5 Unsung African Greats

Joyce Banda
In an often male-dominated continent, the emergence of a female President is a cause for celebration. Banda has been the leader of Malawi since 2012, and is a shining example of empowerment for women across the continent. She founded the Joyce Banda Foundation for Better Education and has been involved with various philanthropic endeavours in the country.


 Rudi van Vuuren

2003 was a busy year for van Vuuren. He played for Namibia in both the Rugby and Cricket World Cup, a feat unmatched before or since. Not only showing prowess in world of sport, he is also a qualified doctor and runs a conservation organisation that protects Namibia's animals and provides healthcare to the indigenous San community. Not bad, huh?

Freddie Mercury - Zanzibar

Farrokh Bulsara

Not a name that rolls off the tongue, but you might know his stage name: Freddie Mercury. Born in Zanzibar off the East African coast, Mercury became a music icon as the lead singer of Queen. His flamboyant on and off-stage persona made him legendary and his untimely death in 1991 sent shockwaves around the world.

Sid James

Born Solomon Cohen in Johannesburg in 1913, James served in the South African Army in World War II. He rose to stardom in post-war Britain, becoming a star of the cult Carry On franchise. He took his on-screen lothario persona into his private life as well, having a well-publicised affair with actress Barbara Windsor.

Navi Pillay - South African

Navi Pillay

Born in Durban in 1941, she gained a BA from the University of Natal and became the first non-White woman to have a law practice in the province. Pillay defended anti-apartheid activists in her native country and later headed the Rwanda Tribunal, helping bring to justice some of the most evil war criminals in Africa. She is now the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights.

What if the UK and SA had invaded Zimbabwe?

Improbable? Sure. Impossible? Apparently not.

Just over a fortnight ago, Thabo Mbeki made a startling revelation to the press. At the beginning of the last decade, according to the former President, Tony Blair had broached the idea of a potential invasion of Zimbabwe. With the economy in freefall and land reform in full flow, the country looked more unstable than ever.

Let’s put morals aside for a moment and see what might have happened if an invasion had gone ahead 12 years ago.

2001

 After talks in London, Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki announce their intention to invade the former British colony of Zimbabwe.

 British air superiority neutralises strategic ground targets, such as airfields and barracks. Any civilian casualties are written off as ‘collateral damage’ and ‘a necessary evil,’ never mind if some of the ‘barracks’ turn out to be schools or hospitals.

 The Commonwealth’s newest member, Mozambique, allows a coalition of British and South African troops to cross into Manicaland, whilst more gather at Beitbridge.

The British public are torn. A million march on Whitehall, but how many millions more support the invasion with a glint of Empire in their eyes?

The few Whites left in the country become even more fearful, barricading their front doors and hiding from the inevitable backlash in the days following the invasion. Deaths are inevitable.

The poorly-trained and ill-equipped government forces fall to pieces against the overwhelming strength of the British Army, throwing down their weapons and fleeing to the countryside. Only Mugabe’s loyal bodyguards, battle-hardened in his own illegal war in the Congo, put up a fight. After a period of frenetic progress, the British and South Africans have hegemony.

Mugabe flees but can’t evade capture for long, eventually dying of old age whilst on trial for ‘war crimes,’ his memory tarnished. A warning of what power can do to a man.

Propped up by the Coalition, Tsvangirai assumes the Presidency. The US stays quiet; their dealings with Africa tainted by disaster in Somalia.

As the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner flutters from Parliament House, things turn sour for the Coalition when the late Mugabe’s forces regroup upcountry. Faced with an invisible enemy that knows the terrain, the British gradually withdraw to their bases, just as they will in Helmand. The countryside becomes a battlefield in which the indigenous guerillas move freely among the people, using hit-and-run tactics to wear the enemy down.

The huge Zimbabwean diaspora flooded home when Coalition supremacy became clear, re-equipping the nation with the teachers, nurses and doctors it so sorely needed. But how long will they stay?  As the years pass and violence grows, how many will turn tail and leave once again?

The agricultural industry surely collapses as the countryside becomes a battlefield. Will the return of white farmers have any impact beside angering rural Zimbabweans, for whom Mugabe’s land reforms were a Godsend?

