Exhumation of Rhodes retroactive

Opinion differs on how many those people were. Some people say there were almost 800, others say 600 is a much more realistic number.
The same difference of opinion occurs on the number of vehicles used by those people. Some who claim to have actually seen the large group say they counted 17 buses and 15 kombis and about 40 or so smaller motor vehicles.

It is an unfortunate reflection on the performance of Bulawayo-based journalists that such a large body of people travelling in such a large convoy of motor vehicles went through the city unnoticed by a single media individual and reached a historic site such as Malindandzimu
The group is said by some to have gone as far as Njelele shrine where it ordered the elderly keeper to accompany it to the Hovi River where its

members bathed while the shrine keeper was clapping hands. The Njelele shrine keeper is an elderly woman generally referred to by the local community merely as MaNdlovu.

Information is very little as to exactly what the group wanted at Njelele but it would appear that there was talk there by one of its leaders who called himself Tenzi, about burying the remains of freedom fighters lying presently in Mozambique and Zambia at Njelele.

It is most unfortunate that the whole obviously historical episode was not seen and recorded by the media firsthand as it has much significance and importance to the perception and interpretation of this country’s past.
We can split that past into two: The pre-colonial and the post-colonial. The Njelele shrine operated without molestation or fear before Cecil John Rhodes colonised by force of arms this part of this country in 1893.

Following that colonisation, the Njelele and other shrines became targets of persecution by the armed forces and administrators of Cecil John Rhodes’ company, the British South Africa Company (BSAC).
In 1896-97, many people suspected of aiding and abetting the Njelele Rebellion were shot dead at the foot of the Njelele Rock, others were executed actually inside the holy of the holies (muntolo).

That engendered a great deal of fear among many people in the country, fear of not only the criminal perpetrators of those killings, but fear of being associated with the Njelele and other traditional shrines such as Dula and Manyangwa.
It took a great deal of courage in those years for one to go and worship at any of these shrines. It is extremely important to bear in mind all the time that before getting into the liberation struggle full time, Joshua Nkomo in 1950 went to one of those shrines, Dula, to seek guidance.

He was with Jason Ziyapapa Moyo, William Mpotshi Tjivako Nleya, Sikwili Khohli Moyo, and Knight Thobani T Maripe Khupe.
These five great sons of Zimbabwe went to that great place of worship to seek not only guidance but also establishing a spiritual link with the past heroes some of whom had been executed at some of the shrines.

The liberation struggle aimed among other things, at freeing the people of Zimbabwe culturally. One of the major pillars of the culture of Zimbabwe is respect of the various beliefs of the people, and respect of the people themselves, particularly the elderly.

Every genuine freedom fighter was drilled to respect the elderly, to protect children in particular and human life as a whole in general.

One does not have to point out that if it is true that the group under discussion treated the elderly keeper of the Njelele Shrine the way described by some media, then that group’s behaviour is more like that of Smith’s Selous Scouts than that of freedom fighters. They should hang their heads in absolute shame and go back to good old MaNdlovu and apologise for the sake of sheer goodness.
We liberated this country so that people can go and worship wherever, with whomever, and whenever without fear, let or hindrance. It is criminal to behave in the manner the group is alleged to have done.

Did the police hear about this matter? If not, why not with all their roadblocks? If they did, are they taking any action?
The message in this article is that no one has the right to generate fear of any particular place of worship, nor has anyone the right to turn such a place or places into heroes’ burial areas contrary to the traditions, customs and heroes of the Zimbabwean communities concerned.

Zimbabwe has more than enough land where remains of heroes and martyrs, presently interned outside the country’s borders, can be decently buried without disturbing sites that represent our past.

By our past we are referring to our national history. It is a curious fact that some of the former freedom fighters who most vociferously complain that the history of Zimbabwe is either inadequately taught in schools or that it is distorted are the same people who are calling for the destruction of some aspects of that very same history.

How? Rhodes’ grave is an important aspect of the history of this part of Africa. It is as an integral part of the history knowledge of Zimbabwe as the railway line he built from Mafeking to Bulawayo.

It is as much as a part of our past and our present historical wealth as the Rhodes Elementary Preparatory School (Reps) which is a stone’s throw away from the grave in the Matopos.
People who scream for the repatriation of Rhodes’ bones have no idea about revenue-generating tourist attractions.

In Manicaland there is a hotel with a room (Room 21) in which Rhodes used to sleep when he was over there. That room is kept as much as it was while Rhodes was alive as is feasibly possible. It is an important revenue-generating tourist product, to use the appropriate marketing terminology.
It has Rhodes’ gun, blankets, knife and a few other odds and ends. Should that room be destroyed or repatriated?

We have mentioned a few things associated with Rhodes in Zimbabwe not only in a historical context but also for their economically and socially utilitarian value to the nation of Zimbabwe.
It would be so much better, by far so much better, if some of the former freedom fighters who now spend a lot of their time preaching unproductive, disruptive politics were to found agricultural villages that could serve as nuclei of future towns.
Such villages can have schools, clinics, shopping centres and cottage industries that produce a variety of articles, including coffins, what with the prevailing HIV/Aids pandemic.