Selamte Baba Marcus

I do not know which European Newspapers you speak of. All the postings I have pasted on to this board on issues related to Zimbabwe were all from Zimbabwean papers. There are few left, but I am pleased to note that most have kept a presence on the internet.

My reason is not to subvert the Government of Mr Mugabe. I am not an activist. I am an ordinary Zimbabwean, temporarily in exile in the UK. I plan to go back next year, and have already started preparing for that. Here in the UK, I have not been involved in any political activity of any nature. Nor have I been involved in any Rastafarian community activity.

The reason I put these articles is to show that the situation in Zimbabwe is not as black-and-white as some would wish to depict it. There are issues of governance and human rights, of political legitimacy, of failure, of hiding behind bygone political identities, of brutal repression.

The reactions I have had from others on this board have been varied. Some have offered questions, some have presented their views and articulated them well. Some on the other hand ,and these appear to be in the majority, have tried to fit me in to moulds of their own invention, moulds which I do not fit in. There has been a deplorable inclination to view me as an enemy of Zimbabwe, a pawn in a plot by the West. Lurid accusations of being in the payroll of the West have been thrown at me, as have been questions about my racial identity.

As for your last question, I am aware of the position of the Black Diaspora. Believe me, we in Zimbabwe cannot contemplate the pages of those times when the Europeans kidnapped Africans to work for them.

Of course, you have the right to claim your heritage!!!

What you do not have the right is to transplant whatever race problems you have there and bring them to Africa when you return. What you do not have the right to is idolize a man who has caused suffering of so many Black people simply because Western Governments appear to hate him. I say appear because the Financial Gazette ( one of the Zimbabwean newspapers you seem to have a problem with) carried a story about how the US government sold Zimbabwe some US$3m worth of riot suppression gear months after announcing it had imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.