No Times de hoje #128

Today the New York Times brings an article on the recent book by Peter Godwin describing the atrocities lived in Zimbabwe over the past thirty years. Unsurprisingly, last week Mugabe announced he intends to run for president later this year and sure enough he will win once more. Mugabe's regime endures based on fear alone but there are some very brave people in Zimbabwe determined to cause some disruption in the daily life of the oppressive regime. The book is an ode to all those who stand against the status quo, even when paying the highest price for their actions. The book is called The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe.
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One of the most haunting stories in this volume is that of Chenjerai Mangezo, who was nearly beaten to death after winning as a movement candidate for a rural district council. Though his body was completely immobilized in plaster, Mr. Godwin says, Mr. Mangezo insisted on attending the swearing-in ceremony, and he was driven there lying on foam mattresses heaped in the back of a pickup truck. He has continued to attend council meetings, sitting alongside some of the very Mugabe supporters who oversaw his beating.

What, besides courage, has enabled Mr. Mangezo to sit there with his persecutors? “Is it fatalism, a quality that Westerners see in Africans?” Mr. Godwin asks. “Westerners often mistake African endurance, and the lack of self-pity, for fatalism. No, I think the other quality in Chenjerai Mangezo is patience, a dogged tenacity. He hasn’t given up on getting justice. But he will wait for it.”