Opinion / Columnist
Peace be unto our motherland, Zimbabwe!
13 Apr 2025 at 09:43hrs | Views
Sometime in 2018 - it must have been on December 19 - protests broke out in a small town in Sudan, Atbara, which was relatively unknown to the world, after bread prices more than tripled.
It was yet another spark in Sudan's combustible politics, which was worsened by debilitating fuel shortages and a festering currency crisis.
Yet this time it was different.
The protests quickly spread to almost all major towns.
Ever since the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is seemingly devolving into a failed state
Although Khartoum was the last to join, demonstrations in the capital were well- organised. Sudan's strongman Omar-al Bashir's security forces bared their sharp fangs, but the demonstrators remained dogged and determined.
Of course, for a long time, they had always been waiting for moments like these. Since 2013, groups that later mutated into the putschist movement, such as the Sudanese Professionals Association and student- and youth-led neighbourhood resistance committees (NRCs) - eerily similar to the democratic resistance committees (DRCs) of the Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC - had been honing their organising skills for an eventual showdown with the government.
And for a country that was being asphyxiated by United States sanctions, and whose wealth had taken a turn for the worse, especially after the secession of the oil-rich South Sudan in July 2011, Sudan had been teetering on the brink.
In the politically charged environment, what started out as protests against soaring prices of bread quickly morphed into a putschist movement to oust al-Bashir.
On Christmas Day, December 25, six days after the demonstrations began, Sudan's then-spy chief, Salah Gosh, held a press conference and blamed Israel's Mossad and opposition parties as the hidden hand that was now choreographing the unrest.
The revelations gave the clearest hint that the flames of the disturbances were now being stoked not from within but without Sudan.
On New Year's Day in 2019, civic and political groups coalesced and formed a united front called Forces of Freedom and Change, which began coordinating the demonstrations, which thereon assumed a life of their own.
The protests snowballed.
The long-running political drama took a decisive turn on April 6 when thousands besieged the military headquarters in Khartoum and staged a sit-in.
Five days later, the military, faced with demonstrations that were becoming increasingly intractable, as well as dangerously rising disaffection against the regime, put its thumb on the scale by placing al-Bashir under house arrest, marking an end to his 30-year reign.
Throughout this difficult period, the Western media romanticised the putschist movement and its activists, portraying them as hallowed heroes and heroines of valour who had stood up to the supposedly much-loathed and abominable dictator, al-Bashir. The ouster of al-Bashir created a vacuum and concomitant rat race to control the levers of power.
No sooner had the marriage of convenience between those who fronted the demonstrations and the military been consummated than it began unravelling.
Predictably, conflicting interests drove a wedge between these uneasy bedfellows.
The centre could no longer hold.
The tussle and uneasy relationship between the Transitional Military Council, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the Sovereign Council of Sudan, led by Abdalla Hamdok, continued.
Ultimately, this troubled and awkward political arrangement spectacularly collapsed on April 15, 2023 when a full-scale war between SAF and Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group headed by the notorious Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, broke out.
Now, with gun-toting belligerents frolicking in Sudanese towns, cities and the countryside, it has been a grim two years for the beleaguered Northeast African country.
All those so-called valorous protesters have since been turned into hapless and hopeless refugees as their country gradually devolves into a failed state.
Estimates suggest that fatalities from the raging conflict could be more than 100 000, while a shocking 14 million people - more or less the population of our teapot-shaped Republic - have been displaced.
It gets worse.
Close to a million people now face unimaginable levels of hunger.
By all accounts, this is now one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
For Bishop Lazi, this is clearly a worse state of affairs than that which obtained under al-Bashir.
Essentially, what the excitable Sudanese protesters did in 2019 was to sow the wind and they are now reaping a whirlwind.
Hosea 10:12-14 instructively counsels: "Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors, the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated - as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children. So will it happen to you, Bethel, because your wickedness is great.
"When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed."
We have seen this script far too often.
It is a fate that befell the Libyans, whose life have become miserable ever since the assassination of their leader, Muammar Gaddafi, on October 30, 2011.
Peace by all means
All these, and many others around the continent and the world, are cautionary tales that underline the importance of peace.
As the Bishop always preaches, peace should be jealously guarded at all costs.
Once lost, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible in some instances, to recover.
As a country that went through close to 14 years of a bloodletting war to attain our independence in 1980, some of us have witnessed the grotesque underbelly of war and conflict.
You wouldn't wish it on anyone.
It is best captured in the song "Hondo" by the late Simon Chimbetu, himself a liberation war hero.
He sang:
Hondo ine ropa, rufu kuparadza, mata-mbudziko mukati mehondo.
Usatanga imwe hondo
Seiko uchitanga imwe hondo?
Mumwe wangu wee wafunga imwe hondo
Seiko uchitanga imwe hondo?
Imi muchapera, tese tinopera,
Vana vevamwe vanopera
Tichasvitsana kwemakore
Usatanga imwe hondo
In short, his message was: War and conflict could only guarantee mutually assured destruction.
This is precisely the reason President ED never misses an opportunity to exhort the nation to safeguard peace, which, for us, was paid for in blood.
After taking back our land from white settlers - a key objective of the liberation struggle - the ultimate war that we are now fighting is to lift our people out of poverty into prosperity.
And this is the main motivation of the Second Republic.
Over the past seven years, we have made tremendous headway, but more still needs to be done. So, since war and conflict are antithetical to development, whoever preaches and champions them are enemies of both the people and the State.
Matthew 10:15-19 says: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them."
Thankfully, Zimbabweans, who know better, ignored recent calls by putschist elements to demonstrate.
