Londile Moyo
Bruce Ndlovu in Maphisa
MAHETSHE Primary School in Matabeleland South burst into life yesterday as 3,050 pupils from across Zimbabwe painted the venue in the five colours of the national flag during the annual Independence Day Children’s Party.
Young people, most of whom have only lived through a fraction of Zimbabwe’s 46 years of independence, gathered in their numbers to show that Uhuru is a gift that must be cherished, even by those born long after the last bullets of the liberation struggle were fired.
As soon as they arrived, many marvelled at the scale of the progress that has transformed Maphisa, including at the host school, Mahetshe Primary, where men have been hard at work erecting structures that will stand long after the Independence celebrations have faded.
Yesterday, however, was not about brick and mortar, but pure celebration.
The hard work had already been done over the past few months, with the construction of laboratories and new school blocks. Now it was time to honour the country’s independence through song and dance.
Jah Prayzah, Lovemore Majaivana and Fab G were just some of the artistes who, albeit in absentia, lent their voices to a celebration that reflected the diversity of Matabeleland South, the country’s rainbow province.
This was, after all, a party, and its spirit was evident from the earliest hours of the morning, as children streamed into the venue.
They sang and they danced, their joy and jubilation a fitting illustration that the dream of independence in Zimbabwe is now a lived reality.
Once upon a time, before the country’s sons and daughters took up arms to fight for freedom, such scenes would have been unimaginable.
As if to underline that history, while children sang and danced at Mahetshe, 25km away, Vice President Kembo Mohadi lit the Independence Flame at Ratanyana Battle Site, once the scene of fierce clashes between the Rhodesian army and liberation forces.
On that fateful ground, four innocent children — Nokuthula Ndlovu (13), Thandekile Moyo (7), Sixoliso Dube (3) and Mqalisi Ndlovu (3) — were gunned down by Rhodesian forces, who turned their fury on the young victims as they worked in their family’s fields.
Yesterday’s gathering of over 3,000 children from all of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces stood as a powerful reminder that the sacrifice of those four, and countless others, was not in vain. In his introductory remarks, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo encouraged those in attendance to guard the country’s independence jealously.
“In the words of the late nationalist, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, the future of this land lies in the hands of those who understand its history and value its peace. By bringing these children to Matobo, a region rich with the echoes of our ancestors and the resilience of our people, we are anchoring their identity in the soil of their forefathers,” he said.
“This gathering is a celebration of our national unity as defined by our constitution, where the diversity of our indigenous languages and cultures forms a single unbreakable Zimbabwean fabric.”
While joy and jubilation ran through Mahetshe Primary School among the thousands in attendance, yesterday’s event was also a love letter to those who lost their lives in hope that one day Zimbabwean children would laugh, dance and sing without fear, free from the shadow of war and the threat of the gun.
Online Reporter