Opinion / Columnist
As we head towards Africa Day
13 May 2014 at 12:15hrs | Views
On May 25, Zimbabwe joins other African nations in celebrating Africa Day. On this day, many African countries commemorate the hard-fought achievement of their freedom from European colonial powers.
This year's Africa Day will mark the 51st anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which paved way for the establishment of the African Union.
It is imperative to commemorate Africa day, hence all Zimbabweans must unite with other African states in celebrating the achievements of independence. Zimbabwe gained independence from the British colony in 1980 after a vicious war between the white Rhodesians and black freedom fighters.
In fighting against White supremacy, for the democratic revolution in Zimbabwe, the people of this country fought for the cause of the African Revolution as a whole.
Zimbabweans will celebrate this year's Africa day at a time when its revolutionary party ZANU-PF is still celebrating its 2013 tremendous election victory.
In another plus for Africa's revolutionary fronts, the African National Congress of South Africa recently recorded a landslide victory in the May 7, 2014 elections.
ANC was founded in 1912 as an African nationalist movement led by the late Nelson Mandela. The recent election victory by ANC under the leadership of Jacob Zuma symbolizes the desire by black African people to determine their own destiny and safeguard their sovereignty without any interference from the Western countries.
Africa Day was founded during the first Conference of Independent African States, which attracted African leaders and political activists from various African countries, in Ghana on April 15, 1958. Government representatives from eight independent African states attended the conference, which was the first Pan-African conference in the continent.
The purpose of Africa day is to annually mark the liberation movements' progress and to symbolize the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.
Today many African countries celebrate a revolution that conquered their right to own, work, and develop the land from which they have been expelled from by the white colonialists. Zimbabwe is one of the countries that is boastful of its land reform programme, which saw the eviction of the white farmers from the fertile lands that they occupied.
With the revolutionary party ZANU-PF steering the wheels of independence since 1980, many Zimbabweans will agree that standards of living have changed since the reign of the ruling party.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was elected as the First Vice-Chair of the African Union Bureau, a supreme organ of the African Union which is tasked with stirring the agenda of the organization with the assistance of the African Union Commission.
Africa Day celebrations help to raise political awareness in African communities across the world and every African should be proud to be associated with it.
Thumbs up to all past and present African nationalists who fought and continue to fight, to raise the African flags high.
Source - Peacemaker Zano
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