Ian Smith's Legacy of Violence & Nelson Chamisa

Many have made great attempts to understand what turned the peace-loving Zimbabwe people into a people unable to break a seemingly unending cycle of violence.

Some have laid the blame rightly at the feet of the Rhodesian Government and its leader Ian Smith who ensured his racist and colonial rule through tremendous violence and oppression.

It was this violence that shaped the way Zimbabweans deal with political discourse because of the harrowing and brutal years under foreign rule.

However, it is incumbent on us, the Zimbabwean people, to break this "cycle of violence". We must begin to look beyond our history and what it has taught our impulses and look towards a future of peace, reconciliation and tolerance.
I believe that Zimbabwe began this gigantean task of breaking the cycle of violence in November when en masse the people peacefully to the streets and demanded change in a peaceful and non-violent revolution.

Our new leadership is embracing and continuing this path and has repeatedly called for peace, openness and democracy. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that he will respect the will of the people in the upcoming free and fair elections and if he loses, he will step aside.

However, MDC Alliance presidential candidate Mr Nelson Chamisa threatened to unleash violence if it loses the forthcoming harmonised elections. Mr Chamisa, who was addressing his party supporters at Jerera Growth point in Zaka, on Saturday, promised that his party would use violent means to grab political power if they lose the polls.

This election is going to be very different because I am even ready to take power either by votes or by other means," MrChamisa said.
Unfortunately, our history has taught us exactly what "other means" describes.

Even though Mr Chamisa was one when Ian Smith's reign ended, he is an unfortunate result of the former prime minister of Rhodesia's legacy, a legacy we are starting to break free from only four decades later.

Mr Chamisa could do well to learn from ED.
President Mnangagwa actively fought in the Chimurenga was arrested and brutally tortured by the Rhodesian Special Branch by being hung upside down and repeatedly beaten, and even sentenced to death.

He saw the extreme violence and felt it with every nerve of his body screaming with pain. However, since he attained the highest office he has acted like no other leader in the bloody history of our country.

President Mnangagwa has been exhorting Zimbabweans to observe peace before, during and after the polls for the outcome to be credible. The repeated messages for peace by President Mnangagwa, who has been incessantly calling for violence-free elections, appear to be a sincere attempt to break apart the "cycle of violence" and speak to the Zimbabwean whose base instincts are towards peace in each and every one of us, hidden by decades of brutal rule.

Eleven years ago, Ian Smith went to stand in justice before our maker.  His physical presence has gone from this earth and so must his legacy. It is long overdue.

While we can not change the past, we can only look to the future and change the way we do things and our expectations for leadership.

Before anything else, we need our leaders to lead us away from our nation's violent past, and each day we hurt each other or threaten violence we give Ian Smith and his Rhodesian Special Branch a posthumous victory.

Mr Chamisa has an important decision to make. He can either help us break Ian Smith's violent legacy or continue to perpetuate it.

We Zimbabweans have long dreamt of free, democratic and peaceful elections. President Mnangagwa is leading us there, please Mr Chamisa, join hands with him in this vision for a better future where we break free from the chains of the past.