Poems tackle liberation struggle up to economic empowerment
Monday, 20 August 2012 00:00
Memory Chirere
The Heroes holiday in Zimbabwe reminds one of the 1970s liberation war fighter, Thomas Bvuma. He is, like Alexander Kanengoni and Freedom Nyamubaya, a liberation war poet of remarkable talent and vision. He wrote poems at the war front in between battles either as a pastime or a means to reflect on the war he was participating in.
He is still writing and publishing poetry long after the war of liberation and some of his key pieces constantly jog one’s mind. Using the pen-name Carlos Chombo, Thomas Bvuma wrote the poem “Real Poetry” at the height of the war in the late 1970s.
It eventually got more “visible” publication in the Zimunya-Kadhani edited collection called And NOW the Poets Speak (1981). Musaemura Zimunya and Mudereri Kadhani set out to bring together poems which reflect on the Zimbabwe revolution then.
Bvuma’s “Real Poetry” defines struggle as people’s real poetry. Very reminiscent in content and form to Jorge Rebelo’s poem called “Poem,” “Real Poetry” quickly became a classic of sorts.
Zimunya and Kadhani could not “resist using (the poem) as a choric prelude to this selection.” They also “found (in this poem) the power of the intellect, control of rhythm and style well combined and married to idea, action and reaction” and that through it, one recalls the more prominent Angolan war poet, Agostinho Neto himself.
Zimunya and Kadhani also used a section of the poem on the blurb of the cream coloured And Now The Poets.
“Real Poetry” reads as follows:
The Real Poetry
Was carved by centuries
Of chains and whips.
It was written in the red streams
Resisting the violence of “Effective Occupation.”
It was engraved in killings in Katanga,
In the betrayals of Mau-Mau,
In the countless anti-people coups.
Its beat was the bones in Bissau
Its metaphors massacres in Mozambique
Its alliterations agony in Angola
Its form and zenith
Fighting in Zimbabwe.
The Real Poetry
Is sweat scouring
The baked valley of the peasant’s back
Down to the starved gorge of his buttocks
It bubbles and boils
In the blisters of the farm labourer
It glides in the greased hands
Of the factory worker
Not a private paradise
Nor an individual inferno
But the pain and pleasure
Of People in Struggle.
Viva O Povo!
This is a fighting poem which insists, through both content and form, that poetry should be revolutionary and popular. Poetry must spring from life’s struggles and not from back-sitting imagination and fantasies.
Life is a struggle and as you fight upwards, you come across your reality (which needs working on) and that is your indisputable poem!
More of Thomas Bvuma’s poems were later published in Every Stone That Turns (1999), almost two decades later! They are arranged in a way that sets out to capture the changing times from war to Independence. Of course, you still find the emotion of the founding poem “Real Poetry.”
Brought together under one cover, these are Bvuma’s poems of his life. They have benefited from writing and rewriting and one cannot easily single out the core poems of this collection which were written between 1979 and 1981.
The first section “The Snake Never Stirs” explains especially what it meant physically and spiritually to be in the war of liberation. The guerilla war had both its serious and light sides which, however, dovetail.
In the poem “Private affair” the shell shocked guerillas huddle together to relieve themselves, finding comfort in a performance that is supposed to be very private.
Tafirenyika
Remember the moment of mirth
We snatched and shared in gloom
We squatted there at dusk
A metre among the bushes
Emptying our bowels . . .
Bvuma’s is an ability to dwell on the light side of the serious, making you want to laugh and cry at the same time. As “Private affair” ends, the persona expresses a wish — “the revolution would not socialise shitting”.
That is a wholly well packed idiom. The hope is that independence would give citizens the decency and freedom to pursue individual ambitions.
Self-rule wouldn’t end up with people collectively making their social environment foul and uninhabitable. In poem “Mafaiti” the rigours of war turn man into beast fed on by “plumb lice”.
