By Charles T.M.J. Dube

IT is the first week of November and I ask a war veteran who is also an academic on his views on the goings on in Zimbabwe and his response is that ‘the bones were silent and patient’.
That interested me.
My mind was taken to Mbuya Nehanda on the day she was sentenced to death.
She boldly accepted the death sentence and then declared her bones were going to rise.
I then reflected and realised that while death was common to us all, there was the difference that there could be those who die with honour.
They die in pursuit of a cause or defending it.
When they die in the face of unresolved contradictions, then like Mbuya Nehanda the 19th Century Zimbabwean heroine, for as long as they have died with hope that what they stand for will prevail, then should their death signal some form of imminent defeat, then being the committed and hopefuls that they are, their conviction will be in the eventual realisation of their dreams as new visionaries arise to continue with the fight from where they will have left.
But then, the bones do not just rise for there must be a cause.
A cause which many can identify with and not just self-interest. The bones can only rise in the form of the living being able to identify with the cause and arise in pursuit of its realisation.
This could take decades as in Mbuya Nehanda’s case when the rise of nationalism and eventually the armed struggle took about 60 years.
In historical development stages in Karl Marx’s theory of change, modes of production get redefined and dialectically move from the thesis, antithesis and synthesis as the trail from the slave mode to feudalism and eventually to capitalism, socialism and communism.
In between, the bones will be lying silent.
Thus, my friend would eventually underline, naturally, the bones do not speak the same language as the living and thus it required wisdom to understand him and Mbuya Nehanda’s insinuations.
However, when these bones rise, they are unstoppable.
This was the case with the rise of nationalism leading to the armed struggle.
Aluta continua! (the revolution continues), we used to shout as we waged the liberation struggle and at rallies after independence (this reminder seems to have been crowded out by other trendy slogans).
It is possible that the dictates of how the cadres or the survivors of the First Chimurenga and the strategically placed born frees of the post-independence era capable of social influence could contribute to this dictum or comatose and indeed this end of an old era and start of a new one just now bears witness to the theory of permanent revolution or kumuka kwamapfupa (reawakening of the bones) as Mbuya Nehanda would call it.
There will always be social contradictions whose resolutions will lead to fights and squabbles even within and across parties or non-partisan citizens.
However, it is not every cause and fights that will contribute to ineluctable movement of history.
There must be connection with the silent and patient bones.
The founder of my faith would argue, in order for a seed to sprout, it has to die and be buried in the ground first.
Thus, the bones of our martyrs, those who died in the pursuit of the people’s cause are the seed, which remains silent, but patient for as long as the cause for which they died remains not fully accomplished.
Their blood provides sufficient ‘fertiliser’.
As we defend the gains of the armed struggle or advance the objects for which they died, then the bones are not silent but rejuvenated.
On the other hand, as we pursue unrelated agendas, whether necessary or not, but unrelated to the specific cause though, then the bones wait, silently and patiently as they wait for realignment to the cause.
Let the reader understand that there cannot be just one cause and each generation cannot be tied to the cause of past generations and that not every cause is a history-mover.
The thesis though is that for as long as a cause for which bones and blood have been sacrificed remains unresolved, the bones remain silent, but patient, waiting for an appointed time.
The bottom line though is that for a cause to impact humanity and be able to reproduce itself in perpetuity, such cause must be true; just; selfless; noble; right; pure; lovely; admirable; excellent and praiseworthy.
There will always be noble and not so noble causes for which some will even die and at times for which sycophants could equally be willing to die for.
Even bank robbers and other kleptomaniacs have causes.
The difference between a developed and underdeveloped society is determined by the totality of the causes their governments, institutions and individuals pursue or are even prepared to die for.
As I have consistently maintained, the reader must remain vigilant though in the event of his becoming rekindled to a reawakened bone, that for every revolution, there will always be opportunists identifying with the cause and yet in pursuit of parallel agendas.
So as we pursue our personal and national causes, let us therefore remember that we have a history which will be there to judge us, while in all this, the bones of those who died in the pursuit or defense of altruistic and selfless causes remain silent and patient.
I must take this opportunity to salute the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) and war veterans who were able to act as catalysts to the bone re-awakening process for our comrades who died in the First and Second Chimurenga for as long as any contradictions relating to the liberation struggle would remain unresolved.
We still have a task ahead.
We have to rebuild Zimbabwe as changes are bound to continue as is the nature of the history of man.