Eddie Cross's Website

The Importance of Nationalism

When I was 8 years old, I stood at the fence of my Junior School in Bulawayo and watched as hundreds of workers marched past demanding change and political rights. They were led by a large man called Joshua Nkomo and the press called them 'Nationalists'. It was the beginning of the 30-year campaign to secure political and human rights for the majority of our people.

The campaign evolved into a civil war that ran from the early 60's to 1980 when we became the independent state of Zimbabwe. The two movements that led this process were ZANU and ZAPU and were referred to throughout this period as nationalist political parties.

Internationally the term 'nationalist' took on a different hue when it was used to describe the extreme, racist, tone in the German State under Adolf Hitler. Here he used the term 'National Socialism' to justify the Aryan philosophy that underpinned the German Socialist revolution and the attempt to take control of Europe. This policy was emulated in Italy and Japan and led to a holocaust conflict that was to kill a whole generation of many countries in Europe and the Far East.

Today, Trump takes over the Presidency of the United States and promises a holistic policy that will put the US 'first' in everything. If applied in the extreme then this will result in a protectionist US economy. This will damage world growth as international trade over the past 50 years has driven the world economy, lifted billions out of poverty and created a more equal world.

In the extreme it will encourage a very restrictive policy against migration, again a first as generally speaking human migration over the past 2000 years has led to massive changes in the world. Migrants tend to be more enterprising and innovative and are often well educated. Many developed countries are seeing a reduction in their domestic populations due to declining birth rates and will be short of young people to do the work and sustain an aging population.

So how do we view nationalism in today's world. From our recent world history, retreat into our shells as individual countries and any effort to dominate others because of a belief that 'we' are superior human beings in some way, are clearly destructive. They are also based on completely false hypothesis. But, in my view some form of nationalism is still needed for countries and regions to succeed in the global competition for growth and wealth.

From my personal perspective and experience having been born and raised in a tiny state called Rhodesia. I saw for myself what a nationalist spirit can do when it is properly managed and directed. In our case it's the story of a settler State. A tiny group of men, privately funded, took control of Rhodesia in 1893/6. They were never more than 3 per cent of the population rising to a peak in 1975 of about 290 000 individuals. They were all migrants - from South Africa, Britain and Europe with an even smaller population from Asia. They looked after themselves and for people like me, I got a world class education of a unique character. We had access to excellent health services and owned large comfortable houses in racially segregated suburbs.

We did extraordinary things - built the second largest industrial economy in the region, manufactured nearly everything we needed. We established the most advanced agricultural industry in Africa, based on our own research and crop breeding. We built thousands of kilometers of roads and railways, even manufactured railway engines. Our highly diversified economy built up our exports so that our currency was always stronger than the UK pound or the US dollar. At our airport in Harare we could maintain international jet aircraft, including engine repairs.

When the UN Security Council imposed mandatory international sanctions on us in 1966, we set about finding a way to circumvent them. When Mozambique closed their borders to us, we built alternative railway links to South Africa in record time. When the civil war broke out in 1962, we had an army of just 1500 soldiers, many of whom had fought alongside the UK forces in the Second World War (when we trained many of the pilots who fought in Europe) and in the Malayan campaign after the war. We had to mobilise and eventually the majority of the white population was involved in one capacity or another. We even manufactured our own vehicles and weapons.

At the core of all these achievements was one central spirit - nationalism. We believed in what we were doing and love for country above ourselves. We made sacrifices willingly, served where we were assigned. Ian Smith personified this spirit and this gave him massive political support among the whites and even many of the indigenous population. But it was not enough and, like Rhodesia, he died a lonely and poor leader after 1980. In less than a decade the white population of Zimbabwe was down by over 85 per cent and where ever they went they continued to think back to what they had had and what they achieved in Rhodesia.

For those of us who remained in Zimbabwe, we had to decide, was this still our home? If we did, we had to continue to use our nationalistic spirit to guide out activities. We are Africans and we are Zimbabweans and we have to make the new country work. Our nationalism must override our political affiliations and ambitions. The past is the past, it was the way the world was and we must move on. My son visited the USA for first time and came home and said to me 'boy, those Americans are patriotic, they fly the flag outside their homes', then he asked me 'why are we in Zimbabwe not like that?' It is still a good question. We have a way to go.

One aspect of this that concerns me is that I see in Kenya, a strong spirit of nationalism. When they steal money, they invest the proceeds in Kenya. In Zimbabwe they bank the proceeds abroad. If we do not develop a strong spirit of Zimbabwean nationalism soon, we will not achieve what we are capable of doing.

As for the world in which we all live, wealthy countries must recognise that they need to recommit to global free trade. America, with an income per capita of $80 000 and a champion of free trade in the world has created a global economy where international trade has expanded steadily over 50 years by 15 per cent per annum. By itself this has enabled many countries to develop job intensive business activities and growth. Billions of people have been raised out of absolute poverty. Its not been aid which is just a plaster on a wound.

As for migration 99 per cent of all Americans are migrants. We are all migrants if the story of the Bible is true about a single ancestor. Migrants drive the world economy; Elon Musk is a migrant. For us in the developing world we would be much worse off without migration. Our Diaspora sends home several billion dollars a year to support their families, often at great sacrifice. Remittances are the major source of hard currency in almost all the third world, its value exceeds foreign aid by far and it reaches the very poor, everywhere.

As for the very wealthy in the world - everywhere, start acting as a member of the world community and as a global nationalist - like Jimmy Carter or Bill Gates who spent their lives after the pinnacle in their careers working for the world. What man could leave a greater testimony than the statement at his funeral when his grandson said of Jimmy Carter, 'when he started his work in Africa millions of people suffered from a specific debilitating worm infestation, when he died only 14 cases were recorded.' That's how I would want to be remembered plus the fact that I was a proud Zimbabwean who did his best for his country.

Harare
17th January 2025