Important here is the manner in which Mafaiti remains as humane as possible.
He is a man who realistically understands what he has lost by joining the struggle. When one laughs as one reads that poem, one is laughing in celebration of the ability of the human spirit to dig deep to unknown resources in order to hold on.
If the first section is a sweet-painful celebration of guerrilla-hood, section “Stub in the backyard” is as bitter with betrayal of certain post-independence betrayals. The most painful part of the sectional title poem reads:
At times life
Pains like a part smoked
Stub tossed into the backyard
However, Bvuma has an overpowering ability to clutch to something (idiom or reality) useful in any seemingly hopeless situation.
In one such poem, he employs the image of the shell of a snail, especially its ability to weather the hard times and remain the sole stubborn remnant of a life that was:
The shell lives on
Long after the life
It sheltered is gone
The shell lives on
Brightening a shelf
In some vain room
When you get to section “Neither Fruit Nor Shelter”, especially the poem “Marrow”, Bvuma attempts a subtle but well driven analysis of the relationship between Africa and the Western world in the neo-colonial era.
Pursuing a faint Fanonian analysis of post-colonial Africa, Bvuma shows how the ideological mental remnants of colonialism hamper Africa from developing a viable local vision.
Western post-modern and humanist vision denies Africa a meaningful connection with history and shatters opportunity for Africans to reclaim what they lost through slavery and colonialism.
And so the persona goes to the “marrow” of the issue:
Africa
Lies obscene on her back
One leg pegged to Europe
The other to America
One handcuffed to Japan
The other clutching
At straws and fireflies
Thus Bvuma champions a genre of nationalist poetry, rigorous, questioning and always confirming the basic truth that humanity is always in motion and there is no tradition that should imagine itself as “the end of history.”
More exciting is his ability to see the challenge to open up the economy to the formally marginalised as a stage in the whole “war” of liberation, sweet but full of contradictions as well.
As the title Every Stone That Turn suggests, every nation has its own challenges because under every stone that one may overturn, there are new and different scorpions to be dealt with.
Labels: LIBERATION, NATIONAL HEROES ACRE (ZIMBABWE)
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Solomon Mujuru: 1949-2011
17/08/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
Soldier, freedom fighter, war hero, politician, farmer, miner, father – he answered to all of them. In the early hours of Tuesday, August 16, 2011, General Mujuru – husband of current Vice President Joice – was killed in a fire at his farm in Beatrice.
He was born Solomon Mutusva in Chivhu, then Charter District, on May 1, 1949, when Zimbabwe was still a British colony known then as Rhodesia. Gen Mujuru attended Kwenda and Rufaro Mission schools for his primary education and Zimuto Secondary School outside Masvingo.
While at school he took an interest to the early resistance to colonial rule, and was arrested for his political activism while doing Form 3.
In the early 1960s, he gave up his job to join the Zapu Youth League as the nationalist movement inched towards armed resistance. In 1966, Mujuru was imprisoned at Khami and on his release in 1968, he skipped the country into Botswana.
From Botswana, he travelled to Lusaka, Zambia, then used as a platform for the war effort by the liberation movements.
He was sent to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, now Russia, for military training. He did further military training in Bulgaria, Egypt and Tanzania.
On his return to Africa, he headed for Mozambique which was hosting fighters from the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army.
In 1970, Mujuru volunteered to lead a group of 45 freedom fighters to cross into Zimbabwe from Mozambique's Tete province, becoming the first sectorial commander to lead a ZANLA force with the task of securing the north-east zone of Zimbabwe.
He adopted the nom de guerre, Rex Nhongo.
After 1975, Mujuru was in charge of all ZANLA forces outside Mozambique. A year later, he was appointed commander of the Zimbabwe People's Army (ZIPA) – a joint military force made up of ZANLA and Zimbabwe People’s Liberation Army (ZIPRA) fighters which was short-lived.
