Mugabe and friends need to know we will change history narrative

The recent exposure of the fictional story that has made it into Zimbabwe's textbooks about Joice Mujuru downing a helicopter with an AK47 has confirmed what a lot of citizens had always been questioning about the false narrative. It is just one of many falsifications of Zimbabwe's history that will have to be erased in future. The war generation needs to know that our generation without their bitterness will alter the narrative of the war and the history of the country. This article will deal with a few of them that the writer can fit into this short piece – the list is not exhaustive.

Colonialism was super bad bad bad

How better off a country is in Africa is directly proportional to the number of years it was colonised. The longer they were colonised the better off economically, infrastructure-wise and institutionally. One cannot compare South Africa and Zimbabwe's inherited infrastructure with any other countries on the continent having been the last to get 'independence'. As you go northwards and see countries that got their independence in the 1960s one begins to appreciate the scale of impoverishment – not by colonisation, but by the destruction of colonial time infrastructure in tandem with failure to replace it with our own. This despite so much education and natural resources among Africans.

I was talking to my son as he studied under candle-light recently and he excitedly told me that the Government will soon be building a new electricity power generator at a place called Batoka Gorge! With resignation i had to tell him that that was what I was taught at school too over 30 years ago! Back then it was an imminent and top priority project. I had to politely tell him that the project had been identified and drawn up by the 'colonialists' but our black government has been great at talking about it just like they do about new roads, dams, Zambezi water project. Good lord we cannot even carry out land reapportionment properly!

While colonialism was designed to resettle whites from their overcrowded cold countries, siphon resources and use indigenous people's manpower in doing so - one cannot dismiss the fact that the continent benefitted more than lost. Zimbabwe was colonised for 83yrs, less than a century. Within that time we have jumped from being the primitive iron-age folk straight onto the modern age! We are educated, can work and travel around the globe (Lobengula and Mbuya Nehanda did not even know how to build boats!). History talks about how Mzilikazi had to travel via Botswana to get into Zimbabwe all because there was the small case of crossing the wide Limpopo river. We are not talking building bridges here, merely something that floats and needs wooden oars. I digress. Africans are competing in world markets in all areas of business and that is a good thing.

Robert Mugabe and his government need to know that we will look at his 40 years tenure and compare what they achieved compared to the settlers. The comparison will look at the roads they built, the schools, dams, water pipe-lines, electrification and all other developmental indicators. The notion that whites looted everything in Zimbabwe in just 80years will be revisited.

Guerilla war was won

While we are used to our leaders beating their chests about 'winning the war', we also have to match that with other sources – like civilians, their opponents and external influences. It is a fact that none of the liberation movements controlled any territory in Rhodesia. It is not like they had captured any town and were governing it? Looking at conflicts globally one sees rebels controlling and governing certain regions then fighting to capture another. Both Zanla and Zipra were still operating from the safety of neighbouring Mozambique and Zambia respectively. The first time both parties tasted governing was after the talks. While the war effort forced the settlers to the negotiating table it had no victor.

At the talks the prize that was being fought for – the land, was to be spoken about 10 years later (not handed over). Just how does a losing Tendai fighting Dumi over a loaf of bread dictate the terms of its transfer? The truth as Rex Nhongo put it at the end of the war was that it was a 'draw-draw'.

Gukurahundi was a civil war

This is a topic that even after a unity government formed in 1987 and then separated in 2008 is never discussed openly within sight of government eyes purely out of fear! It appears both Zapu and Zanu-pf signed a pact of silence on the thorny issue. It is clear that former Zapu people in government have opted to collude with their Zanu-pf counterparts to sweep the genocide under the carpet. Well, guess what there are many who are talking and writing about what they witnessed and their roles. We will listen to them and include their accounts in proper history books.

The first time I worked in Matebeleland in the late 80s I was shocked at how it seemed everyone was so aggrieved and angry at their Shona countrymen. I was at pains to explain my understanding of the Gukurahundi conflict, but I took my time to listen to them. They had lived through it, I had not. I understood their grief and knew they could not all be halluscinating about massacres that never happened. Their narrative whether this government likes it or not will be written in history. A legacy for the liberation party. More than 30000 innocent civilians and you expect history to never talk about them and investigate?

