Gukurahundi: Mugabe losing fight against history
30/04/2011 00:00:00
by Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana
ZIMBABWE, as we have known and experienced it, is coming to an end; not only
an end, but a very sad one for those who insist that the genocidal
absurdities and violet extremities of Robert Mugabe are normal and should be
ignored.
Consumed by its internal contradictions and attacked by its external enemies
in the shape of survivors of Gukurahundi, victims of ethnic cleansing and
its former friends in the African and larger international community, the
genocidal tyranny in Harare is coming down tumbling from political grace to
historical grass.
As sure as sunrise and sunset are tomorrow, Mugabe is, by the hand of
historical gravity and the active agency and anger of his victims, tittering
towards seeing the very ugly colour of his political and historical demise.
The observations that I posit to make in this article are not the easy
rantings of a disgruntled journalist or emotional postulations of an
extremist oppositional communicator. They are, in actuality, honest
examinations of recent historical developments and candid expressions of
ensuing political events whose truism, accuracy and realism exists in the
blood, flesh and bone realm that can been seen by one and all. And these
observations are for record.
While Mugabe has so far enjoyed the comfortable and gentle “opposition” of
Morgan Tsvangirai who, when he is not boycotting elections to let Mugabe win
unopposed, is describing how Mugabe remains his hero, at last Mugabe is
coming face to face with the very unhappy children of those he put into mass
graves.
While Mugabe’s so far formidable opponents and critics like Nelson Chamisa
have been shouting at him on top of desks but under the tables sending him
romantic and admiring notes, at long last the aged tyrant is confronted by
those he owes not only truth and justice but also blood. Mugabe himself and
all serious observers of the Zimbabwean political theatre and its
absurdities are very clear about these sobering realities.
One needs only to notice the undignified speed and unceremonious desperation
with which Zanu PF mandarins led by Nathaniel Manheru are trying, on behalf
of Mugabe, to unite Zimbabweans by mobilizing their memory of colonialism
around the mass graves in Mount Darwin.
Their shameless pretence has been that the skeletons that lie in that grave
are victims of the genocidal Rhodesian regime. Zimbabweans are being
bombarded with horrific images of exhumed cadavers in an attempt to shock
them into rallying behind Mugabe as a liberator and national protector.
In spite of the fact that it is known that those remains in Mount Darwin are
remains of Gukurahundi victims that were abducted from Matabaleland and the
Midlands , killed and buried in chosen spots in Moshanaland, the Nathaniel
Manherus of our time will still try to use them as cheap Zanu PF propaganda.
What Mugabe and his mandarins know and are trying to avoid is that there are
many in Matabaleland and the Midlands who will not have their memories
jogged to the distant brutalities of Smith but are resolved to get justice
for the recent genocide of Mugabe and Zanu PF of in Gukurahundi massacres.
The 2000 MLF cadres who recently burnt the Zimbabwean flag in Johannesburg,
the Mthwakazi trio that Mugabe recently tortured and incarcerated Moses
Mzila and Father Mkandla are just a small part of that generation that is
tired of being afraid and silent. Mugabe, his army, police and intelligence
will not stop this.
Now that the victims of Gukurahundi and survivors of ethnic cleansing are
naturally becoming unafraid of Mugabe’s brutality and jails one only needs
to watch the political and historical space for another Saddam Hussein
scenario in Harare.
The people of Mashonaland might weep and be angry with Ian Smith about the
gruesome images of skeletons from Mount Darwin; thanks to Mugabe the people
of Midlands and Matabeleland are angry with Mugabe and about Gukurahundi.
The national sentiment and memory that Mugabe is trying to invoke is of a
Zimbabwe that no longer exists as it was finished by the Gukurahundi
genocide that divided the country into victims and non – victims. Mugabe is
desperately seeking this now imaginary Zimbabwe when it is already too late.
The anger of the victims of Gukurahundi has reached boiling point in
Midlands, Matabeleland and in the Diaspora. This happens at a time when
Mugabe’s British friends who assisted him commit the Gukurahundi crime
against humanity and knighted him in the order of Bath are no longer so fond
of him to say the least.
This also happens at a time when Genocide Watch International as recent as
2010 has declared Gukurahundi a major genocide warranting international
attention. Therefore, that Mugabe is a cornered tyrant who has become
vulnerable to his angry victims and those in the international community who
are more than willing to assist them is a stingy underestimation.
The images of a dejected and humiliated Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast and
his wife surrounded by their angry capturers should mean more to Mugabe than
to any ordinary news viewer.
The 2000-strong so called apostolic sect members that Mugabe has settled in
Gary Rosenfels’ farm in Marula are not civilians. They are a selection of
soldiers, police officers and intelligence operatives and their families.
Most of them already have villages and land in Mashonaland, they are only
being settled in Matabeleland South to dilute the Matabale language and
sentiment, to influence elections and infiltrate the angry region
politically.
Mugabe desperately wishes that Gukurahundi will be forgiven and totally
forgotten; and, not only that, but also that Matabeleland itself does not
exist anymore. These and others are the desperate doings of a drowning man
who from a distance appears to be waving when he is sinking and sinking very
deep.
Matabeleland will not cease to exist, Gukurahundi will never be forgiven or
forgotten and the perpetrators will be punished by their victims and
humanity. Mugabe’s attempts to erase the memory of the crime are a pathetic
losing fight against history which is a herald of political and historical
doom whose dramatics and spectacles will forever haunt posterity.
While Tsvangirai and MDC-T are praising Mugabe and passing laudatory notes
to polish his genocidal ego, general Nandi Nandi, Welshman Ncube and Dumiso
Dabengwa should breathe courage and inspiration into the youths that have
started burning the false flag.
A courageous and visionary leadership block must be created that will fight
the war against genocide and tyranny that Joshua Nkomo wisely or unwisely
avoided and postponed. Africa and the larger international community are by
ordinary observation ready to support those who confront tyranny by any
means.
Away with the tyrannical stigmatization that those Africans who align with
Westerners to pursue their political and historical ends are sellouts.
Junius Brutus, a philosopher, argued that “I would rather let a thief feed
me than allow a supposed shepherded to devour me.” If our former colonisers
and enslavers are willing to help us to solve genocide and access justice
then God bless us.
Mugabe was armed by the British, trained by North Koreans and financed by
the Chinese in conducting Gukurahundi, there is nothing unholy or sellout
about victims of genocide forging their own useful alliances
As Mugabe and his admirers in the MDC-T continue to fight a losing battle
against history and memory , the leaders of the victims of genocide and
survivors of ethnic cleansing should be utilizing the African and
international revolutionary opportunities that world history and nature have
so generously occasioned at long last. Africa and the world must not be
allowed to sleep peacefully, while a major genocide is swept under the
carpet.
Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana is a Zimbabwean journalist studying in
Lesotho, [email protected]