The misappropriation of a legacy
The greatest fallacy in today’s Zimbabwe is the division of our citizenry between the did and did-nots.
To follow the public media, you would think there is one class of people who liberated this country, and another, lower caste, either hapless or cowardly, who were liberated.
This great lie is pushed mainly by those rancid trumpets of power, The Herald and Sunday Mail newspapers, and their kin at the ZBC stable. The ‘journalists’ in the state media have completely abrogated their responsibility to the public they’re contracted to serve, and have become mere stenographers for Party apparatchiks and ‘anonymous’ political commentators.
The notion that the so-called war veterans and, by default, all members of the ZANU-PF party hold the monopoly on Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle goes almost unchallenged in our daily discourse. To hear it you’d think these guys would swoop in on the wings of eagles, take out a few Pumas and mow down the hated Selous Scouts, then glide out and back to Zambia and Mocambique on a wave of triumph and invincibility.
Forget the mass of people who provided logistical and intelligence support, the majority of the citizenry who were as much in the fight as those FEW who actually carried AK-47s and bazookas. Not to diminish the gallantry and sacrifice of those who engaged in armed combat, but their war was not fought in a vacuum. I greatly respect the people who died for our country – it’s a few of the survivors I have a problem with.
The general mass of the people of Zimbabwe, across the country, suffered the same (if not more) during the war. The greater mass of the people of Zimbabwe sacrificed and bled and cried and worked and struggled for the liberation of this country, and no one clique or Party or Leader can state, categorically, that they liberated this country.
All this talk of ‘liberation war credentials’ is totally misguided and arrogant in the extreme. Every single black Zimbabwean born before 1980 has liberation war credentials, both by virtue of being born in a country where their rights were not fully recognised and by being born into a time of collective struggle and sacrifice.
To imply that certain people are second-class citizens by virtue of not having military training is to create a monarchic hierachy, from which our Leaders can be selected and our lords and masters emerge unchallenged for all eternity.
Such an idea is alien to the democratic principle, and if certain elements of our society believe that this is the way it should be, then it’s time to stop bothering us with all the death and destruction of elections, and simply take what they feel is owed to them using the famed power of the gun, and rule by decree.
Then we’ll see whether such a state of affairs will be sustainable, and whether they will then take on the mantle of oppressor, and face the collective wrath of the people of Zimbabwe like their colonial masters did before them.
There’s no need to keep pretending you’re a democrat if you’re not. If you feel you deserve to rule by the power of the military, go ahead and try.
History is on the people’s side.
totally unrelated: nematambudziko a Amy. I can’t say I cried, but I was saddened that she was finally got by her demons. Genius seems to need to be tortured.
I’m surprised it didn’t occur to me that it might happen.
amy = idiot.
coltrane, miles, gil scott-heron – all brilliant fucking artists with a sniffing habit; got the fuck off that shit and made good music. getting on it = idiocy, getting off that pipe, THATS genius.
@beezy – why do you care – about state media, liberation credentials and related crap?
Very well said! Especially those last 3 paragraphs.
Mos Native – The good man takes on leadership because he fears the penalty for refusal, which is to be ruled by lesser men.
As for Amy Winehouse … I did see it coming. Although I’ve always viewed her as one of the rare talents of our generation.
Man you guys go and spoil a great Rustygate post by talking about AFW.
LOL ain’t that the damn truth, BD.
LOL. B Diddy, I don’t see you commenting on the orginal post.
@Tara I was going to comment but thought that it would all disappear in the AFW talk. Summary of my thoughts:
Born frees are 31 this year. Not everyone went to war. No one has a monopoly on what is good for Zim. No one is superior to another. War vets, mujibhas et aliter did not take part in the war with a notebook wherein they ran a balance sheet with debits and credits. If so, how long must they be paid – demob payout, farms (talking about the first phase i.e. not hondo yeminda), civil servant jobs (some senior jobs), parliamentarian jobs (both in lower and upper house), senior ranks in the armed forces and police, housing scheme, injury compensation, war vet payout, farms (hondo yeminda), indigenisation. So the rest of us must pay them ad infinitum – aiwa kwete. Everyone has a voice, we all have rights, no one man or woman is more right because of their actions in the past.
Well said BD.
that story about Amy was fake (apparently), the CSI dudes went to check out the body and do CSI shit, then when they drew the line around her ‘corpse’, she got up and tried to sniff it.
just saying…..
@Buff
Totally agree. Born frees are now 31 which is middle age since life expectancy in Zim is just over 40. which makes me question why its so low since these old mudharas aka war vets dont seem to be dying off
@Skriff
Have some respect. she was apparently over the drugs…it was the csi alcohol she was after
Because the number of mudharas itself is so very low. Zim has a relatively young population, can’t give u the stats right now of pop under 30 as compared, but it’s pretty skewed.
the number doesnt seem so low when its time for payouts etc. Some of those guys seem rather young to have done any meaningful fighting – they need an audit. As for the demographics, its quite scary – the numbers are very skewed. Where are all these born frees going to get educated let alone employed? Disenchanted youth with nothing to do are the stuff revolutions are made of.
Come on guys, why the f*%$#$k would Amy Winehouse be an item of discussion on this particular post or its comments??? She is not Zimbabwean, not a War Veteran and not even a born free and as such does not belong in this discourse …. not that I am the greatest contributor to comments on this blog but I always find time to munch on the not only entertaining but highly thought provoking discourse that always(save for this one time – thanks to eleanor!!!) goes on on this blog …. let that and nothing else flow … am angry!!
Hahaha but I guess there’s nothing wrong with the occasional foolishness.
let’s be honest, be it Amy Fucking Winehouse or how the revolution has been betrayed, none of it counts for shit in the bigger scheme of things, no matter how much we kwira BP over it. As significant to the availability of Lobels bread as treading on an ant on its merry way.