Mugabe and Tsvangirai, BFF?

DESMOND KWANDE/AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai finally reached an agreement to share power today. Time to applaud, right?  Maybe. On paper, today’s agreement represents a huge change. Three decades of ruling alone are over for Mugabe. Tsvangirai will be prime minister, with many governing responsibilities. Then you add the ...

By , International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.
592600_080915_zimbabwe5.jpg
592600_080915_zimbabwe5.jpg

DESMOND KWANDE/AFP/Getty Images

DESMOND KWANDE/AFP/Getty Images

Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai finally reached an agreement to share power today. Time to applaud, right? 

Maybe.

On paper, today’s agreement represents a huge change. Three decades of ruling alone are over for Mugabe. Tsvangirai will be prime minister, with many governing responsibilities.

Then you add the backdrop, as seen in the above video coverage, and it becomes clear: Perhaps nothing but the paper has changed.

Tsvangirai, playing his role as opposition, spoke about the need for reform. Mugabe, playing the wise old ruler, lamented what he calls foreign intervention from his favorite scapegoats: former colonial power Britain and the United States. They were two men giving radically different speeches — the first crafted and the second rambling — as if unaware of one another. Mugabe never acknowledged Tsvangirai as prime minister. Tsvangirai buried his head in his hands as Mugabe spoke. Moderator Thabo Mbeki looked sternly forward as the Zimbabwean leader recounted the negotiating process.

There were big smiles for the signing, followed by palpable tension. Outside, supporters of each of the two men threw rocks at one another. There’s a long way to go.

Elizabeth Dickinson is International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.

Read More On Africa | Politics

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.