‘Catch them young to defeat imperialism’
THE battle against imperialism and neocolonialism will only be won if the younger generation is well equipped to fight emerging forces hence the need to prepare them and instil a sense of self-confidence, pride and Pan-Africanism.
This was said by Institute of African Knowledge (INSTAK) chief executive office Ambassador Kwame Muzawazi in a presentation at the ongoing 11th meeting of secretary generals and wings of Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa in Victoria Falls yesterday.
Ambassador Muzawazi said it was incumbent upon all of the liberation movements to harmonise school curricula in their countries so that neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism were defeated.
“There is a need to change content of the curriculum being taught right now in Africa, especially in countries that formed the liberation struggle. We are saying so because the next battle front for Africa is the classroom.
“We are going to win or lose the war against imperialism and neocolonialism in the classroom so its very important that content that is taught in schools brings out a child who is well prepared in terms of self confidence, black pride and a pan-African confidence so that is very important.”
Ambassador Muzawazi said there was a stark need for former liberation movements to safeguard the sovereignty of their nations and SADC had that responsibility.
He called on the region to play an active role in the construction of the Museum for African Liberation currently underway in Harare.
“And of course lastly we need to harmonise the curriculum for schools in SADC, in all these countries that were in an armed struggle because these kids are learning different things written in Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Spain. So we need to harmonise the education system so that we are teaching the same things and then lastly we invited all the former liberation movements to take an active role in the content and construction of the Museum for African Liberation which is a very important institution for the protection, promotion and preservation of the history of Africa, particularly the history of the liberation struggle.”
Ambassador Muzawazi said the former liberation movements need to keep their fighting spirit as the battle was not over.
Neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism had emerged and need a hands-on approach.
“We have been here at the 11th conference of the liberation movements so as the Institute of African Knowledge, which is an emerging thinktank of global African matters of strategic importance, we made three interventions, contributions or presentations.
“The first being that the organisations Zanu PF, MPLA, FRELIMO, ANC etcetera should stop calling themselves former liberation movements because the liberation process is still ongoing. These should instead call themselves liberation movements because they are not former, they are current. They are the best foot forward for Africa in the next phase of liberation so it is very critical that we be very clear that all these important strategic organisations are not former liberation movements, they are current,” Ambassador Muzawazi said.