Youths Should Know and Defend
the Genuine Gains of the Liberation Struggle
The liberation struggle or fight
against colonial and racial rule that was fought by our erstwhile liberators
and the many that perished during that civil war in then Rhodesia, is an
important chapter in the history of our country. That this liberation war was
fought mostly by the young people goes without saying. What is and should be
more important however, is what that struggle fought to achieve and more
importantly how we as young people of today can be active in defending these
gains and, in our lifetime contribute to the making of the Zimbabwe that so
many died for.
Three fundamental points
summarize the aspirations of the nationalist leaders as they led the black
majority in the fight for political independence: the wide disparities in
wealth distribution, largely favouring the white minority at the expense of the
black majority; majority rule and the right to vote for leaders and a
government of their choice (commonly referred to as ‘one man (woman), one
vote’) and the redressing of the land question as many had been removed from
their fertile lands and driven into reserves, keeps and other such barren
areas.
When political independence came
about in 1980 after a protracted armed struggle, it was greeted with enthusiasm
and euphoria from the black majority. Expectedly, this majority was expectant
that the ideals that had driven the war and what they sought to get out of the
armed struggle would be fulfilled by the leaders they had entrusted with
political power to drive a new Zimbabwe through the elections of 1980.
32 years after independence
however, the ordinary black majority continues to face the same, if not worse
challenges to what they did those many years ago before political independence.
In essence, the yoke they carried under white oppression has been painted
‘black’ as they continue to suffer and wallow in poverty under a black
administration. Ironically, the three fundamentals that drove and spurred many
to fight white injustice and racialism remain unfulfilled and a pipe-dream for
the majority, and a painful reminder that the struggle for a better Zimbabwe
for all that live in it is still far from over and the dream far from realized.
In Zimbabwe today, there is
glaring evidence of wide disparities in wealth distribution – a new black political
elite has replaced the white minority in ownership of critical state and
non-state resources. While ‘one man (woman), one vote’ has been realized, the
majority are still not free to elect leaders and a government of their choice –
there is evidence of election fraud in elections dating as far back as 1985,
which has worsened over the years and finally culminated in the sham June 2008
election, the bloodiest in the electoral history of Zimbabwe.
While we have and continue to be
told the contrary, the noble initiative of land redistribution has by-and-large
benefitted this new black political elite, at the expense of the formerly
landless peasants in the ‘reserves and keeps’ – prime land has been parcelled
out along political patronage lines, with many of those holding some form of
political power being multiple-farm owners when other ordinary civilians have
nothing.
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| Solomon Mujuru with Robert Mugabe. |
Just as a reminder, the war of
liberation was not fought so that a few Zimbabweans (and non-Zimbabweans) can
enjoy the fruits of the resource-endowed nation that is Zimbabwe. What Comrades
Tongo, Zvogbo, Chitepo, Mugabe, Nkomo, Sithole, Dabengwa and Mujuru amongst
others fought for was that each and every Zimbabwean, regardless of ethnicity,
colour, tribe or other considerations is able to live peacefully, enjoy
fundamental rights and freedoms and enjoy an equal opportunity to prosper and
achieve self-actualization in a socially-justiciable manner. At the height of
that protracted struggle, they all acknowledged and defended this line wherever
they went, even in the British and other capitals they continued to grace
through diplomatic efforts. Then, they were very clear that despite assertions
to the contrary, suggesting that they were Marxist extremists, the nationalist
leaders were able to present a formidable and morally justified reason for
waging this armed struggle – their quest to rid Zimbabwe of the injustices of
colonialism and ushering in of majority rule, a phrase that has commonly come
to be replaced by democratic rule.
However, despite the
insurmountable evidence that all these noble causes and fundamental ideals
formed the basis of the liberation struggle, evidence on the ground today point
to a scenario in which this noble African agenda has been driven off the rails
by an insensitive sect of greedy politicians and plunderers who have usurped
the power of the masses and vested it in a closely-knit political cabal. Some
members of this murderous crew have forgotten that just 35 years ago they led
the armed struggle on the backdrop of popular support for majority rule. They
even had the support of the same British, American and other nations across the
globe backing them in calling for majority rule, which the Rhodesians worked
tirelessly to prevent, but albeit eventually surrendered through negotiations
as the war heated up.
Despite the fact that such
history is well recorded and documented, the new black ruling elite of Zimbabwe
have over time managed to re-write history to suit their own parochial
intentions. They have chosen to negate and plagiarize the rich history of our
nation through telling it in their own concocted way so as to justify the
various heinous crimes that they have and continue to perpetrate on the
civilian masses. This they have managed to achieve largely by destroying or
willingly neglecting to document the numerous physical evidence of our
liberation struggle.
