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Meles Zenawi and the death of the
African Renaissance
For
once, the rumours about Meles Zenawi's death were
true. SIMON ALLISON looks at the legacy of
the Ethiopian prime minister who fell far short of
his early promise.
Far from home, and
in great secrecy, Meles Zenawi died shortly before
midnight on Monday. Where, exactly, no one's sure.
Of what, we can only speculate. We do know it is
true - even Ethiopian state media is reporting the
prime minister's death as
fact. In this instance,
if no other, state media is probably the most
reliable source.
Zenawi has died many
times on the Internet over the past few months,
rumours fuelled by his strange and unexplained
absence from public life. He had not been seen in
public since the G20 summit in Mexico, where he
looked his usual self - calm, serious and
intelligent. Eventually, officials admitted he was
ill and seeking treatment abroad; yet another
African president who refused to put his own life
in the hands of the health system he built.
He was getting better, we were told. As
late as Sunday, Ethiopian Information Minister
Bereket Simon informed the country that Zenawi
would be back to work shortly. He'd just been
resting, apparently. "The PM's health is in a very
good condition…the PM will certainly return to
office and resume duty soon."
Instead,
Zenawi has left his post and gone off to that
great African Presidential Palace in the sky,
another name on the disturbingly long list of
African heads of state who have died in office
over the past few years. He is the fourth this
year alone, after Guinea-Bissau's Malam Bacai
Sanha, Malawi's Bingu wa Mutharika and Ghana's
John Atta Mills.
Once upon a time, the
hopes of a continent rested on Zenawi's shoulders.
He came to power in 1991, leading a rebel movement
which ousted dictator Haile Mengistu Mariam, and
immediately implemented democratic and political
reforms. By the mid-1990s, he had earned himself a
spot as one of Bill Clinton's infamous "new
generation" of African leaders, alongside other
promising figures such as Eritrea's Isaias
Afwerki, Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Uganda's Yoweri
Museveni. These were the men who would overturn
all those stereotypes about corrupt, venal and
selfish African presidents. These were the men who
would lead the African Renaissance.
It
wasn't much of a renaissance. Barely had the term
been coined before Ethiopia and Eritrea were at
each other's throats in a vicious border war,
never mind that Afwerki and Zenawi had supported
each other closely during their respective
liberation struggles and were even said to be
distantly related. Kagame too was fighting, having
fanned the flames in the DRC with such success
that a minor rebellion turned into an eight
country African war. Museveni, meanwhile, was
building on his impressive reputation for
corruption and entrenching himself as Prime
Minister for life.
On the domestic front,
Zenawi was little better. For a man who had
hitherto spent most of his life fighting Mengistu,
it was a surprise to see Zenawi employ similar
policies of intimidation, oppression and
censorship to maintain control. His administration
was consistently criticized for jailing
journalists and dissenting voices and for
marginalizing other ethnic groups, both
economically and politically. He oversaw the
installation of Africa's most sophisticated
electronic surveillance system, making it
dangerous to criticize the government in calls or
online, and deliberately sidelined Ethiopia's very
large Muslim minority (some say it is actually a
Muslim majority which the largely Christian
government is attempting to subvert).
Zenawi's main focus, however, was the
economy. During his 21 years as head of state, he
earned himself two university degrees in business
through distance learning and put the lessons
learned into practice. Betraying his Marxist
roots, the prime minister welcomed outside
investment and presided over consistent economic
growth; if maintained, Ethiopia could enter the
ranks of middle-income countries in a few years'
time. This is an astonishing about-turn from a
country that was - and often still is - synonymous
with African poverty and starvation, and Zenawi
deserves much of the credit.
While reports
indicate Zenawi's deputy and Foreign Minister
Hailemariam Desalegn will succeed the prime
minister in the short term, his death is certain
to prompt a reorganization of political power,
both within the ruling coalition and within the
country as a whole. Most interesting will be to
see how Ethiopia's Muslim community, which has
been protesting about government interference for
weeks, reacts to the news.
In the end -
and, for Zenawi, this really is the end - Zenawi
never fulfilled his early promise. He betrayed his
democratic pretensions with rigged elections and
old-school intimidation. He betrayed his people
with mindless wars and often brutal repression.
Even his oft-lauded economic achievements are
uncertain; the Economist recently reported on
suspicions that the statistics were fiddled to
present a picture of a thriving economy that
doesn't really exist.
And finally, he
betrayed a continent that for a while believed the
likes of Zenawi, Afwerki, Kagame and Meseveni
would be different, and better, than the old guard
of autocrats and dictators. The African
Renaissance, as represented by Clinton's "new
generation" of African leaders, died a long time
ago. Zenawi's death is just another nail in its
coffin. DM
This
article is run courtesy of Daily Maverick. To
visit their site, please click here.
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