Albert and Comfort Ocran define legacy in page 174 of their popular book ‘101 KEYS TO ACHIEVEMENT & FULFILLMENT’ as “something handed down from one to another or a situation that exist today because of events or actions in the past”.
They went on to ask on page 175 that “What legacy are you leaving both present and future generations?” it is important to know that true success is not just about the achievement of one’s personal, career and financial objectives. It also involves touching others with your life and actions. (Albert & Comfort Ocran, 2008).
Some few days ago, I was speaking at the youth meeting of my church. Taking inspiration from Pastor Mensah Otabil’s sermon titled “Go borrow vessels”, I headlined my speech “You can be successful”. Using the same Bible quotation as Pastor Otabil, I centered my speech on 2 kings 4:3a (KJV) which states “then he said, Go, Borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors”. I then charged the youth to borrow vessels from big men who have been able to make it in life.
I went further to say one of the ways of borrowing vessels is to have role models. On that note I added “I personally have several role models in several fields, in journalism, its Kwaku Baako Jnr, economically, it Steve Jobs, in religion, its Pastor Mensah Otabil and politically, its Robert Mugabe.” The mention of Robert Mugabe made the vice president of the youth yell and suddenly the whole place was in clamor. Upon reaching the house, I asked myself, why did the mention of Mugabe brought that uproar? Based on these I ask these mind boggling question, “Why not Mugabe?”
One thing that I know is that in this world of ours where our youth need people with “good: legacy to at and most of them are looking up to personalities like Princess Diana, Confucius, Christopher Columbus, Yaa Asantewah, Jesse Owens, Pope John Paul, Rockefeller, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Bob Marley, Florence Nightingale, Osei Tutu, Malcolm X etc, not only will the members of the youth of my church be astonished, but any other person that you tell that Robert Mugabe is your mentor will also be flabbergasted. This is the man who has been described with several abusing words from different headquarters. Nonetheless, this is the African of our time who has been able to consistently stand against the wiles of the west.
At the time that Africans need a Hitler to stand against the west, he says “I am the Hitler of the time, this Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for.”(Mugabe R. 2003)
At the time that America warns his citizens and the whole of Ghana starts shaking he says “The only white man you can trust is a dead white man.” He makes me feel proud as an African and gives me the hope that “The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans.” At the time that we are begging the whites to come take our lands for free and just compensate us with just some few royalties, he stands and says “We are no longer going to ask for the land, but we are going to take it without negotiating.”
Mugabe is my role model because I want to be that African who will one day stand and ask “Was it not enough punishment and suffering in history that we were uprooted and made helpless slaves not only in new colonial outposts but also domestically?” “Countries such as the U.S. and Britain have taken it upon themselves to decide for us in the developing world, even to interfere in our domestic affairs and to bring about what they call regime change” but I believe “If the choice were made, one for us to lose our sovereignty and become a member of the Commonwealth or remain with our sovereignty and lose the membership of the Commonwealth, I would say let the Commonwealth go.” Finito!
I want to be that boy who will one day stand and say “We don’t mind having sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.”
On the issue of gayism, “if you take men and lock them in a house for five years and tell them to come up with two children and they fail to do that, then we will chop off their heads. This thing (homosexuality) seeks to destroy our lineage by saying John and John should wed, Maria and Maria should wed…Obama says if you want aid, you should accept the homosexuality practice… we will never do that” (Mugabe R. 2013). That is his stand against the devilish act that made fire fall from heaven in the Bible days (Genesis 19).
I do not condone the negative act of the man but what I know is “never is a man, extolled as a saint, really without blemish; or another though seen as a devil, really without humanity”(Evelina). He might have than worse things in life but I must emphasize that I take inspiration from the man’s stand against the west.
