A monster hiding

As the world is watching history unfold in Zimbabwe, I am reading a book on the life of it’s leader Robert Mugabe. It’s not the usual stuff, where an writer gathers what (s)he thinks are pieces of the puzzle and is trying to complete the picture. The book "Dinner with Mugabe" written by South African journalist Heidi Holland is different in that it’s aim is to offer an insiders view in the thought life of an African leader who turned out to become a dictator.

Holland spoke with many different people who in one way or another, at some point in time, got to know, work and/or live alongside Robert Mugabe. And she had an interview with the man himself. Then listening to the tapes, with the help of psychologists she tried to analyze Mugabe’s personality and character. The result is a book that not just offers interesting reading, but also helps to ‘understand’ dictators as human beings.

It’s not an attempt to justify what is wrong, but it’s an effort to look beyond the man who’s been portrayed as a monster. Robert Mugabe is not the devil. He’s a man of flesh and blood. A very lonely, disappointed, emotionally immature and power hungry man who’s trying to keep things together in an extremely self-centered way. If circumstances would have been different and if he had made other choices, Zimbabwe would not be where it is today.

Reading the book makes me think of my experiences in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last month. Meeting people who were involved in rebel activities, in killing and plundering, gave me a new insight in human nature. More than ever I'm aware of the fact that had my circumstances been different and had I made other choices then I did, I could have ended up being one of them. Because I know that somewhere deep down inside of me there's also a murderer, a dictator hiding. And it's only by the grace of God that that hasn't surfaced in such a way that we encounter with the "monsters" of our era.

Although.... I sometimes am angry. And I do judge. And wasn't it Jesus who warned us, comparing these attitudes with killing someone?