The picture Robert Mugabe wanted to delete!

"A picture is worth a thousand words", so says a Chinese proverb; and by extension an English idiom. No wonder even photo-shopped pics or memes in this day in era are such a crazy phenomenon across all ages and digital divides.

Let me start with a famous Kenyan snapshot in which all people (four of them) who have become presidents of that country appear as part of a seemingly "simple" picture. That picture includes the current president Uhuru Kenyatta who appears as a small boy in a boxer short!

Who knows, maybe the next president of Kenya will be the photographer who took the shot of the day now that it seems most if not all have finally become part of the "bigger picture" politics of the East African country.

By the way, Kenya is ruled mainly on ethnic grounds in which the highest office in the land has been largely held by those from the Kikuyu tribe. A typical African problem indeed that has no solutions yet; except probably a need for high birth and population growth rates from such smaller ethnic groups!

Now zoom in to Zimbabwe, it has almost the same script as Kenya. No wonder rumours has it on a believable record that most of ousted Mugabe's allies such as Jonathan Moyo and Kasukuwere have sought refuge in Kenya!

It is now clear from a snapshot taken during the liberation days where only Mugabe, Tongogara and Mnangagwa appear in it. Why just the three of them and what had they been discussing? Where was Rex Nhongo (Solomon Mujuru) and probably Dominic Chinenge (General Chiwenga) on the same day? My educated guess is that General Chiwenga was the "photographer" of the day but was kept out of the "secret meeting" on the fateful day the presidential script for an independent Zimbabwe was being written!

Usually when most "presidents" have signed and sealed certain secret agreements; they always take such snapshots. And, it has not always been a selfie spree from most of these old pictures.

These three of the most shrewd minds could not have a simple conversation on any day; not at the peak of a war and moreso in combat uniforms! Actually being seen together on any day was high risk and spelt doom to both friends(if they had any) and enemies alike than having them being kept apart.

The secret is indeed out, these three folks made a secret agreement how they were going to run an independent Zimbabwe. It was first going to be General Tongo as President ; followed by Robert Mugabe and then Emmerson Mnangawa. Probably from behind the scenes it had to extend to the "photographer" being General Chiwenga!

However, while at Lancaster House as negotiations were ongoing General Tongo contacted specifically General Chiwenga who was at a base in Mozambique and they discussed for "about an hour" over the phone and lastly he confided with him that he was not going to make it himself to a new independent Zimbabwe. And hardly six days later, after returning from Lancaster House to declare a ceasefire fire he was "mysteriously" killed!

General Chiwenga has referred to Tongogara as a "prophet"; and  he once commented in an interview still available on Youtube that he "knew" what was going to happen in Zimbabwe and how it was going to end! There you have it!

The bigger picture is now clear, and this is the very picture of a "presidential line-up" which is the Legacy the photographer had to refresh and restore that Mugabe had deleted. No wonder, he quickly went to the recycle bin of Zimbabwe's archives to retrieve it!

By the way the so called theme song has a title of "Tongo-gara or Tonga-kwaro"? I mean this one sang by this young chap certain people are already declaring him as a "musical prophet"! Only that andizwi isiShona it is still very bad; maybe someday will learn it fluently when there has been a genuine healing and reconciliation in the country!

Written by Mthokozisi Ndiweni just trying to paint a bigger picture of the ongoing political events in the country and trying to reflect on who is next to be photo-shopped into the picture now that the original is complete?!