admin
Isdore Guvamombe
The recent hosting of the liberation movements conference by Zimbabwe in Victoria Falls is a statement to all Africans and the world that the Second Republic, is committed to the socio-political and economic independence of the continent.
We all know that the emergence of organised popular liberation movements throughout Africa following the end of the Second World War was a crucial factor in achieving independence for many African countries.
Suffice it to say, the liberation movements championed the delivery of independence to African countries from colonialism, in most cases executing armed struggles that saw blood being shed.
It is fact not fiction, that Zimbabwe hosted the liberation movements conference at a time when the US and its allies in Western Europe have gone overdrive to destroy all liberation movements and replace them with puppet opposition parties.
The US and its allies have pumped billions of dollars into opposition politics, specifically to get rid of liberation movements. So far, they managed to dismantle Kenneth Kaunda’s United Independence Party in Zambia and have set their eyes on many others.
A few countries like Russia and China have stood with the liberation movements because of their foreign policies that promote win-win business ventures. China and Russia respect the sovereignty of other countries but the US and its allies have ramped up pressure using a lack of democracy, human rights, and good governance as smokescreens to hide their regime change agenda.
It is clear the US and its allies are pursuing a neo-colonial policy against liberation movements, hiding behind human rights and religious freedoms. They also force gay rights and use them as a premise to impose sanctions.
Washington, Brussels, and London promote these cultures and want to impose them on Africans against the core of their cultures.
The biggest problem is that while China and Russia create contacts with governments in Southern Africa through official channels, the US and its allies are using NGOs and creating opposition parties to effect regime change.
The US and its allies have given themselves the right to lead the world in their direction and yet liberation movements went to war to fight for what is right for their countries and people.
It is, therefore, critical for liberation movements to stick to the ethos that led them to go to war. Liberation is a process. It is not a one-day thing. Liberation movements need to continue fighting for what is right for their countries.
They need to meet more often to sustain their survival through synergies and sharing of intelligence and ideas.
The basics for Africa’s liberation are very necessary.
White settler regimes had for long put a knife across the things that held us together: defecating on our wealth value system, our African humanism, our culture, and indeed everything else that made us a people.
The key factors that led to the African uprising and subsequent formation of liberation movements were land repossessions, human rights abuses, and a buffet of laws and rules that effectively oppressed and stripped Africans of their respect, wealth, and dignity.
These are Zanu PF of Zimbabwe; African National Congress of South Africa (ANC), Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania (CCM); Movement for the Liberation of the People of Angola (MPLA); South West Africa People’s Organisation of Namibia (SWAPO) and Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), among others became the vital cogs in dismantling colonialism.
Many young men and girls left their homes to join the liberation movements. Some died and were never buried. Some were buried in shallow graves. Some came back with scars and they still bear the scars of the struggle. A few lucky ones came back unscathed. This was because the liberation movements were packaging messages that spoke to the people’s needs. To this day, liberation movements should, therefore, remain relevant to the people.
These are the last movements standing. They are, therefore, a big threat to Western imperialist interests, that of plundering Africa’s resources.
Now the five liberation movements have come together under the banner of Former Liberation Movements for Southern Africa, to work against their extinction. In most cases, liberation movements have been lauded for adopting good policies, but often criticised for lack of implementation.
Read full story on www.herald.co.zw
It is high time liberation movements adapt to the world’s socio-economic order, it’s high time liberation movements improve on their ideology, it’s high time liberation movements improve on their service delivery, and remain relevant to the people they sought to liberate.
Like Amilcar Cabral would say: “The ideological deficiency, not to say the total lack of ideology, within the national liberation movements — which is basically due to ignorance of the historical reality which these movements claim to transform – constitutes one of the greatest weaknesses of our struggle against imperialism, if not the greatest weakness of all.”
Liberation movements are now riddled with factions and factionalism. The divisions are too much and Western Europe and its allies find those cracks and crevices and streams of penetration and ways of bringing down liberation movements.
George Charamba, President Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, puts it more aptly years back: “We are talking about a stratum that has fought a war here. Not a brawl among civilians. On the ground, it has severed the much-needed sequential, socialising link between the veterans and emerging party youths, thus harming the replicability of the ethos of militant resistance and struggle against imperialism.
‘‘The fact of a youth movement that cannot repeat a single song from the struggle is telling enough.
“The fact of inventing new songs, new idioms, new slogans for present times, is telling. Even new enemies from generations are attached filially, both biologically and metaphorically. There has been a very bad disjuncture, a real fracture, in the party.’’
This is capturing the changes in the political parties and that should make sure that they remain relevant and they must deliver to the people while at the same time watching out to the United States of America and its allies who have no other agenda than destroy all liberation movements and gain access to the vast untapped natural resources by hook or crook. Liberation movements should sleep with one eye open because sleeping with all eyes closed makes them vulnerable to regime change.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter