Zimbabwe 1984, Suggesting Walls and Banana as check and balance

Britain put a lot of effort into the turnover to black rule at the begining of the 1980s. The transitions 20 years before had been mostly bungled, but lessons were learned. The newly elected rebel force would be guided by a non political President named Canaan Banana and leaving Rhodesean General Peter Walls in charge of the newly integrated army. What could go wrong? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your smoking jacket, and sit back in your most comfortable chair, Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Two interesting things to note about the appearance of this stamp. First note that the black eagle on the stamp has nothing whatever to do with Zimbabwe. They are native to Asia and are the national bird of The Philippines. So Zimbabwe was doing that old post colonial tradition of having printed topical stamps for money that are meaningless in telling people about the new country. At least it was them doing it, in 2015 the Zimbabwe Postal Authority declared over 80 different souvinier sheets of topical stamps frauds. Don’t worry ladybug fans, the four stamp issue from 2018 was real. Also notice that four years after the transition, 17 cents would still mail a letter. Quite a bargain for all the future trillionaires of Zimbabwe. It takes a while for everything to fall apart.

Todays stamp is issue A86, a 17 cent stamp issued by Zimbabwe on October 10th, 1984. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations with the top value given the African hawk eagle. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 90 cents whether used or unused.

In late 1979 a deal was struck at Lancaster House in London that specified the structure of the post independence government. Rhodesian General Peter Walls would remain head of the Zimbabwe Army and be tasked with integrating the rebel forces into the Army and maintaining the professionalism of the force. Canaan Banana, a Methodist Reverend and leader of the old Rhodesean legal black party would be the new Presidential Head of State.

There was some reason for optimism. Rhodesia blacks had a much higher standard of living than others. Though the country had a foreign debt left from the Bush war, Britain, Nigeria and others promised aid over three times that amount over the next decade. At first, there was some progress. During the 1980s, life expectancy rose 5 years thanks in part to new health clinics. The average amount of schooling available to blacks rose and there was a slight uptick in their literacy.

I mentioned that the role of Walls and Banana was was to operate as a check on the excesses of Mugabe who remember had never ruled a country before. Walls tried to do his job. He reported personally to Margaret Thatcher that the election carried out in the last days of colony was unfair because of Mugabe intimidation gangs. When Britain had no response he made his report publicly on the BBC. Mugabe was already nervous about Walls asking him soon after independence, “Why are your people trying to kill me?” Walls responded that if his people were trying to kill you, you would be dead. Walls was fired from his position after the interview and forced into exile in South Africa. For the rest of his life he lead a quiet life but there were constant stories that this or that rival to Mugabe was scheming with Walls.

Reverend Canaan Banana also worked to balance out Mugabe. He was fully anti colonial though less radical and always working within the system in Rhodesia. He had wrote a book aiming to bring Christianity to the poor called “The Gospel according to the Ghetto”. He also rewrote the Lord’s Prayer. in his version it began “Our Father who art in the Ghetto, degraded be Thy Name”. I am not kidding. This may have been someone who could work with Mugabe. Indeed he tried. The two rebel armies against Rhodesia were now rival political parties. This sounds okay except there were a series of massacres between them known as the Gukuruhundi. Banana was able to get the two parties to merge which helped Mugabe by creating a united party still under him. That was not good enough for Mugabe and the constitution was changed making the Prime Minister the President. Banana continued to serve as a diplomat but was arrested in 1996 on charges of sodomy and sentenced to 10 years in jail. His homosexuality had came out when two of his bodyguards faced assault charges when one accused the other of being Banana’s gay wife as well as his bodyguard.

Well my drink is empty and we are talking of Zimbabwe so of course no toast. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.