This is a time for peace, not war!

Bishop Lazarus

While the temptation is to agree with English novelist George Orwell’s observation that “every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it”, this is not always the case.

You see, in the old days, we used to have a pantheon of powerful writers or formidable novelists who could wield the pen the same way a Japanese Samurai warrior could wield a sword, or in the same way an African warrior could use the spear to devastating effect.

With their enchanting words, often used as a magic wand, they could conjure the heavens and en-flame the flickering fire in people’s souls.

Writers such as Gonzo Musengezi, James Kawara, T.K. Tsodzo, Mordecai Hamutyinei, Charles Makari and our very own late Catholic Archbishop Patrick Fani Chakaipa, among others, were as inimitable as they were inspirational.

They easily manipulated — in a good way — human sensitivities and passions as canvasses on which they artistically and graphically painted their stories.

They also seemed to live in their own “metaverse”, where they could perspicaciously strip the reality of lived experiences and intimately create fictional stories that eerily imitated real life to the extent that they were sometimes considered prophetic.

It is, therefore, largely unsurprising that some of them became victims of their own craft, or witchcraft, as they usually found themselves entrapped in a world where they could no longer easily distinguish between fiction and reality.

In 2015, for example, Shimmer Chinodya — renowned for his award-winning works such as “Harvest of Thorns”, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1990 — had to be committed to a mental institution.

The previous year, he had reportedly caused a stir in Harare’s central business district when he stripped to his birthday suit.

Dambudzo Marechera — one of the brilliant writers of our time — seemed to live with the same curse and died on August 18, 1987, when he was only 35.

However, notwithstanding their obvious glaring flaws and idiosyncrasies, they always leave an indelible mark.

One of the works of fiction that left an impression on Bishop Lazi was the novel “Zvaida Kushinga” by Charles Makari.

Although it was published in 1985, it was authored during the liberation struggle.

It introduces us to Cde Gabarinocheka (a name that has a nice ring to it), whose fictional character is seemingly cast to represent fallen comrades.He dies due to excessive bleeding in a cave while sheltering from the heavy bombardment of the Rhodesian Air Force.

His dying words to his fellow Cde, Tinotonga, were quite poignant: “Chionaika, mukoma Shingirai, ini ndava kukusiyirai basa rakakosha kwazvo; basa rokusunungura Zimbabwe (Look, Cde Shingirai, I am now leaving you with an important mission; a mission to liberate Zimbabwe . . .”

Cherish peace, abhor conflict

In Makari’s novel, Cde Gabarinocheka might be a fictional character representing liberation fighters who paid the supreme sacrifice for Zimbabwe to be free; however, in the last couple of weeks, The Sunday Mail has been sharing the real-life story of another Cde Gabarinocheka, whose real name is Onias Garikayi Gosha, an intrepid guerrilla fighter who was involved in some epoch-defining moments in the Second Chimurenga.

Not only was he among the first people trained at Mgagao in Tanzania, but he was one of the combatants who took part in the famed attack on Altena Farm, which essentially represented the beginning of the protracted phase of the Second Chimurenga that ultimately upended minority white colonial rule.

A consummate battle-hardened and battle-scarred fighter, the 79-year-old tells us some home truths about the realities of war and peace.

“A weapon, our leaders would always say, was not a decisive factor in resolving disputes, but a determined person wielding that weapon, who is prepared to use it, would be decisive in settling any dispute,” he says in his account this week.

Quite profound!

Bishop Lazi always tells you that the generation that saw and experienced the grim underbelly of violence wrought by the war always cherishes peace, but a generation that has always known peace, which is oblivious to the egregious collateral damage of conflict, seem to always naively crave war.

This is what ED meant last week at the ZANU PF Youth League’s National Assembly when he said: “That we shun violence doesn’t mean we are weak; your strength is in the understanding of peace, brotherhood and love.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 teaches us that there is a time for everything, including war and peace.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to search and a time to give up; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to mend; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.”

We should always — always — choose a time to plant, heal, build, laugh, dance, gather, embrace, keep, mend, speak, love and make peace.

The Bishop always wonders if the opposition CCC’s toxic social media shock troopers and apparatchik of the “Gidi Chete Chete” brigade — who, frustrated by the failure to unseat the ZANU PF Government, believe an insurrection would suffice — actually appreciate the horrors of conflict.

The Bishop is willing to bet that the ill-advised Libyans, who were manipulated to revolt against Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, to ostensibly create a democratic order, would give anything to bring him back.

For the past decade, they have not known peace but blood, violence, disillusionment and despair.

The former prosperous North African country is now locked in a seemingly interminable civil war, while its resources are systematically looted by the authors of their conflict.

The Sudanese, too, would do anything to extricate themselves from the precipice of a major cataclysm of civil war, as fighting between rival army factions continues in and around the capital, Khartoum.

All those who were egged on, valorised and celebrated as champions of democracy when they occupied the streets, supposedly to bring change, have since abandoned the streets.

They are now hunkered down in various shelters as determined and armed belligerent forces are now on the prowl.

And, again, the instigators of that conflict have since evacuated themselves to their own capitals to watch the conflict from afar.

When it comes to public order, an action that might seem innocuous has the potential to explode into a major conflagration with potentially deleterious outcomes.

Peace is fragile

It means peace is fragile and must be safeguarded at all cost and by any means necessary.

Last week, Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume was sentenced to an effective three years in prison for inciting public violence, when he tried to convene protests on July 31, 2020, purportedly against looting.

It has to be remembered that at the time, Zimbabwe was barely three months into a total national lockdown under public health emergency measures meant to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Movements were, therefore, restricted.

Owing to the incendiary rhetoric used by Ngarivhume through microblogging site Twitter, there was high likelihood that nothing good could ever come out of the protests, especially considering the violent episodes of August 1, 2018, as well as January 14-17, 2019.

You see, when he was arrested, he knew full well that he had committed an offence.

On August 3, 2020, while applying for bail at the High Court, the relatively unknown and inconsequential politician, through his lawyer Moses Nkomo, even disowned his Twitter account, suggesting that indeed the messages that had been broadcast and shared through the platform were incriminating.

His attempt to escape blame was, however, unsuccessful.

Despite the usual tropes from some foreign missions intimating Ngarivhume was a political victim who had been unjustly convicted, the initiate were able to draw parallels with another case in the United Kingdom, where CCC activist William Chinyanga — famed for fooling Chamisa in 2018 into believing that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had procured ballot papers that could migrate the X to ZANU PF — was jailed for three years last year for encouraging bombings and attacks on security forces in Zimbabwe through Facebook.

Instructively, it is also noteworthy that on Tuesday, the UK’s King Charles III, who was coronated yesterday, assented to the Public Order Act, which jails protesters, even peaceful protesters, for periods of up to six months for various miscellaneous offences — misarinya. Kikikiki.

Yesterday, it was used to round up some troublesome protesters who were against the coronation. So, almost every country around the world will do whatever it takes to preserve peace.In Bishop Lazi’s village, kids were allowed to play however they wanted and pleased, but they always knew never to play with fire (a good servant but a bad master).

Playing with embers or fire, which had a potential to burn down the whole village, was an unpardonable sin that always earned the perpetrator a thorough hiding.

We should always cherish peace and abhor violence.

Bishop out!