Peter Godwin: Zimbabwe Already Had its Arab Spring – It Happened in 2000

by Claire on Feb 9th, 2012

Peter Godwin, author of The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe, spoke to the Georgia Political Review about the future of democracy in Zimbabwe. Godwin says that international pressure is integral to solving the Zimbabwean crisis, with South Africa being a major player. He expressed his fear that Zimbabwe might descend into “the worst kind of chaos” if Mugabe dies without a successor.

However, Godwin is also very optimistic about Zimbabwe and the ability of Zimbabweans to endure through Mugabe’s oppression. Asked why there were no large uprisings or revolutions in Zimbabwe, Godwin replied that there already has been an uprising – through the ballot box. He says in each election, the voters have proved their resistance to ZANU-PF. Says Godwin, “Zimbabwe already had its Arab Spring, it happened in 2000″ (when there was a referendum rejecting Mugabe’s constitutional reforms).

Born in Zimbabwe in 1957, Peter Godwin is a lawyer, journalist, author, and activist dedicated to the cause of Zimbabwe. In his latest book, The Fear, he describes his purpose as “bearing witness” to the violence and intimidation that occurred between the Zimbabwean presidential election in March 2008 and the run-off that was scheduled for June later that year. When the MDC took an overwhelming majority of the votes in March, Mugabe and ZANU-PF responded with massive fraud, violence, and intimidation, known as “the fear.”I recently had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Godwin when he came to the University of Georgia Dean Rusk Center School of Law to speak about his book and perspective on Zimbabwe as a native,journalist,lawyer and author. In The Fear he records his journey to his former home and to the graves of his father and sister but devotes most of the book to documenting the violence and damages sustained by the many Zimbabweans who supported the MDC.People were severely beaten in schools, which were used as “torture camps” by Mugabe’s people, Godwin said. He described the violence saying people were beaten, but “generally not to death,” and attacked on a “catch and release basis” to serve as “human billboards” advertising the consequences of supporting the opposition.