Walking the path of justice

Jesus Christ was persecuted and eventually crucified for following the correct path of righteousness. On our own continent people or cadres like Herbert Chitepo, Jason Ziyapapa Moyo, Eduardo Mondlane and others never lived to enjoy the fruits of independence because they were assassinated for following the correct revolutionary path for their respective countries to become independent.
Other revolutionary leaders like Patrice Lumumba and Samora Machel were also murdered for being resolute in defending the African ideal, that Africa must be politically and economically free.
Pan-Africanist leaders like President Mugabe and others are perceived “dictators” because of the correct path that they have chosen to walk and defend, a path that entails that, not only Zimbabweans but the whole African masses must be empowered. It always has to be like this and as Africans we cannot afford to make some mistakes. In a struggle, it is right and necessary that everyone marches forward. Those who do not want to march with the others on this correct path for reasons best known to them should desist from putting Western spanners to the continent’s development. Cabral contends that to those who are retrogressive the best way is to encourage them to correct themselves, to correct themselves quickly and to expeditiously put themselves on the correct path.
This is explains why President Mugabe is on record saying “we are brothers, divergence of opinion, yes! But No! to divisiveness.” Frankly speaking, it is now high time that the African masses are guided into knowing that which they must defend and this must be the norm in any multi-party democracy.
The duty of the leaders is not to be divisive, parroting the Western path and agenda, but to truly lead the people and provide all the potential for progress. Leaders who are of the opinion that Africa after having become independent will pander to the whims of foreign interests will have lost the plot.
What Africa is yearning for, is its total political and economic emancipation. It is synonymous to the biological necessity that everyone must breathe to survive. It is a fact and cannot be denied that failure to have sufficient oxygen entails that one will suffocate and eventually become the late. Why should the West continuously want to economically suffocate Africa and its people? Those who support the neo-liberal onslaught on Africa are failing to realise that they are now becoming part and parcel of the Western regime change agenda.
These treacherous neo-liberal Samaritans are not only hoodwinking, poisoning and suffocating the African masses but they are also striving to make the African poor believe that their survival is dependent on the Washington consensus spear-headed type of development, a development in which Africa will always be a junior partner. This is why visionary African leaders have refused to support the so-called African renaissance embedded in the “NEPAD drug” prescribed by the West, a drug that would first paralyse the African mental faculties, eventually blinding them as well as denying them the much needed economic oxygen.
This is why some treacherous African brothers endorsed Resolution 1973 on Libya. Africa demands respect from other continents. Africa requires leaders who lead the masses on the correct route, a path which they will be proud to have walked. This path should never ever be erased from their memories.
What Africa does not want are leaders that are driven by ambition to be simply in the highest office. Leaders must rule because they are worthy of it. More authority must be conferred to someone who has given practical proof of withstanding the heat and who soldiers on. These must be leaders who only have one objective that is to serve the people.
The people of Africa need leaders who have exemplary moral conduct and are men and women worthy of the African continent. Leaders must realise that a political party is a creation of the people, it is an instrument used to build, guide and safeguard the people’s interests. The revolutionary party must be more sharpened because it has been mandated by the masses to rule on their behalf. This requires a party that is visionary just like the African liberation parties. Before one begins on a journey, one must already be aware of one’s destination. If not, why not abandon the journey altogether. Liberation war heroes and heroines in Africa made a commitment to join the struggles to liberate Africa from the shackles of colonialism. Some few and visionary Pan-African leaders have also made a commitment to defend Africa’s hard one political independence as sovereign nations just as enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
In this struggle, it is very important to definitively bring together all those who are committed to African political and economic independence, those who are committed to the struggle against neo-colonialism. Why should some of us now make a “Judas commitment” to sell the African heritage just because they want to be in the highest office? Africa does not want “biblical prodigal sons.”
Africa must be seen in the light of its own history. As Africans, we must know that one does not build a house and sleep out but must build a house to sleep in. Anyone who does not do this is in error. A symbiotic relationship between the people and the party must be maintained, it cannot be otherwise. It is a line of thinking that we must defend on the basis of analysing our situation. The African citizens have become tired of political parties that are not inclusive, parties that are elitist and traverse the patronage path. Such politicians show lack of political awareness of the sacrifices that African heroes and heroines made for Africa to become independent. Participation in liberation wars in Africa was not a result of patronage, it was a result of sacrifice and commitment. Opportunist political leaders bent on self-enrichment or who are politically worthless are therefore not following the correct path.
This is why, Che Guevara, Sankara and Cabral concurred in their argument that revolutionary democracy demands that responsible leaders should live among the people, before the people and behind the people.
The masses must feel that they have power and that their country’s mineral resources are in their hands. This is a path that does not have an easy way out. The ruling Pan-African elite must establish a strategy so that they take as many people as they can on board and they must never make concessions on principles so that it becomes a journey worth travelling.
Political commissars within the party aided by party brigades must therefore be engaged in the duty of advising the masses on the correct path to take. The political commissar and his aides must be involved at grassroots level for they are the political force that must remain in operation as each day passes. What is essential is that the masses must have a high dosage of party principles and interests.
The party must also conscientise the uniformed forces and raise the political level of the armed forces. It is therefore utopian to have a non-partisan army. It is only through this that the uniformed forces together with the people will walk on the correct path. The armed forces cannot be separated from the people, they must physically defend the African space. The armed forces commanders must understand that they themselves are “political commissars” and they have to be a people’s militia. Whilst we are aware that everyone knows what is good for his own family, village, province and country, it is important for the people to be united, to be conscious of the true meaning and objectives of the liberation war that our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters fought for. Cabral advised that “only the revolutionary vanguard can have consciousness (ab initio) of this distinction.”
The path that Zimbabweans must follow must be a path that is firmly fixed in its economic capacity, if it fails to do so it will have betrayed the objectives of national liberation and will be walking on a waterlogged path. All Zimbabweans are therefore being called to reflect on this and vote wisely in the coming elections.

Darlington Mahuku and Bowden Mbanje are lecturers in International Relations and Peace and Governance with Bindura University of Science Education.