I wrote this article in 2007 and hey, its unbelievable the issues I pointed out then seem to be very much alive in Zimbabwes political, economic and social discourse.: ZIMBABWE: A REVOLUTION THAT IS FAILING TO MATURE! Published: 29/10/2007 By Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa I have read and listened to arguments on the learning curve in Africa. At one point I was persuaded that what happens on the continent is indeed by destiny; that each country must go through certain ups and downs as a matter of something already printed in nature and anything that tries to defy this rule game actually tries in vain to defy logic. Yet, this argument which I will call the metamorphosis argument quickly falls into trappings of stereotyping; that countries especially African countries must indeed follow a pattern as their destinies are predetermined. I have called it the metamorphosis argument as it is an argument about genesis, the real beginning of the continent of Africa…..when exactly did Africa start? Does it start with the emergence of colonialism on the continent when the Berlin Conference suddenly propagates what is to be on the so-called “Dark Continent” or does it start with the political independence from this colonisation or that Africa has predated slavery, colonisation and independence from colonisation? I ought not to offer anyone a panacea or even tinges of concoctions but I will say that my belief is that Africa, like any other continents predates slavery, colonisation and the independence from colonisation and it is within this context that I will talk about Zimbabwe, a country which means a lot to me and which shall always mean a lot to my children and offspring. Recent developments including the very immediate developments in South Africa and in Asia challenge my conscience. I will look at South Africa with two events that happened to the country last week: the death of the legendary Lucky Dube a reggae icon who was among my favourite artists and the Springboks’; victors in Rugby, a sport that I once played and which I still very much enjoy watching and following. Both events have a bearing on race relations and the development of the South African ethos and have a derivative on how South Africa has managed to progress as a country since 1994. Direct comparison with Namibia and Zimbabwe, two countries that have almost an identical history with South Africa will show a complete difference in the issue of race relations and the social and political ethos of the countries. The South African ethos to me was founded on an attempt to expose the truth; to reveal the injustices of apartheid as far as they could be revealed. South Africans of all races have cried and continue to cry at the way they have treated one another in the past. Particularly acute is the way white South Africans’ privileged position was allowed to prejudice their black compatriots during apartheid. Yet for all its shortcomings the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa managed to create an open society that not only tolerates the divergence of views but has learnt to live and tolerate that in their recent past some relatives and friends lost their lives to apartheid. South Africans are aware of the individuals who have committed these atrocities. No-one is disallowed from being angry towards anyone yet the tensions that are seen in South Africa today are not derived from social status rather than race; they are tensions based on class and not ethnicity. I believe the very fact that the TRC was an attempt to discourage impunity has helped in the emergence of the South African political and social ethos of tolerance, transparency and democracy. It is humbling how Nelson Mandela, for years the victim of apartheid laws, was urging the Springboks to bring the trophy home; despite the fact that South African rugby is still white dominated. A victory by the Springboks was a victory for South Africa. And thus the serving President Thabo Mbeki, a trained guerrilla fighter and a member of the Umkhonto weSizwe intelligence during South Africa’s liberation struggle, was among those that welcomed the victorious team home. The success of South Africa’s Rugby lies in the need to promote meritocracy that has been balanced by a genuine need to promote the underprivileged black community’s entrance to the sport by bringing the sport to the grassroots. This has not disrupted the progress that had been there for a long-time, remember South Africa won the Rugby World Cup again in 1995. This has not been the case in Zimbabwe where the sport was in the same league with the likes of South Africa. But there were more white players than black and the Zimbabwean government then decided to intervene and clearly they went for racial balancing by manipulating the sport so that it reflected the predominance of blacks as the majority. The intervention was not based on merit; on the realisation that the sport did not have to suffer in order that there was preferential treatment of black players ahead of their white compatriots. Such an intervention has the hallmarks of Hitler’s NAZI Germany who had to be humbled by the Americans when a “non-Aryan” athlete amazed everyone by his performance in the Berlin Olympics in the 1930s. In contrast to Germany, the USA looked at potential, at talent and not at the majority as opposed to the country’s minority. The same line is advanced in the USA today where the minority blacks dominate in sports such as athletics, boxing, American Football and basket ball. When they win the USA wins and that is the mentality. Zimbabwean Rugby has been in free fall because we allowed ourselves to be preoccupied by emotion, to intervene by disrupting progress rather than to slowly balance a clearly historical imbalance by looking at merit rather than at race. Eventually with the right attitude we would have managed to develop grassroots talent and for the past twenty seven years that we should by