Saturday, January 11, 2014

Keep Our Liberation History, Says Zimbabwe Vice-President Mujuru

Keep our history: Acting President

January 10, 2014 Headlines, Top Stories
Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald

Acting President Joice Mujuru yesterday bemoaned the failure by liberation war luminaries to record the country’s history, especially the fight against colonial rule, and warned that future generations may never know the heroic sacrifices made to liberate Zimbabwe.

She said this while addressing thousands of mourners at the National Heroes Acre at the burial of one of the founder members of the liberation struggle, Lieutenant-Colonel (Retired) Harold Mtandwa Chirenda (69).

Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda died after a long illness at United Bulawayo Hospitals on New Year’s Day.

“I cry that this vital sentence which is and should be part of a national narrative is going to be buried away today: unread by those who live, unreadable to all those who follow. I am talking about Cde Chirenda’s great grandchildren who may never know or grasp the work he did in his lifetime.

“I am talking about my own great grandchildren who may never know or remember him. I am talking about your great grandchildren, dear comrade, who may never know your history, our history and thus their history as well,” Acting President Mujuru said.

She said much of Zimbabwe’s history had been buried with the death of people such as Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda.

“We have not written our story, we have great but mute heroes. We have not narrated our experiences even to this generation that lives. Much worse, our experiences are buried away with us, rendered eternally mute, when we die, one at a time we are all gone one day.

“Unless they spoke when they live, dead comrades don’t tell stories and our individual stories are a vital part of the story of our generation, of our people, our nation, our country. Who shall tell it? When? The veterans like Chirenda are going, are gone, who shall testify to his greatness?

“While they tell us that history belongs to the victors, our own situation cedes victory to those who lost the war.

“Our history has no tellers. We need to change history by writing it. Let’s begin now so we shape a heritage for our children, for generations to come who deserve to inherit and get inspired by the great deeds of their forbearers,” she said.

Acting President Mujuru said the late Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda never betrayed the values of the liberation struggle until his death.

“Beyond the human flesh, Cde Chirenda epitomised the values of the struggle which he never betrayed. Zimbabwe had to be free from colonial bondage. That is why he went to start a war. Zimbabwe had to be sovereign and secure. That is why he remained within the security structures of the nation until his retirement in 1995.

“Zimbabwe had to be defended at all times. That is why he remained active in national politics even after he retired from active duty. Zimbabwe’s resources had to come to her people again. Again, that is why he played his part in the land reform programme, indeed why he supported the policy of empowerment,” she said.

She added that the late national hero had left behind a legacy of upholding values irrespective of circumstances and said this should be an inspiration to future generations.

The Acting President said the Zanu-PF Government had adopted the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) as a way of fulfilling promises made to the people to fully indigenise the economy.

She also said Zimbabweans had to rely on themselves to ensure the success of the programme.

“I call it ‘the none-but-ourselves’ assumption, the ‘iweneni tine basa’, ‘mina lawesilomsebenzi’ mantra we used in the struggle. Zim-Asset is a call to you and me – to all of us as Zimbabweans – to put shoulder to wheel, sweat a bit, so we recover our economy and grow it for the prosperity of all our people,” the Acting President said.

She said she had recently engaged some youths who showed their enthusiasm for Zim-Asset but had pointed out areas they thought had not been adequately addressed by the blueprint, especially information technology, and banking and finance.

“We certainly must give thought to such feedback and see how Zim-Asset can be made elastic enough to accommodate these two key enablers, or any other areas viewed as crucial,” she said.

Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda, whose Chimurenga name was Elliot Masengo, is survived by his wife, nine children and 18 grand children.


Editorial Comment: Dead comrades tell no tales

January 11, 2014 Opinion & Analysis
Zimbabwe Herald

“The Negro, as already observed, exhibits the natural man in his completely wild and untamed state.

“We must lay aside all thought of reverence and morality — all that we call feeling — if we would rightly comprehend him; there is nothing harmonious with humanity to be found in this type of character . . .

“At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again. For it is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit.”

This was Hegel’s summation of Africa and its History some two centuries ago.

About 100 years later, in 1963, Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper expounded on this saying: “Nowadays, undergraduates demand that they should be taught African History. Perhaps in the future there will be some African History to teach.

“But at the present there is none; there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness, and darkness is not a subject of history.

“Please do not misunderstand me I do not deny that man existed even in dark countries and dark centuries the present world is one that is dominated by European techniques, European examples, and Europeans ideas.

“It is these which have shaken the non-European world out of its past, out of barbarism in Africa.

“The history of the world, for the last five centuries, is so far as it has significance, has been European History.

“The study of History must therefore be Europe-centric we cannot, thus, afford to amuse ourselves with the unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe.”

These are not the ravings of mad men. Rather, they are the bases of Western approaches to Africa, its past and its future right up to today.

There is a reason why Africa is often exhorted to “forget the past” and focus on the present.

Somehow, it is only Africans who are expected to live outside of the past-present-future continuum and exist in a never ending state of “now” that is neither informed by history nor is concerned about tomorrow.

At the same time, Europe, North America, Australia and Japan will not countenance anyone who dares sully their past. They are proud of their history and they appreciate its importance to today and to the future.

Not so for Africa.

It should be obvious that the attempt to create a post-colonial disconnect between Africa before and after independence is meant to induce a collective national amnesia.

The saddest thing about this is that Africa has accepted the myth that “bygones should be bygones”.

And it is for this reason that we are not writing our History and we are being fed images of ourselves that better suit the West’s intentions for us.

Ultimately the blame for the erasure and revision of our History lies squarely on us.
What excuse is there for not documenting our History? What “justification” do we have for allowing the hunter to always write the story of the hunt?

Speaking at the National Heroes Acre in Harare at Thursday’s burial of Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Chirenda, Acting President Joice Mujuru said much of Zimbabwe’s History was being interred with the freedom fighters at the shrine.

“We have not written our story, we have great but mute heroes . . . Unless they spoke when they lived, dead comrades don’t tell stories . . . Our history has no tellers. We need to change history by writing it.

“Let’s begin now so we shape a heritage for our children, for generations to come who deserve to inherit and get inspired by the great deeds of their forebears.”

We respectfully throw this challenge back to Her Excellency the Acting President and her colleagues: it’s past time to document Zimbabwe’s true story.

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