Failure to rename a refusal of own identity

ONE of the heart wrenching episodes in a parent’s life is to be neglected by his/her own children whom he/she raised through sweat, sacrifice, toil and hard work.

After spending sleepless nights, battling to put food on the table and most probably sacrificing personal dreams and desires, it is shameful when all such efforts go unappreciated and unnoticed.

Such is the scenario which Bulawayo City Council has set by refusing to rename Barbourfields Stadium after the celebrated and legendary late Zipra commander, Lookout “Mafela” Masuku.

Barbourfields Stadium was named after Barbour, a white Alderman who is said to have “done well” for the community during the colonial period. And this is the legacy which councillors openly declared that “they want to protect.”

While the council’s street naming subcommittee had proposed to rename the stadium, the majority of the council rejected the proposal, putting the proverbial final nail on the coffin on the proposal and that closed all the avenues by claiming that only footballers stood a better chance of being given such recognition.

In a subtle manner, the council said “liberation heroes” have no place in modern day Zimbabwe. While Barbour might have done a great job then, in the 21st century there is also another great man who needs a better recognition for his sterling job.

The recent debate and the resultant outright refusal by the City Council’s Department of Housing to rename the stadium after Masuku speaks volumes of the character being exhibited by the entire management and councillors.

The most embarrassing line of thought that councillors gave was that Lameck Mafela as Masuku was commonly known during the brutal and protracted armed struggle, was not a footballer to deserve a stadium to be named after him.

In South Africa, Moses Mabida Stadium was named after Moses Mabida, a former generalsecretary of the South African Communist Party. Former South African President, Nelson Mandela has a stadium named after him too, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Both politicians were not footballers, instead Mandela was a boxer and rugby fan.

Some of the words in the objection report from the city’s Department of Housing and Community Services as reported in Chronicle read: “Secondly, and admittedly, Lookout Masuku is a hero to all and sundry, but what is his link to soccer? We have never heard of his interest in soccer.”

As such, the reason that only footballers can have stadiums named after them is pedantic. Was Joshua Nkomo a pilot to have an airport named after him? Is President Mugabe a driver for a road to be named after him? What is crystal clear from councillors is that the matter is not based on that Barbourfields can be renamed; rather it is an outright refusal to honour Lookout Masuku.

If it can’t be BF for reasons that Mr Barbour was a great man then, why not Luveve and White City Stadiums? What is also appalling is that councillors claim to be protecting the city’s heritage and that outrightly puts Masuku as not part of such a heritage.

The history of the liberation struggle can not only be learnt in schools but in various forms which include monuments and naming as well as renaming big places like stadiums. This is also advocated for by memory scholars who argue that the remembering of such as that of fallen heroes is important for making certain that history is easily available and known to people who on daily basis come across institutions named after fallen and living heroes too.

Decoloniality as a thought begets Decolonialisation as a praxis. The baptismal truth of decoloniality is that decolonisation failed to vanquish coloniality even as it evaporated colonialism.

Decolonialisation therefore, is the process of not only unmasking but dethroning coloniality itself, killing the ghost of colonialism. As Ramon Grosfoguel has emphatically explained on behalf of the Decoloniality Movement, the aspiration of decoloniality is to champion anti-systemic thought and politics that goes beyond simple identity politics. After the

The fact that most councillors are enjoying the luxury of grabbing stands and soliciting for bribes from residents to fascinate acquisition of residential stands, an abuse of the freedom which Masuku brought is a great shame. This is freedom which they could not have enjoyed under the supremacist white colonial heritage which they claim to protect.

More so, Barbourfields is not a great name that attracted any funding to the BCC. Instead, they have resorted to stripping poor Highlanders and other football teams naked of revenue they have earned. The name is as good as a white elephant to the living generation who have no link or relationship with Mr Barbour, instead, they have an everlasting relationship, love and affection for their liberator, Lookout “Mafela” Masuku.

While councillors might have blundered, it is also mindboggling that officials from the local authority’s Department of Housing and Community Services who in their report said since “Masuku was a national hero, and as such, it is Government that bestows heroes’ names on monuments and not local authorities.”

This barren logic belongs to an institution of the brain dead because it is not only the Government which should honour heroes and heroines. Actually, this demonstrated that the city council does not understand its mandate as the “local authority” because it is within their jurisdiction to honour people either as small as an ant or as big as an elephant in their deeds or work.

This recent behaviour is a sharp reminder that this is the time for residents and citizens to advocate for the living and fallen heroes and heroines for the preservation of events that define our nationhood.

