Liberation movements must unite Former liberation movements in Southern Africa have the duty to protect and defend revolutionary ethos against the marauding Empire

Isdore Guvamombe Reflections
Back in the village, the emergence of organised popular liberation movements throughout Africa following the end of the Second World War was a crucial factor in achieving independence for many African countries.

White settler regimes had for long put a knife across the things that held us together: defecating on our wealth value system, our African humanism, our culture and indeed everything else that made us a people.

The key factors that led to the African uprising and subsequent formation of liberation movements under colonialism were land repossessions, human rights abuses, a buffet of laws and rules that effectively oppressed and stripped Africans of their respect, wealth and dignity.

Many young men and girls left their homes to join the liberation movements. Some died and were never buried. Some were buried in shallow graves. Some came back with scars and they still bear the scars of the struggle. A few lucky ones came back unscathed.

This was because the liberation movements were packaging messages that spoke to the people’s needs. To this day, liberation movements should therefore, remain relevant to the people.

For the purposes of this instalment, this villager will zero in on the liberation movements of Southern Africa.

These are Zanu-PF of Zimbabwe; African National Congress of South Africa (ANC), Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania (CCM); Movement for the Liberation of the People of Angola (MPLA); South West Africa People’s Organisation of Namibia (SWAPO) and Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO).

These are the last movements standing. They are, therefore, a big threat to Western imperialist interests, that of plundering Africa’s resources.

They should therefore protect Southern Africa’s people, their gold, diamonds, platinum and everything. That brings into the fore the need for liberation movements to huddle together and fight against a more subtle strategy to get rid of all of them.

Now the five liberation movements have come together under the banner of Former Liberation Movements for Southern Africa, to work against their extinction. In most cases liberation movements have been lauded for adopting good policies, but often criticised for lack of implementation.

The United States of America and its allies will never rest on their laurels for as long as part of Africa is run by liberation movements.

They have crafted sanctions and a plethora of other strategies to enable them to dislodge all liberation movements and replace them with opposition political parties they create to run as their fronts.

The opposition parties are well fed, hand-held and directed to pause as harbingers of democracy and good governance, yet they are not.

It is high time liberation movements adapt to world socio-economic order, it’s high time liberation movements improve on their ideology, it’s high time liberation movements improve on their service delivery and remain relevant to the people they seek to liberate.

Like Amilcar Cabral would say: “The ideological deficiency, not to say the total lack of ideology, within the national liberation movements — which is basically due to ignorance of the historical reality which these movements claim to transform — constitutes one of the greatest weaknesses of our struggle against imperialism, if not the greatest weakness of all.”

Liberation movements are now riddled with factions and factionalism. The divisions are too much and Western Europe and its allies find those cracks and crevices and streams of penetration and ways of bringing down liberation movements.

The liberation movements should make sure that they remain relevant and they must also deliver to the people while at the same time watching out to the United States and its allies who have no other agenda than destroy all liberation movements and gain access to the vast untapped natural resources by hook or crook.

Liberation movements should sleep with one eye open because sleeping with all eyes closed makes them vulnerable to regime change.

Back in the village they say, beat a child and see who the father is. We do not need political scientists to tell us who funds the MDC-Alliance and Democratic Alliance, when you become hard on them the US and Allies come out brazenly defending them even where they are wrong. The message is clear. In Zimbabwe you touch the MDC-Alliance and see how US and its allies come out guns blazing.

Even on demands the US Government, makes the same demands as the MDC-Alliance and makes those demands a condition for listing sanctions. But when you look at the conditions closely, they are a typical regime change tools. They are meant to dislodge Zanu-PF from power.

In South Africa, the DA demands are meant to dislodge ANC from power and white capitol supports them in total. It is therefore prudent for liberation movements to regenerate themselves and keep themselves in sync with world trends if they are to remain in power.

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