‘THAT THING’: When History re-lives

in his completely wild and untamed state. He went on to argue that as white people they must lay aside all thought of reverence and morality — all that they call feeling — if they would rightly comprehend him. Noticeable in his definition of the blacks is the assumption that someone will have to perform the duty of transforming Africa from being a wilderness into a civilised continent; also implied in the same definition is the need to be ruthless in the “taming” of Africa, that is, not to be constrained in doing so by those feelings of empathy which should normally determine how human beings are supposed to feel towards each other. Doing so would be inappropriate since, as far as Hegel is concerned, the negro is much closer to the animal world. In other words, in Hegel’s definition of the Negro (us) is an implicit manifesto on how a white man should deal with any African. In light of this derogatory and dismissive stance, it is not surprising that the German General Lothar von Trotha does not hesitate to slaughter more than 100 000 Hereros and 10 000 Namaqua people between 1904 and 1907 in Namibia and this genocide does not invite strong condemnation from the West either! WHY? Because in their hearts and minds there is this deeply entrenched belief that blacks are not exactly like other normal human beings. Up to this day, the Germans have refused to apologise for this gruesome horror they perpetrated in Namibia and to pay compensation for it just as the rest of Europe has consistently refused to pay any compensation to the descendants of all those they enslaved between 1450 and 1888, the ones whose labour laid the foundation of modern industrial Europe and America.

Up to this day they are not prepared to do so yet they go around the world, more so in Africa, preaching about human rights as if their murderous record on our continent is not known and as if they paid all moral debts they owe to all people of African descent. In a sense, by preaching to us about human rights which, in reality, they do not care much about at all, especially in Africa, they reduce a serious moral debate to a sordid sham, a kind of self-marketing rhetorical exercise which can only work if most of us remain oblivious to the outstanding record of atrocities which White America committed in Africa.

The rot in church Here is what Father Biehler of the Roman Catholic Church proposed to do in 1897 in Zimbabwe in order to wipe out what he considered to be a superstitious and backward system and backward belief system of the Shona people. His idea was to banish the so called darkness which he regarded as retarding the repentance of the rebellious Shona: Father Biehler was so convinced of the hopelessness of regenerating the Mashonas who he regards as the most hopeless of mankind that he states that the only chance for the future of the race is to exterminate the whole people, both male and female, over the age of 14. This pessimistic conclusion is what the American vote confirmed through Trump.

Trump has said everything that would bring the candidacy of a presidential aspirant to a quick and ignominious end. He has called Mexicans drug dealers and rapists. He has called for a total ban on all Muslims entering America. He has thrown journalists out of his press conferences. He viciously insulted and belittled his opponents. He threatened to punch a heckler. He has denigrated women.

He has said he will kill families of terrorists and carpet bomb the Middle East. Yet in spite of this (or perhaps precisely because of it) his poll numbers kept going up and up. How does he manage to annoy the entire American elite establishment and remain on top? How can someone so vilified by America’s powerful weapons of mass propaganda defy all the laws of political gravity? How can someone who has broken every taboo of America’s selfacclaimed political culture excite the passions and the imagination of the American public? Wednesday confirmed that the American public has grown wary of the pretence and political correctness of its leaders. In Trump they have found an ally who expresses their feelings without euphemism. Trump’s critics claim that his positions go against “American values” of internationalism, inclusiveness, democracy, freedom,

tolerance, colour-blindness; however, this is deodorising garbage.

After 9/11 in 2001, America introduced torture, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, begun kidnapping suspects from their homes and holding others without trial in illegal detention facilities.

It introduced mass surveillance that allows it to eavesdrop on telephone calls, emails and chats of all her citizens, enemies and allies indiscriminately and with impunity. With that knowledge, I would like to ask Zimbabwean self-appointed moral prefects who claim Trump is going against “American Values” to explain to us how different he is from the rest? The only difference that I see is that Trump says openly what America does everyday. American politicians on both the right and the left have only been adept at public relations, hiding their deep-seated religious and racial prejudices against Hispanics, Muslims, Blacks and the poor behind high sounding but empty claims to possess values they never uphold. The other thing is that America has been using what George Orwell called Double Speak.

It has been torturing suspects but calling it “enhanced interrogation methods”, kidnaping people from their homes and taking them to illegal detention facilities around the world but calling it “rendition” and indiscriminately bombing and killing innocent civilians but calling it “collateral damage.”

All that Trump has done is to remove the pretence by going “native.” Trump is not going to change the nature of the White American state — its violent imperialism, its cruel and sadistic policies against racial minorities, its prejudices against Muslims and people of colour. Rather he will remove the disguise of hypocrisy, the mask of double-speak the veneer of sophistication and the veil of self-righteousness and leave the emperor naked. Trump is a breath of fresh air into the stale political atmosphere of lies and deceit that characterises White American. Trump has laid America bare for the world to see. He has made all see America for what it actually is.

To the KEY voter As I continue with my engagement with the KEY voter, I realise that his intoxication in American politics is void of the truth of who White America is and how he has treated and will treat us continually. The lurk of our opposition in celebrating the American victory stooges me of

how young politically vulnerable minds have been made to believe so far. Opposition politics finds solace in an oppressive system, well I understand them, such truths as I have penned are limited for their access, not that its impermissible, but most of them are knowledge midgets who do not take time to search, if ever they did, they did not analyse, if they attempted to, it never crossed their mind that approach everything with hesitancy. Let’s inform the KEY voter, we need to revisit history and link it with what happened on Wednesday.

Micheal Mhlanga is a research and strategic communication specialist and is currently serving Leaders for Africa Network (LAN) as the Programmes and Public Liaison Officer. He also administrates multiple youth public dialogue forums in Zimbabwe including the annual Reading Pan Africanism Symposium (REPS) and Back to Pan Africanism Conference. Feedback can be sent to michealmhlanga@abakhokheli.org