Zimpapers Logo

Cde Chinx

Reason Wafawarova on Monday
The largely undocumented, but vitally important liberation history is one of the most cherished parts of the foundational legacy of this nation. Through his modest life during and after the liberation struggle, Cde Chinx, (Dickson Chingaira) did what has now turned to be a subject of great magnitude — sing and mobilise for the sole purpose of patriotism and the courage to fight for justice.

In doing this, the now late comrade did the most, and Zimbabwe will miss his voice, his person, his character, and his indisputable love for the motherland.

We all know that the liberation struggle was a decisive period of our national epoch, and we know that everyone who said so at the time was right, including Cde Chinx through song.

We also know the liberation war now lies more than four decades behind us, and nowadays our sense of history is fast being destroyed by the nature of our history itself — our collective memory is very short, and it continues to grow shorter and shorter under the rapidity of the assault events, not least the adulteration of culture within the liberation movement itself.

We have come all the way from the heroism of Herbert Chitepo, the radicalism of Edgar Tekere, the witty pride of Edison Zvobgo, the political fatherliness of Joshua Nkomo, the intellectual prowess of Herbert Chitepo, the shrewdness and fluency of Robert Mugabe, the bravery of Josiah Magama Tongogara and Lookout Masuku; down to the despicable intellectual foolishness of tweeting professors, as well as to the madness of fat kid thugs masquerading as the custodians of the structures and pillars of the liberation movement itself, even deriding war veterans in the process.

What once occupied our minds and filled the musty night rally venues with the awareness of heroism and destiny has now become chiefly a matter of putting up with clowns in the corridors of power.

This essay is not only about the essence of the legacy of heroes to which people like Chinx belong, but also about how we are going to confront life going forward; how we are going to confront corruption, patronage, nepotism, mediocrity, selfishness, crime, treachery, factionalism, and life itself after the tenure of President Mugabe. We now live in an era where politics is a subject presumed to be everyone’s daily business, and this has been made possible by the dawn of social media. It is good that ideas and ideals are now playing a key role in almost everyone’s mindset, but of course not everyone can think properly and progressively.

On social media you can have breathtaking foolishness where a Cabinet minister can get so carried away into political fanaticism to the point of labelling a programme run by a government to which he is part “ugly-culture” — all to attract cheap popularity among anonymous online supporters. In the process all the tenets of public policy implementation are thrown out through the window, as well as the professionalism required in any bureaucracy, or simple human decency itself. The liberation movement itself has shifted from its socialist past to a modernised form of blind political activism seemingly focused only on power and patronage. We believed during the liberation war that politics was pastoral, only to move into this era where most of us have come to face this betrayal of patriots and political allies. Some have said the revolution is eating its own children, and it is not easy to dismiss the claim.

We do not want to come to a point where people like George Orwell came to conclude that what had been perceived to be agrarian in Spain had eventually turned out to be a new form of imperialism. Many good people undertook our land reclamation initiative as a moral commitment, and it would be sad if everything turns out to be an engagement in ultimate immorality. This is why I stand stiff and disgusted whenever I hear people trading land for political loyalty not to the country but to particular political groupings, or simply for pending votes.

We do not want to come to the embarrassing situation where one day it will be fashionable to listen to personal confession of involvement and then disillusionment with the liberation movement.

I stand as a son of the liberation struggle, and my writing today is about disillusionment with the party that fronts our liberation movement, but it is not a confession of evil, and will never be.

It is like my disillusionment with the way the National Youth Service was being run during my tenure with the programme. That disillusionment is not a confession that the programme itself was about evil intentions: never.

I do not share the a priori antagonistic feelings of people in the opposition towards ZANU-PF, towards the liberation struggle, or towards initiatives like the NYS, land reform, economic empowerment and so on. I have come across many uneasy and rather vindictive jokes about these, and about our country even; and I find such jokes in very bad taste, and frankly unfair most of the time.

There is nothing shameful about ZANU-PF, about the liberation struggle, or about ideological initiatives like the NYS.

The commitment to wage a war for independence was made in the first place for noble reasons, and so was the formation of ZANU-PF itself. No doubt the revulsion we see today was brought about by more than sufficient causes, even within the party membership itself.

