Democracy and legitimacy in Africa PaanLuel Wël 11 years ago The time has come for Africa to stand up together and fight with one voice the attempts by the metropolitan powers to dictate who is a legitimate leader in Africa and who is not. The history of such dictation shows the pursuit of Western self-interest at the cost of African nationalist interests, writes Dr Motsoko Pheko. Zimbabwe is once again a wake-up call to all Africans who value their national sovereignty and control of their mineral wealth and other natural resources. The sustained attack on Zimbabwe is an economic war by Western countries on Africa. These countries have a long history of a “planned regime”. If this fails, they resort to “regime change”. To Britain and America, and all their satellites, “democracy” and “legitimacy” is when their interests prevail over those of the African people. It is reported that the American, British, Canadian and Australian governments do not believe that the recent election results in Zimbabwe represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe. It is, therefore, important to point out that for all the long years when African states and the United Nations demanded economic sanctions against Ian Smith’s rebel colonial regime in Rhodesia and against apartheid South Africa, the European powers (led by the USA) opposed these sanctions. Britain’s Margaret Thatcher argued that sanctions would hurt “ordinary Rhodesians and black South Africans”. Share this:Print Is Democracy on Trial? Speech by RAILA ODINGA on Politics, Elections and Coalition Building in AfricaDateSeptember 30, 2013In relation toAfricaCasualties of Western “Neo-Imperialism” and African WeaknessDateNovember 24, 2016In relation toAfricaThe Zimbabwean situation teaches South Sudan hard but honest lessonsDateNovember 22, 2017In relation toCommentary