Why Is Africa Such a Mess?

Perhaps because Africans themselves seem ready to tolerate and accept stupidity and brutality from their leaders, so long as those leaders are black themselves.

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (CNN) -- Southern African leaders Thursday emerged from a conference in Tanzania's capital allied with embattled Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and calling for the lifting of all sanctions against his government.

Mugabe maintains a tight grip on power as his country spirals into economic disaster.

After the Southern Africa Development Community emergency summit, Mugabe described the meeting as "excellent."

"We are one with our neighbors," he said.

Mugabe has been condemned by the West and human rights groups for arrests and reported intimidation and beatings of his political opponents. His forces have been accused of severely beating opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara on March 11.

The SADC meeting comes a day after Zimbabwean forces raided the Harare headquarters of the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change, the country's main opposition group, and detained about 10 MDC staff and officials.

Police said the raid was part of an overall initiative to arrest people responsible for throwing petrol bombs around Harare.

Of course, considering the thuggish, kleptocratic, despotic regimes that comprise SADC, it was hardly a surprise they would come to the defense of fellow-thug Mugabe. Birds of a feather, and all that.

Mugabe, of course, is a good friend of Hugo Chavez. Surprise, surprise.