As part of the ZANLA top command, then led by Josiah Tongogara, Mujuru was a vital cog in military planning, supervision of deployment and movement of troops in Zimbabwe.
Just before Independence in 1980, he led the advance platoon that performed the highly sensitive role of preparing the arrival of the leadership of PF Zapu and Zanu PF as well as organising and managing assembly points for ZANLA and ZIPRA forces.
At Independence, the ZANLA Commander became instrumental in integrating the freedom fighters into the Zimbabwe National Army.
He was soon to take over leadership of the army as a lieutenant general in 1981.
After Independence, Mujuru remained resolute to the principles of the liberation struggle.
Famed for his acute sense of humour, he also had strong convictions and would not sway from what he believed was right. He was once detained by the police after he and a colleague refused to leave a restaurant at Meikles Hotel because they had not worn ties. The incident triggered a law change, so anyone could dine without a tie. “We nicknamed him Chimusoro [tough headed],” remembers Mines Minister Obert Mpofu.
As a natural successor to Tongagara, Mujuru was easily accepted by the comrades that made the bulk of the combined national army. Peace and stability were critical for the emerging nation.
He was promoted to full general in 1992 before retiring in August of the same year to go into business. But he remained in touch with the men and women whom he commanded.
As a civilian, Mujuru used some of his time to lobby the political classes to improve the welfare of war veterans, and accelerate the pace of land reforms.
In January 1995, Mujuru was sworn in as Member of Parliament for Chikomba. He relinquished his seat in 2000 but remained a member of the Zanu PF Central Committee and Politburo.
Apart from tobacco farming, he also partly-owned River Ranch diamond mines – earning himself and his wife a small personal fortune.
Although controversy sometimes stalked Mujuru in business and in politics, he maintained a stately silence that won him respect, reverence and even awe.
Within Zanu PF, he was considered a “kingmaker” – a belief by political commentators that his links with the military meant he had first say on who succeeded President Robert Mugabe.
He led a powerful faction within Zanu PF which was ranged against another led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, their ultimate pursuit the presidency. But despite widespread media coverage of their differences, both men steered clear of engaging each other publicly.
Mujuru had several accolades, including an honorary law degree; an appointment as a Grand Commander of the Zimbabwe Order of Merit, and medals for Ten Years of Exemplary Service; the Long Service Exemplary Award; and Lifetime Award in Defence of Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
"He is one of the greatest among our people and his name will remain ever indelible. We can never forget what he has done,” said President Robert Mugabe.
[Additional reporting Isdore Guvamombe, Fortious Nhambura and Tichaona Zindoga, Herald]
Labels: EMMERSON MNANGAGWA, NATIONAL HEROES ACRE (ZIMBABWE)
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NATO has lost legitimacy, is terrorist: President Mugabe
Posted by By Our reporter at 8 August, at 19 : 11 PM Print
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe warned Monday that “mad people in the West” are campaigning for regime change in Zimbabwe, pointing to the ongoing civil war in Libya where rebels backed by NATO forces are trying to oust that country’s longtime leader.
He was speaking Monday at the National Heroes acre in a fiery address during celebrations honouring the liberation struggle, the Chimurenga War, that swept Zanu-PF to power at Independence in 1980. He called NATO a “terrorist organisation”.
President Mugabe also reiterated his call for early elections to end the country’s inclusive Government and called some of his opponents “demon-possessed sellouts” who turn to the West for help.
“Today is the day to cast out those demons,” said President Mugabe.
He urged Zimbabweans to be vigilant against those campaigning for regime change in Zimbabwe and called NATO “a terrorist organization,” no different from the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
“So you get mad people in Europe. Mad people who refuse and reject the truth, mad people who defy international law,” President Mugabe told the 20,000 plus gathering.
“Look what they are doing in Libya,” he said.
“The brazen way they seek to kill Gaddafi… they are deliberately throwing bombs at his family residences.