The mass graves will be opened. The victims will speak. To be fair to Zanu-pf we will also take record of the number of dissidents their 'army' managed to kill in the 'civil war'. A balanced history will be heard

There was no alternative to land-grabs

Adolf Hitler is infamous amongst white folk because he sought to grab successful Jews' accumulated wealth and influence in Germany to give it back to the indigenous Germanic people. While it was noble he went about it in a primitive way that cost Germans dearly after their loss in the war. He could have passed laws in parliament since Germans were a majority. He could also have raised taxation targeting Jews.

White farmers took the land using laws that they set up including the Land Apportionment Act of 1930. The all-white voting parliament passed those laws in their favour. Fast forward to Zanu-pf era, what prevented an all-black parliament to vote on the legal reversal of land ownership? Some detractors may say it was rejected in the 2000 constitutional referendum, well the truth is that underneath the land issue was hidden the serious issue of endless presidential terms. So in effect Robert Mugabe's government was using the land issue to mask his ambitions life-presidency.

Zimbabwe did not need the chaotic war vets invading farms. The post men could have done it by dropping eviction letters citing laws passed in our black parliament. Those not complying could have been removed by the police.

That above is in keeping with writing history favourably for Mugabe because the truth of the matter is that our country is better off multi-racial. Most of the farmers were Zimbabweans 200% - born and bred. The reforms should have had a place for them. Eye for an eye makes the world blind.

A civil but effective method would have been to increase taxation on land according to its classification in the Land Apportionment Act of 1930. Very high figures would have flushed out under-utilisers. Productive farmers would be able to pay. It is not a secret that Zanu-pf panicked when Tony Blair demanded accountability for donor funding and the annual funds the UK was giving Zimbabwe to help its reforms. They no longer had a source of money they were used to splashing out and achieving nothing. So taxing the farmers would have generated the money Mugabe needed to buy his rural voters as he often does and also freed up land for him to resettle people. Every true Zimbabwean would be a winner.

Deaths of opponents

A lot of this government's opponents have been killed, some prominent and some not so much. There have been multiple staged car accidents and recently even fires. There have been assassinations. We will investigate the deaths of people like Sydney Malunga, Josiah Tongogara, Moven Mahachi, Herbert Chitepo, Maurice Nyagumbo, Sydney Malunga, Solomon Mujuru, Edward Chindori Chininga, Mthandazo Ndema Ngwenya and many others. If Zanu-pf and its president were not involved then they have nothing to worry about. All they need to know is that all the whispering voices will be listened to and they will be heard. History will record their witness statements. The future generations will work out the truth.

The definition of a hero

The national heroes' acre must be exactly that – national. Not ruling party acre. The criteria since it was built has been that of being peer-reviewed by fellow Magandangas and pre-independence political jail-bird connections. It is extremely partisan and exclusive.

The new non-poisoned generation do not need Robert Mugabe or Zanu-pf to tell us that Ndabaningi Sithole was a national hero. If Joshua Nkomo had died without having joined up with Zanu-pf there is little doubt that he would have been buried with labels of sell-out somewhere near Kezi in Matebeleland South. The hero classification is one of many short-sighted arrangements by this government. The other prominent one is second Vice-presidency being allocated to Zapu members. Since they were swallowed into Zanu-pf nearly 30 years ago, who is meant to be 'Zapu'? What happens when this generation passes on? Who will be be Zapu within Zanu-pf? Arguments are being made in forums on what to do with the Zanu-pf heroes' acre. Suggestions range from filling it up with concrete to erase dead memories.

There were no other contributors to the liberation war

Reading a Form 4 history book today a lot of students would fail any simple question regarding Zapu and Zipra in the war. The suffering and strife on the civilians whose chickens and goats provided all the food for the comrades 'who swam in the sea' as guerrilla warfare refers to the innocents. History will acknowledge the sacrifices made by the people of Zimbabwe who bore the brunt of Pungwes, being beaten up by all armed groups.

The President's wife has a PhD

It appears only Robert Mugabe and Zanu-pf think everyone else is a fool so as not to see that his wife is a fake Dokotera. Out of fear of violence from the party and current government we will make noises from behind our safe arm-chairs. The future generation will not be as kind. They will write about how corrupt the President was and it will be in text books. I just thought the future generation should let you know what we will do. You can go ahead and give her a Professorship of Physics at NUST next month or even To those who have their story to tell this writer says get writing. It will be read and you will be head. The Zanufication of our country's history will be corrected, not by my powers nor of the ruling party but the objectivity and soberness of my generation and that of our children. Shingai Mugochi A lay Concerned Zimbabwean