THE Anglican Archbishop of York, Ugandan-born John Sentamu angrily cut up his clerical collar live on British television yesterday in protest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s continued stay in power.
His dramatic gesture came amidst controversy over Mugabe’s participation at a European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon. The summit was boycotted by British premier Gordon Brown over allegations of human rights abuses.
“As an Anglican, this is what I wear to identify myself,” Sentamu, a former judge in Uganda who fled to exile during Idi Amin’s regime, said as he pulled off his white collar during an interview on BBC Tv.
“You know what Mugabe has done. He has taken people’s identity and literally cut it into pieces,” he said as he cut up the collar.
“As far as I am concerned, from now on I am not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe has gone.”
Mugabe, in power since the former Rhodesia won independence in 1980, has presided over the collapse of his country’s once thriving agrarian economy. Inflation is now officially the highest in the world, having hit an annual rate in September of 7,982%, while unemployment is around 80%.
There are widespread shortages of basic foodstuffs in a country that used to be known as Africa’s breadbasket, and people are now dying from hunger.
Mugabe, 83, accuses foreign powers - in particular Britain - of undermining his country’s economy in an attempt to oust him. He claims his nationalisation of former white-owned farms is simply righting the wrongs of the past.
Sentamu, who has been a consistent critic of Mugabe, said the international community, especially South Africa, had to act to help Zimbabwe. Power, he said, had gone to Mugabe’s head, and the leader did not seem to “realise the suffering of his people.”
At the Lisbon conference, German chancellor Angela Merkel said Mugabe’s policies had “damaged Africa”.
Ahead of the Lisbon summit, former Portuguese colonies in Africa, including the oil-rich Angola, made it clear that they wanted Mugabe to attend.
Some African leaders see Mugabe as a historically important colleague and they object to the idea of former colonial powers, such as the UK, intervening in African politics. But that view has drawn the ire of Sentamu.
“It is African leaders who seem to say ‘we are backing a revolutionary’. I’m sorry, that is a lot of nonsense. They ought to realise what he has actually done. It has become a scourge on the conscience of the whole world.”
And he wondered: “Why aren’t we as a world community, uniting against Mugabe?”
