Opinion / Columnist
Chief Mtshana hero status: A veiled insult on Matabeleland
06 Dec 2020 at 04:20hrs | Views
Although the all-conquering Chief Mtshana, was a bona fide and outstanding freedom fighter of all-time requiring recognition, the recent villainous conferment of hero status on him by the relevance-seeking Mnangagwa government, smells of corrupt intent and villainousness. Having famously defeated the fancied white armies led by the invading Allan Wilson at Pupu in 1893 (although credible sources credit Fuyana for that instead), which resulted in the subsequent occupation of the country of Matabeleland, the heroic commander and his Commander-in-Chief, King Lobhengula have largely remained ignored or ridiculed by the Zimbabwe government for over 40 years with King Lobhengula being disrespectfully described as a villain. In that regard, the pretentious award is a veiled insult on all Matabelelanders and the generality of the region. It is fetid, full of corrupt intent and is laced with sickly self-aggrandisement.
The whole smelly affair is not about respecting the heroic exploits of the esteemed Chief Mtshana but is instead, a ZANU PF publicity stunt, maliciously designed and politically weaponised to wood-wink the gullible into believing that the so-called new dispensation revers Mthwakazi heritage yet it is far from it, and will never be anywhere near that. Genuine respect and honour for Chief Mtshana would begin with the respect for the people of Matabeleland as a whole; their traditional leadership structures, culture and their desire for self-determination. It would hinge on the respect for King Lobhengula who sent Chief Mtshana on the military campaigns in which Chief Mtshana was not alone. The conferment and respect would also consider all the heroic fighters who were marshalled by Chief Mtshana. The same recognition would also be conferred on the Mthwakazi heroic culture which saw them successfully use inferior weapons to bring down the whites who were considered mighty and feared in neighboring countries including Mashonaland, whose citizens played alongside Allan Wilson and his cousins, after having been colonised years back in 1890.
Since the amalgamation of Matabeleland and Mashonaland by the whites after the Pupu Battle and others, the lives of the people of Matabeleland have continued to be miserable to date. Successive regimes since then, have pinned the necks of the Matabelelanders down and choked their breathe in stark contrast to what Chief Mtshana and other galant Mthwakazians fought for. The ZANU PF regime has for forty years heinously followed on the footsteps of the whites in even worse fashion in meticulously ensuring that Chief Mtshana's dream of defending the Mthwakazi Kingdom and cultural heritage remains a pipedream. Then someone, somewhere wickedly claims that they recognise Chief Mtshana as a hero. My foot! The respect of any heroic chief, like Mtshana, lies in the recognition of his people and king, our intelligent elders say.
A government that respects Chief Mtshana would not first wait for one of his gullible descendant successors to become a staunch ZANU-PF supporter and activist in order to respect and honour him for his unmatched exploits. The conferment of the hero status is nakedly the brainchild of the fact that the current chief Mtshana is the deputy to Fortune Charumbira in the ZANU-PF council of chiefs set up. Having taken more than 40 years to remember that Chief Mtshana was a hero speaks volumes about the intelligence of those esteemed thinkers who have made the latest discovery. Probably that explains why the country has no solutions to the myriad of failures it has gone through since the dethronement of King Lobhengula by the usurping whites. Like the discovery that Chief Mtshana is a hero, they will, in many years to come, discover how to fix the economic decay when when one of the sons or daughters of the economy joins ZANU-PF. Hollywood has not matched the comedy, either!
A government that truly respects Chief Mtshana would not subject his people to tribalistic exclusion like what the government of ZANU-PF is doing. Although whites discriminated against the subjects of Chief Mtshana, they did not deliberately exclude them from basic survival opportunities in their motherland like what is currently the case. Chief Mtshana fought for equality and freedom for his people and to honour him would be to grant them that.
