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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere yesterday hailed the Museum of African Liberation as heritage-based broadcasting that documents African history and narrative from pre-colonial period to date from a continental perspective.

He said President Mnangagwa’s vision to construct the Museum of African Liberation in Harare to document African history would also go a long way in uniting the African continent.

Dr Muswere said this yesterday after a familiarisation tour of the Museum of African Liberation in Harare.

“This is a familiarisation tour to appreciate the great work under the leadership of His Excellency, President Mnangagwa who has taken a lead to document, unite Africa and be able to construct Africa’s museum which will also have a lot of impact on the way Africa will interact with the rest of the world,” he said.

“The familiarisation tour is important for us as a Ministry because currently the focus is heritage-based broadcasting, the museum will also take into account the pre-colonial time, the liberation movement participation to free Africa, the different stages we went through as a continent, where Africa was free from suppression from other colonial powers to the time when Africa worked together, inter Africa trade, there is also the slave trade period, dating back to the loss of Africa in terms of its human capital, capacity to rebuild and reshape the continental narrative.”

Dr Muswere noted that the documentation includes the partition of Africa by Western leaders at the Berlin Conference that was spearheaded by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to divide Africa among themselves.

He said there was due recognition of the contributions by other countries for the liberation of Africa such as Russia, China and Cuba among others and the setting up of the liberation committee chaired by the late Brigadier-General Hashim Mbita of Tanzania and other African countries such as Egypt and Algeria among others.

“So we believe this is part of heritage based broadcasting which is very important for us as a continent. It also takes care of the future plans, the achievement that we have managed to register as a continent post-colonial period, imperialism which continues to try and divide us as a continent, but also the key steps we have taken in order to achieve freedom and success,” he said.

“This giant step by President Mnangagwa is a step towards progression, uniting Africa, towards documenting the history of Africa as a continent which has a better future in terms of African Union Agenda 2063, the reality that Africa has got the best opportunities in terms of investment and that most of achievement and innovation came from Africa,” he said.

Dr Muswere said the museum was important for young people because it had empirical evidence.

“It’s important to ordinary persons because this is empirical history which is evidenced based coming from Africa and not from any other orientation. Its history that has been developed, documented, the reality that Africa has contributed to civilization, global politics, technological advancement, trade that we enjoy in terms of raw materials coming from Africa. This is history coming from Africa because most of the history come from the Western countries with biased towards a particular researcher,” he said.

Museum’s head of secretariat, Ambassador Kwame Muzawazi said the construction work was almost 18 percent while the African village was already functional.

“The museum is at 18 percent construction, with regard to liberation mall we are under way to complete phase one. Contributions are coming from other countries and it is an ongoing process as you are aware the President has appointed a special envoy for the project, Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi to engage other countries at Head of State level and Cde Mumbengegwi has met 21 Heads of State who all unanimously, as if they were singing from the same hymn book, agreed to cooperate, Mozambique has led the way, President (Filipe) Nyusi was here in May last year and did a groundbreaking for Samora Machel monument which starts construction next week,” he said.