It is not only Masuku who needs to be honoured, there are also commanders like Josiah Magama Tongogara and Alfred Nikita Mangena, other fallen heroes and nationalists such as Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Thenjiwe Lesabe, Herbert Chitepo, Sally Mugabe, Eddison Zvogbo and also the late VicePresidents; Joseph Msika, Simon Muzenda and John Landa Nkomo to name but a few.

A case in point is South Africa which has done a sterling job in renaming most of their places, roads and institutions after their heroes and these include Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Moses Mabida among others.

Lungile Tshuma is a Masters student in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the National University of Science and Technology. He writes in his own personal capacity. THERE was wailing and gnashing of teeth as the Bikita West results trickled in. It was double tragedy for those who had previously wept for the Warriors who were tenderised by Senegal, at least the soccer boys had given the Lions of Teranga a good run for their money unlike the whitewash experienced in the Zanu-PF stronghold.

With high hopes, Zimbabweans all toed behind the team, with unification, aura and verve, all political disparities were forgotten, the hunger, tension and ethnic belonging were for once subdued and everyone was Zimbabwean. This is what the nation needs — unity. I applaud the warriors’ performance in all their games, at least they gave people a sense of pride, belonging and being, that team invoked the Zimbabwean we all habitat, we all had something to celebrate which brought us together. It is such moments when being Zimbabwean is more important than anything, we collectively fear the humiliation of losing, the pain of the loss after so much effort, at least for a moment people took time to find common ground, I hope they always do, there is a lot in common in all of us, we are easily swept away by politics and create these mirages of difference and we start othering others. No No No! If warriors can bring 12 million people together, then there is a lot more that can still make us Zimbabweans, politics is just but exercise of who gets what, when, where and how, its competitive in nature and it’s a vocation. Woe to those whose calling isn’t it, for they shall lose repeatedly and embarrassingly and so shall be the children of their children.

I don’t want to beat about the bush, straight to the point: ZimPF lost in Bikita West, end of story. Why they lost, how they lost, will they lose in 2018 and how they will lose is still topical in their camps. As usual, common and cultural in opposition, they started off with a blame game where Dr Joice Mujuru was blamed for not working hard to ensure that Kudakwashe Gopo wins. They blame the party for not working hard enough to campaign. On that very evening, a Pandora’s box was opened and the young blood of the party put all the blame on their failed president and the old fellows — Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa for bringing their “Zanuism” as they put it, into the new party.

Mujuru’s crime was of not putting much effort, Council of elders’ crime was of once being Zanu-PF, which I couldn’t see how it connects to the loss, and the whole party’s crime was of going to those elections in the first place. Everyone on that evening was a criminal. One way or another, there was someone to blame, but the party president was the witch on the stake, how pitiful, Baqinisile abathi isala kutshelwa sibonwa ngomopho, ZimPF bled, they had agreed to the “No reforms, no elections ailing plan, it shouldn’t have been a surprise though, if they didn’t see it coming, then they should have at least believed me when I wrote about the guaranteed loss of opposition in Bikita, much of what I have written if not all has come to fruition. I once wrote last year, to opposition, I am your Jeremiah, I shall take you to Babylon, but I won’t bring you back. A lot of debate is surrounding the loss of ZimPF in Bikita West and I wonder what is puzzling people. A colleague recently asked why Zanu-PF continues winning. I answered: if Zanu-PF is as unpopular as you think, then you haven’t met the masses. Your assumption of unpopularity is based on the limited interaction you have with the few hundreds you engage in opposition who hate Zanu-PF to the extent of not seeing how much they aid to its winning. Too much hate for something blinds you from your continuous mistakes of beautifying it. Simple analogy, if you hate your ex so much, you talk about him/her a lot that the listener mostly gets the goodness in them. People start to wonder why you harbour so much about that person to the extent of not moving on and only focus on them. Your ex will be moving on, yet you are stagnant; that is the fate of our opposition culprits. Bitter exes.

Simple calculations should have been a pre-answer to ZimPF, prior to engaging Zanu-PF in Bikita West. When Munyaradzi Kereke ran against Elias Musakwa, they both garnered 13 000 plus votes and MDC –T got 3 000 minus, now that there isn’t any Zanu-PF split vote, it was definite both Kereke and Musakwa votes would go to Beauty Chabaya. The ugliness of opposition betting on this one was the surprise of Leornard Zhakata winning the Top 50 ahead of popular top billed musicians at the end of 2016. The surprise Zhakata pulled left the social media activists puzzled. As I always say, social media posts, comments and likes do not translate to reality. Mediatisation of our lives has created too much actors whose actions are over rehearsed and bipolar. What people present on social media is not what they actually believe in and do in actuality. This was the plight of many musicians