Majoring in the minor retrogressive

which is mainly centred on rubbishing everything that has to do with Zanu-PF.
The article is naked in every sense in that it exposes his hatred for Zanu-PF politicians. Didn’t the MDC-T’s professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro die of an illness while serving his country? If Matshazi is honest and truthful to himself, how many MDC Senators and parliamentarians have died through illness while in office?
We also know of quite a good number of MDC Cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and Senators who are ill yet they are still in Government. Should we also then blame Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for not retiring these ill people? It is also an indisputable fact that Zimbabwe has quite a number of people in both the public and private sectors who are ill yet they are still serving their various organisations quite efficiently and effectively.
President Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria died while in office and so did Levy Mwanawasa, Bingu                              wa Mutharika and John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana. Nigerians, Zambians, Malawians and Ghanaians were deeply saddened by the deaths of their leaders. Ethiopians too, received the death of prime minister Meles Zenawi with deep sorrow.
In all these cases the masses knew that their leaders were ill, but they never requested for their retirement and neither did they accuse them of clinging onto power. It is only in Zimbabwe where we find this breed of donor funded journalists who are very much willing to do things which are totally unAfrican all for the love of a few pieces of silver.
What else would make Matshazi stoop so low in writing such nonsense about Minister Mudenge if it wasn’t for the money that he is getting from his handlers? There are also quite a number of journalists and editors working for various media houses who are ill.
We wonder when they are going to be retired or maybe they are also clinging onto power. If we were to retire those who are ill as Matshazi’s prejudiced mind wants us to believe then this country would honestly ground to a halt. We wonder whether Matshazi had seen beyond this.
He simply let his heavily politicised, blinkered, biased and bigoted mind take the better part of him. We feel Matshazi should have done a bit of homework before feeding the readers with such shallow and trivial arguments. We also strongly believe that such myopic, parochial and biased thinking can only come from a colonised mind which is heavily indoctrinated and polluted with foreign ideas.
Matshazi should also learn to differentiate between serving a Government ministry and clinging onto power. He seems to be very confused in differentiating these very simple terms and we request him to do some reading in political science or peace and governance as for him to see a little light in his very dark and obscure mind. We can never belittle the good work done by genuine heroes like the late Minister Stan Mudenge.
The type of thinking in Matshazi’s article shocked many right thinking and progressive Zimbabweans. It actually showed an emptiness and bankruptcy of moral values of the writer as well as the editorial team which published such idiocy. Moral values are forms or patterns of conduct that are considered most worthwhile and thus cherished by a society. What then is morally good is that which brings about — human well-being.
This means, in a society that appreciates and thrives on harmonious social relationships, what is morally good is what promotes social welfare, solidarity, and harmony in human relationships. An action, a habit, or pattern of behaviour is considered good only if it promotes human and social well-being.
Thus, Matshazi’s article shows a lot of disrespect towards the Head of State, late Minister Mudenge’s family, his friends and the entire nation. While we cannot deny that people have a democratic right to express their opinions we also feel that we should do unto others what we want them to do unto us.
Matshazi instead of telling the nation about all the good works that Minister Mudenge did for this country actually decided to vilify the minister. Denigrate yes you may, but you will never keep the works of a good man down. Minister Mudenge’s great works will never be obliterated, white-washed, rubbed or erased from the Zimbabwean academic, political and social landscape. Minister Mudenge was an accomplished historian (the god of African history), a Pan-Africanist, a prudent and pragmatic politician and a refined politician who did quite a lot for tertiary education. Minister Mudenge also meticulously served the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he actually helped to set up after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
Dr Mudenge as a renowned educationist, scholar and diplomat made sure that Zimbabwe is light unto other nations for having come through the First, Second and Third Chimurenga. Zimbabwe is today a global benchmark, a country fighting for its freedom taking its people out of a dead end of despair into a new society that it is today.
This is what Minister Mudenge was always striving for, this is what must be cherished and admired. Minister Mudenge always advocated for humanistic education, education that is holistic and liberating, an education that liberates one from all bondage and is firmly rooted on a comprehensive philosophy of human consciousness. This is the type of African education that integrates all aspects of our Africaness, our senses, intellect, emotions, imagination and spirit.
Cde Mudenge always worked for education that redefines our existence as Africans and this is against the Western education which only benefits an individual. He transformed the Zimbabwean education system so that it became an oasis of sanity, compassion and hope. He is also among few nationalists who stood firm in defending Zimbabwe’s land reform programme.
Minister Mudenge, unlike some of the turncoats we see today always stood firm for black people’s rights and interests which he clearly understood as a historian or “the god of African history”. Dr Mudenge also played a pivotal and significant role in putting the higher and tertiary education sector where it is right now.
Despite the sanctions imposed on the country Dr Mudenge made great improvements in the quality of education in Zimbabwe. He was influential in the creation of the Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education to control and maintain quality education in the country’s tertiary institutions.
He also helped set up various institutions of higher learning which include National University of Science and Technology, Bindura University of Science Education among others. The Minister is also known very well for his deep passion for students’ welfare in higher and tertiary institutions.
Minister Mudenge will be sadly missed by many people from all walks of life whose lives he touched as a great educationist, scholar, politician, diplomat and Minister in Government. The media rights that the West has planted in Africa as well as in the likes of people like Nqaba Matshazi are the white man’s rights grounded on egoism or individualism, not African rights which are born out of collectivism or communalism.
African rights come from the respect of other people’s rights as well. Special Matarirano rightly put it in his article in The Herald of 9 October when he said, “Those among us who refuse to realise the need for collectivism in times of death of our leaders, public and honourable citizens, by getting synonymous with foreigners whose existence among us does not add value to the enduring traditions of our societies, makes us look stupid.”
The whole philosophy of ubuntuism is premised on the notion that one is what he is because of others. It means humanness and this encompasses values like universal brotherhood for many, sharing, treating and respecting other people as human beings in all our conduct throughout our lives. Ubuntuism is a belief in the centrality, sacredness and foremost priority of the human being in all our conduct.
This philosophy is a way of life that contributes positively towards sustaining the wellbeing of a people, community or society. Eurocentric media rights do not promote African morals, but the morals of the white man who funds most of the so called independent papers.
Many a times we have pointed out that there are some amongst us who can treacherously do anything to please those who are giving them money. The same flawed and warped thinking can be found in the Copac document. Therefore, morality in the African context does not have to replicate morality as defined and executed in Western culture.
The removal or distancing of the African from his own being or self as well as from his own history is itself a big problem. This has continuously alienated Africans from their own culture, a culture which they must identify themselves with. Africans the likes of Matshazi erroneously portray and present other Africans as a people with no moral history.
What is even more disturbing is that there is usually a marginalisation of the question of morality as regards Africans and African morals are always made with reference to European thought.
Arguably the issue of morality is not something that is alien to Africa, it is something that is inherent in us as human beings. No one is taught how to cry, it happens on its own accord, this is also the same with morality, and foreigners cannot teach us this. Africans must be respected as a people and they must be understood within their own self-constructed status and identity and as creators of their own nations.
African values teach us to respect the deceased. You can never be African if you are devoid of such values.
Bowden Mbanje and Darlington Mahuku are lecturers in International Relations and Peace and Governance with Bindura University of Science Education.