The Sunday News
Richard Runyararo Mahomva, Pivot
OUR national liberation — and that of Africa is founded on the virtues of our people’s protracted struggle against the transgressions of colonialism. The colonial system conceived a shared political soul which Africa acquired to dismantle imperialist rule. Zimbabwe’s liberation owes its existence to the solidarities of our African brothers and sisters in Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, South Africa and many other nations which made our fight against British colonial rule a success.
As Zimbabwe’s 41st birthday beckons, we do not only celebrate our national milestones as far as the annihilation of our conditions of oppression under colonial rule, we celebrate and cherish the values born out of our fight for freedom as a people.
Our unequivocal yearning is to return to the genesis of our civilisation which was ruptured by centuries of external domination — now cohering us to be part of a discriminatory and asymmetrical order of belonging. In the process, we continue to extract lessons from our liberation philosophies to direct our moral campus in the fight against the manifestations of colonialism. To this end, Amilcar Cabral (1966) teaches that:
“Although the colonial and neo-colonial situations are identical in essence, and the main aspect of the struggle against imperialism is neo-colonialist, we feel it is vital to distinguish in practice these two situations. In fact the horizontal structure, however, may differ from the native society, and the absence of a political power composed of national elements in the colonial situation make possible the creation of a wide front of unity and struggle, which is vital to the success of the national liberation movement.”
Amilcar Cabral further indicates the need for true national consciousness to be established in confronting the constantly changing designs and manifestations of colonialism:
“But this possibility does not remove the need for a rigorous analysis of the native social structure, of the tendencies of its evolution, and for the adoption in practice of appropriate measures for ensuring true national liberation. While recognising that each movement knows best what to do in its own case, one of these measures seems to us indispensable, namely, the creation of a firmly united vanguard, conscious of the true meaning and objective of the national liberation struggle which it must lead.”
The Zimbabwean reality presents Zanu-PF and its historical genesis in the birth of our national liberation as that vanguard of national consciousness. This explains why some have deployed simplistic labels to discredit Zanu-PF for being the custodian of our national liberation. At the same time, this has seen the excessive downplaying of our independence story by neo-liberal reactionaries who forget that our independence celebrations are not a political party affair, but are a replica of the bigger national story. It must be boldly emphasised that the Zimbabwean liberation agenda was founded on key principles we should uphold and these include:
Transfer of state power
The key justification of the nationalist movement’s existence was to initiate the transfer of state power from the racist Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) to a Black majority Government. The UDI symbolised the capture of African liberties. As such, the role of nationalism was to restore the dignity of the Africans which was lost at the arrival of Rhodes’ dismemberment (Pioneer) Column. The quest for the transfer of state power was essentially founded on the need to dismantle the legacy of defeated Black aspirations and the people’s right to be free from subjugation.
Sovereignty
The armed struggle was a broad initiative to reclaim the lost sovereign dignity of the African populace displaced through the ruthless colonial laws since 1893. The liberation agenda was meant to reposition Africans to be masters of their destiny after the successful capture of their freedom. Thereafter, the nationalist agenda was to set the parameters of the new nation’s interests. Key among these interests was to ensure that the newly- born Zimbabwe was going to have absolute self-determination outside the external domination.
This is a permanent character of the nationalist legacy which is still an integral part of our present-day fight to ensure that Zimbabwe’s political and economic policies provide the benchmark of sovereignty. Of course this comes at a time Zimbabwe has been in the fight against America’s illegal imposition of the Zimbabwe Development and Economic Recovery Act (Zdera).
Democracy
Another central pillar of our liberation struggle was the fight for democracy while there are numerous submissions that explain the phenomenon of democracy. I argue that this is a concept that offers normative provisions for those who govern to draw consent for their legitimacy from the governed. This is why the fight against Smith was justified and drew its support from the masses. This is because his regime was illegal. It was oppressive machinery to the liberties of the Africans.
As such, the phenomenon of democracy is as old as the nascent stage of the anti-colonial resistance. Our people resisted being governed by the oppressor. Therefore, in remembrance of their sacrifice in the fight against tyranny, it is crucial for Zimbabweans to understand that our spirit of independence stands to safeguard the rule of law, constitutionalism and electoral appointment of national leaders.
Preservation of the national wealth
The thrust of the Chimurenga was to realign property rights and ownership. The armed struggle was aimed at bringing back that which was stolen from the African people by the colonialist. This included vast tracks of arable land, mineral rich areas and access to wildlife. The African became a trespasser in the land of their birth-right. The fight against the system that was instituted by Rhodes and his descendants by the nationalists was to ensure that Zimbabweans reclaimed their lost wealth. Our independence commemorations must cement the idea of having our African majority in full control of the means of production.
Equality
Equality forms the social base of our political culture against a background of the racism that the nationalist generation fought. As a result, it is important to remember that true independence entails equal access to opportunities as well as distributive policies which ensure that basic needs such as health, education and other social amenities are not a privilege for the few. The current system of devolution is quite in sync with the liberation agenda.
On the other hand, inequality has presented itself through the system of patriarchy which has formed the basis of power in Zimbabwe since colonialism. Therefore, the continuation of Africa’s freedom also firmly rests on the progressive interrogation of the system of patriarchy across the entire continent. The current political space in Zimbabwe justifies the need for a broader conversation around patriarchy, the inter-gender question and how it reflects the inter-dependency of human-beings in the attainment of development.
The silencing and repressing of the female other within the matrix of citizen inter-dependence undermines access to equal opportunities and shared goals for national development. With many fronts of the fight for equality in our midst, independence commemorations cement the need for the implementation of various policy interventions aimed at building an egalitarian society in Zimbabwe.
Unity
If social binaries based on nepotism and despotic social imbalances are successfully crushed national unity will be realised. Therefore, it is key for Zimbabweans to strive for the unity of our nation and cure our land from the prejudices imposed on our existence by imperialist forces. Our prosperity depends on unity. We owe the future peace and development and these two can only be realised if we are united.
Our independence celebrations offer an opportunity for reflection — as we need to take stock of our binding values as a nation.
These values should continue to reinforce and foreground our national question. Without these key values, our sovereign suffers neo-colonial decimation. -Richard Runyararo Mahomva (BSc-MSU, MSc-AU, MSc-UZ) is a Political-Scientist with an avid interest in political theory, liberation memory and architecture of governance in Africa. He is also a creative literature aficionado. Feedback: Twitter: @VaMahomva & Email [email protected]
