African Update

Robert Mugabe was photographed on Monday at a press conference announcing the start of conciliatory negotiations—which were apparently brokered by South African president Thabo Mbeki—holding the hand of his archrival and political opponent Morgan Tsvangirai and speaking about seeking a “new way of political interaction” for Zimbabwe.

Perhaps Mugabe was just posing for the camera in the hopes that the glaring international spotlight would soon subside and he could go then get back to being a ruthless dictator.  Perhaps he was throwing his friend Mbeki a bone for helping to block UN sanctions against him.  Perhaps he sees an opportunity to emasculate Morgan Tsvangirai by drawing him in to his circle and, by consequence, reducing Tsvangirai’s appeal to those many Zimbabweans who so vigorously oppose Mugabe and all of the ill that he has done for their nation.  Perhaps Mugabe is just looking for any way possible to cling to power (taking a lesson from Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki) and he sees a power-sharing deal as his surest way forward. 

Or perhaps Mugabe truly does care about the fact that Zimbabwe has become the purest definition of a failed state; that his citizen’s money no longer buys them anything; that many of his citizens don’t have enough food to eat; that over eighty percent of his citizens are unemployed; that democracy and rule of law have dried up in Zimbabwe.  Maybe Mugabe knows that he has failed his country and truly needs the help.