“It [Nato] has lost it’s legitimacy, it has become terrorist and beware this they can do on any other African country than Libya. We must always be in a state of preparedness,” President Mugabe said.
“They seek to kill Gaddafi. They have in fact deliberately killed some of his children.
“Now when they do that deliberately, it is exactly what the Taliban and al-Qaeda do – what is the difference in terms of what they [Nato] are doing?”
“That’s why I say Nato is now a terrorist organisation as well. If it defies international law.”
President Mugabe also on Monday vowed to retaliate against Western countries that imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.
“We haven’t touched them,” said President Mugabe of the more than 400 British companies operating in Zimbabwe.
“Tomorrow we are not going to treat them in any favourable way.
“They are not heeding our cry,” he said. “Why do we need companies like Rio Tinto? If they are to continue mining, then the sanctions must go.”
He also said the nation welcomed investment from countries that have stood by Zimbabwe, including China, Russia, India and Cuba.
On Monday, President Mugabe said elections were needed because the inclusive Government — which includes former opposition leader and now prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai — was “a creature not meant to live…
“We should not take undue advantage of it and stretch it to the limit.”
President Mugabe’s loyalists have said PM Tsvangirai, now the prime minister, is a security threat because his party is funded by the West.
A general in the military command has spoken out against PM Tsvangirai and vowed the military will not recognize him as Zimbabwe’s leader if he defeats President Mugabe in elections.
PM Tsvangirai did not attend Monday’s Heroes’ Day event. He has distanced himself from state occasions he says are used as a platform for Zanu-PF.
Labels: LIBYA, NATIONAL HEROES ACRE (ZIMBABWE), NATO, ROBERT MUGABE
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President Mugabe clarifies hero status
By: TH-TZG
Posted: Friday, October 1, 2010 4:55 am
President Mugabe and First Lady Grace Mugabe at the funeral of liberation war hero Ephraim Masawi in Harare, September 30, 2010. REUTERS PRESIDENT Mugabe said the National Heroes Acre is a sacred shrine reserved for only those Zimbabweans who sacrificed their lives to liberate the country from settler colonial rule.
The president said this while addressing mourners at the burial of Zanu-PF deputy national political commissar Ephraim Masawi at the National Heroes Acre in Harare yesterday.
"We are gathered here to bury Cde Masawi and others who died before him. Let me make it clear, this shrine is meant for those people who fought in the liberation struggle, Chimurenga, the struggle for our land, our country.
"It is a shrine for Chimurenga freedom fighters."
The President added: "It is not a shrine for just good people. There are many good people. There are many people who help others and who do exemplary work. But the Heroes Acre is for liberation fighters.
"There are many people who do exemplary work in our factories, in farming, and other areas. They are heroes. If we want to honour these people, let us look for another place to lay them, not this shrine. This is for liberation war fighters.
President Mugabe's remarks follow recent futile attempts by MDC formations to be consulted on the selection of national heroes and their bid to have Government confer national hero status on Mr Gibson Sibanda, founding vice president of the MDC - a party that invited and aided in the crafting of sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Mr Sibanda died in August and was buried at his rural home in Matabeleland South with State assistance.
The President chronicled how the late Masawi played a crucial role during and after the liberation struggle.
He said although Masawi did not leave Zimbabwe for military training outside, like what many others did, the former Mashonaland Central Governor and Resident Minister recruited and mobilised fighters back home.
President Mugabe said without the backing and contribution of cadres like Masawi back home, the liberation war would not have yielded the independence Zimbabweans are now enjoying.
"Who is this man who has united the nation in mourning his untimely departure? Who is this man whom we are paying our last respects? There are some among us who do not think that Cde Masawi deserved national hero status and perhaps justifiably so because they did not know about the life and sacrifices he gave to the liberation struggle," he said.
President Mugabe said the conferment of national hero status on Masawi was unanimous.
