Unity threats in Zimbabwe.

In an age where differences in tribe really matter the least, in a time where all hands are required on deck, there still are some characters that are out to perpetuate the idea of individualism of groups and of different people and probably races. At this time, our nation needs to stand together and see through one scope the things that need to be moved out of the way so as to bring us back from the dumps. 

I heard a friend an individual discussing with a friend a very sad fact, that if people are unable to speak one language in another part of the country which has a different language prevalent, they should not be educated in that part of the country. The sad thing about that is, if people find sense in that, that will actually bring about sectionalism and we slide back into the days where one of a different tribe would not have a very good time in another section where the other tribe was dominant. I am talking about Bulawayo and Harare that are predominantly Ndebele and Shona respectively. You can hardly spend 48 hrs without hearing people complain about the fact that there is so many of the, eg, Shonas in Bulawayo stealing the jobs of the Ndebeles. Now that is signs of a manifestation of a spirit that is both dangerous and counter-productive. At this time I believe Zimbabweans need to bag these petty differences and focus on one thing, The Nation. It is more like the Rhodhesian era is still there, lurking somewhere in the atmosphere because of such talks, people who talk the way the colonisers would have wanted, divided. When they came, the colonialism discovered that as a united front, the people were difficult to rule, and then they propagated these petty divisions, treating some natives better than the others and then pretending to trust the and sending them to spy on their fellow brothers and report them to be rewarded with 'good boy' and a pat on the back. It must have been the most humiliating experience for conscience minds to go through this, but well then, the system had been set and no one could really do so much. 

Today, those differences are finding their way back into our midst counteracting our productivity. At this time, a very crucial time for all forces to be on board, every man, woman, child has to know that in Zimbabwe, we are one, one nation and one people. We are a diverse group of people who speak differently and so, we have to accommodate each other, teach each other how so s to be able to communicate together at all times. If we did not know, a nation divided is a danger to itself and a very easy target for foreign manipulation, invasion and contempt. Just look at the way Zimbabweans are treated in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia,  UK, USA, everywhere they go, not many people have nice words to say and that is caused by people like the fine people who are promoting divisional living and leaving the government to get away with its lack of doing something about it. I really believe that people should prioritize this issue of the reconciliation of tribes and promote oneness, be committed to both God and country and as a people of a nation, I do believe we should have one hope and one goal, to rebuild the country. Politicians may try to politicize our minds but let us give no room for consideration of those thoughts.

Ndabaningi Sithole

Ndabaningi Sithole.

One The Great House of Stone's great African leaders, in Rhodesian and Zimbabwean times, Ndabaningi Sithole was born in Nyamandlovu in 1920 on the 31st of July to Jim Sithole an immigrant who came to Rhodesia from Gazaland, seeking fortune and adventure and his wife Siyaphi Tshuma. He became a Christian preacher and participant in the liberation struggle he instrumental in the formation of ZANU back in 1963, helped by Robert Mugabe. Educated at local mission schools in the then Rhodesia and later in the United States. In November 1965, just before 11th, when the Rhodesian government declared itself a sovereign state, Sithole and other leaders of ZANU were arrested by Rhodesian police and he was arrayed before the courts, where he denounced the armed struggle. While he was in prison, he was deposed as a leader of ZANU by Robert Mugabe, who then added PF to the PF, Patriotic Front and thus the party became, what we know it as today, ZANU (PF). After independence in 1980, he re-organized his party ZANU and stood for elections in 1982 but he lost and two years later, he left the country for the United States where he lived in self imposed exile after claiming that Mugabe was plotting to assassinate him. He returned to Zimbabwe in 1992 and in 1995, he won a parliamentary seat for Chipinge, his tribal stronghold. In 1997, he was arrested for plotting an assassination of Mugabe and he was barred from parliament and sentenced to two years in jail but he did not serve any time in jail because of ill-health. He died on December 13th 2000, in Philadelphia, United States from heart complications. Sithole published a book African Nationalism in 1959 and the second edition of the same book in 1968. He also authored numerous newspaper and journal articles, he also wrote a biography of Obed Mutezo (1970), a novel The Polygamist (1972) and an account of the Zimbabwe struggle, Roots of a Revolution (1972).

