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economic empowerment throughout the developing world.
We have every reason, whether we are black or white, to join hands in wishing President Mugabe a happy 87th birthday, but will we?
The problem was summed up in a song by sungura music maestro, Simon Chimbetu on his album, “African Panorama Chapter 1”;
KuSakubva kwatinogara havauye;
KuChitungwiza kumusha yevanhu havasvike,
Patinorangarira magamba havauye;
Pachisangano pamisha yevanhu havasvike;
Kuregererana navo kwaramba;
Kutaurirana navo ah kwaramba;
Chidzorera mweya wegamba mundima
Loosely translated the stanza above deplores the behaviour of a certain section of Zimbabweans, both black and white, who do not mix with the rest of the people, neither do they share the nation’s resolve for total independence.
They do not join the nation in commemorating national events, and their white counterparts, in their wisdom or lack of it, continue spurning the hand of reconciliation.
Chimbetu was bemoaning the separatist agenda pursued primarily by white Zimbabweans, and their black assimilados who feel they are post-modern and have nothing to do with history.
This is the underdeveloped petit bourgeoisie class plagued by intellectual and spiritual penury, which Franz Fanon interrogates in his book, “The Wretched of the Earth”.
They are always conspicuous by their absence from national events such as Independence, Heroes and National Unity Day celebrations.
The only time they came out in full force was during the referendum on the draft constitution, the general elections in 2000 and the 2002 presidential plebiscite and all elections thereafter as they hoped to add to MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s vote tally pursuant to effecting regime change.
The white section hoped to influence events so as to preserve the skewed colonial land tenure system, the black compradors hoped to continue fronting for multinational corporations.
The Zimbabwean nation is a cosmopolitan nation, which cherishes the beauty of diversity, which upholds the virtues of nationhood for the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Unlike the South Africans whose concept of the rainbow nation acknowledges the sovereignty of separateness; the rainbow being a natural phenomenon formed by the dispersion of white light into seven distinct colour bands which do not mix, except at the perceptual level, each colour band, signifying a racial or ethnic group. When these colours are reflected simultaneously, however, they become a white beam connoting that South Africa is still a white nation.
As Zimbabweans, we aspire for an integrated society where people identify themselves as Zimbabweans first before looking at any other peculiarities.
This was the central theme in Prime Minister-elect, Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s address to the nation on March 4 1980 as he proclaimed the policy of reconciliation;
“I wish to assure you that there can never be any return to the state of armed conflict which existed before our commitment to peace and the democratic process of election under the Lancaster House Agreement. Surely this is now time to beat our swords into ploughshares so we can attend to the problems of developing our economy and our society . . . I urge you, whether you are black or white, to join me in a new pledge to forget our grim past, forgive others and together, as Zimbabweans, trample upon racialism, tribalism and regionalism, and work hard to reconstruct and rehabilitate our society as we reinvigorate our economic machinery.”
This was also the theme of his inauguration address, after he was sworn in on April 18, 1980 at Rufaro Stadium.
Thirty years, going for 31, after this historic statement, it is quite regrettable that the hand of reconciliation has still not been shaken by those to whom it was proffered, those who in fact wronged the majority and thus should be more conciliatory.
They have instead maintained the “laager” mentality and a holier than thou attitude, steeped in the old colonial policy of separate development.
We, however, take pride in the success of our national unity, which was brought about by the signing of the Unity Accord between the two revolutionary parties, PF-Zapu and Zanu-PF, on December 22, 1987.
We cherish our countrymen’s resolve to refuse categorisation into ethnic groups, for this is what has wreaked most emergent African states.
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda and Burundi, is a case in point, where people perished because they agreed to identify themselves as Hutus or Tutsis before identifying with the national interest.
As Zimbabweans we have a proud history of collective action in the face of adversity. The first Chimurenga wars in Mashonaland and Matabeleland in 1893, saw the country’s two nationalities, the Shona-speaking and Ndebele-speaking people, uniting to fight a common enemy.
Shona and Ndebele are national languages they are not tribes, and we should hammer this message to detractors at every opportunity.
After all, the word tribe is a colonial construct, which was developed to divide and rule indigenous Zimbabweans. Why is it that there are no tribes in Europe or the United States? This is the question we should ask all detractors who want us to disabuse ourselves of nationhood.
When the Second Chimurenga broke out on April 27 1966, the seven gallant freedom fighters who fired the first shots were all from the two major nationalities, as was indeed the political parties Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu that waged the liberation war.
This unity of purpose was maintained right up to the attainment of independence on April 18, 1980. Detractors, however, tried to wreck this unity by sponsoring the Matabeleland and Midlands disturbances.
They still aim to capitalise on this period to get the indigenous people onto each other’s throats, what we need to remember is that, being a Zimbabwean is not a matter of skin colour, but a matter of shared historical and cultural experiences as well as convergent aspirations.
Thus there are some black Zimbabweans who are not Zimbabwean at heart, the assimmilados or compradors who feel they have made it in life and have no time to “waste” in celebrating “mundane” events like the national holidays.
Granted this is a democratic country where every man is king of his castle, but we need to remember that without the sacrifice of the thousands of patriots who laid down their lives so that we could have ours; these castles we live in today would still be in the air.
These people have embraced the neo-liberal discourse, which holds that history is not a factor in the present or the future. The “modern man” is not supposed to live in the past they parrot, but they conveniently forget that the very lands that are foisting this ideology on the developing world still revere monarchies, and events that occurred as far back as the 12th century.
As a nation we should be thankful to President Mugabe for promoting national cohesion, economic empowerment and holistic independence.
Happy 87th birthday Cde President, your style of leadership has spawned Mugabeism which is set to take the developing world by storm.
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