Chief Mtshana also selflessly fought for the land of Mthwakazi and its kingdom. Anyone respecting him would not pioneer a well-calculated programme to displace his people from their ancestral land and only parcel it to people from Mashonaland like what is currently obtaining under the ZANU-PF government's so-called land-redistribution programme which has successfully ensured the occupation of Matabeleland by people from Mashonaland under the guise of distributing the land to landless blacks. The person who fervently respects Chief Mtshana would not block the instalment of King Lobhengula's successor and the establishment of the cultural kingdom thereof.
Chief Mtshana fought for fairness and justice. Anyone who could dream of honouring him would not rudely refuse with ZAPU and ZIPRA properties that were diabolically seized and never returned to date, condemning the owners, mostly from Matabeleland, to abject poverty, landlessness and suffering. Chief Mtshana never stood for the primitive notion that one should be ZANU-PF in order to live. The only way to show honour for Chief Mtshana is not to selifishly declare him a hero but is to respect his legacy of fairness, justice and ubuntu.
Another show of respect for Chief Mtshana would be to say the truth about why the government butchered more than 20,000 of the descendants of his subjects after the so-called independence which ironically confirmed the colonisation of Matabeleland by Mashonaland. The refusal to accept responsibility for the genocide further exposes the pretentiousness of those purporting to respect his legacy.
Any uncorrupted respect for Chief Mtshana would go with the respect for his King, uLobhengula Wamawaba! No reasonable person would respect a leaf but despise the tree on which it is ensconced. It is obvious that the trickery to appear to respect the heroic Chief is designed to ensure that Mbuya Nehanda remains projected as the perceived greater hero than King Mzilikazi, King Lobhengula, Chief Mtshana, Lookout Masuku and other Mthwakazi heroes. Chief Mtshana is being used as a decoy to bake ZANU-PF votes in future elections as all other promises to deliver have never been fulfilled since the country gained ZANU-political independence in 1980. The same lame tactic has been used by granting kingship status to the other ZANU-PF activist and bootlicker, Mr Mike Moyo, despite claims that the people of Mthwakazi cannot have a king because the ‘constitution' does not have provision for that. But alas, Moyo is now the self-proclaimed ZANU-PF Mambo king and is ironically the only one allowed to be king. What an honour to Chief Mtshana!
Our heroes are our heritage and shall not be selfishly and clandestinely declared as such by ZANU-PF to try and beautify its unalterable, deformed image. Pungently, the Mtshana hero status conferment is the stench unleashed on Matabeleland and her people and should never be embraced by any sound thinking and undrunk Mthwakazian.
Those who can, let them hear!
Nhlanhla Moses writes in his capacity as a disaffected Mthwakazian!.
nhlanhlamoses@gmail.com
The whole smelly affair is not about respecting the heroic exploits of the esteemed Chief Mtshana but is instead, a ZANU PF publicity stunt, maliciously designed and politically weaponised to wood-wink the gullible into believing that the so-called new dispensation revers Mthwakazi heritage yet it is far from it, and will never be anywhere near that. Genuine respect and honour for Chief Mtshana would begin with the respect for the people of Matabeleland as a whole; their traditional leadership structures, culture and their desire for self-determination. It would hinge on the respect for King Lobhengula who sent Chief Mtshana on the military campaigns in which Chief Mtshana was not alone. The conferment and respect would also consider all the heroic fighters who were marshalled by Chief Mtshana. The same recognition would also be conferred on the Mthwakazi heroic culture which saw them successfully use inferior weapons to bring down the whites who were considered mighty and feared in neighboring countries including Mashonaland, whose citizens played alongside Allan Wilson and his cousins, after having been colonised years back in 1890.
