In 1979, Bob Marley sang the lyric "So soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionary, and I don't want my people to be tricked by mercenaries." These words appeared in the song "Zimbabwe" from the album Survival, released in 1979, and was performed at the first Zimbabwean Independence Day concert in April, 1980. This was, truly, a day for celebration, even if the performance was delayed by a day due to riots in Salisbury (later renamed Harare). But despite remaining social ructions, it was time for great joy. Zimbabwe had been wracked by civil war for almost a decade; liberation had finally arrived. Or had it?

Robert Mugabe was elected president of the coalition government that would rule Zimbabwe after it became officially independent. Unfortunately, the infamous Mugabe turned out to be both a mercenary and a trickster. Until the present day, the persistence of his deceit, his endless and limpet-like claim to power, as well as his apparent possession of the much-coveted elixir of life (the secret behind his ageless longevity) has mystified the world. Having turned the bread-basket of Africa into the dust-bowl it now is through his land-reclamation policies and acts of political violence on his ravaged populace, Mugabe is an anti-icon, whose name on the guest-roster to the Pit of Fire comes right after Idi Amin and Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (a.k.a. "The Impaler"). I didn't mention Hitler, I'll leave that to Mugabe: "Hitler has [had?] only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources… If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold" (quoted by The Mail & Guardian Online at the funeral of Dr Swithun Mombeshora in 2003).

This description of Mugabe is all the more sad in light of Marley's lyrics in the song "Zimbabwe." "Every man's got a right to decide his own destiny" Marley sang, believing that right had finally been recognized in this part of Mother Africa. This was such a hopeful time for the country, having officially received independence from British rule in 1965 with the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Marley was right to say "To divide and rule will only tear us apart," describing the colonial foreign policies in Africa (otherwise known as "divide and conquer"), but the political situation that followed the British declaration went from bad to worse, comparable only to its brethren political organization, the apartheid regime in South Africa. But both of these pale in comparison to Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, former-Rhodesia's apartheid equivalent had Ian Smith maintaining a similar agenda of exploitation and oppression between 1965 and 1979. "The mantle of the pioneers has fallen on our shoulders to sustain civilization in a primitive country," Ian Smith stated on the announcement of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence on the 11th of November, 1965. In order to really understand the extent of Smith's Republic of Rhodesia's choke-hold on this land, it should be kept in mind that by the time of independence, the one-percent white minority was in still in possession of 70 percent of the country's arable land. This control was maintained with an iron fist. Although there are few statistics of what Smith did to maintain his power, the pall of silence and secrecy incriminates by insinuation.

When such mass-exploitation of people and resources is taking place, land reform doesn't sound like such a bad idea, in theory. And if it had happened immediately after emancipation, perhaps it would have caused less of a fuss. But when Mugabe announced at the dawn of the New Millennium that white-owned farm-land was to be redistributed willy-nilly, without any compensation, on a first-come, first-serve basis, using any means necessary, it was clear that this was not a controlled political act. Predictably, total anarchy ensued to the point where the Zimbabwean currency was worthless due to hyperinflation and not worth the paper it was printed on; reclaimed farm-land fell into disuse, and Mugabe's people became the recipients of international food-aid programs as mass starvation ensued.

Does this sound like liberation? Of course, Marley's often-idealistic lyrics contained in them the seeds of doubt. His proposition, "so soon we find out who is the real revolutionary," was not idly stated, he knew the risks. We found out sure enough.

Douglas MacCutcheon
April 16, 2014

MacCutcheon is a music psychology researcher at a British university (yes, he experiments on people – if you can call musicians people, that is) and freelance music writer.

Comments: 2

• AnonymousTrue!! they killed him. Mercenaries
  
• Ras Cardo Reggae Creator From Trench Town. Mentor To Bob Marley from Trench TownThere is so much true history and context that I know you do not have to support why Bob and the Trench Town people wrote about his experience in Zimbabwe. I was his mentor and know why. If you care to know the real background context to most of his songs I may be willing to share some with you all. Really, there is no song that Bob Marley sang which I and I Ras Cardo and the Trench Town crew do not know the reality behind them. Respect!!

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