On Monday Hifekepunye Pohamba took over the Namibian presidency, replacing the only head of state the country has ever known, Sam Nujoma. Nujoma was the leader of the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) from the 1960s, and as with so many of Africa’s revolutionary leaders, he was well positioned to become the country’s first president fifteen years ago. There was a time when Nujoma appeared ready to follow another familiar path of his revolutionary brethren. Whispers from Windhoek indicated that Nujoma wanted to amend the Namibian Constitution to allow the president to run for another term, perhaps unlimited terms. But Nujoma, under immense pressure internally as well as from his neighbors, decided not to pursue the amendment, and in recent elections Pohamba won the vote and thus the events of today will probably make the agate-print sections buried deep in the New York Times. Pohamba has already come under some criticism for choosing to keep many, indeed a majority, of Nujoma’s cabinet members, thus making many believe that he is “The Old Man – Mark II,” a puppet successor to Nujoma and not his own man willing to chart a new course.

How the Namibian situation will turn out remains to be seen, but any peaceful transition of power by democratic means in Africa deserves our attention. Of late there has been a lot of lip service paid to a renewed era of democracy as a result of the tenuous undertakings in the Middle East. And as always, while the West’s gaze is fixed on another hotspot, events play out in Africa with barely a hint of our recognition. The media will briefly interrupt its Schiavo Saturation on Friday to discuss the previous day’s elections in Zimbabwe only to turn away within hours once another child falls into a well or when pictures emerge revealing that John Travolta’s hairline is not what it once was or that Angelina Jolie’s is not what it looks to be.

But Thursday marks a vital moment in Zimbabwe, and one that will probably result in more disappointment. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s own revolutionary hero-turned president, except that unlike Nujoma he seems to be taking this President-for-life stuff seriously, has in recent months made it seem that he was more conciliatory in the past, that things will progress fairly this time around. This is nonsense, in part because too much of the opposition has long since been crushed, scared, or bought off, but mostly because the demagoguery and intimidation and frauds continue unabated.

Rhetorically, Mugabe is in rare form. He has been referring to opposition leader Morgan Tsvagirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as the “Blair-run MDC,” a reference to Tony Blair and alleged neo-imperial perfidy that still somehow plays in some circles in Bulawayo and Harare. “You will be lost if you vote for the opposition,” Mugabe avers, “because it would be as good as voting Blair into power.” Mugabe is not alone in his Blair-bashing, as a recent pop song in the country attacks Blair as well, referring to a toilet used in Zim villages invented by and bearing the name of its inventor, who happens also to have the name “Blair.” The lyric goes: “The only Blair I know is a Blair toilet.” Mugabe has also been using scare tactics based on homophobia, invoking Blair’s assertion that Great Britain might someday have a gay Prime Minister and using that as a springboard to court the worst bigotry.

If making Tony Blair somehow part of ZANU-PF’s campaign is an attempt to invoke fears of Ian Smith’s white supremacist regime and thus to shore up his support by reminding (and reminding, and reminding) Zimbabweans of his role in driving the white colonists from the land, some of his other tactics have been even less subtle and more loathsome. In a country with serious food and gas shortages, with an inflation rate of 400% (the opposition likes to point out how upon independence 1500 Zimbabwean dollars [Z$] could buy a car. Three years ago it could buy a bus ticket. Today it can buy a nail) Mugabe’s supporters are using food as a way to reward supporters and punish those who support the opposition. One report indicates that the distribution of maize in villages has been directly tied to one’s political affiliation.

There was a time not long ago, in the years surrounding independence, when Zimbabwe was referred to as the “jewel” or “breadbasket” of Africa. Those days are long gone, replaced by uncertainty, violence, starvation, and thus Mugabe’s ability to use the basic staples of existence as a lever against those who would call for democratic change.

Despite this fear-mongering, there is still a vibrant opposition, although one gets the sense that much of the MDC is whistling through the graveyard, brave in the face of intimidation and a playing surface titled decidedly against them. The MDC is not alone in its opposition, as groups such as Zvakwana have emerged to give Mugabe a long overdue retirement. So too have some church leaders. Nonetheless, one wonders if this will be sufficient. ZANU_PF leaders have indicated a confidence that they will garner two-thirds of the vote, a dispiriting thought. But there may also be more than a little false bravado in these statements. It is clear that Mugabe long ago tarnished what was once a well-deserved reputation but that now is associated with thuggery.

And so we return to Namibia. Today that country underwent a transition to a new leader. However imperfect, however one University of Namibia political scientist might want to refer to the transition as “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue,” it still represents a change. Indeed, Pohamba campaigned on a platform of continuity, so it is unclear why some observers are surprised, never mind outraged, that he would carry through on that promise, which in and of itself does not have to be portentous. The Namibian elections were not categorized by gross violations of the most rudimentary of democratic standards. people were not provided or denied food based on their politics. However imperfect, the Namibian transfer of power stands in stark contrast with the ongoing situation in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans will go to the polls on Thursday. Not much will have changed come Friday. Namibia might not represent the ideal, but for Zimbabweans, it must look pretty close.