DURING the liberation struggle it was typical to hear the young and old recite, sing or even shout with fervor that Zimbabwe is my country, it is my land.
Nyika yedu yeZimbabwe ndimo matakazvarirwa, vana mai nanababa ndimo mavari/ iZimbabwe yilizwe lethu, kulapho okulenzalo yethu, okulomama lobaba, we sang during the brutal and protracted struggle.
Vatoto would be in class reciting Zimbabwe is my country, my country is Zimbabwe, I love Zimbabwe, I love my country, I will fight for Zimbabwe, I will fight for my country, I will work for Zimbabwe, I will work for my country.
When we did this, saw this, heard this, we knew we were on track.
Most importantly these were not just mantras; but the words came from the inner most depths of our hearts, our souls.
The love we had, the passion we felt for Zimbabwe then, is the same love and passion we still feel and will always feel for our beloved motherland.
I thus found the headline ‘Zanu PF declares Zimbabwe its territory’ or something to that effect in one of the dailies disconcerting.
What I read into the headline was that how dare ZANU PF make that declaration, it cannot make that declaration, it has no right to make that declaration.
The headline sounded as if ZANU PF had made a sacrilegious statement.
There was an implication that the revolutionary party has no right to declare Zimbabwe its territory.
Beneath that headline was a feeling of denial by the authors.
There was that sense of rejection of and for the motherland by both the newspaper and the writer of the story in question.
How sad!
But indeed Zimbabwe is our territory; it is also their territory.
This bold declaration can be made by anyone, by every Zimbabwean from every sphere.
Tose tiri vana vevhu/sonke singabantwana benhlabathi , we are all sons and daughters of the soil.
And we will lay claim to no other land, but this very land that we possess, our land.
ZANU PF, you, me cannot lay claim to Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Britain or America these are not our lands.
Zimbabwe is our land, it is ours.
Sadly there are some among us who cannot boldly stand and declare that Zimbabwe is their territory.
They are so wrapped up in the agendas of the West and its machinations that they have forgotten that they are the heirs and owners of this richly endowed country.
It appears they will be more comfortable hearing the British claim that Zimbabwe belongs to the Britons.
Never mind that ZANU PF is the ruling party, with an outright majority in parliament.
It is one party whose love for this land was watered and nurtured by blood, suffering and tears.
It is no surprise that the party declares the country its territory; members of this revolutionary machine were the Vatoto.
Every day the Vatoto recited a pledge to their flag and country and now they are adults and they know and fully appreciate what it means to be Zimbabwean.
And they declare it their territory.
The veterans in the party every day saluted the flag and pledged allegiance to it, they too know what it means to be Zimbabwean.
Gwara havarasi nyangwe zvaoma sei, zvido nezvishuvo zvenyika Vanoziva/abaphambuki yiloba kunzima, intando kanyelokulangalelwa yilizwe kuhleli kusenhliziyweni zabo.
It is really sad that there are among us those who will want to find fault in indigenes who claim ownership of the country.