BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
gressive forces. Those individuals and institutions chastised by the West
as rebels and enemies of progress are celebrated in the pan-Africanist
camp as heroes and progressive forces.
This radical reversal of the Western narrative is not unfounded. History
and socio-economic realities on the ground in Southern Africa especially
dictates the radical tone in the pan-Africanist camp. At the dawn of po-
litical independence, white people did not embrace reconciliations that
were extended by the black leaders. In Zimbabwe, whites even told black
farm and domestic workers that ‘Zimbabwe was outside their premises;
inside was Rhodesia’.^21 They devised subtle ways to sustain and pursue
colonial separate development.^22 To date in Zimbabwe, as well as in
South Africa, black people are still called Kaffir, Negros, baboons, and
monkeys among other derogatory terms.^23 One British diplomat to Zim-
babwe from 2006-9 confirmed this attitude in white farmers in his
memoirs. He said:
“Most Zimbabwean Farmers l have met have attitudes that would simply
not be tolerable in modern Western society....As they got used to my pres-
ence, they started to joke about farm dogs chasing black labourers. In no
time they were happily talking about niggers and kaffirs. With a change in
accent, they would have fitted right into 1950s Mississippi...”^24
This observation is just a confirmation of what Zimbabweans have al-
ways known. Black people have gone out of their way in trying to reach
out a hand of friendship in reconciliation but white people have not
accepted it. As long as their privileged positions are maintained, every-
thing else does not matter. They do not even want to hear the genuine
cries of the black people for economic justice especially land redistribu-
tion.^25 This is the narrative that Western governments and media would
always want to suppress. For Mahoso, Westerners to sustain the privi-
leged position of their kith and kin in Africa created a propaganda myth:
(^21) Frans J. Vestraelen, Zimbabwean Realities and Christian Responses: Contemporary As-
pects of Christianity in Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press, 1998, 114; Cf. The Herald, 5
Feb. 1998.
(^22) Cf. James Kilgore, See review of his novel, We are All Zimbabweans Now. South Africa:
Umuzi, 2009, published by Newzimbabwe.com News. 28 February 2010. http://
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/opinion-1921-We+are+all+Zimbabweans+now/opinion.aspx.
(^23) Joram Nyati, ‘Why I want to be a white man’, NewZimbabwe.Com. 18 June 2009.
(^24) Phillip Barclay, Zimbabwe: Years of Hope and Despair. Britain: Bloomsbury Publ.. 2010.
Cf. Clement Moyo, ‘UK Diplomat Blasts White Farmers’. Zimeye. org. 05 June 2011.
(^25) Henning Mankell; Cf. Staff Reporter, ‘Writer blames white farmers for Zimbabwe
Crisis’. NewZimbabwe.Com. 29 May 2011.