Security of Tenure Act was enacted by the Mandela government in 1997. That year, Nelson Mandela told me: "We have done something revolutionary, for which we have received no credit at all.

There is no country where labour tenants have been given the security we have given them … where a farmer cannot just dismiss them."

The law proved a sham. Most evictions never reached the courts and bitterness among black farm workers has grown inexorably and so too has the whole question of land, actual and symbolic. When the ANC came to power in 1994, the "priority" of land restitution was allocated 0,3% of the national budget. By 2005, it was still less than 1%.

When Robert Mugabe attended the ceremony to mark Thabo Mbeki's second term as President of South Africa, the black crowd gave Zimbabwe's dictator a standing ovation. The embarrassment and message for Mbeki was like a presence.

"This was probably less an endorsement for Mugabe's despotism," noted the writer Bryan Rostron, "than a symbolic expression of appreciation for an African leader who, many poor blacks think, has given those greedy whites a long-delayed and just come-uppance."

It was also a warning.

John Pilger is the author of several books and a world renowned journalist and documentary filmmaker. Visit his website

FANTASTIC article Phiri, thanks for sharing.

I too concur. Not to be unkind and not that it matters much, but I do feel that Phiri's article is not entirely his own. I have read many of Phiri's posts and the sentence formations and command of written English in this particular post is different. This is meant to be a constructive criticism and not a put down to Phiri.

pushing for sanction against zimbabwe or Mugabe?this question need to be table at the G8 summitt.The African leaders attending this submitt should define this sanction clearly to other participant and those pushing for sanctions.The masses in zimbabwe suffers this so call sanctions and not those who lives in the government palace,sanction should be consider inhuman ,hatred,racism and inhuman right.sanction of zimbabwe affects the ordinary citizen,it affects the less previledge,affects the disable,affects the poor .it does not pinch or have impact on the dictator and the imbecile that sorrounded the government.If this so called developed countries,super power and the United Nations would be fair to safe our diminishing world sanction should not be prescribe on the continent of Africa,for the sake of humanity. If the west would mediate fairly in Africa regional crisis without prejudice and selfish interest; remains doubtful to the African`s at large for reasons best known to me and you. we all know the past dishonesty ,betrayal,cheat,blindfolded,disrespect,extortion and many more evil that was done to the land of our ancestors.to this reasons many African doubtful of the west sincere intervention into the region problem,for example take a look at what happened in Liberia,sierra leone,sudan . Sanction should not be consider a tools of punishment for the continent of Africa.please G8 members we all are human understand this ,your sanction is pronouncement of death upon the ordinary people of Zimbabwe,define your sanction clearly .mediation in fairness implement weapon sanction both in small arms and at large,not economy sanction.practice what you preach.

Um......typsytypsy....there aren't any African countries in the G8. So no African participants.

Zimbabwe is a failed state it isn't even in the D8.

you are so funny...Yes there are some African countries invited.

I'm funny? Thanks, I think, glad you had a giggle.

Invited, attending, present.........participants? I think not.

Hopefully the G8 not having to suffer the same nonsense from China, and South Africa in the UN can acomplish something.

I notice Toothless Mbeki has hotfooted it to Japan to plead Robber McGarbages case to the G8, what a funny little man he is. I can hear it now, "Please don't apply sanctions to Bob he's a good boy really, he's just misunderstood".

I hope they lock him out.

If I were a religious man I'd probably be praying for unilateral sanctions from the US, The G8 and The EU to be applied swiftly and forcefully, ground Zimbabwes airline and turn out the lights, see how long the old lunatic lasts in his USD$26million dollar disneyland.

YEs, but only to beg the rest of world for last few crumbs on the table. All of the countries come to the G8 to define the world. African countries come to beg.

If the african states cannot even do something as simple as show a united front against dictators for whatever reason. The countries of the west should realize these people are incapable of good governance and we in the west should come to the conclusion african governments are failures and stop all aid and assistance until they can show they are up to the task. If not forget them and move on.

response to Mal comment about aid to Africa,the west should pocket those invisble aid that are not properly or honestly giving as showing in their sole sponsored media.do you beleive in those billions claimed giving to Africa as aid,if that be so ,if they doing it in honesty they should destribute those exagerrated aid with the poor.

