Zimpapers Logo

warning: “From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit”. (Proverbs 18:20-21)
Writers know how words can reward or result in heavy penalties.

With words, you can build or destroy; express love or hatred and bitterness; you can make peace or cause war; you can also comfort or cause discomfort. The list is endless.

As a writer, I know that and despite applying the principle I learnt from a young age that “chihwerure hachiendi kumba” (i.e. you don’t personalise insults especially in a game like politics), this does not mean that if I am reckless with my choice of words, it should be transformed into sweet melodies. Responsibility is the name of the game.
What I also know is that readers are usually the first to pin-point those faulty lines.

So, as the build-up to the July 31 harmonised elections gathers momentum, many people, aspiring candidates and other politicians will be remembered for their words — whether they were messages of peace, love and hope — while others will go in the annals of history for doing the exact opposite.

Now, I am quite certain that the MDC-T youth assembly chairperson Solomon Madzore and I have very different viewpoints on national, regional and global issues.
We probably don’t share a lot, and that’s understandable. There is the gender divide, age factor and ideological orientation and other variables.

But, as I tried hard to find some areas of common interest, I told myself that there is no Zimbabwean who doesn’t know that we are a former a British colony and that the independence that we now enjoy is a hard won independence, were thousands lost lives and some were maimed.

Solomon Madzore cannot tell me that he does not have relatives and family friends or even neighbours who were affected by the war of liberation in one way or the other.
If any Zimbabwean makes such a claim, then we have reason to question their credentials. This is not about being patriotic, but merely acknowledging a historical fact.

Thus, when I listened to Solomon Madzore speak at the MDC-T’s manifesto launch rally in Marondera on Sunday, I was taken aback and asked myself: “Despite the deep-seated desire to unseat Zanu-PF, where is this young man losing the plot? Is this the mentality that prevails within the MDC-T and other MDC formations?”
I summarise part of what he said when he reassured the MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai that the MDC-T youths were prepared to shed their blood.

Madzore told supporters: “. . . We are equally prepared to shed our blood VaTsvangirai for this cause. Hapana munhu akazvarwa akabata AK47. Hapana mai vakazvara, vachigomera vachiti, ‘Chibuda war vet iwe-e; chibuda war vet iwe-e!’ (No Zimbabwean was born holding an AK47 in their hand and that there was no mother (woman), who when they gave birth cried out that they had given birth to a war veteran. (Note that these were all references to the past).

Who needs the context in which Madzore was saying this in order to make sense of the point he was driving at? Not me!
It was very clear that he was making reference to the liberation struggle and the veterans of that struggle that brought the independence of this country.
What motivated Madzore?

I couldn’t help but ask whether this was a deliberate provocation where Madzore expected an arrest, which would then be used by MDC-T as harassment by the police, and in the process make their case for the so-called security sector reforms stronger.

I also asked why Madzore, Tsvangirai and the MDC-T are ready to shed blood.
We are going for an election where a pen will speak louder than the AK47, so who is the MDC-T hoping to go to war with, and why?

However, it is apparent that this zeal to shed blood and reference to the AK47 used by freedom fighters (war veterans) to unseat settler colonialists was meant to be a way of disconnecting from the country’s history and the fact that it is anchored on the revolutions waged so far since the First Chimurenga right up to the Third Chimurenga meant to empower people using local resources and local ideas.

So, the MDC-T through their youth wing are not only revising the country’s history, but also trashing the liberation struggle.
They are also looking for every conceivable excuse to claim that they are Zimbabwe’s liberators. What does all this mean?

If indeed the war veterans do not have the monopoly on the arms of war they used to dislodge the Smith regime, which ushered in the freedom that Madzore and his ilk are enjoying, we ask once again who Madzore and Tsvangirai want to fight and why?

Why this desire for blood-letting?
This out-pouring of scorn on war veterans, what was it meant to achieve?
Does Madzore and those who cheered him on truly believe that when the true liberators of this country continue to preach peace, love and unity, they will also watch them, arms akimbo, while they create chaos and mayhem?

Although this might not be the most ideal example, I recall the struggle by African-Americans and their efforts to exorcise historical ghosts emanating from slavery.
The “N”(igger) word has been a bone of contention, especially now when there is generation that thinks that just because they have a black president (Barack Obama), there is no need to dwell on the past, but are instead sanitising and romanticising the “N” word, which is no different from “kaffir”.

Madzore did that last Sunday, futile though it was. Young people, some of them now grown men and women did that a few years back when they complained about the continual references to the liberation struggle.

They were even so cheeky as to challenge, “Endai mundoisungirira pamakaisunungura, toenda tondosunungura”. (Have the country recolonised so that we can go and free it).
Like the use of the “N” word, what Madzore does not realise is that what he said was unsettling, not because he was threatening that his party would unleash bloody violence, but because the liberation struggle is such a raw issue that conjures up memories.

One war veteran who declined to be named said, “I thought that (Oliver) Mtukudzi’s warning was clear enough when he sang, ‘Hamuone here mwana mamupa manyemwe!’ Let sleeping dogs lie, and let him Madzore and the rest of the MDC enjoy the freedom and comfort that we suffered and died for”.
Like talk show queen Oprah Winfrey felt about the “N” word and how black youths use it in a way that is devoid of its historical implications, this is how I felt about Madzore’s remarks on July 7.

Years of that painful past were suddenly reawakened. It might have been populist, youthful talk, but it was a statement that showed defiance about the liberation struggle.
Like Oprah confronted rapper artiste Jay-Z on the “N” I feel that this piece is asking Solomon Madzore and his leader to come clean on their position regarding the country’s liberation struggle and its liberators.

We are tired of their sugar-coated statements, pronouncements that are only made when they have missed the mark.
Maybe Madzore will also think like Jay-Z who thinks that Oprah is holding on to the past even as life evolves for he said of her: “Oprah, for instance, still can’t get past the n-word issue (or the nigga issue, with all apologies to Ms. Winfrey).

“I can respect her position. To her, it’s a matter of acknowledging the deep and painful history of the word. To me, it’s just a word, a word whose power is owned by the user and his or her intention. People give words power …”

That’s the bottom line, “People give words power “.
What I should remember is that during that brief moment, Madzore felt empowered by the words “threatening to shed blood, AK 47 rifle and war veterans”.
He also owned them and attributed on them the power he felt they deserved, obviously within the confines of his party’s views about key national issues.
But then, Richard Rybolt’s quote (from the Internet) is worthy reflecting upon. It might sober some of us: “There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you. When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self destruct. It never fails”.