Ndexit (Mthwakazi) is more than justified

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Ndebele - Shona relations have never been as bad as they are now and if it has come to the Ndebele people to want out, this can be understood. There has been a logical progression towards this.

We as a nation in general and as Shona people in particular have allowed things to drift to the ugly picture it is today. This could have been corrected very early. The history of this country is that of suppression and marginalization on the part of the Ndebele people, tribal privilege on the part of the majority of Shona people and blatant denial on the part of the government.

The Ndebele people despite their lack of resolute leadership, have tried over and over again to raise a cry over unfair treatment by government. What has government ever done. Thirty eight years of maltreatment could have produced a raging  civil war had this happened elsewhere.

The ordinary Shona person privileged and supported by the government have simply taken advantage of the situation. A Shona person did not need to go out of their way to do anything against the Ndebele. The system itself paved the way. Just by being called with a Shona name, speaking the language was enough to get you a job, get one a college place, ease one's way at a roadblock, give one unwarranted marks at college, the list is endless. Who could say no to such privileged status, more so since it was not even spoken? Ours was just to flow with the system. Not all was well though because this system had a way of warping the social experience. There was nothing we could do for our close friends, former classmates with good passes who could not get jobs and places at college. No matter how much we had bonded during school years the skewed system would tear us apart. Any honest Shona knows how it would feel when visiting a friend's home how the whole environment would change once they got to know your name was Farai, Tafadzwa or Wedzerai. We also knew how it felt when our parents could not hide their reactions when we brought a Ndebele friend home, no matter how helpful the fellow was to me at school. I cannot forget this ugly picture.

The government has much to blame in this respect. The inequalities economically, infrastructurally, educationally has been done intentionally. None of those in power can say they did not see this. The reality cannot be argued against when all the border posts are manned by our people right up to the toilet cleaners, our police stations even right in the depth of Matabeleland are manned by Shona officers, same applies to colleges and universities, same applies to hospitals and clinics, same applies to the judiciary and prison services. No one can argue that this happened naturally. I don't want to lie, if this situation was reversed and we had the Ndebele in every office one can imagine, with the pent up pains of thirty eight years of oppression this country would be a hideous nightmare none of us would stand or even want to think of. We would witness an exodus of our people into the neighbouring countries for refugee no matter how hard the life there would be (does this sound familiar?)

Whether this sounds bad to our people or not, muchandiregerera, chokwadi ichokwadi, hachiputse ukama. I am tired of my identify associated with the worst experiences of other humans like myself.

The history of this country has it that Matabeleland and Mashonaland were separate countries be for colonisation. It is also on record that 654 Shona batsmen accompanied the Pioneer column in an unprovoked attack on the Ndebele kingdom. These Shona people were rewarded by being given land taken from the Ndebele. Shona policemen used in tribal policing by the Rhodesian government to frustrate Ndebele.

Then comes the violent torture of our own Shona people in Mashonaland who had been members of ZAPU. We all know that ZAPU had members throughout the country before 1980. What happened to them?