HomeOld_PostsRevisiting the spirit of Matigari

Revisiting the spirit of Matigari

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Matigari
By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Published by Heinemann Educational Publishers (1987)
ISBN 0435905 465

THE struggle for Africa’s freedom was not an event.
It was divided into various categories for a reason; that its people would enjoy the benefits of the struggle.
There is the armed struggle, the economic empowerment and indigenisation stage and finally the decolonisation of the mind stage.
Zimbabwe has gone through the first two stages and, naturally, the third stage is proving difficult.
It is at this stage African nations are either made or broken.
Africans suddenly find themselves in two distinct groupings; one that adheres to the letter and spirit of the struggle and the other that unwittingly becomes disciples of neo-colonialism.
The tragedy with the latter is that they fail to realise they have fallen into the trap of neo-colonialism and that they are ably supporting and perpetuating it.
The late great Kwame Nkrumah teaches us that: “A state in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny. It is this factor which makes neo-colonialism such a serious threat to world peace.”
The July 30 2013 harmonised elections in Zimbabwe exposed elements that champion neo-colonialism.
For ZANU PF, the elections were about negating neo-colonialism and creating a better life for the people of Zimbabwe, while for the MDC Alliance, it was about the modification and enhancement of the second coming of the West into the country.
Indeed, the US never made its admiration of the MDC Alliance’s Nelson Chamisa and his cohorts a secret.
The swift extension of their illegal economic sanctions soon after the elections was confirmation of their exasperation with the outcome of those polls.
The US anticipated an MDC victory which, to them, meant the negation of the Land Reform and Resettlement and the Economic Empowerment Programmes.
That is the tragedy of our country.
That is the challenge that today confronts our beloved country.
It needs sharp minds to confront this bane.
And, indeed, we have those minds who can see through the strategy of the enemy
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is one such character who always fascinates the reader through his incisive and thought-provoking art.
He pierces through the veil of neo-colonialism through his poignant writings, especially when it comes to countering neo-colonialism.
His text Matigari presents the world with a platform for the African to sieve through the remnants of colonialism and clears the path for one to choose his/her destiny without the blinkers of neo-colonialism.
Matigari, the character, preoccupies himself with the search for the ‘truth and justice’ and is appalled to see his fellow blacks now being used as fronts by whites to run businesses on their behalf.
Blacks are exploited by other blacks and they marvel at the suffering of their kinsmen.
Echoes of that scenario play out in our current politics where those in the opposition are sitting on the fence and hoping for those who got land under the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme of 2000 to fail.
They also hope for those toiling in the countryside, mining for gold, to fail.
But it is these farmers and these artisanal miners who are driving the country’s economy and giving it a semblance of functionality.
Yet we find crass dishonesty from opposition leaders.
During the day, they attack the Land Reform and Resettlement and Economic Empowerment programmes, while under the cover of darkness they are beneficiaries of the same.
This is what infuriates Matigari: “You see I built the house with my own hands. But Settler Williams slept in it and I would sleep outside the veranda.
I tended the estates that spread around the house for miles. But it was Settler Williams who took home the harvest…
I worked all the machines and in all the industries, but it was settler Williams who would take the profits to the bank and I would end up with the cent that he flung my way… I produced everything on the farm with my own labour. But all the gains went to Settler Williams.”
But now, even when that land is now firmly in the hands of the blackman, Chamisa and his acolytes say, no, it should be owned by whites.
He says we, blacks, do not have the capacity to farm when statistics show him that we have broken the tobacco production record set by the whites.
Chamisa says the current Cholera outbreak is a sign that we cannot run our economy but conveniently forgets the impact of the economic sanctions that he called for.
Zimbabwe is in dire need of a new Matigari to rid the bane of neo-colonialism that is afflicting the country.
The text Matigari is a useful manual towards eradicating neo-colonialism.

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