Clearly there is nothing wrong in wishing to record the painful experiences we have had and to draw conclusions from such. But let us face it: when you have the combination of uneasy readers of books written by unhappy writers it becomes a fact that biases become the order of the day. The moral tone in our newspapers today is less simple and true than we might all wish it to be.

Opinionated journalists interview me so frequently, and some times the questioning does not even rise to the level of nonsense. The bias is astoundingly insulting to the profession of journalism.

It is like reading with an expectation of morality and objectivity the recording of whatever Emmerson Mnangagwa touches or does from the writings of Professor Jonathan Moyo — a wish simply incapable of ever happening. As far as the latter is concerned, VP Mnangagwa is simply incapable of doing anything good, however good whatever he does in the eyes of other persons. My shift towards the shortcomings within ZANU-PF and the liberation movement is not the occasion for a change of heart, or for a crisis of the soul. I have learned of very painful truths within the liberation movement, and such truths disturb me immensely, and to a good extent have made me change my course of conduct. But I have not been destroyed, and neither has my ground been cut under me. I have not abandoned the cause, and will never do. I am born of the revolution and of the revolution I will be buried.

Nothing in the politics of Zimbabwe cut the ground under the feet of Cde Chinx either, even the bitterness of the neglect of the war veteran, or the loss of his house in Kambuzuma. His faith was not shattered, as is not my own faith, his political impulse was not weakened by neglect or betrayal, his direction was not changed to the point of death, and so won’t be mine.

To me the shortcomings we are seeing today within the liberation movement must not produce a moment of guilt or self-recrimination. Rather we must learn from the evil culture brought to the revolution by the telling idiots who have found their way into leadership positions within the national revolution itself.

When I look at people like Edgar Tekere and Edison Zvobgo I see characters like George Orwell, unusual kind of men with a temper of mind and heart which is now so rare, and has been replaced by characters with hopeless bootlicking tendencies.

How we miss Sydney Malunga and Lazarus Nzarayebani — those politicians of old with a raw sense of frankness that has disappeared from our Parliament and replaced by jokers with a sickening sense of childishness.

Chris Mutsvangwa tells us that one day when Cabinet minutes will be made public we will have a feel of his temper of mind and heart. I think we need to see more of these brave characters in real life than we should read about them in declassified documents. When we write we affect other people’s lives, and I am humbled when I see young adults like Francis Mupazviriwo telling me that they never missed any of my articles since their high school days, and that their view of our country has been influenced immensely by those articles, or when I receive those numerous request for assistance and advice from university students studying politics, international relations, or journalism across our country.

This alone means intellectual responsibility is key in the art of writing. We cannot be as reckless as to follow factional agendas or crude propaganda for the express purpose of power retention or preservation. In the process we could be leading many youngsters astray, and that by any measure is an unforgivable abomination.

When a young man writes to me saying; “whatever people may say, this country was freed by virtuous men and women”, I get the primitive meaning of the word “virtuous,” which is not merely moral goodness, but fortitude and strength. This is true also about the image and legacy of President Mugabe across the continent of Africa. I am ready for the usual attacks from the usual quarters for this statement. These are not my enemies but the President’s own adversaries, and I understand he shares mutual resentment with them.

President Mugabe is simply seen and accepted as a symbol of fortitude and strength standing against all forms of neo-colonial injustices, much as he counts among the most vilified world leaders by Western media standards.

Dickson Chingaira was not a genius, and never sought to be one, and that is why he never tweeted intellectual nonsensities for recognition. He was a man driven by ideological conviction, and through song he inspired thousands to lay their lives for our freedom.

He lived the simple but free life that he fought for in his youthful days. He remained resolute with the liberation ideals during the land reform era, and it would be a shame for his efforts to be one day associated with shame and failure of this noble initiative.

We collectively owe not only the success of the land reform programme, but of the entire country to fallen heroes like Cde Chinx. Today we pay tribute to a true liberation war hero, a true hero of the people, an untainted freedom fighter, and a son of the soil in whom there is no guile.

Rest in Peace Mukoma Chinx! Go well son of the soil! Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!!

Reason Wafawarova is a political writer based in SYDNEY, Australia.