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Dr Masimba Mavaza
ZANU PF is now holding its Annual National People’s Conference, which is underway in Gweru.
This year’s conference comes just after our win in the harmonised elections held on August 23.
Love it or hate it, ZANU PF has always been winning elections.
Winning has become embedded in the ruling party.
ZANU PF is a centre-left political organisation, which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
The party was led for many years by former President Robert Mugabe, first as Prime Minister with the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and then as President from 1987 after the merger with the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and retaining the name ZANU PF, until 2017 when he was retired as leader.
Many Zimbabweans appreciate the comforts of everyday life; the security of the familiar, the tranquillity and peace prevailing in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans, including members of the opposition parties enjoy the peace in the country.
Those from the opposition also enjoy the fruits of the liberation struggle.
It is important that as Zimbabweans from different political parties we cherish the sacrifices made by the freedom fighters in liberating us.
We should take delight in remembering the fallen heroes through revolutionary songs so we can enlighten others on the important role played by the freedom fighters.
There are, of course, those who do not want to appreciate the sacrifice made by the freedom fighters.
They view any talk about the liberation struggle as propaganda?
The memories of the past should never be erased from our minds and the story should continue to be told to our children.
We must always remember that while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.
Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.
And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with some of us. Some people have forgotten where we came from.
Some have forgotten about the cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. Indigenous people never had the freedom to object, to think and speak as they saw fit.
They had sensors and systems of surveillance coercing conformity and soliciting their submission.
We now have the freedom we have always cried for. How did this happen?
Let us look back to where we came from. We no longer hear revolutionary songs.
This year’s Zanu PF conference should be a place and time where all delegates must take time to look back and appreciate where we came from.
Let us sing the songs of freedom, the songs of victory. We need to motivate our people with the old Chimurenga songs.
Our youth must look forward to the conference because they will be taught the road to freedom through songs.
We need to continuously hear testimonies from survivors of the liberation struggle.
We long to see dances of the past, our kongonya, our mujibha dances. Where are they now?
We need to remind each other of the songs that inspired the freedom fighters during the liberation struggle, we still need the revolutionary slogans.
There is a serious silence about our revolution. We must set to end that silence. We must destroy the silence, to remind this country of what it has forgotten.
If the crimes of the colonial past government remain unknown to you then we are in trouble.
But if you see what our late heroes saw, if you feel what they felt and if you would seek as they sought then I ask you to stand beside them and sing the freedom songs they used to sing.
Bring back the spirit. Re-educate us. Make us proud again. Let us start with this coming conference.
The road to our freedom is marked and written in blood.
This conference must exude the victorious party we are and we must see the dust of joy that reminds us of our future.
Our past is written in blood and it is too red to ignore.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter