Frontpage Interview's guest today is Geoffrey Nyarota, founder and former editor in chief of The Daily News in
Zimbabwe. He was awarded the World Association of Newspapers 2002 Golden Pen of Freedom in recognition of his outstanding service to the cause of press freedom in the face of constant persecution. He was forced to flee from the country to seek refuge in the United States.
He became a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and subsequently a fellow of the Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy as well as of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, both also at Harvard.
Nyarota was awarded the Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist Award by the National Association of Black Journalists, USA, (1989 and 2003) and UNESCO’s Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award in 2002. He is the author of the new book, Against the Grain, which discusses the trials and tribulations of the independent press under President Mugabe’s authoritarian regime in Zimbabwe. The book also traces the decline of Zimbabwe from the bread-basket of southern Africa to a basket itself, while highlighting the betrayal of the citizens of Zimbabwe by the former heroes who led them to independence from colonial rule in 1980.
FP: Geoffrey Nyarota, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Nyarota: Thank you.
FP: What inspired you to write this book?
Nyarota: I was convinced that the extraordinary personal experiences that I encountered at the frontline of the armed struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe and the ordeal that I experienced as an independent newspaper editor after Zimbabwe attained independence were worthy of formal recording. Apart from that, as I traveled around the world in my work as a journalist I recounted my remarkable experiences. Invariably, people asked whether I was recording these extraordinary experiences for posterity in a book. Against the Grain is that book.
FP: Tell us what Mugabe has done to your country since he took power in 1980.
Nyarota: Mugabe became the Prime Minister of an independent Republic of Zimbabwe on his return to the country after he spearheaded a protracted guerrilla campaign against the rebel government of minority white Prime Minister, Ian Smith. He implemented a program of social development which brought schools and clinics to previously neglected rural areas, which had borne the brunt of the war, areas where such facilities did not exist previously. His government brought down the barriers of racial discrimination which confined the black majority to run-down and overcrowded sections of the urban areas while in the rural areas they were forced to eke an existence out of poor sandy soils. The white farmers settled on rich and fertile soils where they owned vast estates and lived in prosperity.
All these progressive developments have now been overshadowed over the past few years by retrogressive government policies, which have seen the standard of life deteriorate in the face of a serious economic meltdown. Shortages of commodities have become endemic while commodity prices have become unaffordable for the majority of the population. Unemployment now runs at more than 70 percent, with the rate of year-on-year inflation at 1,200 percent, by far the highest in the world. Not only has rampant corruption become entrenched, but the government has suppressed the democratic rights of citizens. Popular opposition to the government has been violently suppressed. Political violence and abuse of power and human rights have become prevalent.
FP: Why is the western Left so silent about Mugabe’s human rights abuses? If the Left was so vocal in denouncing South Africa’s Apartheid, why does it not hold Mugabe to the same standards in terms of how an African government treats its people? Are black people only human beings worthy of attention when they are persecuted by whites? The Left’s silence appears to suggest that this is its belief system, no?
Nyarota: The answer to this question is not simple. But let me assure you that this is an issue that baffles the citizens of Zimbabwe. They do not understand why Mugabe has, going back to the early days of Zimbabwe’s independence, abused the human rights of thousands of Zimbabweans with such total impunity. There was not much of an outcry when thousands – some put the figure at 20,000 – innocent Ndebele peasants were massacred by Mugabe’s Five Brigade during the Gukurahundi Atrocities from 1982 to 1986.
Every election since 1980 has been an occasion for ruthless political violence, perpetrated mainly by the ruling Zanu-PF party’s militants and youth brigade. Political opposition has been violently suppressed. Once in a while statements have been issued in Western capitals condemning such violence, but they have mostly been of a token nature and significance. Meanwhile, the rights of citizens have continued to be trampled upon by their elected government with total impunity on the part of the perpetrators.
Curiously, when violence was visited on the white farming community during the farm invasions orchestrated by Zanu-PF in 2000 there was an overwhelming international outcry, culminating in the total isolation of Zimbabwe from the international community. Unfortunately I must agree with your suggestion that, on the evidence available, Zimbabwe’s blacks appear to have been more worthy of attention when they were persecuted by the previous white regime. Their new struggle against oppression by a black government has not attracted meaningful international attention, at least not the same level of attention as that created by the plight of the dispossessed white farming community.
The black population of Zimbabwe was born a loser. They suffered the effects of oppression, denial and humiliation under the white settler regime. Now they suffer the same fate under a popularly elected black government.
FP: My own two cents worth is that Mugabe is a leftwing monster and leftwing monsters are exempt from criticism when it comes to the Western Left, which controls the parameters of discourse in the mainstream media. And it is the ideas of the Left that have created such monsters. The Left cannot admit the horrid earthly incarnations of its ideals.
Furthermore, in the leftist mindset, it is unconscionable when blacks are oppressed by whites, but when blacks are oppressed by blacks it is a complete non-issue. This reveals, of course, the pernicious racism of leftists, who hold whites up to a higher moral accountability than they do blacks. By logical deduction, this means they regard whites as being civilizationally superior and more “human” than blacks.
Let's move on to freedom of speech. Can you talk a bit about how press freedom suffered in
Zimbabwe under Mugabe?
Nyarota: After independence, it was one of Mugabe’s dreams to establish a doctrinaire socialist one-party state in Zimbabwe. He embarked on a campaign to suppress opposition political parties. One of the strategies of his campaign was to establish total control over mainstream media. During the struggle for independence, radio and television were already under government control. Soon after independence, the government extended that control to encompass the print press. The state secured control over the country’s largest newspaper publishing company, Zimbabwe Newspapers, publishers of a string of daily and weekly papers. I worked for this company in the early years of independence, being dismissed in 1988 from the editorship of The Chronicle, one the government’s two daily newspapers. This followed my exposure of widespread corruption involving cabinet ministers and other government officials.
The government reacted to the so-called Willowgate Scandal by tightening controls over the media. When we launched The Daily News in 1999, the government’s reaction was violent. Our printing press was destroyed in a bomb explosion. Journalists were routinely harassed and arrested on very spurious charges. Finally the paper was banned. As of now, the government enjoys a monopoly of control over the mass media again. Press freedom has been severely restricted. Existing independent newspapers are forced to exercise self-censorship in order to survive. In the absence of genuine press freedom other freedoms are curtailed.
FP: Tell us a bit about the widespread corruption involving cabinet ministers and other government officials. Also, what exactly was the Willowgate Scandal?
Nyarota: Allegations of corruption involving Zimbabwe’s new ruling elite were first voiced in the mid-80s, less than five years after our independence. The accusations were initially spurred by the spectacle of politicians who had recently returned to Zimbabwe from the war effort in neighboring Mozambique and Zambia with nothing in their pocket, suddenly embarking on a campaign of wholesale acquisition and self enrichment. They acquired farms and started or took over businesses. They started to display signs of conspicuous wealth. When the public, university students, especially, protested against what was then incipient corruption, Mugabe defended his lieutenants. What irked students mostly was the blatant hypocrisy of politicians who preached abut socialism and self-denial during the day while amassing wealth, in many cases corruptly, under cover of darkness.
Mugabe challenged the public to produce evidence of corruption instead of making what he said were spurious allegations of graft. The Willowgate Scandal was the response of a Bulawayo-based daily, The Chronicle to the President’s challenge. Relying on informants within the Willovale Motor Assembly plant in Harare the paper exposed, over a period of weeks, details automobiles corruptly obtained directly from the company by cabinet ministers. They resold the cars and made up to 300 percent profit. One minister confessed to either buying or helping other people to obtain a total of 36 cars and trucks. One car was bought in the morning for $29 000 and sold in the afternoon for $115 000. Such was the serious shortage of automobiles that those with money were prepared to pay anything to secure a car.
Because of the Chronicle’s exposure of the scandal Mugabe was forced to appoint a commission of inquiry. Six cabinet ministers were forced to resign. One immediately committed suicide.
FP: This might be a repetitive question, since it is connected to our previous theme on the Left's silence, but why do you think we hear so little about Mugabe’s ruthless tyranny in the Western media?
Nyarota: I suppose Mugabe’s tyranny in Zimbabwe is overshadowed in the Western media, especially in the United States, by accounts of tyranny elsewhere in the world. When filed, stories about the ongoing plight of the people of Zimbabwe compete for space with stories about the chaos in Iraq and articles about the nuclear threat posed by Iran and North Korea, as well as coverage of the ongoing onslaught by the United States against world terrorism. The crisis in Zimbabwe tends to pale into total insignificance, in comparison. So Mugabe benefits by default.
Coverage of Zimbabwe in the Western media is also hampered by the dismissal by the Mugabe regime of most western correspondents from the country. They are forced to cover Zimbabwe from Johannesburg in South Africa – certainly not the most ideal situation for comprehensive coverage of an otherwise complex story.
FP: Let’s get back to your personal journey. What motivated you to fight for freedom in your homeland?
Nyarota: Thousands of lives were sacrificed during the original fight against colonialism and discriminatory white minority rule. It is a betrayal of the aspirations of the liberation struggle that the new government of an independent Republic Zimbabwe should desecrate the very democratic values and ideals for which the black majority campaigned over a protracted period of time. It is that betrayal of the people’s aspirations and expectations by their popularly elected government that has motivated them to engage in the second struggle for freedom. As a newspaper editor I found myself in the forefront of that new struggle.
FP: Why do you think democracy and modernity have such difficulty penetrating Africa?
Nyarato: I do not believe that democracy and modernity encounter any particular difficulty penetrating Africa. You will find some of the fanciest automobiles on the streets of Johannesburg, Harare and Maputo. Johannesburg is on par with any western metropolis in terms of development and the usual trappings of Western capitalism. The wealthy of southern Africa drive fancy BMWs, Mercedes, Porches, Bentleys and the odd Ferrari or Lambhorgini, especially in South Africa. Some of them live in mansions unimaginable here in the States. One Harare tycoon of no discernable source of wealth built a 34-bedroomed for the comfort of his family. It has parking for 20 luxury cars as well as a helipad on the room. Back in the village his relatives starve.
A new wave of democracy penetrated most of Africa with the demise of colonial oppression in the early days of independence in the 1960s and 70s. Then the dictators emerged – Idi Amin of Uganda, Hastings Kamuzu Banda in Malawi, Mobutu Sese Seko, backed by the CIA in Zaire, self-annointed Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Republic, Mohammed Saidi Barre in Somalia, Sani Abacha of Nigeria – the list is endless. Now, like a political dinosaur, there is Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
In simple terms, democracy is incompatible with dictatorship and corruption. A free press undermines the security of any tyrant. Once a dictator goes or is removed from office suppressed democracy immediately emerges.
FP: I apologize, when I asked the question, I took it as a given that I did not include South Africa. I meant black Africa that has a history of black dictators.
So what were the circumstances that forced you to flee your homeland at the end of 2004 and to go into permanent exile?
Nyarota: When the Daily News was launched in 1999 it became extremely popular at a time when the fortunes of Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and government were on the decline. As the editor of a popular independent newspaper, the government came to regard me as one of those organizing resistance to government’s increasingly authoritarian rule. I was publicly denounced as an enemy of the state. I was arrested on a total of six occasions. I was threatened with death twice, while my name appeared on a death list. Then our newspaper was infiltrated at management and board level and I was forced to leave the paper in frustration at the beginning of 2003 after a period of in-fighting between me and the newly appointed chief executive of the company.
Without the customary protection of my newspaper I became exposed and vulnerable. When the police came for me again soon after my departure from The Daily News I was left with no option but to flee.
The government banned The Daily News and three other privately owned newspapers in September 2003. They remain defunct to date. In the absence of a strong independent press the fortunes of the opposition movement have declined. The ruling Zanu-PF party is on the ascendancy again.
FP: What can the West do to promote freedom in Zimbabwe?
Nyarota: The least that the West can do to aid and abet the forces of democracy in Zimbabwe is to offer them moral and financial support. A serious lack of financial resources is one of the more handicaps encountered by opposition political organizations. It is as costly to campaign for and participate in general elections as it is to fight the many legal battles that are a hallmark of opposition politics.
Prospective supporters on the home front, the many wealthy entrepreneurs that I referred to earlier, are terrified by the prospect of the ruling party associating them with the opposition. Many of them refrain from advertising in the independent press for the same reason. Zanu-PF has a vast array of resources, many of them at the expense of government. Its well-oiled election campaign machinery is heavily subsidized by government through facilities such as transport, cash and a massive media empire.
And, talking of the media, in the absence of a vibrant independent press the opposition is emasculated. The role played by The Daily News is a case in point. The West can promote democracy and freedom in Zimbabwe by creating strategies to strengthen the independent press. There is little meaningful democracy in the absence of a strong opposition press.
Essentially, Zimbabweans themselves should be in the forefront of fighting for their own freedom.
FP: What are your own future plans?
Nyarota: I am finalizing preparations for the launch of a quality online newspaper. The Zimbabwe Times is due for launch this month. We are planning to create a reliable and credible source of news and information about Zimbabwe for the benefit of Zimbabweans in and out of the country and of non-Zimbabweans around the world with an interest in developments in a country with potential for vast economic growth and development. My personal belief is that the madness that currently embraces and destroys our nation cannot be the final destiny of that beautiful and potentially prosperous nation.
Of course, my undying ambition is to put another real newspaper on the streets of Harare in the not-too-distant future.
By the time I finished writing the manuscript for Against the Grain after three years, I realized I had been bitten inexorably by the writing bug. I am already organizing my thoughts for a sequel to this first book. There is an abundance of themes that one could explore while writing about Zimbabwe.
FP: Geoffrey Nyarota, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview today. You are a true noble and courageous warrior for freedom. It was an honor to speak with you.
Nyarota: Thank you, Jamie, for your time and for your interest in beautiful Zimbabwe.
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