adminThose who used to watch schools quiz some years ago can testify to this.
This week has been rich in terms of retracing our cultural heritage as we prepare to mark Culture Week next week, and the unveiling of King Mzilikazi’s bust this week on Tuesday was quite a fitting climax to the International Museums Week and worthy tribute to a king who is revered the world over due to his rich history.
Only, like a prophet, he may not have that kind of honour among his own. This is the challenge that we face as a people since our children and future generations need to embrace and be knowledgeable about their history. Some of us now disdainfully look back at what our forefathers endured because of ignorance and the eurocentric lens that we so gleefully grab, glance through and then gasp at the “barbarism” exhibited by the previous generations.
We welcome the initiative by the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe to remove the scales from our eyes and give our generation and future generations our history so that we learn to value our cultural heritage.
We had foreigners from many parts of the world, some of them from Europe, who came for the unveiling of the king’s bust due to the rich history that they have read in their own countries about King Mzilikazi.
How many of us know that history? And how many still take pride in that history?
It is important to remember and value our cultural heritage so that we do not lose our identity and be blown by any wind. Even the Bible talks of how the children of Israel were always reminded of what God did for their forefathers when He took them out of slavery in Egypt. We also need to value our king’s contribution to the spirit of resistance whose embers culminated in the inferno that was the liberation struggle that toppled our subjugators.
As Mr Pathisa Nyathi put it, such a legacy has to be preserved.
“It is all about legacy, to honour a lasting memory of a lasting figure. Some men are forgotten soon after their death but people like King Mzilikazi are remembered forever.”
Our kings’ structure of governance had chiefs and headmen, and these assisted in the preservation of cultural values. It is important that even in this day, we draw from these traditional structures the wisdom that sustained our environment, politics and all aspects of our lives to this day.
We have a king of the Amangwe, King Ntshosho II of South Africa scheduled to visit Zimbabwe to re-establish ties with Chief Wasi’s subjects in Mangwe, after a visit by a Xhosa king last year to Mbembesi, showing how other nations value their history and cultural ties.
However, it is quite disheartening that the legacy bequeathed to us by great kings such as Mzilikazi and Lobengula is being undermined by some among us who disregard cultural norms for selfish reasons. The disdain with which our chiefs are being treated in Matabeleland South by Njelele invaders should end forthwith.
How then, would we expect other nations to respect us as a people when we do not respect our chiefs who are another generation of King Mzilikazi’s governance structures? If the invaders believe they can be cleansed at Njelele it then surely follows that this can only work if they follow tradition, which even our kings adhered to.
We can learn a lot from other countries on how their monarchies are revered and how also preserving those legacies has even spawned a whole cultural tourism industry. Whether one believes in the spiritual significance of places such as Njelele or not, is neither here nor there since these areas are an embodiment of our history just like Great Zimbabwe, Khami or Chinhoyi Caves, and had a deeper meaning to our elders who founded this nation on strong cultural values and for decades resisted the encroachment and feared eventual corruption of our culture.
Let this culture week re-awaken our consciousness of who we are so that we can take pride in our cultural values and rich history that we have denied the rest of the world due to ignorance about its value.
Online Reporter