It, however, reminds us, especially as we celebrate 45 years of Uhuru this week, that we should remain vigilant.
We must have peace by all means.
Bishop out!
It was yet another spark in Sudan's combustible politics, which was worsened by debilitating fuel shortages and a festering currency crisis.
Yet this time it was different.
The protests quickly spread to almost all major towns.
Ever since the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is seemingly devolving into a failed state
Although Khartoum was the last to join, demonstrations in the capital were well- organised. Sudan's strongman Omar-al Bashir's security forces bared their sharp fangs, but the demonstrators remained dogged and determined.
Of course, for a long time, they had always been waiting for moments like these. Since 2013, groups that later mutated into the putschist movement, such as the Sudanese Professionals Association and student- and youth-led neighbourhood resistance committees (NRCs) - eerily similar to the democratic resistance committees (DRCs) of the Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC - had been honing their organising skills for an eventual showdown with the government.
And for a country that was being asphyxiated by United States sanctions, and whose wealth had taken a turn for the worse, especially after the secession of the oil-rich South Sudan in July 2011, Sudan had been teetering on the brink.
In the politically charged environment, what started out as protests against soaring prices of bread quickly morphed into a putschist movement to oust al-Bashir.
On Christmas Day, December 25, six days after the demonstrations began, Sudan's then-spy chief, Salah Gosh, held a press conference and blamed Israel's Mossad and opposition parties as the hidden hand that was now choreographing the unrest.
The revelations gave the clearest hint that the flames of the disturbances were now being stoked not from within but without Sudan.
On New Year's Day in 2019, civic and political groups coalesced and formed a united front called Forces of Freedom and Change, which began coordinating the demonstrations, which thereon assumed a life of their own.
The protests snowballed.
The long-running political drama took a decisive turn on April 6 when thousands besieged the military headquarters in Khartoum and staged a sit-in.
Five days later, the military, faced with demonstrations that were becoming increasingly intractable, as well as dangerously rising disaffection against the regime, put its thumb on the scale by placing al-Bashir under house arrest, marking an end to his 30-year reign.
Throughout this difficult period, the Western media romanticised the putschist movement and its activists, portraying them as hallowed heroes and heroines of valour who had stood up to the supposedly much-loathed and abominable dictator, al-Bashir. The ouster of al-Bashir created a vacuum and concomitant rat race to control the levers of power.
No sooner had the marriage of convenience between those who fronted the demonstrations and the military been consummated than it began unravelling.
Predictably, conflicting interests drove a wedge between these uneasy bedfellows.
The centre could no longer hold.
The tussle and uneasy relationship between the Transitional Military Council, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the Sovereign Council of Sudan, led by Abdalla Hamdok, continued.
Ultimately, this troubled and awkward political arrangement spectacularly collapsed on April 15, 2023 when a full-scale war between SAF and Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group headed by the notorious Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, broke out.
Now, with gun-toting belligerents frolicking in Sudanese towns, cities and the countryside, it has been a grim two years for the beleaguered Northeast African country.
All those so-called valorous protesters have since been turned into hapless and hopeless refugees as their country gradually devolves into a failed state.
Estimates suggest that fatalities from the raging conflict could be more than 100 000, while a shocking 14 million people - more or less the population of our teapot-shaped Republic - have been displaced.
It gets worse.
Close to a million people now face unimaginable levels of hunger.
By all accounts, this is now one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
For Bishop Lazi, this is clearly a worse state of affairs than that which obtained under al-Bashir.
Essentially, what the excitable Sudanese protesters did in 2019 was to sow the wind and they are now reaping a whirlwind.
Hosea 10:12-14 instructively counsels: "Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors, the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated - as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children. So will it happen to you, Bethel, because your wickedness is great.
"When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed."
We have seen this script far too often.
It is a fate that befell the Libyans, whose life have become miserable ever since the assassination of their leader, Muammar Gaddafi, on October 30, 2011.
Peace by all means
All these, and many others around the continent and the world, are cautionary tales that underline the importance of peace.
As the Bishop always preaches, peace should be jealously guarded at all costs.
Once lost, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible in some instances, to recover.
As a country that went through close to 14 years of a bloodletting war to attain our independence in 1980, some of us have witnessed the grotesque underbelly of war and conflict.
You wouldn't wish it on anyone.
It is best captured in the song "Hondo" by the late Simon Chimbetu, himself a liberation war hero.
He sang:
Hondo ine ropa, rufu kuparadza, mata-mbudziko mukati mehondo.
Usatanga imwe hondo
Seiko uchitanga imwe hondo?
Mumwe wangu wee wafunga imwe hondo
Seiko uchitanga imwe hondo?
Imi muchapera, tese tinopera,
Vana vevamwe vanopera
Tichasvitsana kwemakore
Usatanga imwe hondo
In short, his message was: War and conflict could only guarantee mutually assured destruction.
This is precisely the reason President ED never misses an opportunity to exhort the nation to safeguard peace, which, for us, was paid for in blood.
After taking back our land from white settlers - a key objective of the liberation struggle - the ultimate war that we are now fighting is to lift our people out of poverty into prosperity.
And this is the main motivation of the Second Republic.
Over the past seven years, we have made tremendous headway, but more still needs to be done. So, since war and conflict are antithetical to development, whoever preaches and champions them are enemies of both the people and the State.
Matthew 10:15-19 says: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them."
Thankfully, Zimbabweans, who know better, ignored recent calls by putschist elements to demonstrate.
It, however, reminds us, especially as we celebrate 45 years of Uhuru this week, that we should remain vigilant.
We must have peace by all means.
Bishop out!
Source - The Sunday Mail
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