Sithole, in 1979 was part of the transitional government of blacks and whites but failed to win any seats in the independent elections that were held in 1980 that saw Mugabe clinch the victory that he is still holding on to to this day.

A brand new day awaits.

Zimbabwe-e! That's the reaction I always get when I mention I am from the House of Stones, wait a minute, it's not only house of stones, it is The Big House of Stone, that's what the country's name means. Those that conceived the name had seen the unity of the people, their big hearted-ness and warmth of the people. I mean the nation has been of a people who have been mostly hosts throughout history from the times if the disturbances in the south, during the mfecane to the times of the Federation of Rhodesia when the Nyasalanders, Northerners and Europeans flocked to this piece of mineral and love rich land to begin their new lives there. Well, oral tradition has taught me that most of the inhabitants of this land, the ones the colonizers and the southern wanderers who are now inhabitants and of a tribe known as the Ndebele also came from somewhere in the central parts of Africa where evolutionists believe the early man dwelt, you know the cradle of mankind story. Today, the house of stone, is almost a ruin, just like the symbolic relic of the Rozvi Kingdom structure, whose kingdom ceased to exist sometime in the 1450s. Except the fact that modern day kingdoms do not completely cease to exist, this nation of ours nearly ceased functioning completely but it hit a rebound and as I speak is destined for greater heights, well this is just a well founded belief in the ability of the nation to hit a major comeback malaise, that is why we always have the expression Zimbabwe-e! When we mention that we come from there. There is a guy whom I became friends with because I am from Zimbabwe and he had never met anyone from the country before. Well, there goes the advantage of being from a celebrity country, except for the fact that the celebration is for being terrible....

Well, unlike many fellow countrymen, I am not going to beat about the bush and butter up issues here, its gotta be on the point as it it supposed to be, the news. Well, not forgetting what transpired in the 20s, thirties to the 18th of April 1980, it was a roller coaster ride for the European men and women who had established home in the nation and had created a social set-up that favored their existence, ask anyone, they will tell you that life in this period for them was a breeze. Today, that's all history because of what happened. During this period, natives grew to believe that the fair skinned ones were quite invincible and that they represented everything good and perhaps pure and hence needed no antagonism. They then put themselves under them and gave themselves completely for the service of their fair counterparts, so life was like that, every native child was born into this belief that they were of inferior pedigree to the fair skinned ones and that the latter represented wealth and goodness. Until the nationalistic movement started right up to the day of independence.

After the freedom was won, native men and women elected their president who is still reigning to this day, everyone knows Cde Robert Mugabe, the man who has been at the helm of the government. Well, I do not know about everyone but my generation and I were born when the man had done already above five years year a stint into his reign. The country was almost thrown into a civil war by the conflicts between his and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo's disagreements. ZANU (PF) led by Mugabe then unleashed a terrible onslaught on the people of Matebeleland executing almost 20,000 innocent souls. In December of '87, however, a compromise by the two opposing factions saw the fighting and killings stop. Nkomo was made the country's vice president, Mugabe remained president. Today, the people of Matebeleland are calling for justice but their pleas are going unheeded but they shall not be quiet till justice is delivered. Asked about it Mugabe once remarked that Gukurahundi, as the period was dubbed, was, 'A moment of madness', too bad that moment cost the lives of many people.

