IN declaring war against Rhodesia, the people of Zimbabwe were demanding an end to and a departure from all that the British armed robbers instituted to subjugate the people of Zimbabwe for the purpose of looting their resources, in the process using Zimbabweans as slaves or poorly paid underdogs.
Thus the death knell for Rhodesia’s education system as well as every other systems created by the British armed robbers was sounded.
Consequently, during the liberation struggle, the nucleus for a new government to serve the people of Zimbabwe was created.
The ethos of Zimbabwe meant to restore Zimbabweans into their own as a sovereign people politically, economically and politically was entrenched in every tenet of the liberation struggle.
When the parties’ departments of health, education, social welfare, defence, security, publicity (and others) laid down their policies during the struggle, they were not only laying down guidelines for their operations during the struggle, but were also defining how the new government of a liberated Zimbabwe would operate in all these areas.
They were laying the foundation for the future government of Zimbabwe.
The guidelines and practices of the various departments were the demonstration of what and how the government of the liberation forces would operate after independence.
These departments spelt out and practiced what the ethos of the new government of Zimbabwe would do to correct the injustices instituted against the people of Zimbabwe by the British armed robbers.
Each department sought, in its constituency, to fulfill the call to arms which every comrade was committed to fulfilling.
‘Tinoda Zimbabwe neupfumi hwayo hwose’ for all the injustices against the people of Zimbabwe were instituted to facilitate the robbery of Zimbabwe’s wealth, all the political and socio-cultural institutions, all the laws were designed to achieve this.
In this particular article, our concern is the ethos which underlined the department of education in the struggle as the basis and nucleus of Zimbabwe’s education system.
To make its contribution to the overall liberation process, education in the liberation struggle taught the children what it means to be Zimbabwean:
Someone who understands and appreciates that Zimbabwe is the land of his/her heritage.
Someone who loves his/her country unto death.
Someone who knows that everything in Zimbabwe is inalienably his/hers and cannot be owned by any foreigners, British or otherwise.
Someone committed to work with all he/she has so that each thing that is needed to sustain life in Zimbabwe is produced in Zimbabwe.
With this ethos, thus to raise jealous guardians and stewards of Zimbabwe and all its wealth.
To be stewards is to have and to hold, to protect what is yours.
That is why during the struggle the education department taught the young ones in schools the ideology of ownership, to be masters of their own destiny.
Saka gwara riripo nderokuti choga-choga chirimo muZimbabwe ndechako,hapanazve munhu anokupa chinhu kusatoti wachengeta chako chawakapiwa ichocho naNyadenga.
Saka kana mukapiwa upfumi mukagutsikana kuti hwuve mumaoko evatorwa imi murivashandi vavo, munogara muri varombo, pamusana pekuti munoramba muchibvuma kupambwa.
This stewardship ethos was embodied in the ‘Education with Production’ model developed and practiced in the schools during the liberation struggle.
The teaching and learning across the disciplines married theory and practice, mental and manual labour, so that what the children learned produced goods they could use to improve life in the camps.
They learned that: “To build a hut is as important as to write an essay.” (Mutumbuka: 1978).
To be able to produce what you need, means you have to have the means of producing such, you have to have the land for instance, the mines, but you also need have the instruments of production; be it tractors, harvesters or mining machinery.
Without this, it is not possible to be producers of your own means of material sustenance.
Without this, you have no choice, but to produce for those who own the means of producing material goods, thus you cannot claim to be free.
You cannot be a producer without the means of production.
Only when you own the means of creating wealth is it possible to own what you produce, to have power over your products, only then can you decide the distribution of what you produce.
Ndizvo zvinoreva kuva neZimbabwe neupfumi hwayo hwose.
That is why each ZIMFEP school was allocated a farm, so there was means of production.
Saka kana tikaramba tichidzidzisa vana kuti vave vashandi vevamwe vashandi vevatorwa, upfumi huri mumaoko evatorwa, zvinoreva kuti tinoramba zvakanamatwa zvikarwirwa muhondo yeChimurenga zvikabudirira, zvokuti titore Zimbabwe neupfumi hwayo hwose.
Zvakataurwa pakutanga hondo yeChimurenga ichiparurwa, zvichinzi zvechiBritish hatichazvidi muno, ndizvo zvinotonga nanhasi, ndizvo zvichipo.