THE true marker of any country’s well-being is its sovereignty.

Sovereignty brings about a country.

It makes a people.

It compels them to protect their country.

It makes them fend off interference in their internal affairs.

Zimbabwe is no exception to that gripping fact.

Since coming into the country in the 1890s, foreigners have harangued us.

Our monuments have been at their mercy.

Our religion has been suffocated. The outsiders have sought to control us and our economy.

We have had several phases where our sovereignty has come under attack.

The forces that want to control our control have been relentless. They have sought to weaken us.

They have sought to rob us off our birthright.

They have sought to steal our land. They have sought to destroy our glowing history.

They have sought to enslave us. They have no shame in looting our resources.

They bring strife upon us.

And to achieve that, they have poisoned certain minds in our midst. Our people have been imbued with the lie that we cannot run our own country.

We have in our midst individuals who cannot see the intrusive hand of the enemy.

They do not believe in themselves anymore.

They no longer believe in their country as well.

They hate their country in order to please the enemy.

We let them be.

And we let those who love their country protect and defend its sovereignty.

Those are the people who can see through the machinations of the enemy. They are there to guard against interference.

Still the enemy will not relent.

The enemy continues to come up with sophisticated ways of destroying the country.

The enemy continues to divide us; to make us hurt and hate each other.

The future is always the victim in this case.

The future is the biggest casualty of the enemy’s antics.

Generations to come are the ones who will be deeply affected by the enemy’s tactics.

Right now we are grappling with the Western-sponsored economic sanctions.

The effects of those sanctions are there for all to see.

Of course the sponsors of the sanctions will come up with all sorts of explanations.

They will shamelessly lie that the sanctions are targeted at certain individuals.

They will claim the sanctions are there because of human rights violations, lack of rule of law among any other ruses they can latch on to.

They will tell the world that the sanctions are meant to bring democracy to Zimbabwe.

Those are lies that have been exposed. And those lies will continue to be exposed.

The truth is that the sanctions are there because of the land issue. Those sanctions are meant to scare other previously colonised nations from empowering their citizens.

They are meant to cripple our ability to run our own affairs.

They are meant to weaken our resolve to develop our country.

The West want to create what they call a new Zimbabwe.

They want a pliant government that tows their line.

But we are Zimbabwe.

We will not be cowed into submission.

We will not bow down to the West.

We are a free people.

We determine our future.

We determine our way forward.

And we know what we want.

We know the path that we should take as a people and as a country.

Together we will fight those sanctions.

Together we will defeat those sanctions.

Together we will create a better life for the masses.