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Trevor Shiri
IT is indeed a new year – hello 2014. Reflecting on years gone by, as I wade into 2014, I ask myself; why do we Zimbabweans wait for death to venerate, decorate, honour or confer hero status on our gallant liberation fighters after their dear souls depart?I have no doubt this is a contentious issue, which has often been hijacked by hostile forces such as the MDCs to push for the conferment of hero status on nonentities such as Tonderai Ndira.
However, the motivation behind this piece is not necessarily about how hero status is conferred, but intrinsically the question is why wait for death to acknowledge and honour their contribution to our hard won independence?
A context to my thinking would suffice. In South Africa, all sorts of honours have been conferred on their late national hero, Nelson Mandela. Statues, monuments, roads and buildings have been named in his honour. Honours accorded in his lifetime.
Unfortunately, the grand statue at Luthuli House and the museum were unveiled and named, respectively, in Mandela’s honour shortly after his death. Nonetheless, the construction and plans were mooted and indeed were ongoing projects when he passed on.
The bottom line being, they honoured him in his lifetime. They made him know they appreciated his gallant contribution to the black man’s cause. Three local events in the past 30 days, two sad and the other a celebratory one, provoked this hard question – why confer hero status after someone’s death?
The death of national hero, Eric Gwanzura in December 2013 sowed the seed for this question. Upon his death, us, mafikizolos (Johnny-come-latelies) were surprised that he had been declared a national hero.
Not because we question his conferment nor the role he played during the liberation struggle, but simply because nobody told us about him.
Oral history is being hidden from us. Growing up, we used to go to Gwanzura Stadium to watch soccer matches in Highfield – the bedrock of urban black resistance to the colonial regime. Surprisingly, I only got to know in whose honour it was named when Cde Didymus Mutasa revealed this piece of history in announcing the conferment of national hero status on the late Cde Gwanzura.
Secondly, President Mugabe officially unveiled the statue of our late Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo and the renaming of Main Street in Bulawayo and the official opening of Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport in his honour on Unity Day, 22 December 2013. Well and good, but…?
Why wait till his death to honour him? We knew beforehand of his gallant contribution in the war of liberation, not to mention his key role in the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987. He could have departed knowing all Zimbabweans honoured his legacy as a fighter and unifier.
Thirdly, on January 1, 2014, Zimbabwe woke up to the news that one of our gallant former ZIPRA veterans, Rtd Lieutenant Colonel Harold Mutandwa Chirenda, had died. I will not be tempted to discuss or interrogate the reasons which led to his conferment of national hero status on January 7, 2014, seven days after he breathed his last. My gripe is why wait for the death of our gallant sons to consider their national hero status? There is need for a paradigm shift.
The ZANU-PF Politburo can surely improve its efficiency in this regard. It is the rightful body to determine one’s hero status. No doubt about that. Given the foregoing, it would be prudent for the Politburo to consider conferring national hero status to our living sons and daughters.
That way, buildings, roads, key monuments, residential areas, among others, could be named in their honour. Even biographies by our living heroes would do a world of good to our historical databank.
In this regard, the Politburo could consider identifying all our living national heroes and confer them their status. This way, our historians have a starting point from the biographies of these living gallant sons. Honours can be conferred on them while still living.
There would be no need for the Politburo to sit and declare one a national hero after their death, which at times has taken days or for some, been awarded posthumously way after they have been interred elsewhere.
This pre-conferment system would ensure that the nation is neither surprised nor questions some of the people who have been accorded the hero status. The same criteria being used now to confer the status could be used, only that this time, those who fall short of the criteria would be stripped of their status and struck off the list.
Currently, only the liberation war heroes in the public spotlight are known, yet the majority are ensconced in their private life. Only the Politburo members know them. The nation is in the dark. History is part of us. It is what makes us who we are. We should celebrate our own heroes in their lifetime, not posthumously only. It is an issue which requires serious consideration.
President Mugabe is among us, what have we done for him? He has done a lot for us from the liberation struggle, to the Unity Accord, to the land reform programme and now the indigenisation and economic empowerment programmes. He has consistently fought colonialism and its predecessor, neo-colonialism, and is suffering under the albatross of illegal sanctions by our erstwhile oppressors. Let us honour our heroes in their lifetime.
Online Reporter