22 December: Accounting for three decades later
“Wanderer in the forest!
A single hand cannot lift the load on the head.
The little hand of the child cannot reach the shelf under the roof;
The large hand of the adult cannot enter the narrow neck of the calabash.
The stranger of today could be a friend of tomorrow. Wanderer in the forest:
Help me lift my load on my head”.
This is a prophetic and richly philosophical response by the God of fate; Eshu to Obatala in Scene Three of the classical play The Trial of Obatala by the ever remarkable Obutunde Ijimere. I was moved to mine my library of African literature in memory of how the dialogue in the play is a summary of my thoughts of re-imaging and imagining 22 December’s three decades and counting.
Eshu’s response succeeds Obatala’s entrance melody, which tutors on the importance of friendship, that no matter how a “friend” is, a stranger is never important than your “friend”. Obatala says: (a friend) “His hands cannot be so thin — that you should rub a stranger’s arm with camwood. His buttocks cannot be so flat — that you should tie beads around a stranger’s waist . . .” The progress of the dialogue fits well in analysing the customs of 22 December and the emerging discourses that should be embedded within the memory of that day.
The importance of friendship despite his shortcomings, the importance of unity despite our differences, the centrality of our differences that complement our progress and the temporality of our enmity — in summary, Zimbabwe is a family more than what the global north agenda constructors think. What is left is reconciling ourselves beyond funded, indoctrinated, imported and dis-informed animosities that we have always thought were obliterated in December 22 1987, yet their remnants have transformed into deceptively new challenges yet their origination is the same.
The hunter thinks the monkey is not wise . . .
The monkey is wise. But he has his own logic. Again, the wise words of Eshu; God of Fate.
Whilst many (including scholars) inquire on sincerity of 22 December 1987, it is prudent to reflect on truth that whatever happened and is happening to the millennials (Generation Z) good or bad, are residues of early 80s. To borrow some analysis on my submission, I invite the thoughts of James Muzondidya who in 2008 wrote that “The main characteristics of the post-independence state were lack of tolerance for political diversity and dissent, heavy reliance on force for mobilisation, and a narrow, monolithic interpretation of citizenship, nationalism and national unity.” Prof James Muzondidya’s critical assessment of liberated Zimbabwe is true in the sense that it was linearly reflected in the First Republic whose character was aborted by Operation Restore Legacy. What gave birth to all political violence is a reflection of how Zimbabwe was fragmented, with a hegemony on violence, yet to this day, there is a competition of monopoly of violence and the level of political intolerance has been assumed by the main Opposition party, whose distaste for anyone who does not subscribe to them, politically, ethnically and ideologically (with lack of) is pilloried. Such a character of political intolerance, toxic masculinity, regionalism, tribalism and stunted use of logic in decision making should be the mainstay of reflection on yesterday’s celebrations.
On the other hand, the transformation of a violent state to a democracy-guided state should be celebrated. It is an achievement in terms of celebrating Unity Day for in 1987 it resembled the expiration of five years of violence hence three decades later, it is no longer about the end of PF-Zapu and Zanu-PF animosity but the end of a violent phase where the new politics is characterised by different characters battling the same challenges which looked different.
Truly, post-colonial expressions of regionalism and political tribalism still remain and we have to surgeon them otherwise all efforts of 22 December are as futile as we will always celebrate that we repeatedly destroy to remake.
Graduating 22 December
Operation Restore Legacy renovated our hope for a better Zimbabwe. While some were sceptical of what happens after Mugabe, many were ecstatic to the extent of reprogramming their life plans, because, for the first time in 37 years of independence, change was looming. Honestly, since then, a lot of changes have taken place, both good and decent (depending on being pessimist or optimist). To relate with many — the masses, life has not been easy in the streets, but prayer and hope (and even superior logic) have kept us expecting as we wait for the Zimbabwe we all want. The austerity for prosperity mantra is slowly but surely starting to make sense, at least on that level, the meaning of the Unity Accord in Zimbabwe assumes a different purpose- one guaranteeing a unity of purpose.
Knowing that 22 December 1987 was uniquely meant for the alliance of PF-Zapu and Zanu-PF, marking the end of a devastatingly post-independence political animosity, one wonders if 22 December should still be limited to a unison of political institutions that morphed into a singular entity whose heroes and heroines both living and resting in power celebratory achieved their goal. I say this because I am suggesting a change in narrative in the meaning of 22 December whose founding and celebratory objectives were indeed achieved. I write portentous that 22 December graduates perceptions of festivities of Mugabe and Nkomo holding hands coalescing political efforts, but be a day we reflect on what has divided us as a nation and what we have accomplished so far in all that has harassed and raptured this nation.
From here on, let us (both in ruling and opposition parties) adopt clean politics, that embrace dissent, that is patriotic, that values friendship over strangers; like Obatala said: “A friend is as precious as a child . . . His eyes cannot be so ugly that you would paint a stranger’s eyes with antimony.” This is rich tutelage to those who choose to be friends of oppressive Senates at the expense of what we share with them (blackness, victims of racial oppression, victims of colonial residues, perceived as monkeys and experiments, residents of the periphery that should always suffer and feed the core centre, African, Zimbabwean). 22 December should be a reflection point of unifying with those who are funded to divide the nation this way.
On the same pedestal, we celebrate that 22 December, three decades later is guided by; “The voice of the people is the voice of God”. These are highly spiritual inflections first shared monumentally on November 24 2017 by His Excellency E D Mnangagwa. I want to take you back to October 7 1978 where “the People” were a centre of ZanuPF’s existence, showing that it is “the People” who still are and Unity Day should unite “the People”. October 7 1978 in Maputo, the then First Secretary of Zanu, former president R G Mugabe had an interview with David Martin of the London Observer and Phyllis Johnson of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
In that interview, R G, upon being asked what political system does the party advocate for said: “What we have said in the past is that we would like to establish a socioeconomic system which is based on Marxist Leninism. When we said that, we didn’t mean we are going to impose that system. We are going first to derive authority for it from the People and if the People accepted out party, naturally they would have accepted our principles.”
It is on that basis that three decades later, “the People” are still the core of nation building, however, “the People” are distant, they are suspicious of each other, they are angry, they sell out others in “strangers” Senates, they violate women, they attack and intimidate those who think differently, they query everything when it does not plump their pockets, they masquerade as apolitical when we know they are not, they celebrate vile, they demand luxury from taxpayers’ money yet they demand cuts in public expenditure, they lie, they are pessimistic, extremely divorced from reality — in short, they are fragmented.
It begs the question: Will People ever unite?; then my answer will be: Let 22 December transcend beyond the merriments of political success three decades ago, but be a memory, reflection and celebration of imminent challenges and overcomes we have made and are yet to make.