  Those Zimbabweans who were alive in the Bush War know all too well the outcome. Britain, caught up once again in a messy, unwinnable war far from home, pulls out. Dogged by accusations of neo-colonialism, the Labour Party loses the next election. South African withdrawal is  just as undignified.

 From the power vacuum in Harare emerges a new leader who is just as aggressive and anti-imperialist as the last.  The world is left asking whether Zimbabwe is better off than before.

It’s all just conjecture. Who knows what might have happened if an invasion had gone ahead? How do you see it? As always, Zimbabwe provokes more questions than answers.

Where In The World? Namibia!

Courteous officials. What more could you want?

 How many times have you been looking at a globe and come across a place you've never heard of? We've all done it! Who can blame us? Ouagadougo can't be real, surely? I want to profile some of Africa's lesser known nations, and here I'll be shedding some light on the jewel of south-west Africa. Welcome to Namibia!

 Although three times the size of Germany, the tiny population of 2 million means it’s the second-least densely-populated nation on Earth, (behind Mongolia, for all you Pub Quizzers.) but with no civil wars, famines or coups, it’s rare to see Namibia on the 10 O’Clock news.

But Namibia’s history is a dark one. The 20th century’s first genocide took place here, committed by the fathers of the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Hermann Goering’s Papa was a key figure in the extermination of 100,00 Herero and Nama between 1904 and 1907 as the Germans drove a whole people into the desert to die. The German occupation ended with the South African invasion during the First World War, and the nation formerly known as German South-West Africa remained occupied until independence from the Apartheid regime in 1990. Since then, the country has gone from strength to strength, with one of the most stable and democratic regimes in the region. Not wanting to alienate any of Namibia’s many linguistic and cultural groups, the government chose English as the official language at independence; a language sparsely spoken before and demonstrative of the brave new world that emancipation brought. Most Namibians are bi-, tri- or even quadrilingual!

There are few famous Namibians, but her most notable citizens, runner Frankie Fredericks and supermodel Behati Prinsloo, show the nation’s diversity. It could be argued that Namibia is the ‘real’ Rainbow Nation. With economic disparities widening and a breakdown in race relations across the Orange River in South Africa, Namibia has gone from strength to strength in the 23 years since independence from its larger neighbour. Herero and Nama live peacefully alongside Afrikaners and the 20,000 German-speakers whose antecedents found their ‘Platz an der Sonne’ in Germany’s short-lived colonial empire. Unlike in Zimbabwe, land reform has been gradual and peaceful, as colonial wrongs are righted.

Forgive the cliché, but Namibia really is a land of contrasts. Where else could you come across quaint German towns in the scorching desert, forage with the world’s last hunter-gatherers, or meet a people who proudly call themselves “Bastards?”

Obscure, hidden and quaint, Namibia could be worth a visit. 

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: 1918 - 2013

A Young Nelson Mandela

The life and achievements of Nelson Mandela have been well-documented this week, and it is impossible to articulate the reverence in which he is held by Africans and non-Africans alike.

 The greatest icon of the 20th century departed this Earth on the 5th of December. It is hard to imagine what 27 years of incarceration must do to a man, let alone a lifetime of dedication to the cause of freedom in which family and friends came second.

 Ardently opposed to the discrimination of his Black, Coloured and Indian compatriots, Mandela was at the vanguard of the African National Congress in the fight against the last bastion of the White supremacists.

 Mandela's strongest asset wasn't his endurance, his courage or his commitment to the cause; it was his ability to forgive. How many of us would find in our hearts to put a lifetime's pain aside for the cause of liberty? In choosing truth and reconciliation, Mandela chose not to light the fuse which could have set South Africa ablaze in racial and ethnic conflict.

 It's wrong for non-South Africans to refer to Mandela as Madiba. The term has little resonance for people who absorb it from the media and do not know its origins. Instead, let us call him by his name, Nelson Mandela, which is now a permanent symbol of hope and freedom around the world.

But his death is also a watershed moment for Africa. What Mandela fought against was the old Africa, that of de jure dominance, exploitation and oppression by Europeans.

 Those days are gone, and Africa needs to look forward instead of back. Is there a modern Mandela in Lusaka or Libreville? Who will lead Africa against its new enemies?