Your book is full of sound and fury

DEAR President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Your Excellency, those of us who are privileged to be senior citizens know that the only way to acquire respect is to earn it. Outward features like grey heads or wrinkles do not suffice to warrant veneration. Methinks they are mere human attributes inherent in long life.

There is more to life than its longevity that warrants reverence. Notwithstanding decades lived, respect is nonetheless an essentially earned attribute. As I see it, it is ingenious to assume that honour comes neatly wrapped on the silver platter of a lengthy life.

Veneration is not cheaply earned. It is a crowning glory for ones who pursued humane values. Even the office one holds, be it teaching or preaching, even President, does not entail automatic respect. Many selfclaimant liberators have proven to be die-hard tormentors.

Your Excellency, society bestows respect on people whose lives were notably of sacrifice, inspired by the pursuit of the principle that humanity in self is as valuable as that in others. Respect is earned by building a communion of people and a sense of community.

Of late I have been intently ruminating about life in general and one of sacrifice in particular. Your biography written by my fellow public debater, Eddie Cross, thought-provoked me with intensity like no other works of literature.

Almost everything about the biograpghy held me spellbound. I thought long and hard about how the author assumed the Zanu PF thoughtway, the title and the person he wrote about. Above all, I delved about the giver of life, its constitutive elements and sanctity of life.

My ideal life of sacrifice was proffered by Mark Twain. His presage: “Let us endeavour so to live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry,” is the veritable yardstick with which humanity, especially public office holders, ought to be measured.

Your Excellency, life is a one way journey. Each of us travels it but only once. And, hopefully, if each could aspire for the endeavour spelt by Twain, it could be possible to live in harmonious coexistence with fellow human beings. A worldwide coherent communion could be possible.

As I see it, if each could establish the highest standard of conduct, we all could live a life of absolute sacrifice, respectful of diversity. A culture of conquest and subjugation, which is a reality of the Zimbabwean socioeconomic outlook, could otherwise not be prevalent.

Methinks it was bold in a reckless manner that borders dangerously close to foolishness for Cross to title your book, “A Life of Sacrifice.” It startled me that it did not cross his mind that by so titling your book, Cross was running the risk of crossing the bounds of literary creativity.

His title choice reminded me of the fallacy of labels, samples and titles oftentimes falling short of the attributes they claim. Given that you have been in government for 41 years, your every nuance has been in the public domain since independence in 1980.

Your Excellency, you were in the inner circle of power when the State went on the rampage, killing innocent people in Midlands and Matabeleland provinces. An estimated 20 000 people were butchered in what was later referred to as a “moment of madness”.

Gukurahundi was not an incidental moment of madness as the late former President Robert Mugabe put it. Rather, it was an intentional military assault on civilians which was carried out with expertise honed after months of training.

Given that you were the incumbent State Security minister at the time, it goes with no elaboration that you played a central role in the entire operation. Methinks yours was not a cameo role, like that of Apostle Paul, then Saul, who held jackets at the stoning to death of Stephen.

Since the Gukurahundi massacres, you have been stone-faced. You showed no remorse. Actually, you had the audacity to withhold from the public the findings of the Chihambakwe Commission of Enquiry into the atrocities.

As I see it, the magnitude of this kind of heartlessness is anything but a misnomer for life of sacrifice. It takes a non-repentant heart to bury such gruesome deeds in one’s bosom. It can only be a beastly nature that enables one to face the nation amid such a dark chapter.

Yet, ancient wisdom has it that absolution is dependent on sincere penitence. Following your ascendance to the presidency, you should have apologised.

You should have hit the ground running to deliver a series of tearful expressions of contrite.

Sadly, that was not to be as yourgovernment, slyly code-named the Second Republic or New Dispensation, fired a hailstorm of bullets on citizenry in an attack reminiscent of Gukurahundi. This propensity to deadly attacks is an antithesis of a life of sacrifice.

It is apparent that your conscience does not seem to be awakened to the need for penitence. Your obsession for power appears to be deadening his humanity.

You do not evidence mental anguish and self-reproach that are indicative of a life intended to be lived for sacrifice.

Your Excellency, if your life was well and truly of sacrifice, Zimbabwe could be a peaceful land of milk and honey. But, the catalogue of State-sanctioned heavy-handedness which includes victims of deaths and disappearances is testimonial of a life that brooks no opposition.

Intermittent repressions and killings that Zimbabwe is known for are an indictment for government. Its leaders excluded themselves from the roll of honour of nation builders who warrant respect. And, Cross deprived himself of self-respect by vaulting his grey eminence.

If the assignment to write the biography had been awarded to me, I would have shared with you the preamble of the United States of America Declaration of Independence, written in 1776. At the heart of the declaration is respect for the sanctity of life.

“We hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," states the ideals of government. What a contrast with Zanu PF!

Your Excellency, all works of literature have a mastery of their own. What intrigued me about your biograpghy, A Life of Sacrifice, was not so much the content or the literary style, but the title. It is a sham title intended to deceive only the utterly gullible and naive.

Truth be told, Cross rendered himself a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. Your book is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

As I see it, although you, Mr President does not evidence anguish streaks of a haunted conscience, recurrent contemplation of wrongful acts, especially brutal en masse loss of lives, ought be an inevitable torment to your spirit.

Verily, there will be the devil for you to pay.