By Evans Mushawevato
IT has been a good 10 years full of all sorts of adventure.
We continue to tell our story and celebrate our achievements.
We have exposed the good and bad in our midst.
Most importantly, we have been a voice that has not kept silent.
Without doubt, the country has, in the last decade, followed an exciting trajectory.
In the scheme of things, in the stories of nations, a decade is not a long time.
Thus, in a short space of time, we have gone through major life transforming exercises – exercises which we were not expected to survive.
Many expected the country to disintegrate.
It did not.
We were put through the wringer.
The heat was turned on higher.
The screws were tightened, but we are still standing.
We are still forging ahead.
Bottom lip bit and sleeves rolled up, we are pushing, we are fighting, we are working and we will conquer.
This is the story that The Patriot has religiously told.
The story of a resilient and determined people who have refused to be cowed.
As a paper, we are very much aware and conscious of the fist that has tried to crush us in the past and the same fist is now clothed in a velvet glove.
We continue to remind our people that it remains lethal.
We are not anti-progress or anti-development — we are just wiser.
Ours has been a publication that has continuously hammered home the fact that it is the duty of every Zimbabwean to appreciate and value the country and what it has.
One of our agendas has been to educate for patriotism.
True ownership of one’s land is rooted in knowledge of that which is owned.
We all must be positive in pushing and contributing to rebuilding our nation.
Our story, in the last decade, is that Zimbabwe ndini newe/ Zimbabwe yimi lawe.
Iwe neni tine basa/mina lawe silomsebenzi!
Many of us never saw the squalour, the deprivation and sub-human conditions of Rhodesia.
There was not, and will never be, anything beautiful about that dreadful era.
Blinded by the love of money, gripped by the spirit of selling-out for individual benefit, some have forgotten the significance and agenda of the liberation struggle.
We will remind them.
We will not stop telling the story of where we came from and where we are going.
Others will sing our failures and weaknesses, let them do, we will relentlessly focus on our strengths and celebrate our achievements as a nation and as a unified people.
The West insists we are an inferior people, but we tell the story of a superior people.
The story of maDzimbahwe whose gold was sought after by King Solomon to construct a temple for his people.
To armchair critics, everything is, and should be, about the West.
But it is not!
Zimbabwe is destined for growth and it will develop in leaps and bounds.
Prophets of doom may prophesy but this will not make their prophesies any truer — they will not come to fruition.
We have gone through a lot as a country.
The scars of the liberation struggle are still fresh.
The scars of the illegal economic sanctions are still with us, causing unbearable pain.
We have faced many challenges and we have emerged victorious, every time.
We will continue telling our story.
We must value our land.
We must cherish our worth.
Most importantly, we must celebrate our success.
As a nation, we are not regressing, we are going forward.
Denigration and vilification will not put us down.
The day belongs to those who seize it and not those who mourn about the lack of sunshine.
The Patriot will not tire of telling the story of Zimbabwe and celebrating being Zimbabwean.