adminTakunda Mangere Correspondent
Our development has been held back for too long by the colonial-type economy. Zimbabweans need to rally behind the leaders, reorganise entirely, so that as a country and as a people we take control of our destiny.
As our country marks 35 years of independence, the struggle against western imperialism continues.
The transition from formal colonialism to one of constitutional independence did not end the struggle but instead enabled the western colonial rulers to reassess the local arrangements for supervising the colonial economy.
This reassessment provided for more colonial domination.
Zimbabwe became an uncharted economic entity, with the responsibilities but not the means for true independence.
Neo-colonialism is the worst form of imperialism, for the Western powers, it means power without responsibility and for those who have suffered and continue to suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress.
President Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF party have since independence sought to defeat the new form of domination with revolutionary policies such as the land reform programme and the current indigenisation and economic empowerment programme.
These programmes not only allow Zimbabweans freedom within their African space but also to flourish and develop in the same through the ownership and control of their resources and means of production.
In light of this heroic paradigm, psychological attacks are being waged through the agency of broadcasting stations like the BBC, CNN and the so called “independent” media, which pursue their brainwashing mission through newsreels, interviews and other “informative” programmes at all hours of the day and night, on all wavelengths and in many languages.
The war of words is supplemented by written propaganda using a wide range of political devices such as embassy bulletins, pseudo-revolutionary publications, studies on nationalism and on African socialism, the literature spread by the so-called independent and liberal publishers, cultural and civic education centres, and other imperialist subversive organisations.
This is what Kwame Nkrumah essentially meant when he said: “The paper war penetrates into every town and village, and into the remotest parts of the bush. It spreads in the form of free distributions of propaganda films praising the qualities of western civilisation and culture. These are some of the ways in which the psychological terrain is prepared…
“A recent development in the psychological war is the campaign to convince us that we cannot govern ourselves, that we are unworthy of genuine independence, and that foreign tutelage is the only remedy for our wild, warlike and primitive ways. Imperialism has done its utmost to brainwash Africans into thinking that they need the strait-jackets of colonialism and neo-colonialism if they are to be saved from their retrogressive instincts.”
Such is the age-old racialist justification for the economic exploitation of our continent and our beautiful Zimbabwe.
Nkrumah also noted that military coups engineered throughout Africa by foreign reactionaries are also being used to corroborate imperialism’s pet theory that the Africans have shamelessly squandered the golden opportunities of independence, and that they have plunged their political kingdoms into blood and barbarism.
“Therefore the imperialist mission: we must save them anew; and they hail the western-trained and western-bought army puppets as saviours.”
The press, films and radio are last spreading the myth of post-independence violence and chaos, says Nkrumah.
President Mugabe has taken the first steps, and paved the way for national development.
However, there is a lot of work and short term sacrifices to be borne.
The task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge — as postulated by prominent nationalist luminaries like Nkrumah, it is a “challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve — to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life? “
Something in the nature of an economic revolution is required.
Our development has been held back for too long by the colonial-type economy.
Zimbabweans need to rally behind the leaders, reorganise entirely, so that as a country and as a people we take control of our destiny.
We have the blessing of the wealth of our vast resources, the power of our talents and the potentialities of our people.
It is now time to grasp the opportunities and meet the challenge to our survival.
Contrary to the bunkum being peddled by detractors, Zimbabwe is not a “pariah” status.
Zimbabwe welcomes foreign investment provided that there are no strings attached to it, and also provided that it fits in with our plans for national development, empowerment and emancipation policies.
Foreign investment should not interfere or meddle with the political life of our country.
It is claimed, of course, that Zimbabwe has no capital, no industrial skill, no communications, no internal markets, and that Zimbabweans cannot even agree among themselves how best to utilise our resources for our own social needs.
However, all the stock exchanges in the world are pre-occupied with Africa’s gold, oil and gas, land, diamonds, uranium, platinum, copper and iron ores.
Our Capital flows out in streams to irrigate the whole system of Western economies.
Africa provides more than 60 per cent of the world’s gold. A great deal of the uranium for nuclear power, of copper for electronics, of titanium for supersonic projectiles, of iron and steel for heavy industries, of other minerals and raw materials for lighter industries — the basic economic might of the foreign powers — comes from Africa and Zimbabwe is a major contributor.
There is a big challenge, though.
No independent African state today has a chance to follow an independent course of economic development, and many of the countries and leaders that have tried like President Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel, have been ruined, or almost ruined.
But Zimbabwe is headed for victory.
Aluta Continua!
Takunda Mangere is the Zanu- PF UK Youth Secretary
Online Reporter