The ManicaPost
Freedom Mutanda Chipinge Correspondent
THEY say life begins at 40 and last Saturday, Zimbabwe marked this important milestone.
When the Europeans came to set base here, Africa watched as her resources were being looted.
Self-hate was strategically implanted in black people as they were made to believe in white superiority.
Thus, Eurocentric historians back then claimed that the Great Zimbabwe, which they erroneously called the Zimbabwe Ruins, was built by either Phoenicians, the Arabs or the Queen of Sheba.
All those machinations were meant to belittle African achievements.
Even though archaeologists’ carbon dating showed that the giant structure could have been built many centuries ago, that truth was censored for a purpose.
The Europeans were determined to make Africans feel that they were not ready to rule themselves.
They were made to feel like they did not have a history.
Chinua Achebe, the doyen of African literature, said African experience was not one long night of savagery.
“We are a people with a past and there are some individuals who can recite the history of a clan, State or empire.”
While Ian Smith once said, “No majority rule in my lifetime,” April 18, 1980 will forever be etched in the minds of Zimbabweans because on that day, the Union Jack, a symbol of British imperialism, was replaced by the Zimbabwe flag.
In that symbolic act, Zimbabwe got her independence and with it, a passport to stand for herself as a sovereign nation.
Stories of the liberation struggle will always be told because that is how the country’s independence came through.
Indeed, one spirit medium said every clan has a freedom fighter who participated in the liberation struggle.
This is a story that must never die.
Our children must be told that story and they must tell their own children and the generations to come.
In his address on Independence Day, President Mnangagwa stressed the need for resilience for the sake of attaining the country’s prosperity.
Here is a man who received military training in China.
One who engaged in acts of sabotage against the colonial government. Decades later, he is still an avowed nationalist.
His story is still to be exhausted and biographers must take their pens and write the history of this man who has been in the trenches for a very long time in the service of this country.
More needs to be written about the peasants who subtly engaged the enemy as the propaganda machine spewed hate speech and blatant lies about the war.
These are the people who bore the brunt of racist military power and ruthlessness as they were tortured for supporting ‘’the boys’’ by giving them shelter, food, clothes, moral support and providing intelligence.
Indeed, the masses suffered and sometimes paid the ultimate price.
And then independence came.
Who can forget the euphoria that engulfed the nation as the comrades returned from the assembly points in their belly-bottom jeans, khakhis and corduroys?
People danced to Chimurenga music as they celebrated the arrival of majority rule.
With the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services working on several content creation, stories of the liberation struggle need to be heard through various media platforms.
It is for posterity.
We have seen the western media going to town about their heroes and heroines. Movies are churned out every year to tell their story. Therefore we should not allow anyone to trivialise our own history.
Much ground has been covered since independence and a lot can be written about it.
Before independence, very few Africans could attain secondary education. Now forty years later, there is a secondary school in every ward. Tertiary institutions are found in each province, while most districts are home to vocational colleges.
Owing to the strides made in our education system, most countries have hardworking Zimbabwean professionals doing wonders in various sectors.
That story need to be recorded.