This great house of stone has gone on to suffer at the hands of the so called liberators. Once a refugee haven, it began producing refugees itself as people fled the country to seek greener pastures and safer places to live in. A former government man in the Rhodesian times once expressed his doubt that native men will be able to rule themselves but of course, he was wrong, he was just speaking from his superiority misconceived mentality. Well, the men who took the reigns in 1980, Mugabe and associates took matters into their own hands, from the look of things, they simply maintained the system the Rhodesians had put in place and just substituted the fair skinned men with the ebony skinned men. The situation is like this, and they do it openly, they are a class of men who are untouchable, touchable only if they cross the boss' paths. There are cases like those of Chris Kuruneri, Patrick Kombayi, Ndbaningi Sithole who went the opposite way from the flow of motion and got seared. So this mafia style of government is really working for them in that they are above the law. They all can steal, cheat and kill and still walk freely, in fact they earn more respect by the day. While they go to the rural areas lie with straight faces to naive elderly people, the same who supported them during the liberation struggle with food, clothing and moral support while they were out in the wild fighting the fair skinned men. They try pathetically to sway the minds of these poor souls, give them lies for reasons why sugar has disappeared from grocery store shelves. They tell them it is Britain and a host of other countries are causing all the shortages of fuel that is why buses are not running from the cities to bring groceries from their children and they are the reason why their brothers and sisters are turned back from the hospitals because there is no medication. A lot has never been really said about the logic behind their staying in power while things are messed up completely like that. They are a class of men who are ridiculously wealthy, having enough combined wealth to put medicine and other provisions back into the hospital dispensaries. They are men whose total combined wealth can be used to pay up toiling civil servants who work for peanuts while they who do nothing, are celebrated as they cruise by in their latest automobiles by starving peoples. If they had an idea that these people are children of God, perhaps, they would stop right away and reconsider. They are men who disrespect our culture and plunder what they did not plant, and maraud everywhere as demi-gods, demanding to be respected without reservations. A couple of young men were arrested in Bulawayo a while ago for carrying an animated picture of Mugabe. Two harmless young people who mean no harm to the whole organization suffering at the hands of the cruel police force for having fun, for carrying a picture drawn by a cartoonist, a picture of the paranoid dictator who has no idea where the blow is going to come from.

That brings me to the crucial point I have meaning to put across. Millions of young men and women have been taken for a ride by these men and women purporting to sort things out while they are busy ruining them. A lot of people have left the country, reasons being if they do try to stand out and be heard, chances are they are maimed, murdered or simply disregarded. All the policies of ZANU (PF) or rather the older generation are more inclined to serve their interests and nobody else's. They care not for anyone other that their own flesh and blood and do not wish even to know what will be of the country ten or twenty tears down the line. Many youths dropped out of school, been retrenched, fallen ill and failed to get any medical attention, protested and got severely beaten or killed so as the mavericks remain in power. If there was nothing to lose, these gentlemen would have long since ceded power especially after they were trounced on a round of elections by the Movement for Democratic Change party. However, it was not so, they were going to lose their cash cow so they fought tooth and nail to remain in positions of power. Some youngsters I know resorted to crime, petty and serious, some took to drugs, some just went plain nuts while the rest stayed awed by defeat. I am against the idea that a president has not to be opposed, or told he is wrong or anything that any normal human being would likely be told if he does something wrong. Instead he wants to bask in praises that he does not even deserve at all. How can one live like that, life ought to have some kind of variety for it to be challenging and I do think it is a sign of moral decay. Many journalists who tried to be part of the revolution by reporting on the ills of the government Mugabe leads were quickly disposed of at the government owned press, The Herald & The Chronicle, and government media, ZTV being replaced by stooges who had no creativity or anything exciting to write home about, or they just wanted a job to do rather than be at home or prison for telling the truth. Many organizations that tried to expose the evil these men were involved in were outlawed, for example the Daily News that was bombed to the ground and closed because of the truth. Many people in their service lick their boots because they need food on their tables and care the least about the next person, that is the reason these men have been able to get away with it, bribe a few men and screw the rest so that the power on oneness is destroyed, wait a minute, did I say the great house of stone has united people? Well, maybe yes and a little bit scared.