Zimpapers Logo

Shame Isaki
WHEN the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt by God, most of the adults except for Caleb and Joshua perished in the wilderness because of unbelief. They would murmur and complain against God and because of this even Moses himself the revered servant of God could not enter the Promised Land. Four hundred years of bondage had conditioned the Israelites to believe that what they were going through was normal though it was painful. When God now intervened and delivered them they expected life to be plain sailing now that they were free but they forgot a number of things.

First, they forgot that Pharaoh had allowed them to go not because of a good heart, but he had no choice given the pressure he was now under. Given a choice, as circumstances would prove later, Pharaoh would have wanted the Israelites forever in bondage. That is why after realising that the Israelites had left, Pharaoh and his army decided to follow them up to his demise.

This is when we hear Moses saying the famous statement: ‘‘These Egyptians you see today you shall see them no more’’ and true to his word the Egyptians perished in the wilderness. After seeing such a miracle, the Israelites, however, continued to provoke God to anger because of unbelief and it eventually cost them dearly.

The story of Israel is more like ours here in Zimbabwe. For over a 100 years the white man oppressed us and entrenched his systems in our country to the extent that when the liberation war was waged some black people joined with the whites to fight their own brothers. These black brothers had been compromised, brainwashed and contaminated by colonisation. When those who were conscious of their African identity stood firm to fight for the motherland eventually the country was won back.

We got our independence not because the white man cared, but because he could not stand the heat otherwise given a choice he would have wanted to continue dominating us. Africans, especially Zimbabweans need to understand that after independence there were so many dynamics to this new dispensation.

First, we have liberation fighters who are coming from the bush and these are the ones who should form the Government. The trauma of war and the anger of oppression were in these men and women, but they had no choice but to lead the nation.

Thank God for President Mugabe who was educated and a Christian and of course a few others.

Secondly, the threat of the defeated enemy to try and come back or cause some disability of some sort was imminent and this had to be dealt with which means while the new government of liberators was learning the ropes to lead they also had to remain militarily vigilant which would obviously mean divided attention.

The issue of different parties involved in the struggle also had to be looked into including outstanding disciplinary issues.

We were also taking over an economy which was structured and built upon capitalist and colonialist principles and so this economy would surely survive as long as we were pleasing our former colonisers and the moment we tried to reason our way out, the former colonialists decided to squeeze our economy because they knew what or where to attack since they are the ones who grew it. When these things were or are happening some Zimbabweans have been quick to dismiss the Government and to crave for the ‘‘garlic and melons’’ of Egypt missing the point that the enemy is not Government, but the Western capitalists who are bitter because they are now threatened with totally losing grip of Africa.

It is true that not everything that has bedevilled our country should be blamed on the West, an example being corruption and policy inconsistency in some cases, but the damage that has been caused by sanctions is too big to be ignored. We are blessed to have President Mugabe up to now because he sees what others cannot see.

He is at another level and I know his desire is that as many as other Zimbabweans and Africans will join him to see what he sees as the future of Africa and what we are capable of achieving and becoming if only we could shed this colonial mentality that the best only comes from the white man. The damage that was caused to our mindset over a hundred years cannot be undone in only 35 years and more time is needed no wonder why we have even those who were involved in the liberation struggle straying.

US, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and other big countries are what they are today because they cherish their identity, they value their sovereignty and independences and once Africa learns this then the rest is history. We also can be big. Let’s cherish our Independence.