SOMETIME this year, I said we need to have a relook at the Chimoio attack.
My point of entry was that, if we continue to call it an ‘attack’, we are belittling Zimbabweans who perished at that camp and elsewhere.
This is because what happened at Chimoio was not a mere attack.
It was genocide.
I feel that now is the time that historians and those who always talk about human rights issues in Zimbabwe investigated this issue and bring it to the attention of relevant bodies for it to be declared genocide.
Our hearts, and mine in particular, are always at half mast every November 23.
Each year, I and other comrades and Zimbabweans in general, take our time to bow our heads in honour of the innocent lives whose blood not only waters the camp but the aspirations of the majority of the people of this country.
The victims of that genocide deserve to be honoured.
They deserve to be cherished.
They deserve to be remembered.
They deserve to be declared national heroes of our struggle.
No amount of words can justify the manner in which they were killed.
Words alone cannot explain the nightmare of that horror.
Words will only help us understand the agony of that horrific November 23 1977 genocide.
All that we are now left with are bitter memories of that slaughter of innocent people.
Thoughts of that narrative often prompt me to ask the question that I have always asked.
Where is our story?
Where is our narrative?
Where is that initiative to tell that story?
I believe that the time for lamentations is now over.
We must now celebrate the lives of those people who laid their lives for our freedom.
But how do we do it?
How do we go about honouring our heroes, especially those whose lives were mercilessly plucked from them at Chimoio?
Where do we start?
I have emphasised the need to write books on these people before they depart from earth.
We need to come up with documentaries.
We need to produce movies.
We need biographies.
We need magazines and so much more.
There are many stories that we are losing by turning a blind eye on our history.
This is one subject that I will never stop talking about.
I hope this is an initiative that will receive support from the relevant authorities because it encompasses our past, our present and our future.
I will at this point digress a bit and talk about an issue that has just happened in the country.
We are all now aware that former president Cde Robert Mugabe resigned on November 21 2017.
I am one of the people who will quickly say that let us give the man a befitting honour.
I believe we should write books about his life and celebrate his achievements.
And there are many those achievements.
Let those who write what they want about him continue to do so.
Who would dare the whites by taking back land and giving it to its rightful owners?
Who would dare whites by giving ownership and control of the economy to the majority?
I also believe that we can, as a nation, bestow him with the honour of Founding Father of Zimbabwe’s independence.
We could also declare him Zimbabwe’s Elder Statesman.
Adios Baba Mugabe!