THE war of liberation was not an easy affair.
It was a terrible encounter.
A war where even angels feared to tread.
It was a venture not for the faint-hearted.
It was a route taken by those who were determined.
Those determined to unshackle the chains of colonialism.
Those who advocated freedom.
Those who resented tribalism, corruption, general lethargy and incompetence.
Those who wanted the real owners of the land to be in charge of their land and abundant natural resources.
Those driven by the desire to be firmly in control of their destiny. Most African countries have since attained independence. But there is a lingering question.
So many questions in fact.
What does that independence mean for the previously colonised black people?
Has the black person really benefitted from that independence?
What are the benefits of that independence?
Who gets what from that independence?
What is it that they are supposed to get from the same?
What does independence mean?
To whom?
And how?
Is that black person enjoying that independence?
Have liberation movements achieved their goals?
Have they attended to people’s needs?
Will they ever achieve those goal and objectives?
From the foregoing it is clear there is so much to be done.
There is so much that has yet to be achieved.
There is so much that can be done.
There is so much that has to be achieved. Zimbabwe has walked a sometimes torturous path. A path where some of the post-independence targets have been met.
We have embarked on the historic and heroic Land Reform and Resettlement Programme.
We have embarked on the indigenisation and empowerment agenda.
Yet the question still remains.
Have other liberation movements done the same?
Have they capacitated their people; those toiling masses who are still clinging to the liberation struggle dreams?
Those masses who were oppressed by whites — the same whites who today preach morals to us. The same whites who only yesterday destroyed that which bound us, that which made us who we are and that which forms the basis of our hunhu/ubuntu.
Have other liberation movements remembered their people?
Or they have simply gone back to their erstwhile colonisers?
The same colonisers who stole their humanity?
Colonisers who looted their resources. These are issues that should be discussed when Liberation Movements meet this month in Victoria Falls.
The name Victoria Falls itself does not sound good.
It alienates us black people from who we are and what we should be.
It takes away our humanity.
It diminishes our value as a people.
It destructs our path to prosperity. The spirits of our land will never be impressed by that. And they have every reason to be angry with us.
Who can fault them for being angry with us?
The Victoria Falls Conference must, and should be, about preserving the values of the struggle.
It should be about bridging the yawning gap between the older and younger generations.
That gap is not what we need as a country.
Let the conference be about consolidating the values of the struggle.
This is an opportunity we should never squander!