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Chimoio Shrine a sacred ground

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IT is sad that the Chimoio Shrine is in a sorry state.
The state of the place, where sons and daughters of the soil that sacrificed themselves to liberate the country from colonial bondage lie buried, is heart-wrenching, especially to those whose memory of the place is still vivid.
Many have not gone back to visit not because they do not want to, but because they cannot, the pain they experienced and endured has not disappeared.
They not only carry horrible images and scars inflicted by a murderous Rhodesian army, but still feel the physical pain from wounds inflicted by the Rhodies.
Some of the survivors of the Chimoio Massacre, even though they escaped without a scratch could not speak for days and up to now do not want to go back and we feel for them.
Chimoio is an important and significant place that will always and forever feature in the discourse of our country.
We apportion no blame to anyone for the poor condition of the Chimoio Shrine for we are all to blame.
We are guilty of failing to separate issues which has led to the shrine declining into a sorry state.
It is not the duty of Government alone or certain departments or political party to take care of places important to us as a country.
Men and women, boys and girls that left the country to join the liberation struggle did not leave to fight for a political party but for Zimbabwe.
Thus it is the responsibility of every Zimbabwean to ensure that places like Chimoio, Nyadzonia, Freedom Camp and Tembwe as well as many others are taken care of.
These are our hallowed grounds.
These are our permanent memorial sites that must exist in pristine conditions for as long as we live.
By keeping them in the best of conditions we not only honour our heroes and heroines, we teach and inspire the living to do for the nation what was done by our forebears.
We call these places shrines but are they really shrines, are they not just mere graves, unkempt graves for that is what we have reduced them to.
We are in a paradoxical situation where we strive to protect and preserve Rhodes’ grave and many others which are shrines to vasinamabvi and yet we fail to preserve the shrine of those that gave their lives to the liberation that we enjoy and some of us abuse wantonly.
We need to build and maintain our shrines like we do the National Heroes Acre, they are equally important.
We will be judged harshly by future generations when they begin to seek the story of their country and all they find is grass and dilapidated graves.
We are already being judged by the peasant parents now grandfathers and grandmothers who bore the brunt of the war, whose children perished in places like Chimoio.
Nyikadzino will judge us harshly for neglecting these children, we must do something.
Elsewhere in the world shrines are embellished with great architecture and beautiful powerful works of art.
Where are our artistes, our painters, our sculptors, our actors and actresses and our authors to reproduce these all important stories.
They can, if they want.
It is very sad when our young visit these shrines and are moved and stirred yet come back without getting the full and detailed story of these places.
At our shrines our children and people from other lands must get the history of the protracted liberation war that we successfully waged and understand the costs borne, battles and operations that were crafted in these places must come to life at these shrines.
Our shrines are stories of unparalleled selflessness and courage and these stories must not disappear for they are an integral part of who we are.

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