Let us value our Independence

As the country celebrates its 36th Independence Day anniversary, this is a time to address a growing tendency by some Zimbabweans to express unwarranted nostalgia for life in Rhodesia while disparaging the gains so far registered under a new Zimbabwe.

Such behaviour appears to be borrowed from unrepentant Rhodesians like T. Williams who recently wrote an opinion piece titled: We all miss Rhodesia and Ian Smith, in which he romanticized life in Rhodesia while trashing present life in Zimbabwe.

Willams expressed undiluted contempt for the life in Zimbabwe and paints a gory picture of degeneration and desperation among the common people in Zimbabwe.

He glorifies the Rhodesian times, saying: "Ian Smith was a hardworking exemplary leader, humble, dedicated and yes he helped built a dynamic country called Rhodesia where everyone had access to food, quality life and plenty of jobs and world class cities with a well-maintained infrastructure."
Williams further claims that: "Voters qualified to cast votes by property and educational qualifications. This was a perfect solution to avoid any Jack and Jill who had no clue on country management or economics to cast votes for incompetent leaders like the Moorgabies and Zumas of this world."

To place weight on his warped argument, Williams also cited one William Henry Chamberlain, who once described Rhodesia as follows: ‘There were few Police and no soldiers in sight. Many Africans lay stretched out in city parks, quite at easy. Rhodesia was prosperous and every educated person had a chance."

What hogwash!

Which Rhodesia are these two charlatans hallucinating about?

Why paint Rhodesia as a society of equal opportunities?

The two deliberately neglected to mention that all the described bliss and boom of that time was a well-guarded reserve of a handful white minority.

If blacks were not allowed to visit towns like Harare without a pass and even set foot in First Street, how would they have really "lay stretched out in city parks"?

These are all falsehoods.
The Rhodesian education system they are so fond of talking about was severely restrictive and stricken with bottlenecks that ensure that only a fistful of Blacks proceeded for secondary education, later alone tertiary education.

As unwittingly highlighted by Williams, the education system was also used to disenfranchise the black majority who were disqualified from voting in elections because they did not have any educational qualifications or own any properties in towns.

This cannot be compared with the universal suffrage being practiced now, with any adult Zimbabwean ascribed the right to vote in elections to choose the country's leaders.

Now Zimbabweans, whether qualified with PhDs or living with Grade seven educations, living in mansions or squatting in the streets, have a democratic right to vote for leaders of their choice in national elections.

 They have an inviolable right to determine their future, and would not repose their destiny into the hands of a few privileged and educated individuals as was the case in Rhodesia.
Government has come up with numerous schemes including free education, Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) and opening up more academic facilities around the country to ensure easy access to education for all.

It is only in the liberated Zimbabwe that people of all races could afford to lazy around urban parks not in Rhodesia.

In Rhodesia, there was no sleeping in the park as the black majority have to toil and sweat in farms and industries to sustain the luxury of the white minority.

 While it would be excusable for a die-hard Rhodie like Williams to reminisce about the brutal colonial and racist Rhodesian establishment, it is vexatious and unforgivable for blacks to also glorify the days of Ian Smith.

This Rhodie mentality appears to have infested social media talk, with some Zimbabweans born after Independence and without any colonial experience, suggesting that Rhodesia was a better place to independent Zimbabwe.

Whether it is jest or real concern, we frown at such low-levels of contempt and ungratefulness to those who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the country.

The independence to tweet and write disdainful opinions on social media is not the one they fought for.

Independence came with responsibility and patriotism, the ability to appreciate that despite any challenges that might bedevil the country, patriotic citizens would not rubbish their freedom to wish for the bondage of colonialism.

No-matter how the Americans or Europeans are bombed or savaged by terrorists, we have never heard them reminiscing for the dark eras in history.

In fact those challenges have an effect to coalesce them against their adversaries.

We cannot accept those who belittle our country and attack our leaders in the safety of the independence they are rubbishing.

Our independence was hard-won and should be cherished and given due respect.

No amount of suffering should spur people to wish for colonialism.

Happy Independence Day Zimbabwe.