The Sunday Mail
Writing Back
Ranga Mataire
In the post-colonial epoch, Writing Back doesn’t need to be adversarial.
While acknowledging past inimical relations, the post-colonial epoch should ideally be characterised by a keenness in finding common ground for mutual benefit.
The need to mend past frosty relations appear to be the primary motive behind the “Zimbabwe Open for Business” mantra and the New Dispensation’s efforts to re-engage the West, particularly the former colonial power- Britain.
The quest to see Zimbabwe chart a new international relations trajectory saw Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Dr Sibusiso Busi Moyo and Media, Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary, Mr Nick Mangwana travelling to England to engage various stakeholders last week.
While in England, the Foreign Affairs Minister took time to address a gathering of Westminster Africa Business Group executives on investment opportunities and the Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe.
In his own words, the visit was part of the “furtherance of Ministry’s economic recovery diplomacy policy to secure international financial support and foreign direct investment.”
The openness of the Second Republic is exemplified by its willingness to engage in any areas of concern with various stakeholders with an interest on Zimbabwe.
Dr S.B Moyo’s attendance at the Global Conference for Media Freedom where a series of media reforms were deliberated is testimony of the Second Republic’s willingness to open and democratise the media space in the country by appropriating and learning from best practices inherent in other countries.
In a development some would regard as reverse ‘invasion’, England last week played host not just to the Foreign Affairs Minister and his delegation but also to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) officials and the Gems— the national netball team currently taking part in the Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool.
The ZTA was in England to engage and encourage Zimbabweans working and living in that country to invest back home. And like a shining beacon of hope and resilience, the Gems triumphed in their first game against Sri Lanka.
It is the sort of news that augurs well with ‘Writing Back’ where people of the South physically display not their skills but their humanity to an audience long fed on prejudices and misrepresentations.
The beauty of it all is that unlike the past adversarial relations, the Empire audience is rendered an opportunity to get up and close with a chip representation of Zimbabwe. And in a subtle way, we are afforded an opportunity to re-write a new narrative of who we are through our engagement.
Through direct engagement, we are afforded a chance to understand and appreciate that some of the misrepresentation is a product of blithe assumptions prevalent in literary debates or in bigoted narratives that for long fed the Empire as a way of entrenching and justifying a superiority complex.
The beauty of this kind of engagement is that while history is regarded as the best compass for guiding future relations, parties are not prisoners of the past.
Of course, there are others who would want to argue that the government is going over the top in its attempt to endear itself with erstwhile adversaries and that our continued use of the Queen’s language renders us perpetual ‘colonial’ subjects. However, we might need to go back in history to respond to such aspersions.
Frantz Fanon offers an interesting historical anecdote that vexed revolutionaries in Algeria. Radio Fighting Algeria, set up to combat French colonialism in the late 1950s, faced agonising decision on what language to use in broadcasting their message to the masses.
At the time, there was no dominant language in Algeria.
Many languages were being spoken. Eventually, the revolutionaries resolved to use French. What informed their thinking was both interesting and astounding.
Up to then, every speech made in French had been “an order, a threat or an insult.” The revolutionaries sought to use the language in as inverse manner which Fanon said was meant to “liberate the enemy language from its historic meanings.”
The use of the English language as a medium of communication has so far managed to bridge a lot of misconceptions. It is not in doubt that the New Dispensation has gone about in various ways to show the world that it is sincere in instituting reforms in the body politic.
However, an issue that remains a bitter sore at the heart of the engagement efforts is the existence of sanctions. One of our own, Dr Knox Chitiyo who is a fellow at Chatham House and Steve Kibble- a British national, succinctly place the lifting of sanctions at the centre of Zimbabwe’s engagement with the West.
In a paper for Chatham House titled “Zimbabwe’s International Re-engagement)- The Long Haul Recovery” (2014), the two submit that with the economic stakes so high, and with the growing economic interdependence, constructive engagement between Zimbabwe and the West should entail a process to end all sanctions and targeted measures, as well as a pragmatic dialogue that recognises mutual interests and responsibilities.
In their submissions, the two state that; “Western policy should move away from singling out Zimbabwe and become more regionally focused, consistently supporting sustainable economic growth and transformation, grounded in good governance and human rights.”
Other recommendations contained in the paper, which I think Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade should consider is the establishment of the Zimbabwe-UK Kingdom Bilateral Forum to deliberate on matters of mutual concern.
The Zimbabwean diaspora also has a critical role to play in the country’s recovery as well as its own success abroad.
Zimbabweans in the UK will need to manage their own differences and contradictions and craft a collective vision for it to be viewed back home as a serious partner in Zimbabwe’s development, and in London as a partner in UK policy-making on the country and the region.
There is absolute need in future to consider setting up a whole department for the diaspora to address issues of investment, remittances, diaspora return and wider diaspora partnerships.
This would give more zest to the current re-engagement drive between Zimbabwe and the diaspora.
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