THAT there is a furore over having a Robert Mugabe Day is an outright lie and the height of dishonesty.
It is not people but a constituency influenced by certain forces from outside that is vehemently opposed to anything Zimbabwean, period.
Here is a constituency committed to pursuing an onslaught on our ideas, ideals and values.
We will have Robert Mugabe Day, we will have Herbert Chitepo Day, we will have Joshua Nkomo Day and many other days in honour of our heroes both living and departed.
Nyika ndeyedu iyi including the heroes and heroines of the land, they are ours and we shall honour them in ways we so choose.
That is the definition of sovereignty and total freedom.
We stand by that and we cherish that freedom.
Creation of days that honour our great sons and daughters of the soil is more than about the individual characters or perceptions of our opponents.
A demand for such days is a bold initiative coming from the deep desire to inform the people of their history, their cultural heritage and the limitless potential of their natural and human resources.
Such initiatives are part of ongoing efforts to effectively occupy our cultural and discursive space in the same manner that we have seized our political power and our land.
For example a Robert Mugabe Day is more than about the man.
It is a day that will get us to reflect on what constitutes our heritage in its richness and diversity.
It is a day that would remind patriotic Zimbabweans of their past and to celebrate their successes and achievements throughout the ages.
It will help us recover the lost among us who believe in other nations and salute other people’s flags at the expense of their own.
Putting up monuments and dedicating days to our heroes and heroines is taking up our own discourse, shaping our national agenda and telling the rest of the world our story rather than waiting for foreigners to hijack our own narratives.
This is a story that should never be lost on us and future generations.
This is a story that we should hold dearly in our hearts and minds.
This is a story whose enduring footprints must be imbued in great works done by our founding leaders, heroes and heroines.
This story is our past, our present and our gateway to the future.
The English will always celebrate the Magna Carter and various other political events and names throughout the millennia that punctuate their traditions.
The Americans cherish and venerate their Mhondoro George Washington.
In him and other founding fathers lies the bedrock of American politics, its past, present and future.
You cannot denigrate George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and still remain a loyal American.
They constitute not only the core of American history, they are the founding fathers, the founders of American politics; they are America. We can talk of other nations like the Chinese with Confucius, Lao Tse and Mao Tse Tung.
We have our own founding fathers in the form of Munhumutapa, Changamire Dombo, Lobengula, Nehanda and Kaguvi, among others and in the contemporary era, the mercurial General Josiah Tongogara, Nikita Mangena, ‘JZ’ Moyo, the great Chairman Herbert Chitepo, the inspirational President Robert Mugabe and many others whose legacy and struggle constitute the bedrock of the Zimbabwean nation.
Yet to want to have a day specifically set aside to remember any one of the above elicits voices of dissent.
It’s a shame.
There shall be no debate on the Robert Mugabe Day proposal.
If anything, modalities for the conferment of that honour must begin as a matter of urgency.