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Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
THE year was 1995. The venue, Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) grounds where security personnel were ushering us from one point to the next.
I waited as an eager squint-eyed Grade Four pupil, still wondering what I would do when my host entered the auditorium but beating my chest, as I was part of a selected few. It was a Saturday and being one of the few pupils staying in the high-density suburbs but learning at what was then considered one of the elite schools in Bulawayo’s low-density suburbs — Kumalo Primary School — I woke up well before 5am, put on my best safari suit uniform, polished my brown Toughees shoes, got the first Zupco bus to town and then boarded a Peugeot 504 “emergency” taxi to the United Bulawayo Hospitals before walking a couple of kilometres to school, so that I could be there by 7am.
As we made the bus trip to ZITF grounds nerves got the better of me, and I felt shivers going down my spine time and again while listening to teachers issuing out instructions on how best to conduct ourselves when we got to our destination. My inattentive colleagues were whispering about what an honour it was going to be to see the man in flesh.
As we disembarked from the bus, the teachers gave each of us a last-minute inspection and also gave us red scarfs to tie around our necks. Entering one of the halls, through a huge door frame metal detector and ushered to our sitting area, it really dawned on me that I wasn’t dreaming but this was really happening — this was the day I would meet the former President Mugabe for the first time in my life.
This was the first of many 21st February Movement celebrations that I would attend, both as a primary school and high school pupil, to celebrate the life of a revered leader. While it was usually quite a hassle for pupils to be selected to attend these celebrations, with most entering poetry recital competitions; for me it was not much of a challenge because out of 800 plus pupils, I was the only one born on 21 February. Yes, Robert Mugabe is not only my former President but he was also my birthday buddy.
As the former President stood to address the crowd, with us cheering and waving our small Zimbabwean flags, I could not help but consider how lucky I was to be in the same room as the man who devoted his life to my freedom and eagerly waited to hear what he had to say (and for a piece of the cake that was made in the Zimbabwean flag design).
To many, the world over, 21 February might seem like any other day on the calendar, yet to Zimbabweans this was the day we celebrated the day our former President was born. To me this is the day that I was also born, the day when I first emerged from my mother’s womb and embarked on this journey called life. Many might dismiss this as a mere coincidence but I view this as a coincidence made by God himself.
What always comes to mind when I remember what the former President said on this wondrous occasion was his emphasis that we should take our education seriously and not forget that as children, the future of the country lay with us.
My Grade Four teacher, Mrs Moyo, when I met her later in life reminded me of the words said by the former President.
Indeed education was always at the heart of the former President, many before me and even now continue to refer to Cde Mugabe’s inspiration when it comes to education. Writing in an article titled; The Robert Mugabe I Know, ED, President Mnangagwa also talks of how the former President inspired him to get his Bachelor of Law degree.
“. . . Even then, he encouraged all imprisoned comrades to study. That is when I began studies after two-and-a-half years in prison.
“They wrote notes on small pieces of toilet paper, which were also smuggled to us. We would then hear: “Vakuru varikuti fundayi, fundayi, fundayi!” And there was a Christian Council, which would help prisoners pay for correspondence courses. I completed Ordinary and Advanced Level, and proceeded to an LLB degree,” noted President Mnangagwa.
President Mnangagwa continues; “It was President Mugabe who organised for everybody to get an education. And those who got injured at the front were hospitalised. We had Mangurenje — Ushewokunze — heading our medical side, assisted by Sekeremayi. Those who recovered — not sufficiently to fight — would be sent again for education. We didn’t want them to just sit. Education was uppermost in his dealings with the party and comrades. Many people benefited from that education policy during the war — thousands of them.”
This was one feature about my birthday buddy which I will forever cherish as a Zimbabwean, up to today the country’s education system remains one of the topmost in the entire continent owing to the vision of the late Cde Mugabe.
As today we reflect on the life of our former President, I stand with pride that I was one of the few who was honoured to share a birthday with this revolutionary icon. Yes, last Friday the world was plunged into mourning after Cde Mugabe’s passing on in Singapore, I stand with pride thinking I am one of the few who will have a permanent feature reminding me of this great man.
So special is our former President that his birthday has also been declared a national holiday, a day which we will always take a minute to remember of revolutionary leader.
The former President brought an orderly transition of power from the whites. He also played a key role in racial reconciliation. However, Mugabe was one who, in his times, did not hesitate to express his views about Africa to Western countries.
Most importantly he was one who prided himself in African unity, a Pan-African advocate speaking about the importance of oneness as a means of furthering development, in one of his many famed speeches he said; “Africa must revert to what it was before the imperialists divided it. These are artificial divisions which we, in our pan-African concept will seek to remove it.”
As we say Rest in Peace to our former President I go further and say Rest in Peace Birthday buddy.
Online Reporter