Zim won’t take insults lying down

By Mabasa Sasa (17/12/07)

GERMANY has always occupied an uneasy place in global geopolitics.

In fact to become a power of note, it took the subtle political cunning of Otto von Bismarck, combined with his ruthless use of the military and this only happened in the second half of the 19th Century.

Prior to that, the Germanic lands were just another hotchpotch collection of ill-organised white tribes with vague recollections of the grandeur of Charlemagne’s glory days.

Europe was not ready for the Germany that Bismarck envisioned and this was amply displayed by the manner in which France’s military was caught completely flat-footed by the German armies in the war of 1870-71.

Germany grabbed the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from France and Europe could only stand and watch in awe-struck wonder at this new breed of military machine.

It was perhaps the vivid memory of how France was brutalised that drew the rest of Europe, except for Switzerland, to Berlin in November of 1884 at Bismarck's own invitation.

Germany could have been labelled presumptuous for calling for a conference to delimit the virgin territories of Africa. After all, Britain, Spain, Portugal and to an extent the Netherlands had been playing coloniser for immemorial aeons and Germany was just an upstart that had only become a nation-state in 1871.

Still, the manner in which the French had been butchered was reason enough for the traditional powers to ‘humour’ Bismarck and at the end of the day they were probably glad they did so as they went on to parcel out Africa as if they had a divine right to our land and resources.

However, Germany’s overzealous foreign policy was to be its undoing — as would be the case again and again in future decades — as it quickly found itself embroiled in a war (which the West would like to call a World War because of its belief that their borders define the world).

That war ended in disaster for Germany, as would be the case with Hitler’s wars starting in 1938. Now it seems Germany wants to enmesh itself in a war it certainly cannot win: this time with Zimbabwe.

In 1914, the Kaiser and Bismarck probably thought that their superior military and industrial strength would safely see their country through a war against the rest of Europe.

Hitler probably thought the same thing when he took Czechoslovakia and Neville Chamberlain — as mediocre a leader as Britain appears to have now — deluded himself into thinking Germany was a benign power that would soon be satisfied and stop talking the language of war.

Angela Merkel, this daughter of the white tribes that Charlemagne futilely tried to unite centuries ago, this scion of Bismarck-ian greed and Hitlerite aggression, probably thinks she too can win the battle she has picked with Harare.

Germany was not wanted as a European power; hence the bloody battles, it was not wanted as an imperial power; hence it being stripped of its colonies after the 1914-18 war, and it is not wanted now as a born-again preacher of human rights barely fifty years the holocaust.

At the recent EU-Africa Summit, which in itself represents one of the greatest triumphs of our revolution as Zimbabweans and Africans, Chancellor Merkel donned the robes of the concerned human rights crusader desperately worried about Africa’s image and role in the world.

"The current state of Zimbabwe," opined Chancellor Merkel, "damages the image of the new Africa. Because this is so, we must take the chance here, in this framework, to put all our efforts together into strengthening democracy."

We all know that Merkel was speaking on behalf of a fellow called Gordon Brown whose bluff Africa and Europe called thereby isolating him at one stroke.

But why would Germany, an economic power once again after the misadventures of 1914-18 and 1939-45, suddenly start acting as if it is at the beck and call of a UK Prime Minister who has not been elected into office and who is right now afraid of calling for an election?

Is Germany still suffering from that most debilitating of European political diseases: Nazi-guilt?

It is not disputable that for decades after the US, the UK, Russia and France partitioned Germany for themselves following the demise of Hitler, German politics have been stunted and extremely unassuming as if afraid that the world will say, "Those Nazis have started again!"

Germany’s foreign policy has been quite unassuming since 1945 and has resorted to the deployment of "development" NGOs and other such Trojan horses in lieu of the deployment of armies.

Nazi-guilt has, therefore, given the world such institutions as the Heinrich Boll Foundation (associated with the Green Party), the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (associated with the Christian Democratic Union), the CSU’s Hanns Seidel Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation which was created by the Free Democratic Party.

The chief among them though, for Zimbabweans that is, must be the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which has had a rather cosy relationship with our own NCA, ZCTU, Media Institute of Southern Africa and Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe.

The Foundation was named after Friedrich Ebert who was the Social Democratic President of Germany after the 1914-18 war.

Ebert’s Social Democrats supported the imperial wars and even tried to justify this position using some garbled proto-Marxist garbage implying that they had graduated from class struggles to struggles of the people.

In many ways, Ebert and company paved the way for Hitler’s rise and the latter in fact used a lot of their rhetoric when he justified his unbridled aggression.

The same Friedrich Ebert Foundation that preaches liberalism through Misa, the ZCTU, the NCA and MMPZ has its roots in imperial wars and Nazism.

In the current German government, the Social Democrats that created this Foundation are a junior partner in the "grand coalition" under the leadership of Chancellor Merkel.

It is such institutions as these that have been the public face of German foreign policy after it was realised that Hitler did not do much for Germany’s international image.

In fact, there has been a deliberate and well co-ordinated campaign since 1945 to revamp Germany’s image from that of a warmonger to one of a social democracy that is deeply concerned with matters related to human rights, democracy, governance and the rule of law.

Throughout the Cold War years, Germany had no colonies with which to extend leverage in Africa and, if truth be told, Germany was itself a colony of its four conquerors.

Perhaps it is from this background of servitude, a servitude that saw the Marshall plan and related initiatives reconstructing Germany’s industry and economy, that makes Merkel the woman she is today: beholden to a Britain that is losing its imperial status with little grace.

Merkel is the first national political leader that country will have from the former East Germany and her Christian Democrat roots solidly point to an unabashed admiration of America.

She is an emerging neo-right political movement in Europe that looks for greater direction from the Anglo-America axis of evil and she can only come to grief if she brings such political baggage to an increasingly assertive Africa.

Germany’s politics, even from the time of Bismarck have been decidedly ugly, and there it is no great wonder today that neo-Nazis thrive and Merkel lectures Zimbabwe and Africa from a podium that cannot stand the weight of her horrible political heritage.

Britain has failed dismally in its fight with Harare and is now pushing Merkel to the forefront to also get her nose bloodied in a way she will probably never forget.

Maybe somewhere deep down in her heart Merkel wishes that Germany also had ex-colonies of its own with which to bicker with and she thus feels an un-stated envy and anger at Britain for stripping her country of its colonies after the 1914-18 war.

She will do well to remember that Zimbabwe is not just any other country that takes insults lying down. Harare does not brook unsolicited and unjustified meddling — a lesson that the colonisers started learning in 1893 and are still learning today… the hard way.

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