There was the former leader of the defunct Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev and German’s current leader, Angela Markel- the first Germany chancellor from the former East Germany, the known as the German Democratic Republic – making a symbolic crossing of the former fortified border to rousing cheers by Germans who braved a biting cold punctuated by a steady drizzle.
For an ordinary Tanzania from the old generation watching the live event from a television set somewhere in Dar es salaam’s sprawling suburbs, the event must have been startling moment to observe the rapidity of time tickling by: “suddenly” it is already 20 years since the Germans were united again! So soon, isn’t it?
Well for lucky people who are still around, watching the commemoration of that event making history; the collapse of the former communist states of Eastern Europe must have been an event viewed with mixed feelings; among which must have been feelings of nostalgia.It is precisely those feelings of nostalgia that has propelled me to mark the occasion with a different perspective, because there ate always two opposite sides of the coin. Whereas German people may be right to celebrate their “liberation” and reunification, and they have every right to celebrate this event, African people who were around before November 9, 1989 remember with a positive perspective the existence of the former communist states of Europe of those days, best known as the socialist Camp, which included the German Democratic Republic (GDR) or East Germany then.
Had Oliver Tambo who had sat in for Nelson Mandela as leader of the African National Congress of South Africa been alive today, what would he have said of the former GDR or the Soviet Union? Would he have condemned these two states as “oppressive”?In the same breath, had Samora Machel, the founding President of Mozambique’s Frelimo been alive today, what would he have say about the former German Democratic Republic? What would his successor, former President Joaquim Chissano have to say today about the former GDR and Soviet Union’s contribution to the liberation of his country?
What about Angola’s MPLA? Namibia’s SWAPO? The fact of the matter is that virtually all states in southern Africa today are free, thanks to the support of the former communist states of Eastern Europe and of course the Soviet Union; not to forge its ally in the western hemisphere, the socialist state of Cuba.
For an ordinary Tanzania from the old generation watching the live event from a television set somewhere in Dar es salaam’s sprawling suburbs, the event must have been startling moment to observe the rapidity of time tickling by: “suddenly” it is already 20 years since the Germans were united again! So soon, isn’t it?
Well for lucky people who are still around, watching the commemoration of that event making history; the collapse of the former communist states of Eastern Europe must have been an event viewed with mixed feelings; among which must have been feelings of nostalgia.It is precisely those feelings of nostalgia that has propelled me to mark the occasion with a different perspective, because there ate always two opposite sides of the coin. Whereas German people may be right to celebrate their “liberation” and reunification, and they have every right to celebrate this event, African people who were around before November 9, 1989 remember with a positive perspective the existence of the former communist states of Europe of those days, best known as the socialist Camp, which included the German Democratic Republic (GDR) or East Germany then.
Had Oliver Tambo who had sat in for Nelson Mandela as leader of the African National Congress of South Africa been alive today, what would he have said of the former GDR or the Soviet Union? Would he have condemned these two states as “oppressive”?In the same breath, had Samora Machel, the founding President of Mozambique’s Frelimo been alive today, what would he have say about the former German Democratic Republic? What would his successor, former President Joaquim Chissano have to say today about the former GDR and Soviet Union’s contribution to the liberation of his country?
What about Angola’s MPLA? Namibia’s SWAPO? The fact of the matter is that virtually all states in southern Africa today are free, thanks to the support of the former communist states of Eastern Europe and of course the Soviet Union; not to forge its ally in the western hemisphere, the socialist state of Cuba.
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