Sometime back, one of the so called independent papers, the NewsDay claimed that Zimbabwe’s children would have to be forced to salute our national flag, they would never do it willingly. More recently, another such paper the Daily News has outdone itself by questioning Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s role as one of the country’s liberation forces.

SOMETIMES it is just normal for people to be at peace when something so special has been done for them.
If someone cannot be at peace when someone has done something so special, so great for them, when they can be rapacious even when someone gave up their life for them, then that someone can never be at peace and we do not have to be at peace with them.
Cde Mnangagwa engaged in the liberation struggle as a minor, he was not yet 16.
At that tender age he risked his life for each Zimbabwean, for this precious land. He was sentenced to death for his acts of war against the Rhodesian bandit machinery and would have been hanged, but for the fact that he was a minor.
If someone can do something so special, and you have the temerity to say, ‘it’s nothing, you do not consider it’, if you can have the temerity to say to them, ‘you have never done such a thing, you never did anything for me’, then it means you are not normal.
In Shona culture, such deeply irreverent evil is not dignified with a response.
Our elders would simply ask such to leave the room or the dare and they would continue with their business as if nothing has happened.
In our present circumstances we still have to respond though such behaviour is unconscionable.
We have to respond because such has been uttered in a public arena, and there are too many young souls that can be misled and so we have to protect them by setting the record straight.
Vakuru vedu vakatidzidzisa kuti kusatenda uroyi.
If it is money that can fuel someone to tell such blatant lies about something so sacred, it means that someone can even sell their own mother.
Asi zviomesei, mai havaroodzwi.
There are babies, children, boys and girls, young men and women, mothers, fathers, grandmothers and fathers, foetuses even, who perished to protect this country, to free it.
Others gave their lives, their everything for Zimbabwe, and others never did anything for it and yet commit to destroy, to breakdown what others built with their own blood.
Munhu angapandukira Nyika yake kusvika pakadai?
If one can feel so hurt that Zimbabwe should ever have such illustrious sons and daughters as VP Mnangagwa who valued their own people, their country, above their own lives, if one can feel so hurt that others did something so great for Zimbabwe that they are compelled to commit time and effort to destroy this titanic achievement then perhaps they are in the wrong corner of the globe because we will never change anything to suit their rapacious desires.
Tichangoramba tichifamba tichienda kuZimbabwe, and the fruits of the sacrifices of those who gave up everything for Zimbabwe will continue to flower, so you will never stop hurting and perhaps you will continue to commit more and more atrocities against your country; we don’t know what you will do in the end because Zimbabwe will never stop for anyone, perhaps you shall go berserk because we will never stop extolling the virtues of the liberation struggle: “Haticharegi kusimudza mureza wedu weZimbabwe narini.”
We were in the armed struggle with him, we lived with him, we ate with him.
As head of security, he protected us and he brought us safely home.
You do not have to go to the National Archives to get this information, we are still alive, there are still thousands of us around.
Why would you not talk to us?
Any of us would have told you, we were with Cde Mnangagwa, he was one of our key leaders in the struggle, you were not interested in the living truth, if it is because of money then of course we are worlds apart.
Zimbabwe came into being because of love and sacrifice, the highest values a human can attain.
It did not come because of money.
No-one paid the freedom fighters to free this country; to fight, to suffer and to die for it.
The Chinhoyi Seven, those who died at Nyadzonia, Chimoio, Mkushi, elsewhere, no-one will ever pay them, it is a sacrifice they freely gave.
Young Emmerson, as he set out as a minor to fight Rhodesia, he knew that most likely he would die, and it nearly happened.
He did not risk his life because anyone was going to pay him.
It was never about money, therefore it can never be destroyed by money.
Money is too valueless to destroy something of such inestimable value.
There is no greater love than that one should lay down their life for another.
There is no greater love that one can give the family of Zimbabwe than to secure their God-given space, Zimbabwe, than to ensure that zvirongedzerwa zvirimairi zvose zvive zvinoraramisa vana veZimbabwe kwete vabvakure.
This is the greatest gift that Cde Mnangagwa and thousands other Zimbabweans dead and alive gave Zimbabweans for always.
‘Neropa zhinji ramagamba, tiidzivirire kumhandu dzedu’.
This sacrifice is what ensures that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.
Kuchatouyeyi kana kuuyei, this cannot be undone.
Dear writer, you cannot undo the sacrifice of so many, the whole Western world and its arsenal could not do it, they tried and failed.
We stand as witnesses to that.
The scars from shrapnel wounds, the scars from napalm, the missing limbs, the bleeding hearts which you will not allow to heal, the haunting memories of the loving comrades we lost on our march to Zimbabwe; our parents, our lovers, our children, the friends we lost in our quest for dear Zimbabwe stand as witness that something so wondrous, so special was done for this land, for the people of Zimbabwe.
Today you say young Emmerson was not part of the Crocodile Group, he is not one of the greatest freedom fighters Zimbabwe ever gave us, that he is not one of Zimbabwe’s most illustrious sons; ‘wakamira pai?’
Among each people are things that are sacred.
Our liberation struggle is one of the most sacred, most revered among our people. Our life force is ensconced in our liberation struggle.
A normal person refrains from pitting themselves against such.
Tomorrow you will say perhaps Tongogara did not participate in the liberation struggle, next time perhaps VaMugabe is just a stuffed up doll, he was not there, and MSU students will join your chorus as they claim Zimbabwe was not bought by the blood of its sons and daughters.
The edifice of Zimbabwe is indestructible, musanyeperwe, musazvinyepera hapana chinochinja.
Mapfupa edu achamuka in perpetuity.
Dr Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University. She is currently doing consultancy work.