This past week marked the passing of an old, bitter racist. His name was Ian Smith and, for 15 years, he led the nation of Rhodesia. Most of our generation probably has never heard of such a place, and with good reason: It became Zimbabwe in 1980, long before most of us were born. Smith ruled a nation that history has, for the most part, forgotten. His rule, too, has been relegated to a mere footnote in history. For a dying man, this is not a fate that most-especially a once powerful man-wish to have. Despite this fate, however, I can only assume that Smith died a happy man, for his greatest philosophy was proven, in his view, correct.
At the beginning of Smith’s rule in 1965, Rhodesia was a small, out-of-the-way colony of the dying British Empire. It was-like its more famous neighbor to the south, South Africa-ruled by a racist white minority who oppressed a vast majority of black Africans. The core belief of the white rule, a belief to which Smith whole-heartedly subscribed, was that the black masses were incapable of ruling themselves, and, if left to their own devices, would destroy the economy and resort to oppressive and dictatorial governmental practices. Under these auspices, Smith and his cronies ruled the rogue state, until they were forced to bow to international and domestic pressures and relinquish their rule to the majority.
As he lay dying, Smith’s beliefs-at least in his eyes and those who agree with him-were vindicated. Robert Mugabe, the man who replaced him at first, proved Smith wrong. As time progressed, however, Mugabe ran the once-strong economy into the ground and, when faced with political opposition, quickly turned to oppressive dictatorial tactics that have left Zimbabwe devastated as one of the poorest nations in the world. For Smith, this was the ultimate vindication: Mugabe’s abuse and misrule have proven Smith’s beliefs correct.
It is truly the sign of a world run amuck when an ardent racist can claim to be in the right. wWe, as a first-world nation, must act to ensure that Smith and his cronies can no longer claim vindication, but, instead, see the vast error of their ways.
Africa is littered with dictators who drive their nations into the ground, all in the name of retaining their personal power. If the United States truly wants to make the world safe for democracy, as it has so often claimed, then we must look to Africa. The key to this victory over the racist vindication is in education and governmental mentoring. The United States must use its might-not militarily, but peacefully-to establish schools and hospitals and to help mentor governments into becoming what they can be: responsible and just governments.
Many of the problems in Africa have stemmed from nations starting off on the wrong foot. Many were given independence, as the government trusted to the less-than trustworthy and were then ignored by the western powers. Countries were set up to fail. Since then, those nations have had mixed results. Some have come to have a measure of success, while others still wallow in squalor. We must correct the errors of the past and give nations what they need to become success stories for the world, rather than vindication for old racists.
We must help Africa, first and foremost, so that a just society-one as educated moral citizens we must pursure-is established. And second, so that old racists can see that they were indeed wrong and will die with that in mind, instead of vindication.
Patrick McShane is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
