Maravi

(HERALD) Imperialism: Chief enemy of Zim’s revolution

Imperialism: Chief enemy of Zim’s revolution
By Reason Wafawarova in SYDNEY, Australia

One most outstanding feature of the achievement of independence for Zimbabwe was the efficacious transfer of power from a minority white community to the black majority.

That transfer of power manifested itself in many ways, from the renaming of the country and all its major places and features, the abolishment of segregation in education, sport, art and other social aspects; to infrastructural development in remote areas and so on — and yes, even to the concept of one man one vote.

In five months, it will be 30 years on this revolutionary path from a colonial minority-ruled country to a self-determined and self-sufficient country. The question is; what do we see when we look back — the greatest accomplishments and the greatest changes?

The one thing that we have to acknowledge and admit is that the sprightly hope that we carried as a nation in 1980 has been somewhat shattered for most of our people. That raucous voice of hope that shouted "Masimba evanhu!" or "People’s power" as the shibboleth that drove all our aspiration then — has been largely silenced by the challenges of want.

Yet we can pride ourselves on having constructed so many schools across the country, so many clinics, so many dams, so many roads, on having recaptured our stolen farmlands and having been so significant in bringing peace to our region, whenever the call for such intervention arose.

We can also take a lot of pride in having provided housing for our people, especially in the first twenty years.

However, the revolution is still underway and has suffered a lot of violence orchestrated from imperial external forces, whose major strength has been the complicity of some of our own people.

The revolution has reached that stage where it is being managed by a coalition of those who are declared enemies of imperial forces together with the allies of the same imperial forces.

How ironic can it ever turn out to be?

In this context, the most important thing for Zimbabwe is not what is lacking or what has not been done. Most important is the effort we must make to transform people’s attitudes; not by way of brainwashing their thought processes or sense of conscience, but by way of empowering our people.

As a nation, we want and we need a transformation where each Zimbabwean realises that wielding power is their personal business; that the destiny of Zimbabwe is the business not just of politicians and a selected few but of all Zimbabweans — young or old, born or unborn, within or without. This calling is a debt we all owe to the departed and to heritage.

Every Zimbabwean has something to say about Zimbabwe, and each of us must be accountable to the other, and we all must demand an accounting from the other person. Never again must the country be run like it was as a colony. No longer should the wealth of our country belong only to a minority. The country’s wealth belongs to the majority, and a majority that speaks its mind.

Indeed some of the ways of doing things have not been very pleasant. This writer will assert that this is a natural process. When people come out of a century of repression and domination, and then one fine day they find themselves with the freedom to express themselves, naturally some of the people do go to the extremes. That is what we must understand as a nation and there is this indulgence with this sort of reality that is demanded from each of us.

The three co-Ministers of National Healing must understand that the most important aspect of our national revolution as it stands today is the transformation of our mentality.

Hindsight justice and witch hunting may be palatable options for purposes of pleasing external donors and the forces behind them, and perhaps for the goal of extinguishing our own bitterness, but there is no healing that comes with retribution.

Those that have suffered violence and those that have lost lives in this moment of our extremism have indeed paid a price for our peace. Their suffering, and even death; must not inspire us for more conflict. These are realities from which we must draw the strength to forgive and the humility to accept wrong doing.

The greatest difficulty we have faced as a country has been the neo-colonial spirit. We were colonised by a country, Britain, and they left us with certain habits. For us, being successful in life, being happy, means trying and aspiring to live as they do in Britain. We aspire to be like the richest of the British.

One of the constraints we have faced when pursuing these aspirations is that we have people who come to a point where they will not accept even a minimum sense of social justice, and will do all in their power to preserve their privilege at the expense of all others.

This has been the root cause of corruption, not only in Zimbabwe but across Africa, and in almost all former colonies.

If this goes unchecked the end result is the waging of a struggle within the revolution. The masses will come to a point when their fundamental goal becomes a fight against the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie.

The petty bourgeoisie is dangerous in that it has an inclination towards the bourgeoisie and aspires to accumulate as much wealth, but at the same time admires the prestige of revolutionaries. So the petty bourgeoisie wavers.

These are the people we vote into power because they shout the loudest against corruption and the neglecting of the poor. However, they disappear from the voters as soon as they win the election, and only reappear in preparation for the next election.

The revolution suffers most from the petty bourgeoisie. It screams, poisons minds, and it defames to survive. Numerically the petty bourgeoisie represents nothing.

