Heroes’ experience for Pumula High learners
MS: As someone who kept the Zipra records may you please tell us about some of the GREETED by sweet melodies from little birds in an apparent choral competition with a cacophony of pounding hammers and sweeping brooms as maintenance personnel put final touches to the dominantly granite beautified monument in preparation for the Heroes Day commemorations, little souls in the company of tutors storm into the National Shrine amid wonder and marvel.
Attention is temporarily captured by the shiny and selfish-in-visibility tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument standing boldly, overlooking the National Sports stadium, itself a symbol of unity, and other places farther and farther.
The restlessness and enthusiasm catapulting from discoveries linked to the war of liberation gives the delegation disciplinarian, Mr Sibangilizwe Dube a torrid time.
It’s on 12 August and the occasion is a long yet enlightening educational tour via Chinhoyi where a group of learners from Pumula High School in Bulawayo have just come face to face with the magnificent and amazing natural Chinhoyi caves and the sleeping pool. Lessons from Chinhoyi have precisely detailed why Zimbabwe is such a tourist destination. Among other manifestations, the Christian world could be vindicated in its “Godis-alive” rhetoric. The world indeed has a creator, it seems.
Under guidance of a tour guide, team Pumula High finds its way into the full yet empty national shrine. But how could a place be so full and empty at the same time? Answers could be found on the collective efforts exerted by the sons and daughters of this land who selflessly and in large numbers, dedicated their lives to the liberation of our motherland from the claws of the brutal Smith regime. Here they lie in solitude and far from the liberated crowd.
The unfolding events herald in a mammoth task for the youthful Tour Guide who is subjected to a barrage of questions from very inquisitive young minds. She quickly takes the little souls through the background to the shrine.
The liberation struggle shapes the discourse. What follows is a tour of the shrine. The graves, the Eternal Flame Tower, the Wall Murals as well
MS: You are talking about the laying of the ground work, so in future the results of these early operations were realised. as the Museum where in a heartbreaking moment, the delegation stumbles on the wreckage of Herbert Chitepo’s Volkswagen Beetle among other features which include artefacts, photographs and documents from the war of liberation.
These and other observations also come in the backdrop of the thriving new curriculum which among other emphasis, considers as core, the undertaking of educational tours. Educational tours are very pivotal in giving learners a feel of what they learn about from day to day, lest all content takes the abstract route. At the end of the day, there has to be an inculcation of some sense of patriotism, leading to a change in learners’ attitudes and behaviour.
A new subject area, Heritage Studies has also been introduced under the new curriculum. Pumula High History Head of Department and delegation leader, Ms Zodwa Mpofu expressed satisfaction amid an ocean of dreams.
“Economic challenges could not be a hindrance to our learners appreciating their heritage and national consciousness. We managed as a school to put resources together and avail our culture and heritage to our learners. We would like to thank our parents and administration for according us such a golden opportunity.
“Despite the long and cumbersome tour, our learners displayed an interest and appreciation of our national heritage. If all goes well and resources allowing, we are considering taking a regional field trip to Chimoio and Nyadzonia in Mozambique, come 2018,” added Ms Mpofu.
The National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe has arguably been a reliable, rich and an inflation-free cultural and historical bank. Through it, Zimbabwe’s history and cultural heritage has also been preserved in other areas like the UNESCO recognised cultural Great Zimbabwe Ruins, the natural Mana Pools, the cultural Khami Ruins Monument, the cultural Matobo Hills which stole Cecil John Rhodes’ heart as well as the majestic Mosioa-Tunya/ Victoria Falls. Young people have to be acquainted with their past and national heritage, lest they are swept away by the globalisation tornado.
Extracted from the preamble of the new constitution which was overwhelmingly welcomed by millions a few years ago, the national schools Pledge instils patriotism and commitment to the national interest:
“Respecting the brave fathers and mothers who lost lives in the Chimurenga/ Umvukela and national
How could they not be when they were part of the armed struggle? What I can vouch for them is that the intelligence officers carried far more dangerous operations, which is consistent with any intelligence unit all over the world. When Zipra deployed its guerillas they found contacts on the ground among villagers and a majority of those people were recruited by intelligence officers. Some of the intelligence officers also played a crucial role in the recruitment exercise, some of them in a one man operation. We had the likes of Tommy Ndebele who embarked on dangerous missions and Abel Vela. They opened up operational areas, prepared the people for the incoming guerillas. Those were dangerous operations, look at the situation of the current Minister of State Security, Cde Kembo Mohadi, he was captured on a one mission as liberation struggles. We are proud inheritors of our national resources. We are proud creators and participants in our vibrant traditions and cultures”.