now have produced world class players reflective of the talent on the ground as equal opportunities would have been given to both the black and the white potential Rugby player. The same for Zimbabwean cricket where a once thriving sport is threatened with complete disaster because of our insistence to interfere with the wrong attitude. Zimbabwean Rugby is now whipping boys in Africa where countries such as Uganda and even Zambia have done much better, something unthinkable a decade ago. Why, because we are pre-occupied with hate; with suspicions against one another on racial grounds. And the South African leadership has involved itself with the grassroots so much that the death of a musician;( read Lucky Dube and also Brenda Fassie) can catch the sorrow of the ex-President Nelson Mandela and the serving President Thabo Mbeki. In Zimbabwe the political leadership is not part of the grassroots and social commentators such as musicians and actors are largely ignored. Whereas Nelson Mandela is with his people I have been ridiculed for playing the drum and singing at the Vigil in a society where the ethos is one that sees being educated and prominent as meaning distancing oneself from the grassroots. Little did some people know that in fact I am a professional, I am a published writer and I am completing a PhD thesis and at the same time I feel I belong to the grassroots. I do not see anything backward in listening to the music of Lovemore Majaivana, Solomon Skuza, System Tazvida, Leonard Dembo, Tongai Moyo and Devera Ngwena which we grew up listening to there in Zimbabwe’s Midlands and which one genuinely likes. The South African leadership ethos derives from this mentality, where authority is given rather than demanded and we see this concept even in the UK where leaders such as Gordon Brown are also very much Grassroots players and not politicians who distance themselves from their roots. The Zimbabwean revolution during its execution had every reason to hate the establishment. The majority blacks were disenfranchised in their own country with no prospects that this would end. Yet that Revolution was supposed to usher in a new era of equality, transparency, justice and the progress of all Zimbabwean people regardless of colour, creed and religion. Yet the rejuvenated Zimbabwe has forgotten that it is a country in continuum, it has always existed and the white component of the country are just part of our long history. We have forgotten that our country predates colonialism which in itself is part of the things that shape Zimbabwe. We have forgotten that even England was last colonised in the 13th century…..a weak country that everyone who liked had came and conquered and subjugated; the Romans, the Scottish, the Danes, the Vikings, the Barbarians etc all had taken turns to bring England to their order. And for all what has been said even in terms of literacy and civilisation the English were still not very literate all this time; at a time when Great Zimbabwe was thriving and the Mwene Mutapa ruled supreme, in the waters, on land everywhere the Mwene Mutapa was the true master of his destiny at this point in time. But we have forgotten that the Mwene Mutapa was defeated and replaced by the Rozvi, the first alien invasion force from the south of the Limpopo. Yet the period of Rozvi supremacy came to an end from ironically another invasion force south of the Limpopo, the Khumalo. As it unravels we know how the Ndebele nation was built from the remnants of the Rozvi kingdom, the Khumalo, the Shona and other tribal groupings in Matabeleland and how even this seemingly formidable kingdom was itself defeated by yet another invasion into Zimbabwe; this time the British. The metamorphosis argument must be embedded in the theory that Zimbabwe’s existence dates back to the beginning of the country as we know it and rather all the other events such as Great Zimbabwe, Mwene Mutapa, the Rozvi Domination, the Ndebele Kingdom, colonization and independence are periodicals that although they have had a bearing on our destinies, are but history that need not be allowed to manipulate us as a nation. This is how successful countries with similar histories as ourselves have viewed it and then managed to succeed. China and India both former colonies and not former colonisers have taken the view that what happened to them is not unique but is part of what shapes the world and they have quickly found that the Chinese and the Indian civilisations started way before the advent of the West and that in spite of alien intervention such as colonisation; the two civilisations have been able to sustain themselves to modernity and now China and India will soon be World’s Economy Number 1 and Number 2 respectively. They have looked at their countries and civilisations as things that exist in continuum and that so many challenges have come including successes and failures, victories and defeat but they have served to enrich or even strengthen their resolve towards respectable Chinese and Indian identities. It is encouraging that these identities have not been defined within a closet; China and India have sought their identities in the larger context of the whole world and not as we have done in Zimbabwe where we have sought to limit our potentials to being the best in Africa or number this in Africa. Zimbabwe as a country is doomed if we are not aware of the fact that we have wasted time trying to dwell too much in the past. We have missed the point and mainly because of a wrong renewal in 1980 when we swept the atrocities and genocide of the UDI under the carpet we forever allowed to exist on a corrupted ethos; where we have always suppressed the truth and subjected people to live in a perpetual atmosphere of hate and fear. White and black relations are still characterised by the boss and servant situation in our country and this is why many white Zimbabweans cannot speak Ndebele and Shona. Reconciliation in Zimbabwe has not