Exposing Judah Hossanah’s misinformation campaign

Normally one would not waste time and space addressing the rumblings of people such as Hossanah, but given the area, which he chooses to play with, one is obliged and dutybound to set the record straight . . .

WHATSAPP has become the most popular social media platform. It has been used to convey crucial messages of funerals and not-so-serious messages such as jokes, images and even videos of light-hearted nature.

A few weeks ago, an attention-seeking Zimbabwean, who uses the name Judah Hossanah broke from this norm and posted on WhatsApp a video in which he claimed that some of the elements, which make up the Zimbabwean national coat of arms or symbol represented satanic shrine worship.

His argument exposes his lack of knowledge of the meaning of the national coat of arms. Many who have pursued heraldry, which is the study and practice of designing and drawing such symbols, would also agree that he seems to lack basic knowledge of the subject.

This is not to say that everyone should be a heraldry expert to understand our national seal, but whoever decides to engage the country over the issue should have a basic understanding of heraldry and the history behind our national coat of arms before misleading the nation. This also does not mean that this writer is a heraldry expert.

Hossanah’s five-minute video starts off with charges of Government allegedly “practising political snakehood occult” and a description of the national coat of arms as a “mysterious occult seal” without supporting his claims with irrefutable evidence except mere associations and vague references to idolatry items such as the goat-headed Baphomet idol.

Hossanah contended that the V-shaped horns of the two kudus, which represent unity, stand for Baphomet. One wonders what kind of a daft Zimbabwean Hossanah is, who would confuse an antelope and a goat. He vaguely links his Baphomet theory to “the eye of Horus”, which is associated with the secret societies of the West all in an effort to besmirch Government.

Hossanah claims that the shield on the national coat of arms represents a coffin or grave, which he says represents an altar.

Any Zimbabwean who has sought to know about his or her country would know that, contrary to Hossanah’s desperate wish to associate it with evil, the shield represents the country’s fertility and nothing more or less.

Surprisingly, Hossanah does not mention the white and blue wavy strips at the top part of the shield and the Great Zimbabwe monument at the centre. These represent the Victoria Falls, which stands for Zimbabwe’s abundant tourist attractions, and the historical heritage of the nation respectively.

The phoney politician also associates the red star behind the Zimbabwe Bird at the top of the coat of arms with communism, which he claims ZANUPF then led by former president Mugabe brought from China and Russia at Independence before accusing the two countries of being sworn enemies of God.

Progressive and patriotic Zimbabweans know that never in their country’s history has Zimbabwe ever espoused communism. Socialism, yes and communism no. The star stands for the hope for Zimbabwe’s future and the quest for a fair and equitable society. Hossanah uses the fact the identity of the carver of the Zimbabwe Bird in front of the star is not known to cast it as having been made by someone evil. He claims that the bird is associated with evil spirits without adducing any evidence to support his claim.

Hossanah, the shadowy attention-seeking politician, outdoes himself when he attempts to discredit the torse or wreath (hata) between the shield and the Zimbabwe Bird by claiming that it represents a snake and, by extension, evil. Instead of using an image of the torse on the Zimbabwean coat of arms, for reasons best known to himself, he uses one from the Rhodesian coat of arms.

The current coat of arms has been in use since September 1981 and for anyone to use elements of the Rhodesian coat of arms nearly four decades later is either crass stupidity or mischief or both.

For those who wish to know about their country, the torse comprising strips of gold and green, indicates national financial enterprise and the protection of the economy and not a snake. He further strangely claims that the snake, the creature of his imagination, represents ZANU-PF and the devil, again, without any evidence.

The hoe and AK 47 rifle at the back of the coat of arms, which pay tribute to Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and record the transition from war to economic prosperity, are given as representing lack of peace.

He claims that the two elements mean that, “tinoda kurima uye tinoda hondo, zvichireva kuti haisi nyika ine runyararo”. Zimbabwe has experienced a number of challenges since 1980 but to claim or wish to associate the country with a penchant for war is the height of falsehood probably meant to hoodwink Western donors to loosen purse strings ahead of the forthcoming elections.

Hossanah conveniently chooses to ignore the earth mound, which forms the base of the coat of arms and represents the land, which was the basis for the liberation struggle and the need to provide for the people of Zimbabwe through agriculture.

He, instead, chooses to focus on the motto, Unity Freedom Work, which he shamelessly claims stand for unity with the devil, freedom to worship and work with and for him. Hossanah makes an issue of the fact that no referendum was held to decide whether or not to adopt the Zimbabwe Bird as a national symbol, which betrays his pettiness.

The politician, who seeks to appeal to Zimbabweans using both rebellion and Christianity, proposes the renaming of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans to Christian State of Africa and Christianity, respectively. Zimbabwe is a constitutional democracy where freedom of association and worship are upheld and no one should be forced to be a Christian against their will.

One fervently hopes and looks forward to seeing Hossanah openly organising a referendum for his proposal given that this is the same guy, who threatened to bring mayhem to Zimbabwe in mid-2016 by unleashing trained armed rebels into the country to fight a constitutionally-elected Government.

Interestingly, no referendum was conducted when this criminal and unconstitutional decision was made and announced.

It seems that when it became clear to all and sundry that the armed rebellion threats were all hot air, he had to come up with another scheme and his hare-brained political “strategies” so far only serve to indicate to the Zimbabwean electorate the kind of opposition the country is cursed with.

What with his counterparts at the MDC Alliance promising high-speed trains to people, whose burning concerns include basic issues such as jobs, schools and clinics, among others.

These bizarre schemes and promises expose the paucity of meaningful policies, programmes and projects among the opposition to appeal to the electorate.

Normally one would not waste time and space addressing the rumblings of people such as Hossanah, but given the area which he chooses to play with, one is obliged and duty-bound to set the record straight, so that Zimbabweans, especially young ones, are not misled and ill-influenced by bad apples in our society.

This incident underscores the serious need for children to undertake heritage studies, so that they know the truth about their national symbols, institutions and history and do not fall victim to the falsehoods peddled by Hossanah and other like-minded social misfits.