By Davet Muzwidzwa

THE effects of colonial soft power continue to haunt us today 34 years after independence.
Our way of life, values, attitudes, perceptions, lack of dedication to duty and our worldview today is a product of colonialism.
A human being is like a computer.
She/he comprises of the hardware and software.
The hardware is the physical body comprising of the bones, the flesh, the skin and the brain.
The rest of the applications such as language, hate, love, discipline, values, norms, attitudes, beliefs, respect, fear, greed self respect and so on, are uploaded into the child by its social environment.
This is the software that makes the human body perform certain tasks.
The desire of the social environment is to reproduce a replica of their own for posterity.
However, there are hackers, intruders, spywares, malwares and riskwares all designed to make the computer behave in a way not desirable by the owner. Collectively these viruses cause the computer to take instructions from outsiders disobeying its own system.
Only an antivirus is able to detect and clean these viruses.
During the partition of Africa, European colonialists realised that Africans would not cooperate being colonised.
They resolved to unleash their soft power on unsuspecting Africans through missionaries.
They told Africans that their religion was inferior and backward.
King Leopold II of Belgium gave instructions to his advance team disguised as Christian Missionaries to prepare the Congo for colonisation.
The letter read:
“….Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots; Your knowledge of the scriptures will help us to use special text that recommended the fidels to love poverty such as, “The Beatitudes”, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom”; “It is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven”.
“You will do all that you can to cause the Negro to fear being rich in order that they may go to heaven.
“From time to time, keep them from rebelling and to keep them in fear that you will use violence.
“You will teach them to endure anything, even when they are insulted or beaten by your compatriots (administrative).
“You will teach them that whosoever uses vengeance is not a child of God.
“You will cause them to follow the example of the Saints who turned the other cheek.
“You will take them away from anything or act that procures them with the courage to confront us.
“I am alluding myself here to their magic, i.e., Juju, Voodoo. “They should not feel like abandoning their Juju, and you will do your best to take them away at the same time.
“Your action will be essentially on the younger people that might not rebel.
“If the commandments of the Father are conductive to the parents, the child should learn to obey what the missionary teaches him because he is the father of his soul.
“We must force them into submission and obedience….”
The objectives of the missionaries had nothing to do with God.
Rather, they were well-trained soft power agents of Europe.
In Zimbabwe the missionaries an Afro-Rhodesian totally un-African displaying new characteristics such as; Fear of Europeans as invincible, lack of courage, rebellious against instruction particularly from elders, respectful of everything European, a converted, fear to face opponents, if beaten one cheek to give another cheek until the person beating gets satisfaction from it, to lose desire on earthly achievements yearning heaven.
These attributes were very important to Europe because they moulded an African willing to be colonised.
The Afro-Rhodesian continues to exist in some of us to this day.
This substituted the resilient Zimbabwean who built the house of stone (Dzimbabwe).
The Afro-Rhodesian was devoid of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-actualisation, self-respect, self-determination and heroism; all extremely important attributes needed when engaging in any national mission today.
The colonial soft power destroyed us.
We lost the skills of Iron smelting, copper smelting, gold smelting and silver smelting, cattle ranching and crop breeding skills.
Prior to colonisation, we had reached a stage where we were breeding drought resistant varieties of millet, rapoko, maize, groundnuts and sesame.
We lost all that to colonial softpower.
The colonial softpower created an Afro-Rhodesian who is vulnerable, weak; lack self-respect, has phobia for challenges, does not look inside for solutions but always goes abroad begging for solutions to domestic challenges, always pities himself, begging for sympathy from those who made us what we are today.
This creature would rather be an employee than facing the challenges of being an employer; is always apologetic and not assertive; will always mourn and find something or someone else to blame for his situation.
Any successful Zimbabwean would be called murungu wangu as if being successful is synonymous with being white.
Had it not been for a bold statement by Mbuya Nehanda in 1898 when she declared “Mapfupa angu achamuka”, even the Great Second Chimurenga would not have been fought.
The 1898 Nehanda Declaration was an antivirus that cleaned part of the software.
It ,however, did not produce a complete virus removal.
Yes, we got our land back, are we not supposed to use the same resolve to develop our country?
Why are we not using Nehanda’s Declaration when we are underground mining gold; in a factory producing fertiliser, soap or maize meal and even playing football for our national team?
Where is the resolve and determination displayed by freedom fighters who liberated Zimbabwe?
Where is Nehanda’s declaration (Mapfupa angu achamuka) in you?
Nehanda’s declaration was the antivirus that cleansed the freedom fighters of Afro-Rhodesiaism.
We need to run the same software for everyone, our ministers, civil servants, footballers, netballers, tennis players, farmers, builders, industrialists, writers, teachers and doctors.
That way, we can bring back the heroism of the old woman from Chivi who cooked stones, the vaRozvi who attempted to build a ladder to collect the moon for their King to wear around his neck.
Chembere yokwa Chivi pioneered smelting and vaRozvi pioneered astronomy among us.
Where did that resolve go?
The failures we face in all spheres of our economy are consequences of the Afro-Rhodesian in us.
Our failure to succeed in African football let alone the World Cup is the effects of the Afro-Rhodesian in us.
The colonial soft power continues to haunt us to this day and under it, failing in our missions is normal.
Until we cleanse ourselves of the Afro-Rhodesian in us that makes us vulnerable and we bring back the lost Zimbabweanness that restores confidence, self-respect and goal getting attitude, we will continue to perform dismally in sport and other fields.
Let us evoke Nehanda’s declaration in sport and the world will respect our presence.
Getting the African Cup cannot be as insurmountable as liberating Zimbabwe that we achieved in real time in 1980.