The Sunday News
When many are engulfed in the spirit of momentarily affection display ushered by the month of February, equally many are commemorating the continuous discrimination of those whose melanin, perceived to be inferior because of how different they are from their colonial masters.
Many were forcibly invited to the United Corporations of America where they became related to the sjambok more than a human being, they were forced to toil, till and slash sugar in the plantations of the Mississippi, the Caribbeans and now privately owned islands. These are our brothers and sisters in foreign lands whom Malcom X reminded to go back home but they voluntarily chose to stay in “Egypt”. They chose slavery because they drank free soup in the cold withering winter, they volunteered to compete for rights with their colonial masters in the land that doesn’t belong to them. Today they remind themselves of victories through speeches and resolutions by Martin Luther King Jr, Mohamed Ali, Jesse Jackson and at all times try to connect with George Padmore, Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Robert Mugabe and a whole lot of the African Champions who shouted that “Black lives matter”. This month, the whole of Africa is forced to be politically correct and celebrate the “black lives matter movement”, I for one I am not a disciple of euphemistic political behaviours, like Steve Biko; I write what I like and like the then Ghanaian teacher Robert Gabriel Mugabe. I say what I think, however, uncomfortable it makes you — he who does not have a mat should not bother himself finding a place on the ground to sit. Black Americans celebrate the mattering of Black lives, like South Africans whose land and economy is still controlled by the whites — they still wallow in racial segregation, so black lives should really matter to them. In Zimbabwe, it’s mostly “coconuts” who trend that movement.
To us, February marks the birth of a pan Africanist, beyond a leader, a real movement and an icon whom Tony Blair, in the midst of his hatred for him, admitted uncontested respect for the intelligence and stoodness of the person of His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe. To us, black lives are best represented on this auspicious occasion that is annually celebrated and has bore a movement: The 21st February Movement. Well, this piece is the first instalment which argues necessity, authenticity and legitimacy of hosting this Movement in the homeland of Joshua Mqabuko kaNyongolo Nkomo. It responds to a lot of criticism from the ranks of Mthwakazi Republic party, secessionists, extremist, new “salvation” creeps and regional keyboard politicians. Factually, these zealots possess despicable reasons for the condemnation of the events’ venue, but remember, the world needs good sound reasoning, not reasoning that only sounds good. Ladies and gentlemen, lets debate!
Spykos Delicious — Yi Birthday yam’
For all the years of my life, I still auger the day I recited a poem at the birthday of His Excellency when I was still in primary school. It was such an honour to be selected to attend the birthday event, let alone make a presentation at that propitious event. In numerous occasions I have greeted and shaken hands and had lunch with the President. The most memorable and cherished is that 68th birthday of His Excellency, where I displayed my wordsmith’s of recital, sharing of a cake bite with the most daunted man on the planet and an opportunity not to see him on TV, but in flesh. Yes, birthdays are the most important days of our lives because we celebrate our entrance into this wretched of the places, where we decide to wreck and chatter our way through tribulations, but the 21st of February is a different day altogether, it represents not only the birth of the man, but a movement that’s set to continue, it represents the liberation spirit that possessed many nationalists, it represents intellectual iconism bore by the man of Robert Gabriel Mugabe, it represents the superiority of Zimbabwe as a true, totally liberated country where the lives that matter are of Zimbabweans, not as blacks, but as humans. “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in him,” so says the Hebrew scriptures, unless I am wrong that God created all and any day, then you confirm that scripture, its God-ordained. Let me not excite my determinism buds, I believe everything is predestined, the day the Lord has made will be in Matobo.
2016: What is in a meaning?
We are taught that we give meaning to symbols. Meaning is a human construct; it is derived from shared signs of communication in a grouping through consecration. Matobo likewise, was consecrated through two different meanings; one Afrocentric and the other colonial. It’s a place that habitats the sacred shrine of Injelele, its nationally symbolic because of its relationship with Joshua Nkomo, who in his book; The Story of my life, tells us of his prayers there and powerfully, that is where the King of amaNdebele, Mzilikazi KaMaTshobana lies in a not so decorated place like that of those who bought our land with one shilling and the eight cents option. On the other hand, that place represents the superiority of Whiteness through its historical narrations of how Cecil John Rhodes and his companions declared that it’s their place of final rest. To my knowledge, the World’s View is an energy point for white people; they throng the site not to pay their respects to their Mafia fathers but to harvest more energy-white spirituality. The popular representation of Matobo is not supremely about the Afro narrative it represents, it’s more of its imperial monumental nature. It’s the graves of Cecil, Jameson (Who is astonishingly argued to be Cecil John Rhodes’ copulation mate), Milton and Coghlan. If you doubt the significance of the existence of these graves then you are not in touch with philosophy at all.
Casual visits to Matobo remind one of the powers that Cecil still wields on us even today. Schools pay hefty amounts for a trip to throng the site to take smiling photographs next to one of the cruelest white oppressive bones still lying on our soil. I have entertained petty arguments that its part of our history that our children should know, I say nonsense! When oppressive history is illustrated it carves a space in the imagination halls of our minds. It’s what the history represents which trivialises our personhood. Our being is challenged and belittled because of the structural nature the graves represent.
If we could juxtapose, just below the World’s View, lies King Mzilikazi, in a bushy area, where the custodian sometimes forgets where the grave is, arguably, the existence and structural positions of the sites depict an undaunted superiority of Whiteness over our own. Symbolically, a stone represents strength, the apex of its position represents distance of belonging, one is upper the other is still lower, and because stone doesn’t not leach or rot, it represents longevity in ideological existence, while our own King’s Grave lies somewhere beneath, yet he is the rightful person to be on that rock. Funny enough, our people’s unceasing throngs are filaments of confirmation. The reasons why Matobo is popular to us is not because of its African representation, it’s because we are continuously yearning to pay to see our oppressors. Sies man!.
#Rhodesgravemustgo.
Demystifying structural narratives
The graves represent a system and a structure. It’s a structural narrative that continuously subjects Zimbabweans to revenue contribution in the belief that we best protect the meaning of oppression. Such narratives are detrimental to a healing society like ours which battles remnants of colonialism shadowed by historical preservations. Structural narratives in our society are worse off than colonialism itself because they create actors who blemish anything that intends to give new meaning to the symbols that preserve such narratives. In a society where identity crisis is at its summit, structural narratives propelled by the preservation of the dominant meaning of the place is perpetuated. We lose the self in a quest of preserving history that does not matter to us except hurting us, our children and generations to come.
As I said above, we give meaning to symbols and signs based on what we share and we can give meaning to anything at anytime to change what it represents. Because through representation, meanings are created, what matters the most then is changing what Matobo represents to accrue a new meaning for the place.
Let us not lie to ourselves that Matobo is popular because of its Afro-spirituality, Unesco recognised it because white people who had a Birmingham task lie there. Their dream of African conquest is engraved on our stones, our land and its incessant reminder of how naive we are, that we best preserve our losses which give the wrong meaning of our people. This therefore is necessity enough to desecrate the meaning in order to consecrate Matobo. If it represents supremacy of colonialism and coloniality, then this is the opportune time to give new meaning to the place as the venue that hosts the born day of a supreme iconic global leader.
Giving new meaning
The next instalment will exhaustively show why it’s justified for His Excellency’s birthday to be hosted in such a symbolically hostile place and what meaning it gives to oppressive narratives.
Micheal Mhlanga is a research and strategic communication specialist and is currently serving Leaders for Africa Network (LAN) as the Programmes and Public Liaison Officer.
