AMBASSADOR DELL ADDRESS ON 231st Independence anniversary

Speech by U.S. Ambassador Christopher Dell on the occasion of the 231st anniversary of the independence of the United States of America
Harare, July 4 2007

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our celebration of the 231^st anniversary of the independence of the United States of America.

Let me first of all thank our corporate sponsors; Aon Zimbabwe, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Western Union, Cochraine Pump and Rainbird; who made this event possible. I would also like to offer a word of thanks to African Voice, who sang the national anthems, and also Libby Lattin and Taz Sallay who were the organizing geniuses behind this event. Thank you all very much.

On this same day 144 years ago, July 4, 1863, the greatest battle in American history reached its terrible climax in the sweltering July heat of the fields and hills just outside the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There, thousands of men from the north and south- the Union and the Confederacy- lost their lives in the three days of fighting.
Four months later another group gathered again at t Gettysburg, this time to inaugurate a cemetery where the Union dead from that battle had been laid to their final rest.

As was practice in those times, the keynote speaker spent the next two hours weaving a spell over the audience in florid, purple prose. Let me assure you, it is not my intention today to imitate Edward Everett Hale, but rather to follow the example- at least in brevity- of the man who spoke next.

As Hale sat down to thunderous applause, President Abraham Lincoln rose from his seat and in a little more than two minutes reinvented the meaning and spirit of America for all time, using just 217 words to perform what one historian has called “the greatest open air slight of hand in America’s history.

For, in his immortal Gettysburg address Lincoln recast both the past and the future of America by redefining the meaning of our Declaration of Independence, signed in Philadelphia, as his speech famously begins “four score and seven years” earlier. He did it very simply- by asserting that the Declaration’s core statement of belief, that “all men are created equal” was truly meant to embrace all our citizens, regardless of their race or color. Lincoln also used his few words to transform the meaning of our Civil War, once and for all framing it as a fight for liberty itself and a test of whether any democratically conceived nation would long endure. In the peroration of his brief address- which by the way was over so quickly that the photographer who was supposed to record it was still fussing with his camera as Lincoln abruptly sat down- the President gave the most succinct and enduring definition of liberty and democracy that anyone has ever crafted. In honoring the fallen from the battle Lincoln said they had given “the last full measure” so that “government of the people, by the people and for the people” would not perish from the earth.

It did not perish then and 144 years later, the power of the concept of government of the People, by the People and for the People has become so universal that it is even held up as an ideal in today’s Zimbabwe. You can imagine, for example, my surprise as I watched this year’s independence-day ceremonies at Rufaro stadium and heard Robert Mugabe himself quote Lincoln’s words. Nothing, of course, could have underscored more clearly the difference between what this president claims to be and what he really is then the irony of him speaking those words against the backdrop of March 11, the country’s accelerating economic collapse and the growing climate of desperation and oppression that characterize Zimbabwe today. President Mugabe’s sad attempt to wrap himself in the mantle of greatness that is rightly Lincoln’s says more than anything, as Lincoln himself would have put it my ‘own poor ability to add or subtract” could ever do about the gap between that claim and the reality in Zimbabwe today.

At the same time, it also answered the question, even if unwittingly, about why America cares so deeply about the crisis in Zimbabwe today. Part of the answer, of course, is that the United States of America cares about justice and freedom everywhere. But more than that, we care because our history is your history, and yours is ours. More, we believe that just as our past are entwined, so too is our present and so will be our future.
The United States owes much to Africa. When Africans were first brought to the United States, we were a young colony, and America’s infrastructure, its cities, roads, farms and factories, and its culture, would not be the same in the contributions of millions of African-Americans.

Who could imagine America today without jazz and blues, without the novels of Toni Morrison, without Jackie Robinson or Michael Jordan, without the films of Denzel Washington or without Oprah Winfrey. An America without Oprah- the mind boggles!
An, at the same time who could imagine African Voice, the beautiful ladies who just sang the national anthems for us, without the inflections of jazz, the blues or the old slave spirituals included in and coloring their repertoire.

But our ties go deeper than that- because the very essence of what it means to be an American, as well as our very concepts of fairness, liberty, and equality have been shaped by our contact and interaction with Africa. In America, these ideas and values are not mere words, carelessly thrown around by those whose every action betrays their true meaning. They are passionately held beliefs, forged through the long, painful struggle to end slavery and to give all Americans equal rights. They are beliefs that are held sacred because they have been paid for with the lives and through the struggles of thousands of American heroes- people like Abraham Lincoln, Dred Scott, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and countless others, including those who gave the full measure at Gettysburg. While the historic injustice of slavery joins us in shame, it also binds us by blood. So too we are joined in the noble aspiration to rise above our common past, to learn from it and to be better than it. Much has changed in the world since Gettysburg, including both America and Africa, but the power of Lincoln’s words to inspire and thrill is today- Africans and Americans both- has not changed at all.

Without Africa, America would not be what it is- and for that reason, America will never abandon Africa. We will always care and involve ourselves when we see injustice being done here. I am certain that you will find my successor and my government continue to be just as committed and dedicated to that cause as I have tried to be in my three years here.

Which brings me to me to some final, personal notes. As some of you may have noticed, my time here has been marked by a certain controversy and a certain, should we say “coolness” towards me on the part of the authorities. I want to tell you all that that official attitude was more than offset by the support and encouragement I received from each of you, by the hope that by representing my country as I have and by speaking out against the abuse of power and the erosion of your liberties, I was able- in some small way- to give public voice to the hopes, concerns and aspirations that I know we share, but which you are prevented from expressing openly. That is why I categorically reject the tired, oft-repeated assertion by the Government of Zimbabwe, and some others, that this in some way constituted unwarranted interference in an internal matter. For I believe that in the end the hope of freedom, the hope for a better future for our children, for a health present and for prosperous future, are not hopes limited to the United States nor to Zimbabwe. They are the common hope of all mankind and we all have the right, and event the duty, to defend them. 

I shall always remember my time here fondly, it has been a wonderful three years: many good things happened while I was here, including getting married to Tedi, and the warmth and hospitality shown me and my family by the people of Zimbabwe, including all of you here today leave a lasting warm glow for us both. I’ll remember the beauty of your country and its natural treasures, as well as the talents and decency of your people. Above all, however, I’ll look forward to one day returning, to coming here again when the people of Zimbabwe have regained control of their destiny and resumed their own long walk towards freedom. Thus, I won’t say “goodbye” to you today, but rather farewell and until we meet again. I leave confident that it won’t be long.

So I ask now that you join me now in a toast: to happy returns and to a free, democratic, independent and prosperous Zimbabwe. And, Happy Birthday America!
 # # #