WE usually say August is the month of our heroes and heroines.
It is the month we take time to remember all the dedicated and gallant sons and daughters of the soil who paid the ultimate sacrifice to free Zimbabwe from colonial bondage.
I always argue, heroes and heroines do not die.
However, what is depressing me now is that our heroes and heroines may die.
I am sad for future generations.
I know many heroes and heroines, living and departed because some of us were participants in the bush, in the villages, in the camps, so we know.
But what about those who were not there, what about those being born today, will they know?
Do we want them to know?
Where will they get inspiration from?
Will children born and bred today, both in the country and the Diaspora, know the heroes of their land?
Do we value the stories carried by the men and women who fought and contributed in the country’s liberation struggle?
The likes of George Washington, Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte and Otto von Bismarck have not died.
They remain very much alive because their stories are not just constantly repeated by word of mouth.
Volumes of literature about them have been produced, even films about them have been made.
Books chronicling not just their exploits, but even their childhood, have been produced.
These figures who will not die, left behind detailed diaries.
In the diaries they narrated their struggles, challenges they faced, their victories, their losses, their sources of inspiration and strength.
No information has been mundane.
Their lives have been recorded down to favourite pastimes.
Eulogies move us, but they do not delight.
Eulogies do not leave us awestruck, but wondering how and why such information was never made public.
But truthfully there is no reason to wonder.
The bottom line is that no effort or enough effort has and is being made to record the stories of our heroes.
It is sad, very sad to hear tales of heroics during burials.
We want to know of the exploits of our heroes and heroines while they live.
The story is much better coming from the horse’s mouth.
I challenge those who participated in the liberation struggle to record their experiences.
We have a unique opportunity in that a majority of the participants are still with us and thus this important story will not be distorted.
But there will come a day when we will all not be around, all of us who participated in the struggle.
Then what will our children do, rely on hearsay and distorted information?
People who know nothing about the liberation struggle will provide information.
We must not let that happen.
Nothing is as bad and sad as the story of the liberation struggle being told by people who know nothing about it.