Many liberators never stop liberating their countries. The old foreign enemies are always hovering: Mugabe is forever ranting about British “homosexuals”; the Cuban regime’s sole international appeal became anti-Americanism; and China recently seized a Japanese ship as payment for a prewar debt.
The liberator-ruler keeps acting out the role of liberated person. As Gevisser sees it, the liberator tells the people: “I am your liberator, I am you. You were in chains, I was in chains. You are liberated, I am liberated. I am living your experience.” That works, says Gevisser, until the Nkandla moment, where the liberator says, “I am rich, you are – errr.” It’s the moment in Orwell’s Animal Farm when the animals peer through the windows at the pigs and men having a feast together.
