Online Reporter
Online Reporter
PRESIDENT MNANGAGWA is expected to officially launch Professor Simbi Mubako’s memoirs titled “Zimbabwe at 45: The Struggle for Sovereign Autonomy and Prosperity” at the Heritage Village in the capital on Wednesday.
The memoirs are published by the Institute of African Knowledge (INSTAK), a Pan-African think-tank whose mandate includes African memory preservation and promotion.
Prof Mubako is one of Zimbabwe’s foremost intellectuals, whose service to the nation spans more than 50 years.
The memoirs throw a spotlight on Prof Mubako’s rich experiences in the creation of a sovereign nation-state.
The respected jurist and diplomat held key positions and played significant national and international roles throughout his career, including being one of the key framers of the Lancaster House Constitution that midwifed Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
Prof Mubako was Zimbabwe’s Minister of Justice at Independence, serving in the country’s first Cabinet alongside the man who will launch his memoirs, President Mnangagwa.
As a life-long advocate of African liberation thought and practice, it is fitting that President Mnangagwa will launch the highly anticipated memoirs.
Prof Mubako has been at the forefront of efforts to preserve and tell Africa’s own story through initiatives such as the Museum of African Liberation, which is being built by INSTAK inside Liberation City.
Prof Mubako is the chairperson of INSTAK, who are also the publishers of epochal tomes such as the Book of African Records and the Africa Factbook.
In “Zimbabwe at 45: The Struggle for Sovereign Autonomy and Prosperity”, he reflects on his life of service to Zimbabwe and Africa, weaving together personal experiences with the lived history of successive post-independence generations.
“I try to trace all the steps that we went through; from the time of the first Cabinet and time of the problems of dissidents and the times when we resolved the problems, and times when we had problems with the British on the land question, the succession issue as well — that is discussed,” he said.
“Plus the Second Republic, up to now; all the successes and programmes which have been launched by the Second Republic, all that has been discussed.”
The forthright account does not shy away from delving into low points in Zimbabwe’s history, problematic questions of State and areas of ideological contestation.
The publication of the memoirs and their launch by President Mnangagwa at Heritage Village dovetail with the Second Republic’s prioritisation of heritage as a key component of nation-building and development.
