THERE appeared little danger when Iden Wetherell, the author of the MuckRaker column in the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper latched onto embattled MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s nostalgia for Rhodesia.
But the sight of four little sentences of Wetherell defending Tsvangirai’s ‘I miss Rhodesia’ gaffe was yet another exhibition of his condescending attitude when dealing with black people.
1. “You can hear ‘things were better under Smith’ and nobody worries,” rumbled MuckRaker in his column last week.
2. “Food was available in the shops.
3. “That’s what mattered.
4. “And President Robert Mugabe could get a degree in detention supplied with all the things he needed.”
No sane and self-respecting Zimbabwean misses Rhodesia.
In fact people have bitter memories and do not want to be reminded of life under a brutal Rhodesian system they dismantled through the war of liberation.
No one celebrates Rhodesia for ‘allowing’ President Mugabe to get a degree while he was in detention.
Why were President Mugabe and his fellow comrades in detention in the first place if life was good in Rhodesia as Tsvangirai and Wetherell claim?
It must be a consolation for MuckRaker to realise we have black people in our midst like Tsvangirai who believe that whites are our Messiahs.
But we have always fought colonialism and its roots.
This is why there was Mbuya Nehanda, that woman who predicted the fall of the colonialists, leading the struggle even in her death.
That is why there is President Mugabe, a man who is fighting for ownership and control of land and natural resources by his people.
Now there are the ‘new’ farmers who are tilling land to correct the wrongs of Rhodesia.
Now there is that black tobacco farmer from the countryside who has just emerged from yet another fruitful season and planning for a new season of more and plenty.
Now there is Walter Mzembi reminding Zimbabweans that we can host the World Cup in 2034.
This is who we are, a resilient people, confident of their capabilities.
We are Zimbabwe, a nation far departed from the madness of the ill-fated Rhodesia where the likes of you thought we were contended with a full plate of sadza and nothing more.
In Rhodesia, just being alive meant breaking many laws created to stifle him.
Seemingly insignificant stories of the so-called ‘trespassers’ who were found ‘unregistered’ in townships like Highfields during Rhodesia and were arrested before being sent back to the Tribal trust lands have been told.
We were arrested for dreaming to own and control our land and resources.
If it was just about food and beer, we certainly have that in abundance in Zimbabwe.
But despite the feats by Mbuya Nehanda, President Mugabe and those new farmers, Rhodesians still believe they will return.
There is a misplaced belief among Rhodesians and those who believe in their hopeless cause that blacks cannot do without them and that it is them alone who can make life better for Zimbabweans.
The belief that because food was available in the shops and ‘that’s what mattered’ is a sign the Rhodesians are becoming desperate.
Yes food was there, but that did not matter because still people were fighting the Rhodesian establishment.
That people went to fight in spite of the availability of food should help MuckRacker to understand the black man but of course it will not.
What mattered then and now is the issue of ownership and control of resources not one Rhodesian pound buying five beers and calling that ‘good life’.
Our struggle was not just against racism, but also that it was against economic organisation that went with racism.
This was mainly because the fruits of increased productivity in the economy were enjoyed only by a small white minority of the Zimbabwean population, while the African majority was marginalised, exploited or ignored.
The years of colonial domination which Tsvangirai and Wetherell advocate had sought to create total dependence of our people not only in political and economic terms, but also in ideological, social and cultural terms.
In reversing the horrors of Rhodesia, the land reform and resettlement and the ongoing indigenisation and economic empowerment programmes were initiated to give blacks ownership and control of their resources.
Which person would want to relinquish their national heritage for a Rhodesian pittance of beer?
The success of the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme has already been told.
A detailed research by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom led by acclaimed agricultural ecologist Professor Ian Scoones, says newly resettled farmers have done reasonably well following the correction of the colonial imbalances.
The 10-year study, which was carried out from 16 sites in Masvingo, demystifies the land reform programme which has been viewed in some circles as an abject failure and cause of food shortages not their illegal sanctions they imposed against the country in protest to the land reform programme.
Other reports by local and international researchers like Blessing Miles-Tendi have confirmed Prof Scoones’ findings.
It will not be a surprise if we have similar reports on the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme in the next coming years.
It will equally not be surprising if we host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
This is us doing it.