THE month of April should be full of celebrations.
It is a month in which many significant events that have shaped who we are today took place.
We should take time to celebrate and honour the accomplishments of our heroes who charted the road to the freedom we enjoy today.
The First Chimurenga started in April 1896.
The spirit medium Nehanda Nyakasikana’s life was prematurely ended on April 27 1898.
She bravely faced death vowing: “My bones will rise again.”
The guns blazed again on April 28 1966 in Chinhoyi, signalling the sons and daughters of the soil had awoken to take back their heritage — the land.
It marked the beginning of Second Chimurenga.
Thus, it is befitting that we got our independence in April, the very month Mbuya Nehanda was executed at the Battle of Chinhoyi, which marked the onset of the armed struggle in the same month as well.
Gaining our independence hinged very much on these two crucial events.
Our colonisers were so afraid of an African uprising that they kept Mbuya Nehanda’s burial place a secret; up to today we do not know where our heroine was interred.
They obviously knew that the site of the burial of this revolutionary matriarch would be turned into a shrine and a constant reminder of her gallant struggle to end colonialism.
Time and again we have emphasised that we are a people ruling themselves for themselves.
We fought, we lost life and limb, while thousands perished, for us to become a self-determining people.
The major objective of our struggle was putting ourselves in a position where we called the shots.
Now we are calling the shots.
This is the message that must ring loud and clear in the month of April.
The fist that has tried to crush us in the past has now been clothed with a velvet glove. But it still remains lethal. We are not anti-progress or anti-development, we are just wiser. For long we were abused and oppressed, but we said no more and vanquished the enemy.
Whites have been ‘superior’, since time immemorial, not because they posses any greater mental powers, but for the simple reason that they have mastered the art of presenting themselves as gods and have found worshippers.
The whiteman has dominated, grown more powerful and covered a lot of ground, not because he possesses any special skills, but has over the years mastered the art of oppressing the blackman.
The whiteman has committed great crimes against the blackman and the horrible fact is that he has done it with the assistance of the blackman.
Quislings among us continue to be a nuisance.
When will Africa realise that it is a continent and that it has to decide and determine its destiny on its own without seeking approval or aiming to please the whiteman.
The continued fascination and veneration given the whiteman by some of our black people is embarrassing.
The condescending behaviour of the whiteman, his belittling of the African, his disregard of him as a human being, his arrogance will not come to an end as long as there are Africans who continue to say ‘yes baas’.
As long as there are Africans who will not challenge this ‘god’, we will not make progress as Africans.
SADC and the AU must decisively deal with the crisis in Mozambique.
We cannot wait for some ‘special forces’ to come from Portugal or America.
A single African life lost is simply too much; why wait for thousands to die first before the region and continent intervenes.