Thank you for forcing people to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and ask life’s really tough questions. We need to answer these questions honestly if we are ever going to get out of the mess we are stuck in.
You are right, the people of Zimbabwe have had many, many golden opportunities to stop the Zanu PF dictatorship before it even took root; we wasted them all. We have also had many, many golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship but once again, we have wasted the opportunities.
Zimbabwe is in deep, deep political and economic trouble and the root cause is the decades of corrupt and incompetent leaders on both sides of the political divide. In the case of Zanu PF leaders, they have used the military muscle as the victors of the liberation war and then as the incumbent government to impose the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. The irony is it is the leaders who got us into this mess and yet it is to them the people have turned, the more so the worse the situation got.
If the truth be told, thinking for one’s self is not one of the ordinary Zimbabwean's fortes. The white colonialists' hold on power was based on keeping the blacks ignorant and re-enforcing the notion that as a people thinking was not our strengths. We were constantly reminded that we were better off leaving all the thinking to the whites. Any black person who showed an individual independence particularly in challenging the whites' authority or supremacy was ostracized as a "Cheeky nigger!"
Ian Smith believed in the benefits of freedom of expression and free press but only in so far as these freedoms were extended to the white and not the blacks. The whites went out of their way to stifle debate and democratic discourse amongst the blacks. Sadly, when Zanu PF took over after independence the party has retained the same oppressive system to consolidate the party's strangle hold on power.
The tragedy is that blacks have never carefully thought through what the white were doing to them during colonial rule and come up with a concerted resolve counter the whites' machinations to reassert their right to think for themselves. Had they done so they would have challenge Zanu PF's oppressive moves decisively.
The whites had used the feeble minded local leaders especially the Chiefs to turn them into nothing more than subservient serfs beholden to the white overlords. It is amazing how Zanu PF has encourage the Chiefs to continue to do the same after independence by showering the Chiefs with gifts and even more sweeping powers in return the Chiefs are the de facto Zanu PF political commissars whom the rural voters have dared not to challenged.
For the ordinary people to reclaim their right to think for themselves something must be done to ensure there is freedom of expression and a truly free media. For the rural people, they need to be freed from the authoritarian rule of the local leaders!
Zanu PF has imposed the Zanu PF dictatorship under the guise of promoting African tradition and culture. Our culture has encouraged power to be taken in turn. "Ushe madzoro hunoravanwa!" Where was taking turns to rule in Mugabe's 37 years stay in power!
Thank you for forcing people to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and ask life’s really tough questions. We need to answer these questions honestly if we are ever going to get out of the mess we are stuck in.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, the people of Zimbabwe have had many, many golden opportunities to stop the Zanu PF dictatorship before it even took root; we wasted them all. We have also had many, many golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship but once again, we have wasted the opportunities.
Zimbabwe is in deep, deep political and economic trouble and the root cause is the decades of corrupt and incompetent leaders on both sides of the political divide. In the case of Zanu PF leaders, they have used the military muscle as the victors of the liberation war and then as the incumbent government to impose the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship. The irony is it is the leaders who got us into this mess and yet it is to them the people have turned, the more so the worse the situation got.
If the truth be told, thinking for one’s self is not one of the ordinary Zimbabwean's fortes. The white colonialists' hold on power was based on keeping the blacks ignorant and re-enforcing the notion that as a people thinking was not our strengths. We were constantly reminded that we were better off leaving all the thinking to the whites. Any black person who showed an individual independence particularly in challenging the whites' authority or supremacy was ostracized as a "Cheeky nigger!"
Ian Smith believed in the benefits of freedom of expression and free press but only in so far as these freedoms were extended to the white and not the blacks. The whites went out of their way to stifle debate and democratic discourse amongst the blacks. Sadly, when Zanu PF took over after independence the party has retained the same oppressive system to consolidate the party's strangle hold on power.
The tragedy is that blacks have never carefully thought through what the white were doing to them during colonial rule and come up with a concerted resolve counter the whites' machinations to reassert their right to think for themselves. Had they done so they would have challenge Zanu PF's oppressive moves decisively.
The whites had used the feeble minded local leaders especially the Chiefs to turn them into nothing more than subservient serfs beholden to the white overlords. It is amazing how Zanu PF has encourage the Chiefs to continue to do the same after independence by showering the Chiefs with gifts and even more sweeping powers in return the Chiefs are the de facto Zanu PF political commissars whom the rural voters have dared not to challenged.
For the ordinary people to reclaim their right to think for themselves something must be done to ensure there is freedom of expression and a truly free media. For the rural people, they need to be freed from the authoritarian rule of the local leaders!
Zanu PF has imposed the Zanu PF dictatorship under the guise of promoting African tradition and culture. Our culture has encouraged power to be taken in turn. "Ushe madzoro hunoravanwa!" Where was taking turns to rule in Mugabe's 37 years stay in power!