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Temba Dube Chronicle Editor
ONE of the greatest legacies that the late Dr Joshua Nkomo left the country is a realisation that education without reasoning and courage to fight for what one believes in is useless, President Mugabe said yesterday. Addressing thousands of people at the official opening of the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo, President Mugabe said Dr Nkomo’s line of reasoning was instrumental in the negotiation to secure land for Zimbabweans in the Lancaster House talks.
Deviating from his prepared speech he poured his heart out in a moving speech, about how he missed the departed heroes of the struggle and how their sacrifices shaped Zimbabwe into what it is today.
“His thinking was, you are ignorant, to be educated is not always to be knowledgeable. You are an ignorant people if you do not realise that these people you call uneducated, dirty, are above you in reasoning.
“They have established that this country is theirs. They have established that this country does not belong to the British. They have established that the Africans of this country must unite and fight. You may have a degree or degrees, what do they matter if you are going to be a coward?” asked President Mugabe, drawing thunderous applause from the crowd.
He said between 1955 and 1957, the youth league and ANC led by the inspirational Dr Nkomo, came together to form a formidable African National Congress to fight for freedom.
“There were no other graduates (in the group except Nkomo) but there were graduates teaching elsewhere. They must have said Nkomo is doing what (founding Zambia President, Kenneth) Kaunda across the Zambezi is doing, but Kaunda did not go to any university, we went to university.
And that’s the language they were taught. He (Nkomo) led them, Nyandoro, Chikerema, Nyagumbo and the people followed. I only came in 1960 from Ghana,” said the President.
He said people in Ghana who had Oxford University degrees, called Kwame Nkrumah, who later emerged to be one of the greatest African statesmen, a veranda boy who was uneducated and did not deserve to be followed.
He said he remembered a man in the family of his girlfriend who later became his wife, Sally, who spoke wisely about fighting for freedom.
“I remember when I went to Ghana with JZ Moyo, he became my best man when I got married, Uncle Williams was saying the problem with Ghana is that we are being led by uneducated men.
Nkrumah and all those who follow him are uneducated people. You are in love with my niece, here. Before you do politics, listen to me, you must read Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. Plato likened the country and the people to the parts of the body. The arms represented the soldiers who should fight.
The stomach those who should work and produce food in agriculture. The head, those who should think and here in Ghana, we do not have those who should think,” said President Mugabe.
He said those who thought they were too educated to get themselves dirty in fighting for independence of Zimbabwe, later joined the so called uneducated ones after the settler regime did not spare them imprisonment.
Said President Mugabe: “Today, we need to impress on our young people going to tertiary institutions, that if there is no realisation in them that they are inheritors of the struggle that was fought for them to be able to go to those universities, then we will have missed out on a very important piece of knowledge.”
He said he was disappointed that the country’s universities fought shy of politics which he felt they should be teaching more so that students have knowledge of their country, the significance of the struggle that was fought and the need for everyone to play their part in defending our hard earned sovereignty.
“This does not necessarily mean being a solider, it means having the faith in you that Zimbabwe is your country and you can speak about it to others that you meet and boast about it. You should not feel shy to be a Zimbabwean, you don’t feel shy to talk about your country, even if you visit Britain, you should be able to say yes you do not want our leader, you do not like our leader, but I am a Zimbabwean. That is the legacy that we were left by those who left,” said the President.
He said the late Father Zimbabwe had left a legacy of unity, nation building and tolerance that needed to be perpetuated for the good of the country.
In his speech, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Dr Obert Mpofu, said the date for completion of the airport project was the first thing that President Mugabe and the senior Minister of State in the President’s Office, Ambassador Khaya Moyo asked him, when he was chosen to lead the ministry, soon after the harmonised elections.
He said the question spurred him into ensuring that the project was commissioned this year. The Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Bulawayo Cde Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo said Bulawayo has every reason to smile and celebrate the honour bestowed on the city by the commissioning of the three projects: the officially opening of the airport, the unveiling of Dr Nkomo’s statue and the renaming of Main Street to Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Street.
She paid tribute to President Mugabe’s Government for championing the projects and pushing for their completion. Turning poetic, Cde Moyo, said this year’s Unity Day was celebrated in style and that Zimbabwe would not forget the day that brought all people together in honour of Dr Nkomo, whom she described as a man who lived a life of sacrifice for all.
Online Reporter