A COMMON thread defines oppressive leaders.
They subjugate the population — strip them of all their rights, while unleashing some of the most horrendous injustices — thereafter, they ask them to remain peaceful to ostensibly guarantee the nation’s development and survival.
In fact, during my early schooling years, having begun Grade 1 when Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, there was one thing I found rather curious in our history books which were written during the colonial era.
There was an emphasis on that the country was founded on firm Christian values, which needed to be jealously guarded and preserved.
One of these values was the need for peace, since this was a central theme of our Lord Jesus Christ’s teachings. As such, all the people of this great country had to treasure this tenet.
These history books branded liberation movements fighting for the freedom, equality and prosperity of the black population as “trouble-causers and rabble-rousers”.
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They were portrayed as a group of hoodlums seeking to sow seeds of division, anarchy and hatred in the country, thereby, scuttling the “peace and harmony” which the people enjoyed.
In all this, there was absolutely no mention of the barbaric injustices and repression wrought by shameless racial segregation and the marginalisation of the country’s majority.
Everything was painted as rosy, with the black people being the “happiest in Africa”.
Of course, this could not have been further from the truth.
The reader of these history books was made to believe that there was really nothing amiss or untoward in the country. As such, there was absolutely no justification for anyone to stand up against this system.
Those who were urging the people to rise and fight for their rights were deemed “bad apples and miscreants” who needed to be “weeded out” because they were “counter-productive”, and their actions stifled national development.
Indeed, who in their right mind does not want peace as well as national and personal development?
However, peace can only exist where there is justice.
I am quite confident that those who waged the liberation struggle for this country were not “trouble-causers and bad apples” who hated peace and the nation’s development.
I seriously doubt if they were anarchists, who were motived by a desire to see the people suffering and at war with one another.
They desired peace. Nevertheless, above that, they also wanted justice.
Living in peace — yet oppressed and marginalised — is meaningless!
This is exactly what we are witnessing in Zimbabwe today.
I cannot help being amazed at all the talk about peace by the ruling elite, especially after the recently-held harmonised elections.
Granted, I am in full agreement with them that the country needs to remain peaceful as we focus on developing our livelihoods and moving Zimbabwe forward. Nonetheless, I am reminded of the colonial era and those history books I read in primary school.
Is it not a bit disingenuous for a leadership that survives on stealing elections — effectively imposing itself on the people of Zimbabwe against their will — to expect the citizenry not to demand justice?
Just as in colonial Rhodesia, surely are we supposed to accept being denied our right to elect a leader of our choice merely for the sake of peace?
Are we expected to simply roll over, accept the savage stripping of our rights, and pretend that all is well in Zimbabwe?
Well, the brutal truth is that all is not well in our country.
We cannot keep offering the other cheek, while we are repeatedly treated as second-class citizens in our own country — who should be perennially ruled over by a small clique of oppressive kleptomaniacs — refusing to accept that it is no longer wanted by the people.
Besides, exactly what “national development” are we expecting in Zimbabwe under the callous rule of such leaders?
Should we turn a blind eye to horrible injustices in the country in the spirit of “national development” while half the population lives in extreme poverty?
Enjoying three meals a day has become a luxury for the majority of Zimbabweans.
Right now, our health institutions have become death traps, lacking basic necessities, such as medication, functional cancer machines, ambulances and adequate hospital beds.
While such suffering is taking place, those in power and their cronies see nothing wrong with flaunting their ill-gotten wealth, largely derived from the looting of our national resources.
They unashamedly parade their latest luxury vehicles, go on endless trips overseas on expensive holidays and buy mansions that make Hollywood stars green with envy.
It is time ordinary Zimbabweans exercised their constitutional right to express their displeasure and disgruntlement at this never-ending cycle of electoral fraud.
We need to have leaders we genuinely desire.
Unlike during the colonial times, we now have the constitutional right to stand up for ourselves in a peaceful manner to demand that justice should prevail in Zimbabwe.
We do not need to be violent in making our demands known and heeded, and there are a million and one ways of achieving this goal.
Even simply staying at home and shutting down the country for a few days is a loud form of protest.
For how long are we going to be moaning over “stolen elections”?
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, author and speaker. He writes here in his personal capacity.