Online Reporter
CELEBRATIONS today of the 46th anniversary of independence are in Maphisa, Matabeleland South Province, but will also be held across the country and in the Diaspora at provincial and district events and by families and communities.
The importance we all place on independence is right and befitting.
It did not come on a silver platter.
It was won through a protracted war.
So when we celebrate, we need not only remember the joy of freedom, but also that cost and the immense national effort it represented.
The national celebrations in Maphisa this year trigger memories of the first Independence Day in 1980 and the long war that led to that great victory.
Besides war veterans attending, there is also the innovation of the memorial park of a stand of local hardwood trees being planted.
As these trees have a very long lifespan, they will be there for centuries, reminding everyone of what happened and why it happened.
They are also a symbol of the future, that Zimbabwe must grow and develop, with decent and sustained growth.
We would hope similar memorial parks will be established at other centres, especially those hosting major national occasions.
We also note that the newly planted saplings will need some years of care, including watering and protection against fire and other menaces.
So we have not just the planting, a moment in time in the present, but also that long future, that the trees must keep growing as the country keeps growing.
The theme of this year’s national celebrations is Unity and Development, and that takes us right back to 1980.
The people of Zimbabwe were totally united on that first independence day in their joy.
And celebrations were held throughout the country, not just at midnight in Harare, with the new flag being hoisted at many other provincial and district centres as a major effort was made to involve everyone.
And because independence had been won by a victorious people, there was that knowledge that other needs could be met, and other serious deficits overcome.
A people who had won a liberation war against a powerful and well-armed foe knew that they never needed to bend their knee and bow down before anyone.
Even the achievements of independence, and the major economic growth we are now experiencing, are not so much the result of Government policies, important as those are in mapping the direction and making sure at least the basic resources are assigned.
That is just a start, the organisational bit.
Far more it is the collective decision of the population to stop feeling sorry for themselves and to instead put in the effort and hard work needed to move forward at a good pace.
The unity is the bedrock of this effort, that we are all willing to pull together as we did in war.
The result, as we know, is that we move forward as a nation.
The unity also demands that everyone has the right to be part of that advance, contributing according to their merits and their strengths.
And then all benefiting.
This brings in the third leg, the freedom to choose and the freedom that all will enjoy the rewards of success, with no one left out, no one left behind.
This is one reason why the national celebration is now rotating among provinces, to stress that we are all Zimbabweans, that we must all unite, and that we must all enjoy both the freedom and the delivery of national, provincial, district and community development.
Happy Independence Day and may the fruits of independence continue to grow and multiply.
Peter Tanyanyiwa