The more we fight, the more they win!

Sometime in the 80s, Bishop Lazi’s maternal grandfather’s farm in Zviyambe, Hwedza district, Mashonaland East province, provided sanctuary to two chaps who had walked all the way from Mozambique into Zimbabwe’s hinterland.

They had fled for their lives from the rampaging and bloodthirsty militant group Matsanga, which was the military wing of RENAMO, a rebel group that was fighting the FRELIMO-led government in Maputo.

Matsanga was infamous for its gratuitous violence. They besieged and pillaged communities, hacked limbs, raped and senselessly killed innocent people, turning Mozambique into a dreaded human abattoir.

At least 100 000 people were killed, while close to a million sought refuge elsewhere.

As a people who lived through the horrors of bloody conflict, we knew, as they did, that there is nothing that could be as dangerous as being sandwiched between two armed belligerent forces, especially if you are male.

Being suspected of belonging to and cooperating with the enemy was almost always fatal, warranting summary execution.

So, these two personable chaps were part of the human shrapnel of the tragedy that had unfortunately visited our neighbours.

When they arrived, with nothing but the clothes on their back as their only earthly possessions, they offered to sell their labour for nothing more than hot meals, a roof above their heads and companionship.

Looking into their eyes, one could see the empty vastness of disillusionment and hopelessness; one that tugs at the heartstrings and induces an effusive compassion to assist.

They were duly engaged as cattle herders.

But not many know, or care to know, that RENAMO was formed by Rhodesia’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) circa 1976, soon after Mozambique had gained its independence from Portugal a year earlier.

Apartheid South Africa later took over babysitting the militants.

In addition to gathering intelligence on behalf of the CIO, RENAMO also sought to destabilise, through banditry, what was largely viewed as a Marxist government in Maputo.

The repertoire of their nefarious activities included destroying railway and power lines, roads and bridges, as well as oil-storage facilities.

As Mozambique is a gateway for Zimbabwe to the sea, we had to deploy the army in 1985 to crush the insurgency.

Remember, the Feruka pipeline carried critical fuel supplies to Zimbabwe.

In any case, during the liberation struggle, we fought and died side by side with our fellow camaradas. We captured RENAMO’s headquarters in August of the same year and also routed them in their territories such as Inhamhinga and Marromeu.

And, owing to its counterrevolutionary activities, RENAMO earned itself the tag of an abominable group that was so hated that our own musician Thomas Mapfumo had to compose a song, “Tongosienda”, which openly called for the assassination of its leader, Afonso Dhlakama (Dhlakama ngaapondwe . . .).

It is probably the only song publicly calling for someone’s lynching that enjoyed popular and generous airplay. Kikikiki.

The bloodletting, however, later subsided with the signing of the peace accords in Rome on October 4, 1992.

RENAMO has now morphed into a political party. Due to its sin of origin or original sin, it might probably never taste power in Mozambique. But we learn valuable lessons through this elaborate story: Often, the challenges that we grapple with are deliberately created by our enemies and adversaries for their benefit.

They set us up against each other so that they can steal our resources while we fight.

Matthew 3:24-27 says: “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.”

Proverbs 17:14 adds: “Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.”

Turning paradise into hell

Nowhere has this lesson been keenly learnt and felt than in Libya.

Ever since the United States-led intervention that ousted and killed Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, life in Libya has become unconscionably miserable and pathetic.

Conversely, before his demise, this Maghreb region of North Africa was a mini paradise.

The standards of living were relatively higher than in most parts of Africa, including some parts of Europe.

However, Libyans were told by the West that they had one major challenge: A ruthless dictator who was denying them democracy.

Under the guise of the Arab Spring, the people poured onto the streets, a situation that culminated in the elimination of Gaddafi by French agents.

Instead of the promise of democracy, Libyans got the exact opposite.

Where they were promised peace, they got a civil war, as the country is now split into warring factions.

Where they were promised democracy, the country is now presided over by unelected representatives, as polls have been postponed indefinitely.

And where they were promised prosperity, they got poverty instead.

And, all the while, their wealth is being stolen by the West and its cronies.

So much for democracy!

Incidentally, in neighbouring Mozambique, they have also experienced pockets of strife and conflict ever since the discovery of giant natural gas fields in the Rovuma Basin, off the coast, and the announcement of US$60 billion worth of investments that could have had a huge impact on its economy and beyond.

In 2016, for instance, the International Monetary Fund estimated that the export of liquid natural gas would momentously transform Mozambique’s economy, as it was likely to earn an eye-watering US$500 billion by 2045.

The Economist Intelligence Unit — a research and analysis division of the London-headquartered Economist Group — also estimated that investments in the sector could rise to US$90 billion within this decade, significantly dwarfing Mozambique’s current gross domestic product of US$21 billion.

This is huge; in fact, should have been huge.

But more than a decade and a half since the discovery, the economic circumstances in Mozambique remain the same.

Paradoxically, the situation in Cabo Delgado, the province where LNG facilities were once under construction, has become worse.

French company TotalEnergies, which was one of the firms to secure the licence to exploit the resource, had earlier pledged to invest US$20 billion by this year.

First gas deliveries were also expected to begin this year.

After attacks by the Ahlu Sunna Wal Jammah insurgents, TotalEnergies withdrew all its workers. It is now unclear when it will resume works. But a host of other Western companies, such as ENI, which is headquartered in Rome, and the American multinational company ExxonMobil, were angling for the resource.

Peace, at all cost

Of late, Mozambique has been consumed by violence ever since the October 9, 2024 election, where FRELIMO’s Daniel Chapo overwhelmingly emerged as the winner with 71 percent of the vote.

Before the election, the Bishop told you to expect trouble from opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane, who managed 20 percent of the vote, as he had refused to concede even before the first vote had been cast.

He is the candidate that the West preferred for obvious reasons.

But, as the region sits for the extraordinary indaba in Harare this week, the issue in Maputo, as elsewhere in the region, will be resolved.

But it is a cautionary tale for resource-rich countries, more so those presided over by liberation movements, that the threat from neocolonial forces is still real.

The enemy can only exploit us when we are divided and thus at our weakest.

The more we fight, the more they win.

It is about control of resources which determines control of the new means of production, the global economy and, by consequence, political power.

Bishop out!