October 2006. Harare, Zimbabwe.
The Jacarandas were in full bloom. Deep purple hues dotted the blazing African sun as I was on my way to the Heroes Acre, Zimbabwe’s national monument for its war heroes. My driver, a stout man in his mid-forties, looked at me through the rearview mirror and started a conversation abruptly. “You know Sir, all this talk of democracy and freedom, it’s a smokescreen. Earlier we were ruled by the whites. Now we are a Chinese colony”.
The Heroes Acre on the outskirts of Harare, where the country’s freedom fighters are buried, stands as an awkward metaphor. Pointing out to the statues, he cringed. “You see these statues? Our leaders wanted to build a memorial for the freedom fighters. They contracted it out to the Koreans. Look at them now, our heroes look Chinese”.
Image: 7MBOver the years, I kept in touch with him. Last week, hearing of the coup, I called him to find out about the situation on the ground. “Ah, Mr Rao! We are having a bit of a situation today, stage-managed from Beijing…even a military coup cannot be managed without the blessings of the Chinese overlords, you see,” he laughed.
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