Aluta continua

ZIMBABWE is commemorating the Heroes and Defence Forces holidays. It behoves us to reflect on the significance of the celebrations. The heroes we celebrate represent the ultimate sacrifice of people who laid down their lives so that we could be free.

They took up arms against a brutal system of colonialism and fought to the very end. Many died so that Zimbabwe could be free. Young men and women left their homes to train as fighters, and launched themselves against the Rhodesian government that plundered and raped our land, brutalising and killing innocents.

Our people’s crime was to have a dark skin and to be planted by God in this space called Zimbabwe.

Westerners came to steal our land and minerals and arrogated themselves lordship over us and our rich endowments.

For close to a century the settlers repressed us. They had a dubious notion that they were ordained to rule us and force themselves on us and our land. It took the resolve of brave people to fight colonialism, starting as early as 1896 when the people of Matabeleland and Mashonaland took up arms to fight the aliens who invaded our land.

W e were initially defeated in what some historians misname a rebellion. A period of pacification intervened as people engaged in all manner of resistance against the occupiers.

The 1960s saw a new resolve by the people. The idea of a comprehensive and revolutionary fight with modern weaponry alongside the political education of the masses was then born.

What followed was a flowering revolution that eventually led to independence in 1980, at the cost of many human lives.

We celebrate those who died and those who were lucky to survive. We also celebrate the villagers who were the water to the fish called guerrillas.

Zimbabwe is still under threat from the old enemy that we now refer to as the West. We don’t know why they seek to oppress and subjugate us.

Or perhaps we do: it’s the same old notion of racial superiority. It follows that Zimbabwe continues to fight. One might say we will conquer, even in different settings and conditions. The other lesson of history is that there will always be that enemy among us.

THE HERALD – Zimbabwe