However, the colonial legacy taught us that the intellectual is a semi-god that occupies the preponderant place, and so we allow these people to shape our opinions.

So we can hardly control our own elected members of Parliament.

Rather they are convinced that it is their responsibility to come back and shape our opinions, if at all they bother to come back for anything.

Some of our ministers in our own Government have an illusion that we owe them admiration and awe — because they feel they have achieved a lot on their own behalf, and perhaps on behalf of whatever family name and totem they carry around.

They expect our rural people to ululate and dance in happiness merely because of their presence as they emerge from expensive cars clad in designer suits. The fact that they carry nothing with them by way of making the revolution benefit the masses should not matter until election time.

These are the internal difficulties of our revolution. None in the GPA’s inclusive Government should read these with a pointing finger because this disease is not a political party scourge but a general political problem.

Our big challenge after this internal difficulty is imperialism, which tries to dominate us from both inside and outside our country.

Through its internal agents, its multinationals, its big capital, its economic power, and its ruinous sanctions on the country, imperialism has tried to control us by influencing our discussions and our national life.

Imperialism has created difficulties for Zimbabwe. It has strangled our economy through the imposition of an economic blockade that the West still insists they will keep as a way of forcing concessions from us.

Hand in hand with these ruinous sanctions, the West is still plotting against Zimbabwe, against our own internal security — yes our internal security — as they promote divisions and animosity among our people.

They yearn for a day we will shed our won blood among ourselves. They would call it fighting for freedom.

Imperialism is fighting to the bitter end for a reverse to our land reclamation program, all despite the repeated denials that the West makes.

We have this war for our resources. Imperialism wants us to have laws and policies that allow multinationals a free reign over our resources and they tell us that these are the laws and policies that are found in a democracy.

The revolution still faces many struggles ahead, and we need to be alive to this reality; if as a nation we are going to combat imperialism.

Our ordinary cadres in the revolution have an understanding of the revolution that is quite different from those in the leadership — and by this we are talking about real revolutionary leaders — not the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie infiltrators.

For a revolutionary leader like President Mugabe, or as was Samora Machel of Mozambique, or Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso; there is quite a difference between the general theoretical trend of the revolution and practice.

In the practice of revolutionary leadership one discovers that imperialism is a monster — it has claws, horns, fangs that bite — it has lethal venom and it is absolutely merciless. This is why we no longer have Samora Machel in the African revolution, and this is why we lost Sankara at the tender age of 36.

This is why Robert Mugabe is the West’s wanted man from Africa. When one behaves like Mugabe, and makes a resolute stand against imperialism, one assured thing is that imperialism will fight back.

Eloquent and earth shattering speeches are not enough to make imperialism tremble. No. It is determined. It has no conscience whatsoever. It has no heart.

Fortunately for President Mugabe, the more imperialism has attacked, the more determined him and his party have become, and somehow each time there has been fresh forces ready to stand up to the imperial onslaught.

In 1980, the revolution was joined by so many; and all because euphoria was the in thing.

Even senior citizens from our rural population would jog and sing each day, declaring that anyone who dared attack the newly-independent country would draw from their frail bodies the most ruthless and lethal attack since the word "war" was ever invented.

As time progressed many people discovered that the revolution demanded sacrifices on their part, and they pulled back. Some rediscovered their apathetic selves while others became reactionaries and outright sell outs.

Some remained inside the revolution as cheating and deceiving looters.

The only good thing about this otherwise natural process is that with time consciousness has won over euphoria and it is this consciousness that has stopped the West’s imperial onslaught as they sought to effect their illicit regime change plan over Zimbabwe.

The revolution is not a preserve for war veterans and the youth. It is a national call for each and every Zimbabwean regardless of age, background, political affiliation or social status.

It is incumbent upon this inclusive Government and the GPA’s three principals to ensure that the revolution we started in 1980 is not abandoned, abated or aborted.

There is no such thing as a new "democratic revolution" or whatever it is the activists within MDC-T say they are doing.

That is mere euphoric political activism and it is a natural process when a revolution is at a stage as we are with Zimbabwe’s national revolution. It is all understandable as a passing phase in the long march to true self-determination.

As a nation we should not worry so much about shouts for a "new Zimbabwe" because it is all part of the natural process where some in the revolution become illusional reactionaries who think the old colonial order is something new.

Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!!

l Reason Wafawarova is a political writer and can be contacted on wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk or reason@ rwafawarova.com or visit www.rwafawarova.com

Labels: COLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 6:16 PM