Online Reporter
EVERY generation is required to make a meaningful contribution to its nation. Every generation must interrogate its purpose, what is required from it and what it can do for its nation.
Such a task has to be done well. But it is never an easy task, there is much that must and will be lost along the way. Each generation thus has its own unique struggles to overcome. My generation had perhaps the most difficult of such tasks, and we executed it well. This is why we all can live, work and enjoy ourselves in a free Zimbabwe. The alternative is quite unimaginable.
As we commemorate this year’s Heroes’ and Defence Forces Days, let us remember the importance of those who sacrificed for this country’s freedom.
Heroes are not born, they are made. Heroes are forged from the fire of the struggle of their generation. Each generation has demons that it must fight and conquer. In the journey towards self-determination, there is always a ferocious battle that must be fought; otherwise, the future of entire generations is lost. The sacrifice is often more than what we can bear. I have often argued that, for some of us who waged the guerrilla war against our colonisers, each day was a struggle to live.
The enemy was far more advanced, far more resourced and far more experienced than us. More so the enemy had little regard for the black man as human; they never for a moment thought that the black man was capable of firing a gun and killing a white man. This is one of the miscalculations by the enemy that played to our advantage. But that alone was not enough. We were at a great disadvantage that so much had to be done for us to be able to make it each day alive and let alone have a chance at winning the war, and yet we did.
We liberated our beloved Zimbabwe at the end of it all, and our people became free. We came out of it heroes. But all this came at a great price.
The youths of yesterday took arms to liberate the country. The youth of today have an equally daunting task ahead of them. These youths should be the heroes of tomorrow. When we saw that we could no longer continue living under subjugation by our colonisers, we, the youth of my time, made the bold decision to give up everything we had and had known and venture into the unknown, with the hope of liberating our beloved nation.
The only resources we had were our youthfulness and courage. Nations are indeed built by the youth of their time.
Our youth should, in this day and age, hear this clarion call and make the bold decision to shape our country in ways that will benefit the youth that will come after them. The youth of this day have an important task to shape themselves into a formidable force that will take our nation forward. Sacrifice should be at the centre of all their endeavours, for without sacrifice, there is nothing worthwhile that can ever be achieved.
The only future for our nation’s aspirations lies with the youth that we have raised. They shall be the heroes of tomorrow, and they shall deliver the country into the promised land. So much time has been lost fighting wars. I argue, Zimbabwe has never truly enjoyed independence, for as soon as we deposed the Ian Smith regime, we had unfair economic policies imposed upon us in the form of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap), then soon after, it was the illegal Western sanctions that have crippled us and have had us in bondage since the land reform programme. It is the young of today who must rise up to the occasion and be the heroes who will come up with solutions to these issues that bedevil our nation today. These new heroes must rise to the occasion and do what we managed to do with far less. They need to liberate our nation from all the modern-day attacks that it faces.
Our youth of today are required to be much like a double-edged sword. They must be both heroes and defenders of our revolution. They need to protect and defend the interests of their generation. This is a task that is required and expected of them. They are the new custodians of our nation and are thus required to act in its best interests at all times. So much was given and sacrificed for the birth of the Zimbabwe we know today. We must not let the sacrifices be in vain. At every turn, effort should be made to guard jealously what was hard fought and won by the heroes of old. The new heroes have a simple task, which is to defend that which was gained at a heavy price. As we commemorate this year’s Heroes’ and Defence Forces Days, let us never forget that which was lost for us to gain our most treasured independence.
Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of Zanu-PF. He writes in his own capacity.
Bongani Ndlovu