The most important lesson that we should learn as Zimbabweans and Africans is that our land is a priceless heritage.
All the monies of this world cannot buy or be exchanged for the value of our land.
We must, therefore, as Zimbabweans and Africans at all times never lose sight of this fact and always unite and be ready to fight and defend our land.
The British, Americans and their kith and kin in Europe may dangle their monies and gifts to dazzle our eyes when they talk to us, but we must always remember that all they want from us is our land.
All their talk about democracy, human rights, rule of law and equality between Rhodesians, Africans and all races of this world as citizens of Zimbabwe, as indeed is enshrined in our Constitution, is mere clever talk to detract us from their interest in our land and its wealth.
Any government of Zimbabwe may be democratic and respect the so-called human rights and rule of law as, indeed, is enshrined in our Constitution, but if it fails to grant unfettered freedom of access to the wealth of our land to Rhodesians in Zimbabwe and their kith and kin in Britain, Europe and America, that government will still be earmarked for removal from power to give way to a government that is compliant with the interests of whites in our land and its wealth.
Yesterday Britain, America and Europe talked to some among us they thought would be in power to give whites unfettered access to the wealth of our land.
Today Britain, Europe and America shower, some among us, with monies and praises and gifts to encourage them to come to power and grant whites freedom of access to our land and all its wealth.
Zimbabwean Africans who may be persuaded to let go of their land on promise of gifts and cash from America, Britain and Europe are not only profoundly ignorant of the priceless value of our land to us and our posterity in both spiritual and economic terms.
But they are also as foolish as the man who catches a dove and let it go, on promise that it would tell him something more valuable than the dove itself.
In the end the man lets the dove go and he goes home with nothing.
“Let’s hold on to our land and let Europeans keep their money.”
That is the lesson we learn from this story:
“One day a man caught a dove. When it was in his hand, the dove cried, ‘Please do not kill me. Let me tell you four things that will make you rich’. ‘What are they?’ cried the man. ‘The first is, do not cry for the moon’.
“The man said, ‘That is quite foolish. I can never do such a thing. What is the next?’
“And the dove said, ‘The second is all that shines is not gold’. And the man said, ‘That is obvious. Tell me the next?’ And the dove said, ‘The third one is, Hold on to what you have got’. And the man said, ‘That is also quite obvious. Hurry! Tell me the final one?’
“And the dove said, ‘Let me perch on that branch and I will tell you the last thing that will give you immediate riches right now to take home and enjoy with your family’. And the man released the dove.
“ And when it was perched safely on the branch away from the man it said, ‘I have gold in my head that no man can ever finish’. And the man smiled and said, ‘Good! Very good! Now, come down and I will take you home and be very rich!’
“But the bird said ‘Before you do that, just tell me if you remember the third thing that I said you must never do’. And the man said, ‘Yes, yes, it was hold on to what you have got’. And the bird said, ‘Why then do you want me to come down?’
“And the man cried saying, ‘Please come down!’ But the bird said, ‘But before I do that, please stop crying and tell me if you remember the first thing that I told you’. And the man smiled a bit and said, ‘Yes, yes, it was, don’t cry for the moon’. And the man understood and stopped crying and went home empty-handed, but now a wise man.”
The same tricks are played by America, Britain and Europe on us to dump our comrades who spent all their lives in the struggle in defense of our land and pick new ones who would let our land go to our enemies for the price of money and empty promises of pleasures from the West, like the man who lost the sheep he had bought, for the sake of new shoes he never got from the Hare in the following story:
“One day a man bought a sheep and was going home with it. Hare saw him and thought: ‘What a good sheep that is! I must have it for myself’.
“Hare ran quickly in front of the man, took off his left shoe, put it on the road and hid himself in the bushes. The man saw the shoe and said to himself, ‘This is a good shoe, but I don’t need one shoe, I shall not take it’.
“Hare put on his left shoe, ran quickly on, took off his right shoe and put it on the road. The man came up to the second shoe, stopped there and said, ‘Oh, this is the right shoe and the other one was the left shoe, then I shall have good new shoes’. He tied his sheep to a tree near the road, put the shoe near the sheep and walked back to find the first shoe.
“He looked and looked for the shoe, but could not find it. While the man was looking for the left shoe, Hare took the right shoe, untied the sheep and took it to his home. When the man came back, he found no sheep and no shoe. He cried out, ‘What a fool I am!’ And he was right.”
Let’s hold on to our land and never let it go.