"Speaker after speaker narrated the history of this very simple, but sophisticated man, and all of the Politburo members ably recounted his dynamic and consistent political and revolutionary acts.
"We did not find any yawning gaps in his revolutionary political life from beginning to end.
"He remained resolute, unshaken, ever determined to ensure that the struggle for the liberation of this country was prosecuted to its logical conclusion," he said.
The President also narrated how Masawi and other youths engaged in acts of courage and sabotage and caused a real breakdown of law and order against Ian Smith’s regime during the liberation struggle.
He said the late national hero was active in organising the youths, who came together under a group called "Zhanda" (from the Gendarmerie) to cripple the agriculture sector and white-owned businesses.
"Cde Masawi was kept busy, mobilising and organising passive resistance at home, be it against the Pearce Commission or against the infamous political rallies organised by the short-lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government.
"He became State enemy number one, a thorn in the flesh for the colonial administration that had to be got rid of. Thus, the enemy engineered two attempts on his life through bomb attacks that were targeted at him and his colleagues," President Mugabe added.
At independence, the President said, Masawi did not retire from politics but soldiered on to ensure that political gains were defended and the land was restored to its rightful owners.
"Cde Masawi’s post-independence political career is without blemish. He remained an active member of the party, Zanu-PF, beginning at the lower echelons of the party and rising through its ranks to the positions of deputy secretary for information and publicity and deputy secretary for the commissariat, the position he held until his death," President Mugabe said.
He said Masawi was a resourceful person and used his experience not only to shape the Youth League but also to guide the party.
"In government he rose to be Governor and Resident Minister for Mashonaland Central for five years,’’ President Mugabe said.
During his tenure as Governor and Resident Minister for Mashonaland Central province, Masawi oversaw the allocation of land under the land reform programme.
President Mugabe also took the opportunity to remind Zimbabweans that the country remained under enemy siege.
He, however, urged indigenous people to take control of the economy through ownership of resources and the means of production.
"Our enemies and detractors are fighting day and night to destroy our national unity. They dislike our inclusive Government. They do not want to see us exercising our autonomy and sovereignty but want to dictate to us how we should govern ourselves," he said.
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President Mugabe urged Zimbabweans never to allow the enemy to meddle in the country’s domestic affairs saying doing so would be a negation of the sacrifices made by gallant freedom fighters like Masawi.
"We are an independent country now. Our resources are ours. They belong to Zimbabweans. They belong to the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe and those who want to share the resources must get our permission to do so.
"We must agree that they come as partners and come as partners in a manner we define and not in a manner they define.
"The manner we defined is quite straightforward — Zimbabweans should have major shareholding in whatever enterprises. Our people must accept it," he said.
President Mugabe noted with displeasure that some of the country’s young professionals were hesitant to run businesses.
He said they were only comfortable in being chief executive officers and managers in foreign-owned companies.
"Some of our trained young people have been conditioned to worshipping the white men working as CEOs in white men’s enterprises whether its Anglo-American or Rio Tinto, this is now old fashioned. You were born again in 1980.
"You are now the masters and those who made you CEOs should now be your CEOs," President Mugabe said, to rounds of applause from thousands of mourners who converged at the national shrine to pay their last respect to Cde Masawi.
He also castigated those opposed to the economic empowerment programme saying their claims that the move would not attract investment were baseless.
"If people (investors) do not want to come on those terms let them stay out, they are not good for us . . . That should never be allowed in an independent Zimbabwe. Let them stay away.
"Our true friends are eager to come and even those companies from countries with sanctions on us are asking to be accommodated," President Mugabe said.
Those opposed to black economic empowerment, he added, were "actually rejecting independence".
President Mugabe also condemned the continued existence of the illegal Western economic sanctions.
Officials from both MDC formations boycotted Cde Masawi’s burial yesterday.
Labels: LIBERATION, NATIONAL HEROES ACRE (ZIMBABWE)
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