Opinion / Columnist
Four Decades of Uhuru - Minus.....
09 Apr 2022 at 08:21hrs | Views
"ZIMBABWEANS at 42" is the shrill theme on many a Zimbabwean lip as our nation ages towards April 18 which marks 42 years of freedom and independence for our motherland - but so what?
So what!
Ours is an Uhuru without a picture of skeletons of the gallant sons and daughters of the soil and fellow patriots slaughtered by white racist oppressors in colonial Rhodesia and littering the tear-soaked road they were busy constructing towards April 18 1980 when the colonial flag went down to be replaced by our national flag bearing the symbol of an anointed eagle with a tradition of mounting higher and higher into the sky, unperturbed by any surrounding obstacles.
It is a picture that should hang ad infinitum in the eyes of Zimbabweans who ululated and danced in celebrating the advent, at long last, of self-determination in our motherland as well as in the eyes of toddlers in 1980 and no doubt probably, more importantly, in the eyes of those in the wombs of their mothers at the time and others yet to be born.
It is the picture that should immortalise the armed revolution which freed blacks from the knuckles of brutal white foreign rule.
The picture in point above is, as you (yes, you) might have rightly guessed, a liberation history of our motherland which is of paramount importance in catalysing unmitigated patriotism as a watch dog of our hard won independence.
It is no exaggeration by this communicologist to humbly suggest that the absence of a history of the liberation of this country 42 years on is nothing short of a tragic irony as some of those Zimbabweans born into freedom and still pervaded by ignorance of the oppression of blacks by those without knees might be lured by cheap foreign imperialist propaganda to turn against the Zanu-PF or any other future government and in the process reverse the gains of our independence.
In the circumstances one is apt to wonder if an idea publicly stated by this country's first president, Robert, before he passed on 2019 about the formation of a panel of historians to write a liberation history of our country was interred with his bones as nothing has been heard in latter years.
But what importance do Zimbabwean historians think they exist for if they cannot write the history of the liberation of their motherland but prance around while hugging themselves for knowing and teaching British and/ or American history, both those histories written by natives of the two nations about the liberation of their native land from foreign control.
The late Zanu-PF National Spokesperson and liberation war hero, Simon Khaya Moyo, is on record telling this scribe that some Zimbabweans writing about the liberation of this country did so only for self-edification and - and no one alive today has proven him wrong.
Our Second Republic government has no doubt been preoccupied with keeping the country intact economically and politically in the wake of illegal Western economic sanctions designed to remove Zanu-PF from power for introducing the land reform to unite blacks with land stolen from them by white settlers and in the process promoting the revolution that brought us freedom and independence.
It therefore, behoves on the historical society of this country - or for one such body to be set up if none exists at present - to put together historians to write the story of the liberation of our country and this writer has no doubt that trained journalists and authors like Dr Obert Mpofu, Secretary for Administration in Zanu-PF, and others like him who participated in the liberation struggle from exile or here at home will become handy in the perfection of such historical accounts to keep the armed revolution live and into brave new futures and in that way slam the door completely shut to neocolonialism.
Now is the time to write that history with many of those cadres who were involved in the armed revolution still alive to provide vital accounts for that important history to grace library shelves across the country for foreigners to also grasp the picture of the dynamics of Zimbabwe's liberation and freedom.
Finally, therefore, the liberation history in point in this discourse will add impetus to unity, peace and stability for unimpeded political, economic and social development and in that way serve as a destiny propeller for our proud nation.
So what!
Ours is an Uhuru without a picture of skeletons of the gallant sons and daughters of the soil and fellow patriots slaughtered by white racist oppressors in colonial Rhodesia and littering the tear-soaked road they were busy constructing towards April 18 1980 when the colonial flag went down to be replaced by our national flag bearing the symbol of an anointed eagle with a tradition of mounting higher and higher into the sky, unperturbed by any surrounding obstacles.
It is a picture that should hang ad infinitum in the eyes of Zimbabweans who ululated and danced in celebrating the advent, at long last, of self-determination in our motherland as well as in the eyes of toddlers in 1980 and no doubt probably, more importantly, in the eyes of those in the wombs of their mothers at the time and others yet to be born.
It is the picture that should immortalise the armed revolution which freed blacks from the knuckles of brutal white foreign rule.
The picture in point above is, as you (yes, you) might have rightly guessed, a liberation history of our motherland which is of paramount importance in catalysing unmitigated patriotism as a watch dog of our hard won independence.
It is no exaggeration by this communicologist to humbly suggest that the absence of a history of the liberation of this country 42 years on is nothing short of a tragic irony as some of those Zimbabweans born into freedom and still pervaded by ignorance of the oppression of blacks by those without knees might be lured by cheap foreign imperialist propaganda to turn against the Zanu-PF or any other future government and in the process reverse the gains of our independence.
In the circumstances one is apt to wonder if an idea publicly stated by this country's first president, Robert, before he passed on 2019 about the formation of a panel of historians to write a liberation history of our country was interred with his bones as nothing has been heard in latter years.
But what importance do Zimbabwean historians think they exist for if they cannot write the history of the liberation of their motherland but prance around while hugging themselves for knowing and teaching British and/ or American history, both those histories written by natives of the two nations about the liberation of their native land from foreign control.
The late Zanu-PF National Spokesperson and liberation war hero, Simon Khaya Moyo, is on record telling this scribe that some Zimbabweans writing about the liberation of this country did so only for self-edification and - and no one alive today has proven him wrong.
Our Second Republic government has no doubt been preoccupied with keeping the country intact economically and politically in the wake of illegal Western economic sanctions designed to remove Zanu-PF from power for introducing the land reform to unite blacks with land stolen from them by white settlers and in the process promoting the revolution that brought us freedom and independence.
It therefore, behoves on the historical society of this country - or for one such body to be set up if none exists at present - to put together historians to write the story of the liberation of our country and this writer has no doubt that trained journalists and authors like Dr Obert Mpofu, Secretary for Administration in Zanu-PF, and others like him who participated in the liberation struggle from exile or here at home will become handy in the perfection of such historical accounts to keep the armed revolution live and into brave new futures and in that way slam the door completely shut to neocolonialism.
Now is the time to write that history with many of those cadres who were involved in the armed revolution still alive to provide vital accounts for that important history to grace library shelves across the country for foreigners to also grasp the picture of the dynamics of Zimbabwe's liberation and freedom.
Finally, therefore, the liberation history in point in this discourse will add impetus to unity, peace and stability for unimpeded political, economic and social development and in that way serve as a destiny propeller for our proud nation.
Source - The Chronicle
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
