Zimbabwe

South Africa’s mirror: Rhodesia’s spectacular rise and the tragic fall of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe lies just over the Limpopo River. In the 1920s, being a nice “province-sized” land that would complement the fast-developing Union of South Africa, enough Commonwealth leaders pushed for its inclusion, and a referendum was held. Southern Rhodesian women secured a “no.” Though always the little brother, rivalry grew to the point where, when Mugabe took over in 1980, many forecasters declared Zimbabwe’s fate would be South Africa’s future. Regretfully, Mugabe didn’t take Zimbabwe into the future.

“Rhodes’ Country” had been an amazing success story achieved by, in teacher-to-student ratio terms, remarkably few immigrants—even though 64% of the country lies in regions characterized by low rainfall, vulnerability to extreme weather events, and limited livelihood opportunities. The start-up was so successful that “There was an immediate explosion in both population numbers and longevity.”

A simple, joyful statement with massive implications: had the immigrants not come, or had they adopted the American approach to indigenous people, only a fraction of today’s Zimbabweans would be alive. Their grandparents and parents would never have been born. There’d have been no Mugabe in Southern Rhodesia. Had he been born, it would have been in Malawi, then Nyasaland.

Under Mugabe, what had been a gem man made out of nothing but rough bush and inter-tribe conflict collapsed in the late 1990s. Many educated black Zimbabweans, tired of Mugabe’s policies, joined the general exodus. Zimbabwe is now a living example of exactly what the do-gooders and ultra-liberals didn’t want—the 1 or 2% riding on the backs of their own. They hadn’t thought things through. Now people ask, did Putin and Xi make the same mistake?

President Xi knew Zimbabwe well enough to appreciate it as SA’s crystal ball. Even as SA was being inducted into the BRIC fellowship, it was becoming yet another African failed state. As long as it stays the little “s” in BRICs, maybe it will make sense.

This is an explanatory snippet to the SANNA proposal.