Chronicle EditorGokwe’s Mutora Business Centre was the place to be yesterday as the country marked 45 years of Independence.
Mutora, at the heart of the Midlands Province, hosted this year’s national celebration that was presided over by President Mnangagwa.
He, on the previous day, had hosted the Children’s Party at Nyamuroro High School, also at Mutora. Thousands of jubilant kids from around the country attended the event. Indeed, this was a large party (and kids like them so much!), where food, drink, music and fun flowed; but it has a more profound meaning — it symbolises the continuity of Independence through the young.
The climax was yesterday when tens of thousands of citizens from all over the country gathered at the Mutora Open Ground to witness the main Independence Day celebration, again led by the President.
A big downpour on Mutora blessed the event ahead of the beginning of proceedings, holding back later to allow the celebration to be staged.
Independence Day is a thoroughly important moment for us. That is the day when Zimbabwe was born 45 years ago after nine decades of struggle against British colonial misrule.
The first war of liberation in 1896 ended in defeat for the owners of the land. Spear, bow and arrow and the burning spirit to liberate the land were inadequate against the oppressor’s gun, dynamite and malevolent spirit.
Although the masses fell, that uprising was a massive statement of what was to follow.
Seventy more years of oppression ensued. Blacks were kicked out of their ancestral lands and left to wander and settle elsewhere. Whites soon zoned the fertile lands as theirs. They, too, grabbed gold workings and made much money out of them. They enacted multiple unjust laws to cement the misrule.
The injustice angered blacks more. Better trained and armed and with the spirit to liberate themselves now greater, the second war of liberation erupted in 1966 and ended in a crushing victory for the masses.
That is the long, difficult, sweaty and bloody road that the brave people of Zimbabwe walked to attain Independence on April 18, 1980, the 45th anniversary of which we marked yesterday.
The mood was celebratory all over the country yesterday as we reflected on the forgettable 90 years of colonialism, the people’s brave fight against it and the 45 years of post-Independence national development.
We are now governing ourselves in peace and unity. There is a growing consciousness among our people on the centrality of our nationhood, which is the basis for any people to thrive socially, politically and economically.
Zimbabweans own their land and are doing wonders on it. They are driving their economy, thanks to the indigenisation and economic empowerment policy championed by the Government most earnestly since 2000.
Investment in schools, colleges and universities since 1980 have made our people some of the most educated in Africa. There is massive investment in the health services sector as well, ensuring greater public access to health care.
Yesterday was certainly yet another moment for us as a nation to look back, celebrate the progress we have made over the past 45 years and look ahead with hope and commitment to overcome any challenges that come our way so we continue to progress.
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