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| Our national heroes acre. |
Today, it is very difficult for
any young person in this country to know of the true history of our liberation
struggle. The only few available places to learn about this history have been
so politicized and abused out of any meaning that they have lost meaning to
what we all know, through one means or the other, as the real reasons and chain
of events behind our liberation struggle. The issue of our National Heroes Acre
quickly springs to mind. Despite being a noble initiative in respect of
entrenching the history of our liberation struggle, it has been hounded and
degraded of any moral value by the manner in which this ruling black elite
under the guise of Zanu PF have clandestinely determined through their
Soviet-style ‘politburo’ who is buried there. This has been to the extent that
known cheats, thieves and murderers such as Chenjerai Hunzvi lie buried at our
national shrine. It is a real pity. This case of our national shrine is just
but one case in point.
The history of apartheid South
Africa and its subsequent post-apartheid era poses huge lessons for Zimbabwe as
it struggles to meet the dreams and expectations of those who waged and
supported liberation struggles. This is true not only for Zimbabwe, but for a
whole range of African and non-African nations that have fought colonialism and
white imperialism over the years, in pursuit of self-determination as
indigenous people. While Zimbabwe and many other African nations attained their
political independence well before South Africa, it is the manner in which
South Africans have been able to build on their history in resolving the
various injustices and inequalities of the past. And this has to a greater
extend been achieved through the manner in which government particularly the
ANC has managed to push for the documentation and preservation of the country’s
history, partly through the Truth and Reconciliation processes as well as
building of physical structures to preserve the memory of their struggle
against apartheid and why it was necessary to fight this struggle.
It is in this regard that
Zimbabwe as a nation has failed dismally. Of the many lived realities, peoples,
sites, documents, and other such paraphernalia that depicts and is relevant to
our liberation struggle, very few are of any value today, especially to the
younger generation who may have not been present to witness for themselves the
uncensored truth of the liberation struggle or still, were too young to have
known anything significant was happening in the country. Ask any young person
what is ‘Gonakudzingwa’ or where it
is (if it is still there) and this sad reality will dawn to you. What we have
seen is the complete abdication of this very valuable history of our country,
to serve the interests of our new black elite, who behave in every sense
colonial as did the Rhodesians during that sad period of the liberation
struggle and the times before it.
If you are going to speak to a
lay person on the street about the lived realities of the many people who lived
during the liberation struggle and how they understood the struggle and the
reasons for waging it, you would be baffled at how the reality today does not
resonate with the wishes and aspirations of the black majority that lived
through and suffered under colonialism. What is further perplexing is the ‘new
ideals and values’ that form the DNA of the new ruling black elite who today
occupy the top echelons of power in Zimbabwe. It seems their first and foremost
rule and ideal is self-enrichment and aggrandizement at the expense of the
Zimbabwean masses. Look at our minister Chombo and you will begin to understand
this DNA of our new ruling black elite.
The important questions young men
and women of today must ask ourselves are: Did the attaining of independence
after a protracted armed struggle fought by the young people of that time more
than three decades ago usher in the expected results? If not, (as is the obvious
case here) then what are we going to do as the youths to ensure that our
country attains true independence and defend the genuine gains of the struggle?
As young people, we need to
ensure that the ‘one wo/man one vote’ principle is adhered to and the subsequent
result of any election is respected. This entails fighting for peace in our
country and encouraging each other to participate positively in all elections.
Without fighting for and defending our votes, our situation is not much
different from that in the 60s when our parents could not determine who leads
our lovely Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).
Wealth distribution has seen even
worse skewedness after independence, with the majority of the young people
owning or controlling no means of production while a few, because of their
again skewed liberation war credentials, feel they should own everything and
anything. It is our duty as young men and women to fight for the equal
distribution of wealth, to make sure that we also have access to resources and
these privileges can never be delivered to us on a silver platter, we must
demand and fight for them until we also get a piece of the cake.
Whilst ZANU PF claims that land
was redistributed, it is important to note that the re-allocation was
fundamentally wrong with the political elite clandestinely getting all the
fertile landmasses while the few peasants who benefited only got sandy and dry
areas. The youths of today must demand an audit into the land redistribution
exercise and demand to know what criteria was used to allocate certain fertile
pieces of land to the subsequent beneficiaries and put in place measures to
ensure that such malpractices are not repeated in future.
It becomes important to
critically think of Frantz Fanon’s words of wisdom: “Each generation must, out
of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.” Do we
know our mission and are we going to fulfill it or betray it, spelling doom for
future generations?