worked as we do not know what we had to forgive. As a result politicians have ended up using this reconciliation as a tool for blackmailing and as we speak it is a favour not an attitude. In South Africa the reconciliation there is an attitude and this can be seen in a country that largely speaks the same language. The presence of white South Africans in the country’s security forces is an example and in comparison with Zimbabwe in our thirteenth year as an independent country. A bad start is responsible for this continuing climate of suspicion which has done our country bad. A bad start in 1945 Germany would have confirmed Germaschuld [the collective guilt of every German] had the international community not addressed the problem by trying the individuals involved. Thus the Nuremberg Trials were important in incriminating the wrong doers and at the same time allowing Germany the chance to co-exist as an equal member of the international community, something that may have been impossible had the general guilt tag been attached on the country. And now even the children and grandchildren of the likes of Goebbels are free men and women in German society. In Zimbabwe we have failed to address these problems and as a result the revolution has nothing to show for all its sacrifices and good ideals. The Revolution is blamed for the Gukurahundi Genocide of its citizens, blamed for the lawlessness and butchering of the opponents of the ruling Party. The Revolution today is hard to celebrate in an atmosphere where its hospitals are staffed by unpaid doctors who are fleeing the Revolution for greener pastures. Hospital dispensaries are empty in a country that has large pharmaceutical companies, good universities for research and sprawling lands where we could grow the medicines. Shelves are empty so are our stomachs in a land where we have said we have redistributed land to the underprivileged. There is no food in Zimbabwe, a country that used to produce in surplus. A country almost double the size of the UK yet with a population less than a quarter of the UK’s population, cannot feed its hungry and can not treat its sick. The Revolution has remained paranoid, it is the Revolution that grew fed up with the criticism of the Daily News and closed it in 2003, making its machinery redundant and its journalists jobless. Unemployed the young men and women lost both their buying power and dignity in a country that for long they had known as theirs. It was the Revolution, immature as it is that abruptly and behaving irresponsibly allowed the destruction of agriculture and with it the inflow of foreign currency. Its mistake punched the Zimbabwean dollar heavily and it lost its convertibility as a currency and downstream industries started to suffer. It is the Revolution which has failed to refurbish Willowvale Motor Industries, in its paranoid state Zimbabwe could not work out a deal with MG Rover to take car manufacturing to Zimbabwe. It is the Revolution that has failed the Lupane Methane Gas project, with it the potential for fuel as gas could be liquefied to diesel and petroleum, projects that need a substantial amount of foreign direct investments which can only come if the climate is conducive. The Revolution has throttled the Zambezi Water project and overseen the deterioration in the standards of living in our country. It is the Revolution that has made its leaders anathema with the people; with the encouragement of such corrupting laws as denigration of the President the Revolution has created Deity in our leaders who have become untouchables. The Revolution has no respect now as authority has to be forced through war veterans and not earned. Zimbabwe must mourn a failing revolution that has travelled very far away from its original principles. It has nothing to present in its favour as it is still looking for success stories to present to the World. Zimbabwe remains a cry baby still holding to its tears and peeping through our wiping hands for a comforting hand. We are progressing on the wrong attitude which has seen us become a closed society. We have missed out on success because we are unhappy with any challenges to our deeds. The trend set in 1996 when we registered an 8% in our GDP and good levels of Foreign Direct Investments could have left us in remarkable shape had we sustained it. It is eleven years since 1996 when our GDP grew by 8%. Counting from then and using the effective rate, our GDP would have grown by more than 150% by the year 2007, which means as a Purchasing Power Parity our GDP would have been more than US$110billion. With a population size of 12million the per capita income of Zimbabweans would have been more than US$9000.00, and needless to say we could by far have been better off not in Africa but in the world. And factor the FDI element in and also remember that talk of billions into Zimbabwe then was rife: the National Power Hydro Project for Lake Musevanemanda in Gokwe, the VW Assembly Plant in Harare, the Lupane Gas Project, the expansion of ZISCO all Foreign Direct Investments we have missed on because of a Revolutionary mentality that is refusing to grow by pausing a moment to see the bigger picture. On empty stomachs and with the continued onslaught on progress the Revolution is slowly becoming an irrelevant part of our continuum, and until when it redeems itself to retrace the path to conquer the whole world, Zimbabwe’s Revolution still remains immature and not dignified. Its failure to feed its people means that it is like a small child prone to manipulation and very reliant on foreign intervention which by far were never the aims of the struggle for independence. Yet the tolerance of divergent views and the creation of space for every Zimbabwean from whichever race, religion and creed will forever ensure its progress and sustenance. BE JUDGE!
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 22:47:12 +0000
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