The Sunday News
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
TODAY Zimbabwe celebrates the 32nd anniversary of the PF-Zapu/ Zanu PF Unity Accord signed in Harare by the two leaders of those former liberation organisations, Joshua Nqabuko Nkomo and Robert Gabriel Mugabe, on 22 December, 1987.
The Accord’s characteristics are reflected in Zimbabwe’s current Government national leadership composition and that of the security forces, especially that of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
A historically important aspect of that Agreement is that unlike in Angola and Mozambique, the politically weaker partner PF-Zapu’s leader, Nkomo, literally spearheaded that nationally stabilising development.
In countries such as Angola, the existence of organisations such as Unita created a great deal of problems for the MPLA Government. The Unita was used by the South African apartheid regime to undermine the Angolan revolutionary administration.
In Mozambique, Coremo also caused a lot of confusion. Coremo was made up of five small organisations that would not become partners in the Frente de Libertacio de Mozambique (Frelimo).
The five were the Mozambique Liberation Front (Molimo), the Mozambique United Front (FUMO), the UNIAO Democratica Nacional de Monomotapa (Udenamo — Monomotapa), Uniao Democratica National de Mozambique (Udenamo — Mozambique), and the Mozambique African National Congress (Manco).
Little wonder that there was a great deal of turmoil in Mozambique after it became independent.
Each Mozambican organisation except Frelimo, was virtually tribal-based, and promoted ethnic rather than national interests. Mozambique’s ethnic composition is roughly Shona, Chopi, Chewa (Nyanja), Yao, Ngoni and Barore.
In Zimbabwe, the ethnic characteristic of the country’s African nationalist politics was destroyed by Nkomo when he became the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) in September 1957.
It was Nkomo’s life passion for Zimbabwe to attain nationhood under the leadership and guidance of one liberation organisation.
He deeply regretted the 1963 split in the Zimbabwean liberation movement, and later seized whatever opportunity that availed itself to re-unite it. The 22 December, 1987 Unity Accord should be understood in that context.
In addition to that, historically the people of this country have always stood shoulder-to- shoulder against their enemy. In 1693, when the Portuguese raided Munhumutapa’s Kingdom and were about to over-run it, he appealed for assistance to Mambo who responded immediately, resulting in the routing of the Portuguese.
Oral legend has it that the combined Munhumutapa-Mambo forces pushed the Portuguese up to the Mozambique island, and were not able to follow them there because they did not have sea-going vessels; all they had were canoes suitable only for rivers. Incidentally, the country Mozambique is named actually after an Island originally called by that name.
In 1896, when the First Chimurenga was launched, Ndebele patriots co-ordinated their initial attacks with Shona revolutionaries and the very first settlers to fall were at Fort Rixon (Emakhandeni), and were Dr Langford and his brother-in-law. Mr Leman on March 25, 1896.
Word had been sent to Mashonaland, and from March ownwards, an armed campaign was launched there too, and Joseph Norton and his family were killed by Sekuru Kaguvi’s guerillas at Norton, a farm settlers latter called by his name to honour the late Nortons.
That was another occasion when the people of this land showed practical revolutionary unity to rid themselves of oppression.
In 1957, James Robert Dambaza Chikerema who was the founder-leader of the Salisbury City Youth League went to Bulawayo with a suggestion that his organisation and the SRANC headed by Nkomo should unite under one leadership.
That occurred on 12 September, 1957 at Mai Misodzi in the then Salisbury when Nkomo was elected SRANC President with Chikerema as his deputy. That was a third occasion when the people of Zimbabwe practically showed the wisdom of unity.
While in exile, the leaders of the country’s liberation movements decided in October 1976 to bring Zapu and Zanu together under the Patriotic Front (PF).
That enabled the two liberation movements to be represented by a single delegation at all subsequent constitutional conferences, that is, at Geneva in 1976-77, in Malta in 1978, and at Lancaster in 1979.
From the time the Patriotic Front was announced, Joshua Nkomo called for the dissolution of both Zapu and Zanu and for the two organisations to be called “the Patriotic Front”.
He was vigorously opposed by people who feared that such a development could result in their loss of senior political and even military positions.
After Zimbabwe achieved independence on 18 April, 1980, Nkomo’s party, PF-Zapu could not realistically expect to ever win general elections. Instead of calling for his party to wage war to seize power as was tried by Unita in Angola or Afonso Dhlakama in Mozambique, Nkomo moved into Zanu-PF and dissolved PF-Zapu.
He saw national unity as the most vital option, by far more important than the strife and turmoil that had been experienced by Angola and Mozambique, or the Gukurahundi campaign that left a trail of blood and destruction, tears and wailing in Matabeleland and some parts of the Midlands.
– Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734328136 or through email. [email protected]
