By Vitalis Ruvando

ZIMBABWE celebrates Heroes and Defence Forces Days.
They are nostalgic days, symbols of patriotic renewals and continuums to our national identity, pride and self determination.
Heroes and heroines are the commissariat of sovereignty antecessors.
Antecessors are persons or spirits from whom one has descended.
They are pliable trademarks of the ‘living dead’ who have sovereignty land precedents.
Sovereignty antecessors orbit in ‘the family tree’, genealogical and geographical considerations.
Antecessors are standing armies.
They are the antecedents to heroism.
Antecessors give fecundity and animate lifestyles for utilitarian good.
Sovereignty ideals and their subsisting liberation ethos come from antecessors via heroes and heroines.
Doubts about the legitimacy of sovereignty antecessors are many times proffered by bigots of foreign agendas who are averse to pan-Africanism.
Heroes and heroines sacrifice their lives for national causes, promote the anti-colonial legacy of Mbuya Nehanda, defend sovereignty governance and foster values that enhance nationhood.
The status of sovereignty antecessors isn’t defined by the west, east, north, south, but home.
Heroes and heroines’ commitment and dedication are homebrewed.
National determination and destiny resonate from patriotic ethos and convictions which are embedded in antecessor heritages of faith.
Heroes are hardware symbols of our sovereignty antecessors.
They are nationalistic well springs with representational (outward signs) functions rooted in sovereignty governance.
Heroines are software symbols of our sovereignty antecessors.
They are patriotic fountains with presentational (inward signs) functions ingrained in sovereignty governance.
The archetypal symbols of our sovereignty antecessors include Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Chaminuka and King Lobengula.
They have consistently inspired the nation.
Consciously or otherwise, our standing armies are prototypes of sovereignty antecessors.
They are the unyielding force in body politics.
Their prowess is the fortress of the nation.
Heroes, heroines and armies are stereotypes in national defence that cannot be tempered, reformed or transformed in essence since they are the living testimonies of our sovereignty antecessors.
In them subsists the legacy and inspiration of our endless revolutions, national well-being and ultimate prosperity.
This is the sanctuary of our national identity, pride and self-determination.
Knowledge society is unequivocal; sovereignty antecessors are the creators, animators and tradition bearers of national identity, pride and determination in biological, spiritual, socio-economic and political affronts.
No wonder Mbuya Nehanda was the key driver in the First Chimurenga.
No wonder Mbuya Nehanda was the key enabler in the Second Chimurenga that generated novel heroes and heroines.
Indeed, her spirit guided liberators in Mozambique and Zambia.
Colonialism and Christianity had insulated and exiled sovereignty antecessors for almost a century.
The anti-colonial heroics of indigenous prophetic traditions in cultic centres during the subject era remain under-researched and undocumented.
National hero, Dr Herbert Ushewokunze once remarked: “For those who pioneered the liberation struggle, they will acknowledge Matongeni, Nehoreka and Tangwena that propelled their zeal to partake in the protracted war of liberation.”
The breed of heroes and heroines in training and refugee camps in Mozambique and Zambia acknowledge receiving indefinite instructions from antecessors.
Heroes and heroines of the liberation war front recognise the heroics of mhondoro: indigenous sacred practitioners in guiding them.
Conscripts in the liberation war acknowledge the heroics of magodobori: indigenous medical practitioners in healing them.
Mhondoro, magodobori, victims and casualties of the liberation war are unsung heroes and heroines.
However, they are key constituents in the realm of sovereignty antecessors.
National hero Dr Stanley ‘Urayayi’ Sakupwanya once asked, “Where are the symbols of our sovereignty antecessors?
“What rhetoric of sovereignty governance and unhuism will emerge without our forbearers?”
“For the love of Zimbabwe, the renaissance of Nehanda and sovereignty antecessors can be ignited by our armies, war veterans and leaders,” said one mhondoro.
National hero, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira once remarked, “The future for sovereignty antecessors will once more be bleak without the proactive role of the army, heroes, heroines and Nehanda.”
No doubt, the future is bleak for sovereignty antecessors given the deliberate omission of antecessor talk on the superhighway and pop culture.
Social media platforms should advocate antecessors.
The maxims of our sovereignty antecessors advocate peaceful co-existence, land ownership, spiritual independence, sovereignty governance and a mineral-driven economy imputed in the Dzimbahwe traditions, the 12th century A.D. ‘Dzim-ASSET’.
Contemporary accolade designs aside, heroes and heroines are exemplary in advancing the Dzimbahwe traditions.
As such, the muted nexus between ‘Dzim-ASSET’ and Zim-ASSET blueprint need to be enhanced.
Profiling Zimbabwe as the mineral basket and not only the breadbasket of Africa should be prioritised.
No doubt, Zimbabwe is a mineral rich country.
Contouring Zimbabwe as a peace-loving and philanthropic paradise should be prioritised.
One dimension of heroism manifests through compulsory altruism: gutsa ruzhinji and uzhinji.
Our sovereignty law is begotten.
Laws on self-determination are inner voices of our hearts and reason.
This is the legal basis of our land reclamation.
We are a ‘verbophiliac’ society.
Colonial law is promulgated to serve ‘scriptophiliac’ subgroups.
It’s a privilege to uphold legal scripts.
It’s a right to uphold the inner voices of our hearts and reason from where sovereignty antecessors abide and heroism is triggered.
Sovereignty law allows the good and bad, oral and written laws, native and foreign citizens, heroes and villains to co-exist on an equal basis.
Racism, racialism, colonialism and Afro-phobic and xenophobic derivatives are the vices that heroes and heroines relentlessly fight.
Sovereignty, antecessors, heroes and heroines will endure forever.