SOME things are so tragic that you don’t believe they are true, but they stubbornly stare you in the face in black and white and so you have to deal with them.
It is unbelievable that today after almost 34 years of independence Zimbabwean children are still costed to learn about their colonisers as their heroes, a travesty of justice beyond the imagination.
There are books, textbooks, which were distributed to Zimbabwe’s schools.
They have a foreword by David Coltart dated July 11 2011.
The first paragraph of Coltart’s foreword reads:
“This textbook has been provided by the Government of Zimbabwe with the assistance of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture’s Education and Transition Fund and UNICEF.”
It is weird that Coltart should ever have written a foreword for books to be read by Zimbabwe’s children, but then, the whole GNU business was a strange creature.
But what makes Coltart’s signature sinister is that it signified, ratified and sealed at the level of the state, the re-colonisation of the mind of the Zimbabwean child.
One of these books, a history textbook for Ordinary Level, Step Ahead, Book 4, published by Longman in 2008, should have been titled ‘European History’ because this is all that the book is about, the history of Europe.
In this book, the children are taught about the background to Europe (1890-1914), the First and Second world wars so-called, the causes and course of each, the League of Nations, Italy (1919 to 1945), Germany (1919 to 1945), the Balkan wars, United States of America (1918 to 1939), on and on about the history of Europeans and their escapades, in great detail at that.
The book is typically European history as it was taught to Zimbabwe’s children during the colonial era.
It is not our business to teach our children European history, it is certainly not our business to devote half the ‘O’ Level history syllabus to the study of Europeans over decades.
This is the assessment that was made at independence, and this kind of syllabus was dropped and a new syllabus was formulated, History Syllabus 2166.
The fundamental difference between the colonial history curriculum and 2166 is that in 2166, the teaching and learning of history was approached from our perspective as an independent African country that had triumphed over West European imperialism, in particular that of Britain.
And so in this new approach, learning about Europe was not a priority except to reveal Europe’s role as our nemesis, that it was responsible for our underdevelopment.
So Europe was not idolised.
In the Longman text book, however, Europe is idolised, children are taught about the ‘Great Powers’ as a given.
How do these European countries become ‘Great Powers’ to our children?
If Europeans decide to accord each other strange titles, it is their choice and their business, but such should not be foisted on our children.
Our children should not be indoctrinated to accept the leadership of certain European countries.
Europeans are not part of us, they are certain entities which share space on the globe with us, “hatina ukama navo, kovanogoita great kwatiri kuti zvaitasei.”
Our children are being indoctrinated to accept the definition of the world and the world order as defined by Western Europe and the US.
This is the colonial mentality that was discarded at independence, but here it is, once again, in full force.
The approach used in 2166 did not deceive children to think that there ever were world wars, instead, it illuminated the truth that these were imperialist wars, which were fought to redistribute power and wealth among the Europeans and their friend America (US).
So how do they become world wars, except if one accepts that the world is Western Europe and the United States of America, but then we are not in the world if that is the case. We as Africans never started any of these wars.
The architects were Europeans in pursuit of selfish goals of seeking a greater piece of the planet earth and we as Africans were used as canon-fodder and we never benefited from them.
What our business is, is to reveal the truth about Europe to our children, that it has never related to us in a manner that has benefitted us, and that slavery and colonialism highlight the nature of Europe’s relationship with us.
The children have to know this.
They have to know this if they are to be able to defend our revolution and to carry it forward, if they are to maintain the stance which was the foundation of our liberation and the struggle that achieved it.
That, as a people we are second to none, and we will defend our sovereignty and all that is ours with our very lives, and we did and we triumphed.
Our schools cannot be the cradle in which our children are taught to be disciples of Europe and Europeanism.
This way they can never be heirs of Zimbabwe neither can they be custodians of this special country.
‘Ah, zvinoshamisa’ that we have gone back full circle.
Between the two ‘O’ Level history books given to the schools with Coltart’s signature, there is no detailed discussion of Africa beyond Mozambique and South Africa’s struggles for majority rule and democratisation.
What about the rest of African countries?
These are us, they are part of us, and we share the same destiny.
How can the children be costed to skip the whole of Africa and land in Europe. They do not land in Latin America, or India, or anywhere they can identify with people with the same struggles, with similar histories of fighting and defeating foreign domination.
They do not land in the lands of our friends who helped us during the liberation struggle.
And yet this is where our children can and should get the correct inspiration and encouragement to continue to walk in the true footsteps of those who perished in our struggle to free our land and our people.
Lest we forget!
Our children can never get this inspiration from Western Europe.
Dr Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University. She is currently doing consultancy work.