Reply #13: Will the Arab uprising spread to sub-saharan Africa? [View All]

[tabatha]

The power of dictatorships comes from the willing obedience of the people they govern, if the people can develop techniques of withholding their consent, a regime will crumble,” Dr Gene Sharp, the author of From Dictatorship to Democracy, once said. These words will forever be immortalised by the spectacular downfall of not only Hosni Mubarak, but also the fall of long-serving Libyan strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi. While Gaddafi’s admirers have blamed Gaddafi’s fall on Nato neo-colonialism,

it has inspired downtrodden people across Africa.

In Zimbabwe, watching the triumphant rebels overrun Gaddafi’s compound in the capital was a huge moral boost for the citizens of that nation who have been in a protracted struggle against the suppressive ZANU-PF regime. “This is a victory for Zimbabweans. This is a message to other surviving dictators that they cannot hold down people forever,” Knowledge Magwenzi, a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, told The Zimbabwe Mail.

“There is hope for oppressed people in Africa who have resigned themselves to believing the dictator was immortal,”Magwenzi said. But few Zimbabweans had the courage to celebrate publicly, preferring to exchange messages via social networks and other discreet platforms.

Many still recall how, early this year, Munyaradzi Gwisai, a political activist and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe’s law school, and other political activists, were arrested and charged with treason for arranging a meeting to celebrate the ousting of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/-/688340/1233218/-/11hyj21/-/index.html