Xenophobic Attacks - Barbaric, Unafrican

Taking a sabbatical and retreating to the village after a year or so of continued churning out of news stories, features, opinions and analyses for the national flagship, where this villager works with hordes of other inspiring wordsmiths, can be as soothing as it is refreshing.

Spending time on a rock along the banks of Dande River, watching some fish swim non-chalantly in the crystal clear waters, a kingfisher performing antics for its breakfast and two fish eagles perform a duet atop a riverine tree, makes this villager enjoy the fruits, peace and tranquility of Zimbabwe.

Yes, Independent Zimbabwe, for, more than three decades ago in Rhodesia, it was taboo for all villagers - elders, youngsters and yes, I mean all blacks - to cross Dande River and sit on this stone which was on the side of a white man's farm.

Yes, Andrew Pears would not allow me to cross Dande River, without beating me and everyone from my ancestry lineage.

The barren land, west of Dande River, aptly named Sipolilo (Chipuriro) Tribal Trust Land, now the land of milk, honey and dust or Guruve, if you like is where he belonged, and it was a dream to cross the Dande River eastwards. It was a no go area.

While sitting on the stone, one question crossed this villager's mind. Could he be equally safe if he sat on a stone on the other side of the Limpopo River?

Limpopo and Dande are rivers in Africa and so are Zambezi, Nile, Niger, Tungwi, Tugwana, Chobe or Musengezi, Bubi and Ruya, among others.

Is a river not a river? Are Africans not Africans, wherever they are? It is courtesy of Zimbabwe's land reform programme that today this villager owns the land, till and rest on any corner and enjoy the river breeze.

This villager, who is so used to reading and writing had decided not to vomit his ink this week, taking time off to spend moments, between the river bank and the village soothsayer's hovel, learning to throw bones.

The ability to foretell the future seems fascinating but, I had to abandon that lesson because of South Africa. South Africa . . . South Africa . . . South Africa. This South Africa, former apartheid South Africa now attacking black Zimbabweans because they belong to the other side of the Limpopo and are therefore not entitled to eke a living from Azania.

It was the news from the Rainbow Nation, which, unlike the beautiful hues, is not so multi-hued when it comes to accepting African people from neighbouring countries.

South Africa remains a thorn in the villager's flesh. For a country born out of a revolution, in which Zimbabwe played a vital role and, for a country run by a revolutionary party, which should be the vanguard of Africanism, to have its cadres militantly engage in xenophobic attacks on neighbours is not only shocking but barbaric.

For victims of apartheid to accept being dragged to court in their own country by their former oppressors for singing the songs that drove and oiled their revolution against the same oppressors and then fail to co-habit with fellow Africans, just because they come from across the river is not only stupid but unimaginable.

It is silly to kill each other based on the boundaries, imposed on us by westerners.

Was it not the hodgepodge and mishmash of Euro-centric boundaries born in yonder Berlin in 1884 that imposed the boundaries on us?

So, can we kill each other so badly because one comes from across the river. What difference does it make to come from across Dande River or Limpopo River? Are these not mere geomorphological features on one continent?

The village soothsayer, that ageless fountain of wisdom, says the South Africans are being too myopic in that they still need Zimbabweans in the same manner they needed them during their struggle.

"South Africa has not yet started the struggle to economically emancipate its people so they are very disgruntled.

"Unlike in Zimbabwe where the black majority have taken the reigns of political and economic power, black South Africans are still dazzled by the rainbow, confused by their poverty and still insignificantly participating in national economics.

"Are we not being not being forgetful? Are we not having short memories? Vendas are Mapungubwe. Are the Zulus, Xhosa, Swatis, Ndebele not of Nguni ancestry lineage? Why should the Limpopo River mean so much in terms of dividing us the people of these two countries?

"Zimbabwe was bombed, ask those who were in Avondale, by South African mercenaries for supporting the liberation movements and they cannot just payback by unleashing xenophobic attacks on Zimbabweans.

"Sooner than later, the black South African will know where to vent their anger for they are stuck in poverty, while respecting a rainbow of hunger, dehuminisation and abject poverty. What is the purpose of this rainbow save to keep the minority's hegemony on economic power.

"Soon, South Africa will explode and I mean soon, over the land issue. We changed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe but they could not change to Azania to please the West. Soon, I said soon . . .," contends the soothsayer.

It is a trite but true observation that xenophobic attacks are callous, barbaric, inhuman and unAfrican.

The nonsense must stop now and Africans must live as one, for they are all victims of colonialism and neo-colonialism, and are all still licking wounds from the humiliation and brutality they suffered in colonial Africa.

Instead of xenophobic attacks, Africans must be united to the marrow.