Alemayehu G Mariam

Zimbabwe had its presidential elections on 31 July 2013. Elections as in rigged. Robert Mugabe, the senile octogenarian and the only president since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, ‘won’ for the seventh time by 61 percent of the vote.

Edmund Burke, the British statesman and philosopher, said ‘Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.’ We’ve heard many promises on human rights in Africa from President Obama and his administration over the past four years.

Last week, The Reporter reported:

When President Obama visited Accra, Ghana in 2009, he delivered two distinct political messages within one overarching moral imperative: “History is on the side of brave Africans”. His message to African governments and leaders was emphatic:

Susan Rice, the current US Ambassador to the UN, has been waltzing (or should I say do-se-do-ing) with Africa’s slyest, slickest and meanest dictators for nearly two decades. More cynical commentators have said she has been in bed with them, as it were.

There are few things more difficult or dangerous than speaking truth to abusers of power. But for Reeyot Alemu, the 31-year-old Ethiopian heroine of press freedom, no price is high enough to keep her from being ‘the voice of the voiceless’.