The year just ended was eventful on the continental front. It began with the Arab Spring uprisings that saw the demise of entrenched dictatorship in North Africa. The fall mid-January of long-time Tunisian strongman Ben Ali after 23 years in power triggered a wave of protests throughout the Islamic Maghreb whose climax was the capture and execution of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi in October.
In its wake the Arab Spring also saw the fall of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak who had ruled for 30 years. The uprisings spread across the Mediterranean into the Middle East where they are still raging.
It is still a mystery why the uprisings didn’t spread southwards into sub-Saharan Africa although there were some harmless skirmishes in Swaziland. The main lesson to learn is how dictators become increasingly detached from the lives of the people they purport to lead. It took the self-emollition of 26-year-old Tunisian vegetable vendor Mohamed Bouazizi to jolt the whole Arab world into consciousness.
But surprisingly dictatorships in sub-Saharan Africa haven’t taken heed and seem to be further entrenching themselves in power instead of reforming. The sham elections held recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo have already been endorsed by other dictators in the region even when they clearly destabilise that country. The trend of holding sham elections seems the norm in the region but these will continue to blight the whole subcontinent which otherwise has the potential to be a beacon for the whole continent.
The Arab uprisings have not brought the expected stability to North Africa; in fact the opposite has happened. What Zimbabweans should read from this is the importance of truly free and fair elections as the only way to change undesired regimes. This means the parties to the GPA should play their party in ensuring the crafting of an election roadmap that guarantees this.
