By Charles T.M.J. Dube

IT is Heroes’ holiday as I pen this article and each time I write about heroes, I am an angry man.
Angry because I was part of this revolution just like everyone else of my age. I know what it was all about and am very familiar with the theory of ‘Permanent Revolution’.
The revolution was not supposed to be an event ending with Independence Day in 1980.
Even in Church history, Martin Luther, that great reformer of which the Protestant Movement and church was celebrating 500 years since reformation, talked of what he called samper reformanda, by which he was saying the Church must continually reform through new revelation and insight from the Word and the Holy Spirit.
And now back to our own revolution which started with our ancestors during the First Chimurenga: They were driven by the conviction to die fighting machine guns with spears, bows and arrows.
As that illustrious woman, Mbuya Nehanda, would declare as they executed her, ‘Mapfupa angu achamuka’.
Thousands had to die and get maimed both in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries for our Independence.
Thousands left schools, villages and other institutions of higher learning to join the struggle.
They were not moved by a ‘What is in it for me spirit’, that has become the normal motivation in most of our kith and kin who now occupy positions of influence in Government, commerce and industry.
The heroes’ commemorations are supposed to be the spiritual revival of our revolution and a reminder of where and how it all started and how others sacrificed and played their part and what we owe to them.
Even acts of war, driven by the altruistic good of all and not just elitist sectoral interests as in our liberation struggle are very spiritual in construct, being themselves driven by the love of not just self, but all.
This is why God is put at the centre of all such commemorations.
During his opening prayers for the commemorations this year, Father Fidelis Mukonori quoted the popular Biblical encounter with Christ wherein in advocating for reconciliation and forgiveness Christ intervenes when a woman caught in an act of adultery is about to be stoned.
Christ saves her by demanding that ‘he who is without sin cast the first stone’.
The President, during his address at the National Shrine, the Heroes’ Acre, applied this scenario to our national debate and discourse.
True, indeed, we have all erred and not done justice to the sacrifices of our fallen heroes.
The idea is for us to realign ourselves to what the war was all about.
But which revolution continues?
It is the same revolution against poverty and exploitation that started with the First and Second Chimurengas.
It is the continued fight against the new asikaris wanting to assume the new quisling column, living pretty at the service of international capital but at the cost of all who sacrificed for the liberation of this country.
In one of the heroes’ celebrations clips on ZTV, the President reminds the nation that suffering is an integral part of the joys of the morrow as even the Son of God, Jesus Christ, had to die for the salvation of mankind.
Likewise, he reminds us that we must be prepared to suffer for a better tomorrow.
Let us get it right here, let our suffering be guided; let it be suffering that is objective-driven.
I once wrote about what I called the ‘Bhekimpilo Effect’.
Bhekimpilo muzukuru wavaMazvida wanted to be friends with us, children of businesspeople and teachers.
To win our hearts, he had to let us drink the milk his family was supplying at the local general dealer’s shop, topping the bottles up with water and thereby compromising family interests.
Our governing and business elites are awash with Bhekimpilos who ‘will win friends’ among the corrupt local and international business at the cost of the majority.
This works against our common interests as even the cost of doing normal business balloons through rent-seeking behaviours.
Let us face it, no matter how you shout yourself hoarse even at political gatherings, you cannot be true to the cause of those who sacrificed and still continue to sacrifice for this nation as long as you are greedy and corrupt.
Let those who subscribe to such clichés as ‘Kakara kununa hudya kamwe or Mbudzi inofura payakasungirigwa’ be devoured by the revolution.
In my contribution sometime last year, I wrote that there must be a cause for our contradictions, which is why the issue of forgiving each other and working together for the common cause emphasised by the President this year must be taken seriously.
As we celebrate the sacrifices made by our gallant fighters and liberators, let us be wary of selfish divisionists (and opportunists) among us who will try to preoccupy our minds with the things that do not matter when we have urgent matters to address — to overcome the challenges militating against our national agenda.
I notice a lot of hate speech and social media wars which set aside discussions on attaining our common objectives.
You even have organised ‘tribal scheming’, which I put in quotes because this is all a myth promoted by some people trying to entrench themselves in positions of influence.
I told you, in my home area in the Midlands, we have every totem you can find in every corner of the country and these people speak either Ndebele, Shona or Shangani.
Nyandoro, Soko Murehwa/Mbire, Moyondizvo, Khumalo and all you could imagine.
However, some will come manipulating you using dialects, which are not critical in our culture as Zimbabweans and vanhu in general have different ways of identifying their kith and kin.
A Chihota in Marondera, Samaita in Mutasa or Mapungwana in Chipinge sees a kith and kin more than he would in anybody going by another totem in their neighbourhood.
We must refuse to be taken for a ride.
The task ahead is too important to be displaced by such parochial agendas.
Alluta continua!