THE lack of knowledge of our liberation history by our youths allows them to be recruited onto platforms that espouse tribalism, regionalism and other social bigotries to create disunity.
This is a total negation of the spirit of unity that underpinned our successful struggle for independence.
Our liberation ethos are not built on ethnicity, tribal identity, region of origin or level of education.
All of us, despite our social status, education, tribal, ethnic or regional origins, share a common destiny.
Just as we fought together to defeat the British colonialists, so must we unite, to liberate the country economically.
The level of corruption that has spread throughout our systems is evidence of a people who have lost direction and become mired in individual self-serving agendas with total abandonment of our liberation ethos. All links in the revolutionary chain must be strong, connected and in good working order.
Politicians who promote tribalism, regionalism or other divisive negative‘-isms’ deserve to be rejected by the people.
Those seeking to destroy our revolution have exploited these weaknesses.
Education must be used to fight these negative tendencies.
Our inherited colonial education system, consistent with Western cultural individualism as well as the ‘divide and rule’ British strategy, has resulted in Zimbabweans internalising these un-African divisive ethnic identities without questioning their basis. The new curriculum must be deployed to counter the negative divisive attitudes.
And so should my neighbour Mr Gumbo, denigrated as a ‘Karanga’, go back to Gutu in Masvingo where he was born?
Or turn himself into a ‘Zezuru’ from Musana Communal Lands where his main dzinza of vaera Gumbo are resident?
We are all Zimbabweans first and foremost!
Let us look at one more example.
Persons belonging to the Moyo clan constitute about 50 percent of the population of what is now called Matabeleland, according to some authors.
As pointed out before, the Sibandas (Shumba), Mpofus (Mhofu), Ncubes (Shoko), Musipas (Nungu/Njenje), Ndlovus (Nzou), Sizibas (Hove/Dziva) and many other totemic groups were already resident in present-day Matabeleland which they called Guruuswa.
They had been there for periods long enough to build many settlements similar to the Great Zimbabwe monument.
Most of them are Ndebele-speaking today and even believe themselves to be of Ndebele stock.
Originally Shona-speaking, they were ‘Ndebelised’ linguistically and culturally by King Mzilikazi when he arrived in Guruuswa (present-day Matabeleland).
But the history of population movements within Zimbabwe and the sub-region indicates that the Moyo clan, together with all the others listed above, are part of the larger group referred to as the Shona.
These groups travelled south, turned west, went east and turned north and even went back to their original roots; thus they became scattered throughout present-day Zimbabwe.
On what basis do they become Zezuru, Korekore, Karanga, Manyika or even Ndebele for that matter based on region of settlement?
The totems, even though they may have been changed here and there, are better indicators of ethnic relatedness compared to area of residence.
It is common knowledge that Mutota, one of the sons of Mwenemutapa, of the totem Moyo, went north, fought and defeated the Tavara people and boasted he was bigger than everyone.
He called himself the elephant, Nzou Samanyanga, the largest land animal.
He adopted the totem Nzou, Samanyanga.
His descendants who are Moyo by original totem are now labelled as Korekore, not by choice but by foreign design.
They originated from the same stock as the Great Zimbabwe rulers, the Moyo clan.
All other Moyo clansmen are their blood relatives, not separate tribes.
People of the Moyo totem are found in every province of the country.
They cannot be designated Karanga, Zezuru, Manyika or Ndebele as if those are distinct ‘tribes’.
So it does not make sense to designate them as any other ‘tribe’ but the vaRozvi.
We are trying to emphasise that the ethnic groups or ‘tribes’ named by the colonial settlers are totally at variance with the reality on the ground.
The so-called tribal groupings were otherwise homogenous and of common ancestry.
The purpose of the colonial tribalising scheme was and still remains ‘to divide and rule’.
In conclusion, we must emphasise the need for teaching our children the correct history of our country including the correct origins of the various ethnic groups.
The recently introduced new school curriculum should address this important dimension of our African identity.
We need to highlight our common ancestries as part of a suite of strategies to consolidate national unity and independence.
“We are Africans,” said former South African president Thabo Mbeki.
We must refuse to be tribally branded and labelled like goods on a shop shelf for purposes of dividing and weakening our unity us.