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A Rhodesian government soldier holds African villagers at gunpoint, forcing them to hold a push-up position, in Kikidoo, Southern Rhodesia, Sept. 17, 1977

Nick Mangwana View From Diaspora
With the current suffering being endured by Zimbabweans because of economic challenges, some have started saying Rhodesia was better.
It started with one prominent opposition leader who said that he had nostalgia of Rhodesia where he used to get drunk senseless on a dollar. Now a lot of people including those born to a free Zimbabwe have started claiming that Rhodesia was actually better than modern day Zimbabwe.

As a build up to our Independence Celebrations (for which this columnist will travel to Zimbabwe), this column will run a sequel on this topic in an attempt to remind Zimbabweans to celebrate their independence in spite of hardships. Even those who don’t want to celebrate might find their place.

You see, selective amnesia can either be a deliberate attempt to forget inconvenient truths or experiences in favour of projecting those that push a certain agenda that supports a certain political argument. It can also be a psychological issue. When someone forgets some traumatic experience in order not to relive it in their minds it is a psychological condition called lacunar amnesia.

In this case the event or events would have been so awful that the person rejects them in their reality.

They, therefore, have gaps in their memory which highlights the convenient and acceptable experience.

This is what creates the syndrome of the “good old days”. But the old days were never all good, were they?

Take for example someone who went to a semi-deprived mission boarding school. Everybody knows that a long time ago most of these boarding schools were some kind of a boot camp with good education.

The pupils could not wait to finish their studies and leave. But now bring together a bunch of old students in a bar and listen to them reminiscing! One would be led to think that these old dudes had the most splendid school days ever witnessed on earth. Their memories have just conveniently buried all the cruelty from bullies.

The cruel boarding master or matron is now canonised. Their cruelty is now interpreted as being discipline. They are now just conveniently called a drill sergeant where in reality some were just egotistic bullies who were entrusted with vulnerable 13 year olds (or younger) by their parents and chose to inflict misery upon their wards.

Granted not everyone was like that. The point is that those days are looked back at with lacuna amnesia and are re-termed good old days.

Has the reader ever wondered why someone would leave a very abusive and traumatic relationship, marry someone else, then after more than a decade start reminiscing with fond memories of their former marriage which they left with nothing but scars?

They start warming up towards the ex and boom they are either back together or they are doing something on the side? That is why some people say, never trust an ex. Soon they forget why they left in the first place; selective amnesia. Those who choose to go back are soon reminded of the stark reality. They will soon start experiencing a sense of déjà vu. No it’s not déjà vu. It is the memory coming back in floods to fill the lacuna. But this time regrets will join a gamut of other sentiments and emotions experienced.

Fortunately for Zimbabweans, they will never experience Rhodesia again. This is one ex whose memory one can selectively and conveniently frolic with but there is no re-marriage. One can cling to the remnants of that union, keep souvenirs, reflect with nostalgic splendour but that is an ex- that has been buried.

It’s never going to happen again. She is that wicked boarding matron whom one now conveniently coos over.

One might have forgotten the trauma but a re-union is never on the cards because she aged, died and was buried as was done to the memory of her cruelty.

Only a good old hypnosis will excavate the real truth of what she stood for. This is not a hypnosis, it is a pre-amble to the 35th Independence anniversary that will seek to do just that about Rhodesia.

It does not seek to whip up racial sentiment against our white compatriots. Racism is ignorance, it doesn’t matter who practices it. It is meant to jog and jolt our memories. Lest we forget. You see, we should never let our current suffering dignify past repressions because it is expedient. There is nothing wrong with pointing out some ineptitude handling of the economy currently experienced.

Sugar coating that glaring fact is unpatriotic self-indulgent. But to say Rhodesia was better is to insult the stateliness of our Independence. Independence from what? One might ask. Independence from this type of segregation.

In tracking memories of Rhodesia, does anyone recall that during this era African women were treated as minors? Children? You ask. You got that one right reader. They needed to consult their husbands or a male relative to even sign a contract of employment. This is such a mundane transaction taken for granted today. There was no maternity leave pay for those who fell pregnant while employed. This minority status was only eliminated fully by the passing of the Legal Age of Majority Act (LAMA) 1982. This is why a certain party is called a revolutionary party. A new era dawned on Zimbabwe by that revolutionary action. It was from that simple legislation that an African woman in Zimbabwe could now own property in her own right.

They no longer needed a male adult’s consent to enter legally enforceable contracts. In 1982 the African woman began to be considered an adult. That started the women empowerment journey to a level it is today.

In line with this clear discriminative policy there was that segregational educational policy where only 12,5 percent of blacks who left primary school went all the way to attain secondary school education. This created a big body of illiterate black people. Those who were in primary school in the ‘80s can recall returning veterans and war refuges joining children’s classes as overwhelming adults when the “Education For All” mantra started. Schools like Rusukunguko High School in Mashonaland East and Nkululeko High school in the Midlands were established to provide a hub of education for these war returnees. During the period when the Rhodesian Front was in charge, 90 percent of black education was provided by mission schools and only 10 percent sub-standard education was provided by government schools. The major reputable school being Goromonzi and Fletcher. These would compete against mission schools like Gokomere, Kutama, Dadaya, Chibi, Taiwan and the like.

As if this discrimination was not enough the RF went on a stint of closing these Mission schools. The contested closure of schools such as St Albert’s in Mashonaland Central for being a recruitment hub for cadres to train as guerrillas diminished the effort to educate the black people.

Those old enough can remember the proliferation of community based council and government secondary schools after Independence. These were called “Upper tops”, a name whose foundation and meaning this writer has been unsuccessfully grappling with. These community based schools which are reportedly well over 700 are producing some of the most tremendous academic results in Zimbabwe today. Schools like Mufakose High School in Harare are producing some of the best results in that province. This is a school that was only established in 1982. When people conveniently talk of 35 wasted years, they should ask part of the 98.65 percent that passed their ‘A’ levels whether they consider themselves a waste. If anyone went to Chidyamakono high school please remember when that school was established.

This is just history. It does not put bread on anyone’s table. But this journey in history is necessary for the reader to evaluate whether Rhodesia was really better. It helps to view things not through the lenses of convenience and expediency. Let us prepare to celebrate independence for there are real gains attained. The idea is not to eulogise gains ignoring failures and shortcomings, for these are numerous too. The idea is to celebrate the positives and then use those as a foundational bedrock for further progress and nation building. Once it is established that Zimbabwe’s independence is not a Mickey Mouse affair, and the histrionic theatrics of nostalgic retrospection of Rhodesia are put to bed, Zimbabweans can pull together and continue to build from where the train left the course. It is only when as a nation the people can pull the country from its current economic quagmire. There is everything to celebrate about Zimbabwe’s independence. Regrets are there. That is the nature of the beast. There are definitely well justified disappointments and let downs. These cause despair, but they should not make anyone yearn for bad old Rhodesia.

Independence means the removal of injustices. Where these remain in modern day Zimbabwe they should go. That is a forward looking cry. Not the distorted nostalgic yearnings for yesteryear Rhodesian bondage. A push for prosperity is a well established agenda on the national discourse.

A call for political will to push this agenda through is germane. Not a blinkered journey down memory lane with a rose tinted rear-view mirror scoped at Rhodesia.