Gov,....go ahead lobby your gov't to stop aid to Africa. No one stops you or the UK. All those self appraising "Live Aid" to Africa gone what a world that would be... As the conservatives say..then the UK would practise "love" toward Africans, since they would be working to feed themselves.

Lets say the aid stops, then what do you do?

Aha..Glyph.. now involved in dangerous right wing anglo talk. Even the dogs are invited to the table to like their masters left overs! The G8 wisely welcome the dogs...because any dog can be made welcome in another house (China, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Russia). The west know about the cold war and to listen to you Glyph would be extremely dangerous, in this new geopolitical time. The UK is not a big player in the new Geopolitical leaders. Yes, the UK has BBC, but there is also CNN, the internet and a host of other things. Made in the UK is increasingly low quality. In the next 10 years, the UK will not make the top 20 richest countries in the world. The anglomianics will develop an ultra low self-esteem...

You keep repeating this over and over again, who are you trying to convince? Me or You?

As I have said to you in the past as a UK national I don't actually worry about our position in the world, it is pretty much assured. You carry on with your wishful thinking and get back to me in 20 years when Zimbabwe is the economic powerhouse of Africa under ZANU-PF. I get a funny feeling we'll be having the same conversation.

You're absolutely right Phiri I am a child of the Cold-War, the defeat of Communism is now pretty much complete I think I can relax and have a chuckle at the remaining Maoists and Marxists in their Saville-Row suits telling their downtrodden proletariat to rise up for the new revolution against the neo-colonials while they sip Bollinger chuckling in their mansions while the people in poverty outside their fortresses carry around posters of their heroes calling each other comrades.

What I think is quite poetic is that where the average western person would like to see an emancipated Africa where people work for a decent wage, have healthcare, own property and can compete on a level playing field, the other countries of which you speak(India, China, Pakistan, South Korea and Russia) will undoubtedly colonise Africa again. See what happens when a leader burns the bridge, it means the ferryman can charge what he likes.

As I have said to you before I could care less to whom you sell your tobacco or your natural resources. Your analogy regarding dogs at the masters table speaks volumes about your self-esteem levels, I think that is more the attitude you would get from the Chinese, the Chinese are dog-lovers........they love them battered and fried and served with plum sauce.

Glynnnn .... you are so disrespectiful of everything African and extremely patronising.Its a worst of time entering into any discourse with you.l assume that it is not ignorance but insensitivity and superiority complex.The Rhodie type. My advice to your good self is to LEAVE AFRICA ALONE. I bet you cant do that otherwise you will die of Africanites ...a lack of contact with things African.

As you're having trouble getting my name it's GLYPH, Glyn is a fine Welsh name but not one I chose for myself. You may be interested to know that an anagram of your name is, "A Deaf Punk" shall I use it in future?

On the contrary akapfunde1 as I have said many times in the past I have the utmost respect for the people of Africa. I should say the overwhelming majority of Africans. As I have also previously stated; my immediate superior officer is from Namibia, our wives take turns to drive our children to kindergarten and meet for lunch several times a week. My wife also has no link to Zimbabwe.

I work with Commonwealth Soldiers and I would much prefer their company in the mess over many British men or women I know.

What you don’t seem to, “get” is that I couldn’t care less regarding who leads Zimbabwe so long as it is led well. It could be McGarbage or even you; as I said the politics don’t interest me; I have no link to Zimbabwe other than that which I have learned over the past 3 months when I began posting on this site. I care not one iota who buys Zimbabwes natural resources and raw materials. I have nothing to gain or lose from Zimbabwe.

I found this site while clicking through a google news item and upon reading many news articles I became interested, for no other reason than morbid curiosity as to what the outcome of the train wreck which pretended to be free and fair elections would be. I also post on a Ukrainian site: my wife is of Ukrainian decent. Not that I need to justify myself to you but purely as a courtesy to a fellow site visitor I thought I would explain my motivation.

Strange as it may seem and you can accept this or don’t accept it as is your wont; I actually care what happens in Zimbabwe(to the people). Maybe you can’t grasp that I; as a, “Rhodie Type” would actually spend the time of day giving a damn what happens to a fellow human being with skin of a different colour to mine: but then I guess that’s a fundamental difference between you and I. You can stick to your dogma and I’ll continue to think for myself if it’s all the same to you. Even Phiri whom I prejudged to my shame and for which I apologise: as being cut from the same cloth as you; actually he has an open mind and I can see from his posts over time that he is forming his own opinion and no longer toeing the party line whether he cares to admit it or not .

