Editorial Comment: Dead comrades tell no tales Acying President VP Mujuru
Acying President VP Mujuru

Acting President VP Mujuru

“The Negro, as already observed, exhibits the natural man in his completely wild and untamed state.
“We must lay aside all thought of reverence and morality — all that we call feeling — if we would rightly comprehend him; there is nothing harmonious with humanity to be found in this type of character . . .
“At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again. For it is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit.”

This was Hegel’s summation of Africa and its History some two centuries ago.
About 100 years later, in 1963, Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper expounded on this saying: “Nowadays, undergraduates demand that they should be taught African History. Perhaps in the future there will be some African History to teach.

“But at the present there is none; there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness, and darkness is not a subject of history.

“Please do not misunderstand me I do not deny that man existed even in dark countries and dark centuries the present world is one that is dominated by European techniques, European examples, and Europeans ideas.

“It is these which have shaken the non-European world out of its past, out of barbarism in Africa.
“The history of the world, for the last five centuries, is so far as it has significance, has been European History.

“The study of History must therefore be Europe-centric we cannot, thus, afford to amuse ourselves with the unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe.”

These are not the ravings of mad men. Rather, they are the bases of Western approaches to Africa, its past and its future right up to today.
There is a reason why Africa is often exhorted to “forget the past” and focus on the present.

Somehow, it is only Africans who are expected to live outside of the past-present-future continuum and exist in a never ending state of “now” that is neither informed by history nor is concerned about tomorrow.

At the same time, Europe, North America, Australia and Japan will not countenance anyone who dares sully their past. They are proud of their history and they appreciate its importance to today and to the future.

Not so for Africa.
It should be obvious that the attempt to create a post-colonial disconnect between Africa before and after independence is meant to induce a collective national amnesia.

The saddest thing about this is that Africa has accepted the myth that “bygones should be bygones”.
And it is for this reason that we are not writing our History and we are being fed images of ourselves that better suit the West’s intentions for us.

Ultimately the blame for the erasure and revision of our History lies squarely on us.
What excuse is there for not documenting our History? What “justification” do we have for allowing the hunter to always write the story of the hunt?

Speaking at the National Heroes Acre in Harare at Thursday’s burial of Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Chirenda, Acting President Joice Mujuru said much of Zimbabwe’s History was being interred with the freedom fighters at the shrine.

“We have not written our story, we have great but mute heroes . . . Unless they spoke when they lived, dead comrades don’t tell stories . . . Our history has no tellers. We need to change history by writing it.

“Let’s begin now so we shape a heritage for our children, for generations to come who deserve to inherit and get inspired by the great deeds of their forebears.”

We respectfully throw this challenge back to Her Excellency the Acting President and her colleagues: it’s past time to document Zimbabwe’s true story.

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