WHAT DO ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE TELL US ABOUT?

PHOTO: www.unn.com.ua

Iliya Kusa, expert in international politics and the Middle East issue

The small African state of Zimbabwe, lying between the picturesque shores of Limpopo and Zambezi, not far from the majestic Victoria falls, awe–inspiring for everyone who stand near it, is little known outside the African continent, except for journalists and academics who are engaged in questions connected with Africa, and the old generation of Europeans, some of whom can remember this country by its old name, more familiar to their ear – southern Rhodesia. If you’ve ever had a fancy for Henry Ryder Haggard’s adventure novels about brave, determined, and elusive soldier of fortune Allan Quatermain, then you know exactly what Zimbabwe is like. The beauty of the African prairies, combined with multi-colored fields of wild flowers and plants, the diversity of fauna, which seems to be untouched, almost not spoiled by passage of time and urbanization. Waterfalls, small plateaus and grassy hills evoke a sense of real wild freedom of the primeval world.

Zimbabwe perfectly illustrates the tragedy of many African nations: the incredible, even generally fantastic, abundance of nature against the background of a miserable, poor and needy population.