Maybe you mistake my insensitivity for incredulous anger and frustration regarding the utter verbal diarrhoea spouted by Robber McGarbage, the hero of your liberation struggle against the British which never actually happened, no British service-person has ever been a combatant against ZANU or ZAPU forces. Did he ever even discharge a weapon during the, “war”? I hope that the Zimbabwean people will be free of him soon, maybe his prostate cancer will force the issue and the internal power struggle in ZANU PF will just settle things naturally as they kill each other off to be next in line for Bobbys cast offs. Maybe then the people of Zimbabwe will have a fighting chance at having productive lives which they can enjoy rather than endure.

One again you, “run home to momma” with the, “Rhodie type” comment. If you don’t want to enter into a discourse with me then why respond to a post which wasn’t directed at you. The name of the deadly disease which you made up….”Africanitis” I think you meant to spell it; (btw I’m being patronising …..right about……..HERE!)would actually translate to, “Inflammation of my Africa”, lack of things African would be, “HypoAfricanism”. I found that quite funny. Goddamn my Africa is sore *too funny*.

It is all everyone else’s fault, we cannot be blamed it was the whites that did it, they are out to get us. Quit blaming everyone else for heavens sake, the Junta of Zimbabwe is a joke; they are like a bunch of grotesque caricatures of 1960’s African leaders. “Hey I like you have a car”, “Thanks for the favourable verdict Judge, here, have a farm- have two". Really and truly akapfunde1; is this the kind of thing you idolise from a Marxist/Maoist administration who came to power on a mandate of empowerment, independence and redistribution of wealth? I believe I remember you saying you were 66years old? Can you honestly with your hand on your heart tell me that Zimbabwe is in any better shape now than in 1980? Your advice to me is leave Africa alone, never been to Africa don’t plan on going to Africa. My advice to you and the rest of the McGarbage Personality Cult members is this. “If you always do what you always did you’ll always get what you always got”. Change is sometimes the best thing and after 28 years of this I think change is long overdue.

My perceived superiority complex must come from being working class and actually doing something with my life, taking responsibility for my actions and accomplishing something, not blaming others for my failures and building on my successes, please tell me: where does your inferiority complex come from? I bet I can guess: your mentor Robber McGarbage?

Well said Glyph.

dont worry about Akafunboy. He thinks that the first and second world wars were fought only by Germany and England. And no one else was involved. Hey. Lets change the name to the Germany V England wars so that history is corrected. What a dumb arse.

G-8 is surreptitiously coming up with an agenda to progrssively install US puppets in African countries which would eventually lead to the collapse of the countries. Putting pressure on African coutries like South Africa to influence political life in other African countries is like blackmail and its obvious that Africans should kick against this approach.

Gishola, do you propose Africans kick back against the west's blackmail by terrorising, starving & killing their fellow Africans? That's really guaranteed to get the West's attention and focus their efforts, as Bob has shown us.

If the SADC group of men had balls big enough to make a quick and decisive action on Robert Mugabe's reign of terror as those of the G8 men, Zimbabwe would not be totally spiraling into oblivion today. I welcome tougher targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his fat morons. Perhaps for the first time they will experience how the ordinary Zimbabwean struggles. AS Mugabe does not even have toilet paper on which to print his useless money, how is he going to lick all his stooges to support him. Barclays Bank has seen fit to shut its ATM machines because they cannot cope with all the Zeros. As for the currency, forget it. A bottle of beer costs 50 billion local dollars! The scarcity of food just continues unless you are able to buy from the black market vendors in foreign currencies only. One of the largest and well known bakeries Lobels laid off 1,200 employees with paid leave. I just do not understand the Zimbabwean peoples' mindset when they have again voted Mugabe into power. Even on these posts I still see those who are constantly shouting "sanctions, colonialism, Rhodesia, Britain, America" and the latest is a shout against the G8. What do any of these have to do with the actions of Robert Mugabe to Zimbabweans? When a snake has bitten someone in your household, do you just look at it, admire it and blame the forest and the tall grass? Heck no. You get rid of it. Look at the stable African countries and learn from them.