Are people from Matebeleland genuinely Zimbabweans

Anyone who's seen Faith Silandulo Dube , Dr Glen Ncube, Tish Ncube Malaba Discos, Discent Collins Bajila, Dr Mandlenkosi Mpofu or Canaan S'qholo seZhwane Ncube Comrades or anyone from my family (Chief Tategulu Mswigana Sigabade)...??? I have a message for them from their 92 year old, President & Head of State - of Zimbabwe! That they are from Plumtree, Khezi & Tsholotsho respectively. Impliedly, they are 'thieves' & 'uneducated', so he says! This is what you hear when you put tribalist sorcerers in power!

The simple response you may get is that the President is an 'Idiot.' Of course, he is. And has always been. But when you put tribalists in power you must understand that their engagement of issues is often autochthonous, & at worst delusional, stupid and completely irrational.

Mugabe's statement, while read from the standpoint of his age & typified with spectacles of senility, in which, everything he says carries features of what he has always believed in, should be understood as rooted in Shona tribal folklore, which sees & presents others as 'different' & at worst 'non-beings' (dzviti).

It would be recalled that when Mugabe became Prime Minister in the 80s he engendered a culture in which, 'people from Matebeleland' had to be 're-oriented' (to use his words). By that he was affirming that they either have to be violently forced to embrace a particular way of seeing things & understanding themselves in order for them to be accepted as 'human beings' & ultimately, Zimbabwean. Or else, they would be labelled as 'nhunzvatunzva' (as they used to call us) or non-beings (dzviti) & be killed.


That streak of 'othering' now manifests itself boldly in his stereotypical representation of Kalangas (which should be read as Ndebeles) as 'thieves' & 'uneducated'. It should be further read as part of a detailed but continuing tribal Shona narrative that presents Ndebele women as 'prostitutes' & 'loose', while their men are seen as brutally lecherous, with an unparalleled penchant for carelessly impregnating women & not taking care of their children (as Grace Mugabe once put it). But no one has bothered to ask; why it is that those Mugabe often labels so negatively, have not benefitted from the state & remain 'uneducated' when Zimbabwe boasts about having such a high literacy rate? Or should the notion of 'literacy rate' be understood to denote the number of those who can 'read' & 'write', in which case, should we interpret his statements to mean that the Kalanga (impliedly the people from Matebeleland) are not 'educateable'?

Doesn't that confirm why we have often argued that Zimbabwe is a tribalised state, led by tribalists who have never seen the regions of Matebeleland as part of Zimbabwe? Doesn't that buttress the calls by the people from Matebeleland for a separate state? What does it say about those of our people who are, Kalanga or have Kalanga blood in them but continue working & serving in his government?

If a sitting Head of State can afford to negatively label one ethnic group in a state he leads, what does it say about those from his ethnic group who often label Ndebele women as, 'loose' or at worst, 'prostitutes'? How about his wife's statements that 'Ndebele men lack morals' & have a tendency to go around carelessly bearing children?

What do we learn about this, supposedly, FIRST FAMILY, whose father & mother are so steeped in tribal bigotry? Are people from Matebeleland genuinely Zimbabweans, or should they see themselves as 'victims of Zimbabwe' - i.e., an identity that's been violently forced on them?...the story unfolds...the narrative is endless..

Brilliant Sigabade Mhlanga is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire.