THE One-Million-Man March has come and gone, so has Africa Day.
However, the One-Million-Man March was historic.
It was a big statement to opposition parties in the country because 2018 is around the corner.
And if the multitudes who gathered at Robert Mugabe Square in Harare on Africa Day are anything to go by, then President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF are on the right track.
The unity was there for everyone to see, so was the solidarity.
The violence that was anticipated by certain quarters never happened as peace prevailed.
This was Africa Day that also turned out to be President Mugabe’s day.
Organised by the ZANU PF Youth League, the One-Million-Man March was testimony to the ethos and values of Africa’s founding fathers who pioneered political and economic independence prefixed on a united Africa.
Formed on May 25 1963, the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) now African Union’s (AU) core value was the unity of all African people.
The founding fathers believed in the dream of African unity, not merely emancipation from colonial misrule.
On the occasion of the establishment of the OAU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Haile Selassie made the most compelling case for African unity.
“We look to the vision of an Africa not merely free, but united,” he said.
“We know there are many differences among us.
“Africans enjoy different cultures, distinctive values and special attributes.
“But we also know that unity can be and has been attained among the most disparate origins, that differences of race, of religion, of culture of tradition, are insuperable obstacles to the coming together of the people.”
And President Mugabe is one of Africa’s leaders who attended that summit and interacted with Africa’s founding fathers in the mould of Kwame Nkrumah, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah and Selou Toure, among others.
The harmony of hundreds of thousands people who marched to the Robert Mugabe Square in Harare on Africa Day is a piece of history that testifies to unity in Zimbabwe.
Not only Zimbabwe, but the ZANU PF Party.
It dispelled rumours and talks of a divided revolutionary party.
The Party’s wings, the Youth League, Women’s League, Main Wing and affiliate party organisations such as the war veterans united and looked up to President Mugabe as an African icon.
They put their differences aside in the quest for a common goal, to strive for a united Zimbabwe.
ZANU PF is known to be run on the ‘gwara remusangano’ philosophy (Party line).
This is the unity and cohesion that defines the identity of the Party.
And of late, there were talks that ZANU PF had lost ‘gwara remusangano’.
There were talks that the Party’s Youth League and war veterans do not see eye-to-eye.
There were talks of internal fights within the Party, but on Wednesday, ZANU PF proved the detractors wrong.
The Party wings displayed a high level of discipline, harmony and togetherness.
They co-ordinated and worked together for the event to be a success.
The ZANU PF deputy youth secretary, Kudzai Chipanga, called on youths and war veterans to work together if ZANU PF is to win the coming 2018 election.
“Youths and war veterans, we need each other,” he said.
“The war veterans are our fathers.
“We cannot do without them.”
Ideologically, ZANU PF has passed on the baton to the youth fairly well.
War veterans welcomed Chipanga’s statements and promised to throw their weight behind the youths.
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWA) information and publicity secretary Douglas Mahiya said war veterans expect youths to deliver, adding that they will get guidance from the war veterans.
ZANU PF once again emerged and proved it was the vanguard of the people’s revolution.
Those who know ZANU PF from the 1970s could be heard whispering: “Ndiyo ZANU yakare iyi.”
At last the older generation are satisfied with the new generation, who showed they could fight against new forces of neo-colonialism.
Even President Mugabe could not help exclaim that such multitudes were last seen in 1980 when they were coming from the war.
And again when he spoke, he reiterated the founding fathers’ values and ethos.
“I am sure all of us united we stand, we divided we shall fall,” said President Mugabe.
“Unity, unity and ever unity, that should be the bidding, the bidding within us, within our bosoms and of course the bidding also as expressed by the Party.
“That bidding shall always be a guide as we organise ourselves.
“Kana VaNkomo pandakavaona pahurwere hwavo, zvinhu zviviri zvavakandiudza kuti ndisimbirire pazviri ndezvizvi: kubatana, the unity of our people that they shall not be persons who will say because we are Zezurus, because we are Manyikas, because we are Karangas, we are Ndebeles we must be treated differently.
“All of us are the same.
“No tribe should boast superiority over another.
“Hapana izvozvo, tinoti pasi nazvo.
“We fought for Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.”
No doubt the One-Million-Man March successfully reflected Africa’s ethos.
If 53 states, with different cultures and distinctive values, could put their differences aside, so can ZANU PF.
To the outside world, it might have been ‘just a march’ but to ZANU PF, it was historic.
The Party, once perceived to be riddled with in-fighting, was working together, paying tribute to an African icon.
It was a bold statement to detractors that ZANU PF is one.