Chronicling how Zimbabwe was liberated, the National Heroes Acre visually lays bare the atrocities of the brutal and heinous Smith regime. President Mugabe and other liberation stalwarts have perpetually emphasized on the importance of safeguarding our hard earned independence. Thousands of men and women lost their lives whilst some were injured with many becoming permanently disabled at the hands of the draconic Smith regime which had dreamt of constructing a London out of Britain, heralding in the protracted armed struggle. The racist regime could not easily let go! I NEVER subscribed to the notion that there is a possibility of having a lookalike somewhere in the global village until I stumbled on Africa’s political doubles called Raila Odinga and Morgan Tsvangirai.
The embattled political cry-babies have a very striking resemblance regarding among other similarities, perpetual defeat in elections, inconsistency in policy and allegiance and as symbols of instability added to boasting of a long and lengthy experience in their opposition political journeys to nowhere.
For those considering pursuing studies in political catastrophe, when thoroughly critiqued, the Odinga-Tsvangirai case is rich and quite infectious, trust me.
A doppelganger is a lookalike or double of a living person. The word is often used to describe any person with a striking physical or behavioural resemblance to another person. Doppelgangers were in some cultures generally considered as omens of bad luck. Seeing one’s own doppelganger was said to be an omen of death.
In some ancient cultures, doppelgangers were referred to as “evil twins” suggesting that they could even provide misleading and malicious advice to the person they shadow. They could even plant sinister ideas in their victim’s mind to cause them great confusion and suffering. For this reason, people were advised to avoid contact with their own doppelganger at all costs.
Failure to learn from the past and sharing the same ideologies, Tsvangirai and Odinga have been very close acquaintances. A very dangerous union for doppelgangers.
While Morgan was deep in political slumber, Odinga tried to play kingmaker, pretending to be in solidarity yet he only expected to be given a voice in Zimbabwe’s political matters at the expense of Tsvangirai, something he was starved of in his native Kenya. Luckily, when Tsvangirai woke up from the siesta, he refused to give him a consultancy seat to his government, before he retired to his usual political slumber.
On academic philanthropy grounds, I pardon Tsvangirai. I put into cognisance his very disadvantaged academic background, unlike his Kenyan double who holds an MSc (Master of Science) in Mechanical Engineering and probably a master at destroying his shadows.
Surrounded by ill-advisors, Tsvangirai failed to realise he was exposing himself to the snares of his malicious double. When Tsvangirai allowed Odinga to address his supporters at the MDC Bulawayo Congress in 2011 and when he attended his son, Fidel Odinga’s funeral in 2015, he exposed his back. I am sorry to say this but Tsvangirai was being lured to his political grave. He just had to avoid contact and communication with his doppelganger. Oh poor Tsvangirai! That was a trap, you just had to run, run and run! Odinga’s recent election loss to presidentelect and incumbent Uhuru Kenyata, and probably his last contest, explicitly highlights the times ahead for Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai’s demise is imminent as he, like a fly continues to follow the Kenyan political corpse to the grave.
It has never rained but poured for the former Prime Ministers who as well double as Africa’s most experienced opposition figures. As fate would have it, both ceased to be Prime Ministers in their respective countries in 2013. Their political lives have been coupled with splits inducing dissent from within their parties, added to frustration, with both having failed to secure the longed for job; the presidency.
Possessing revolutionary genes, being born to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who once saved as Jomo Kenyatta’s vice-president, Raila Odinga had arguably amassed some following in independent Kenya. Sadly, his flip flopping and inconsistency in policy and allegiance has confused his followers. This has heralded in gross dwindling in his support base, a very similar situation in Tsvangirai’s still-fragmenting MDC.
In a clear demonstration that there is nothing super about coalitions, especially in literate nations, Odinga and his National