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Address by President Mnangagwa at the ground-breaking ceremony of the ‘Land displacements: The Untold Story of Crimes, Injustices, Trauma and Losses Experienced By Indigenous Black Zimbabweans during the Colonial Era (1890-1980): A case for reparations’

Iam happy to have been invited by the Zimbabwe National Elders Forum, a grouping of eminent citizens of this great nation, to address you on an important subject that speaks to the colonial injustices suffered by our people from the year 1890 to 1980.

I am humbled by the Elders’ Forum collective will towards the restoration of our dignity in the aftermath of the decades long subjugation of the indigenous native by the racist colonial regime.

I am further pleased that the Forum has immersed itself in researching this important topic for a few years focusing on the land issue.

In doing so, they have accumulated information and evidence on the impact of colonialism on our society.

In keeping with this good work, I have had the privilege of receiving a paper from the Forum titled, “The Untold Story of Injustices, Trauma and Losses Experienced by Indigenous Zimbabweans during the Colonial Era (1890-1980): A Case for Reparations”.

As many would recall, the racist colonial regime started grabbing land in 1893, a process that was further consolidated by pieces of unjust legislation such as the Land Apportionment Act of 1931, and the Native Land Husbandry Act of 1950, amongst                                                                        others.

It is, therefore, pleasing that the Forum intends to go further and comprehensively document the untold story of the injustices, trauma and loss of lives and livelihoods experienced by indigenous black Zimbabweans due to colonial land appropriation and forced movements.

The proposed study, as I am reliably informed, will put forward recommendations that will explore options to assist in the long term healing of affected communities as well as for rekindling and recreating good will between the Zimbabwean society at large and the former colonial power.

We have observed and indeed quite recently as former colonial powers; the United Kingdom apologising to the Mau Mau of Kenya and Germany also apologising to the Mbanderu, Herero and Nama people of Namibia.

Therefore, we ask, when are the rest of us in the former colonies going to receive similar apologies? We wonder.

It is no secret that colonial violence was brutal and systematic and those of us old enough to tell the tale, still bear scars and associated trauma from the violence.

Even in the quest for freedom and self-determination, in both the first and second Chimurenga, our efforts were considered criminal and treated as such.

Resultantly, many were executed and others herded into concentration camps (MaKeep).

We remember this more than a century later because the residual effects of decades long pain and bitterness are still real.

Indeed, we can no longer remain silent while our people carry the scars of a painful and cruel past.

The time has come for us to engage our erstwhile former colonial power, objectively and astutely, seeking the much-delayed yet important post-colonial gesture of reparations, restorations and much needed apology and reconciliation.

Equally, the subject of reparations is not new, but the calls for restitution continue to grow louder and                     louder.

While my Administration has been forthright in accommodating compensation of white former farmers in respect of improvements on the farms redistributed by the State, we cannot afford to ignore the cries of our people for justice.

Hence, the reason why Government has placed substantial value and significance to the journey that the Elders Forum has embarked on through this proposed study.

In retrospect, it is the colonial power that should have compensated Zimbabwe first and Zimbabwe then using part of the reparations to compensate the white former farmers for the improvements.

We realise that national healing will not be complete without the empathy similar to that accorded to the said farmers.

It is, therefore, important for our key knowledge industries and institutions to support this study by the Elders Forum so that we harvest as many enriching insights into the human experiences of colonialism and its aftermath.

Indeed, a whole-of-society-approach will only serve to give us the best results possible with the significance of this work reverberating for generations to come.

I would, therefore, like to assure my Government’s support in this endeavour and further call upon the Zimbabwean society here at home and beyond our borders to also extend a supporting hand to the Zimbabwe National Elders Forum.

As I conclude, I wish to remind you that this is one of the most important investments we have to make and we owe it to our forefathers, children and future generations.

With these remarks, it is my honour and privilege to officially launch this reparations initiative.

God bless you.

God bless Zimbabwe.

I thank you.