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SINCE independence, the policies of Zimbabwe’s rulers have been informed more by a burning desire to get recognition and glory as world-renowned statesmen, rather than the will to advance the interests of citizens.
The world-acclaimed policy of national reconciliation proclaimed in 1980, was the first sign of the Zimbabwe rulers’ priorities. Without doubt, the policy of reconciliation was noble in the circumstances to provide a foundation for nation building. However, it was aimed more at getting Zimbabwe’s rulers a place in history as statesmen than advancing the cause of Zimbabweans. To show that the policy of reconciliation was more of a publicity stunt than a gesture aimed at nation-building, the triumphant black rulers only extended the olive branch to whites and not to fellow blacks. As a result, the new black rulers did not find it worth their while to reconcile with their black war-era adversaries like Ndabaningi Sithole, Henry Hamadziripi, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Dzinashe Machingura. Sithole and Hamadziripi were not forgiven even in death as they were denied an opportunity to be buried at the hallowed Heroes’ Acre. Having announced their presence on the world stage with the self-serving policy of national reconciliation, the Zimbabwe leaders proceeded to put in place the physical infrastructure necessary for them to play out their glory-seeking foreign policy. They built the Harare Sheraton Hotel — a white elephant in a sea of poverty — to host world leaders and international talk shops. Soon after the completion of the Sheraton prestige project, the Zimbabwean leaders hosted the Non-Aligned Movement, in keeping with their desire to enhance their standing in the international community. The National Sports Stadium was yet another prestige project meant to give the spotlight-crazy Zimbabwe leadership a place to hold national events from which to pontificate to the bemused masses in their impressive English. The annual Heroes’ Day commemorations are only a platform for an opportunity to showcase their oratory and posture as the world’s most daring leaders who can fire broadsides at the world’s western leaders with (reckless?) abandon. Zimbabwe’s ruling elite’s actions since independence clearly show that genuinely remembering the gallant fallen and living heroes has never been one of its priorities. Since independence, they have been obsessed with pursuing a glory-seeking foreign policy to almost the total exclusion of advancing the interest of the liberation war heroes living and departed whose sacrifices brought them to power in the first place. The leaders are more interested in "dealing a telling blow to that intransigent and incorrigible racism" ahead of improving the lot of their black people. While the country’s leadership annually pontificates at the obscenely opulent Heroes’ Acre on Heroes’ Day, there are still a lot of fallen war heroes who lie in unmarked graves in and outside the country. A group of concerned war veterans going by the name, Fallen Heroes: The Exhumers is literally scavenging in the bush using their bare hands in search of the remains of their comrades, with no state support whatsoever. While the country’s leaders use the occasion to remember the fallen heroes to fire more broadsides against imperialists, Mai Tapiwa in Mberengwa at Chegato wonders how and when she will ever get to see where her brother Cde Zvandasara lies buried, more than thirty years after he left for the liberation war. Mbuya Jura in Rusape has given up hope of ever knowing how her beloved son Tendai perished in the war and where his remains lie. Mainini MaDube in Mberengwa at Chavengwa is resigned to the fact that her wish to know where the remains of her war veteran brother Abraham lie, will never be granted in her life time. But the concerns of these peasants must be subordinated to and come second to the selfish leaders even if it means Zimbabweans will be reduced to beggars and economic refugees all over the world as a result. The much-hyped land reform when it finally came was motivated more by the leaders’ desire to vicariously deal a blow against the British through grabbing their white kith and kin’s farms, than a genuine desire to empower black Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe’s current leaders cannot be counted among genuine and sincere African heroes who dedicated their lives to improving the lives of the Africans at home and in the Diaspora. These genuine and sincere African freedom fighters are people like Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Martin Luther King Junior, Malcolm X, Oliver Tambo, Dedan Kimathi, Bob Marley, and Marcus Garvey. Zimbabwean leaders are merely a bunch of shameless power-obsessed, self-important, hypocrites who opportunistically use the cloak of Pan-Africanism to camouflage their selfish interests. They are more interested in caressing their monstrous egos than improving the lot of the citizenry of Zimbabwe.
Kudakwashe Marazanye
Harare
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