Since the amalgamation of Matabeleland and Mashonaland by the whites after the Pupu Battle and others, the lives of the people of Matabeleland have continued to be miserable to date. Successive regimes since then, have pinned the necks of the Matabelelanders down and choked their breathe in stark contrast to what Chief Mtshana and other galant Mthwakazians fought for. The ZANU PF regime has for forty years heinously followed on the footsteps of the whites in even worse fashion in meticulously ensuring that Chief Mtshana's dream of defending the Mthwakazi Kingdom and cultural heritage remains a pipedream. Then someone, somewhere wickedly claims that they recognise Chief Mtshana as a hero. My foot! The respect of any heroic chief, like Mtshana, lies in the recognition of his people and king, our intelligent elders say.
A government that respects Chief Mtshana would not first wait for one of his gullible descendant successors to become a staunch ZANU-PF supporter and activist in order to respect and honour him for his unmatched exploits. The conferment of the hero status is nakedly the brainchild of the fact that the current chief Mtshana is the deputy to Fortune Charumbira in the ZANU-PF council of chiefs set up. Having taken more than 40 years to remember that Chief Mtshana was a hero speaks volumes about the intelligence of those esteemed thinkers who have made the latest discovery. Probably that explains why the country has no solutions to the myriad of failures it has gone through since the dethronement of King Lobhengula by the usurping whites. Like the discovery that Chief Mtshana is a hero, they will, in many years to come, discover how to fix the economic decay when when one of the sons or daughters of the economy joins ZANU-PF. Hollywood has not matched the comedy, either!
A government that truly respects Chief Mtshana would not subject his people to tribalistic exclusion like what the government of ZANU-PF is doing. Although whites discriminated against the subjects of Chief Mtshana, they did not deliberately exclude them from basic survival opportunities in their motherland like what is currently the case. Chief Mtshana fought for equality and freedom for his people and to honour him would be to grant them that.
Chief Mtshana also selflessly fought for the land of Mthwakazi and its kingdom. Anyone respecting him would not pioneer a well-calculated programme to displace his people from their ancestral land and only parcel it to people from Mashonaland like what is currently obtaining under the ZANU-PF government's so-called land-redistribution programme which has successfully ensured the occupation of Matabeleland by people from Mashonaland under the guise of distributing the land to landless blacks. The person who fervently respects Chief Mtshana would not block the instalment of King Lobhengula's successor and the establishment of the cultural kingdom thereof.
Another show of respect for Chief Mtshana would be to say the truth about why the government butchered more than 20,000 of the descendants of his subjects after the so-called independence which ironically confirmed the colonisation of Matabeleland by Mashonaland. The refusal to accept responsibility for the genocide further exposes the pretentiousness of those purporting to respect his legacy.
Any uncorrupted respect for Chief Mtshana would go with the respect for his King, uLobhengula Wamawaba! No reasonable person would respect a leaf but despise the tree on which it is ensconced. It is obvious that the trickery to appear to respect the heroic Chief is designed to ensure that Mbuya Nehanda remains projected as the perceived greater hero than King Mzilikazi, King Lobhengula, Chief Mtshana, Lookout Masuku and other Mthwakazi heroes. Chief Mtshana is being used as a decoy to bake ZANU-PF votes in future elections as all other promises to deliver have never been fulfilled since the country gained ZANU-political independence in 1980. The same lame tactic has been used by granting kingship status to the other ZANU-PF activist and bootlicker, Mr Mike Moyo, despite claims that the people of Mthwakazi cannot have a king because the ‘constitution' does not have provision for that. But alas, Moyo is now the self-proclaimed ZANU-PF Mambo king and is ironically the only one allowed to be king. What an honour to Chief Mtshana!
Our heroes are our heritage and shall not be selfishly and clandestinely declared as such by ZANU-PF to try and beautify its unalterable, deformed image. Pungently, the Mtshana hero status conferment is the stench unleashed on Matabeleland and her people and should never be embraced by any sound thinking and undrunk Mthwakazian.
Those who can, let them hear!
Nhlanhla Moses writes in his capacity as a disaffected Mthwakazian!.
nhlanhlamoses@gmail.com
Source - Nhlanhla Moses
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