AN OBSERVATION PIECE - ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENCE, 18TH APRIL, 2023

Today the 18th April, 2023 is the day Zimbabwe celebrates its 43rd year of political Independence worn through blood, sweat, tears, trauma, amputations, decapitations, cold blood murder, etcetera. Many on both sides did not make it back home. Parents and siblings wept and broken-heartedness never left them. Many who left to fight the war of liberation were young and highly politicized, without fully understanding the implications, of the wrath of war. There was torture and rape of both young women and men, which has never been talked about, because some of the perpetrators of these hate crimes have been allegedly holding political office since Independence. Demobilization and demilitarization took place, but counseling after the war, did not take place. Many resorted to substance abuse and got caught up in its effects and eventually perished. A significant number are still alive and completely forgotten by their counterparts, the ones they fought the war with, side by side. A large chunk of them are poor, helpless, marginalized and bitter. A small connected clique represents the political power elite, gatekeeping with their handsomely paid goons, ensuring that no contender takes power, as their participation in the war of liberation, has become an entitlement for them to rule till they die. It is an unfortunate state of affairs. Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 is a mess. The messiness is well documented. Those in power are numbed with privilege. They are unflinching in their resolve to put down any form of political dissent. We are all wiser in hindsight. My kind of wisdom is that the fight for the land of Zimbabwe was an incomplete and inadequate narrative because no-one can uplift Zimbabwe's land to somewhere far away from Zimbabwe. It is our land and will always remain our land to use, within the artificial borders, demarcated during colonialism. What the war of liberation was actually all about to me, was the restoration of our Zimbabwean and African pride, cultures and human dignity. That for me encapsulates the ratio decidendi, the essence, of our quest for freedom. Across race, class, religious and political divides, we all want the same things - that is to be the genuine and authentic masters and mistresses of our destinies, without having to fork out anything to anybody, for that to happen. We want to be the champions of our own lives, without having to bow down to nobody nor asslick another human being. We want to achieve, on Zimbabwean land or off the land, in other economic spheres, without having to be aligned to any political party. That is the raison d'etre for achieving freedom. Do we have this freedom to champion our own destinies freely, without worrying that we will be targeted? No we don't. Many from amongst us, live with chronic illnesses like BP, because of the weight of the nation's problems we carry on our shoulders. Do we enjoy personal pride and dignity? Not in their totality. It is relative and incomplete. Cultures are not static. They are dynamic. In their dynamism, they are the thread that weaves all Zimbabweans to be one people. Do we have a collective uniformity of purpose as Zimbabweans? I don't know. I doubt it. I am yet to witness it. What I have observed is, it is one person for themselves and God for us all. That fragmentation as a people, has been preyed upon by the political establishment and used to further malign and disadvantage us. Where to now? I have no idea. What I know is, no one government, nor political party, has a monopoly on great ideas. No one generation possesses that either. We need fresh thinking, innovative ideas plus recognizable actions, so that Zimbabweans, who have been relegated to the chicken run, rife with meekness and fearfulness, can rise again, to be the great people they were meant to be. Mourn my beloved country, on this Independence Day!