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Ranga Mataire-Writing Black
MORE than just a show of democracy in motion, the just ended ZANU-PF Youth League Conference sent a clear message to the African continent and the world: the revolutionary liberation spirit is still intact in Southern Africa.
There was no better way of showing the regeneration and the resurgence of the revolutionary anti-imperial spirit than the solidarity messages delivered by youth representatives from sister liberation movements in the region.
The presence of youth representatives from Chama Cha Mapinduzi from Tanzania, Frelimo from Mozambique, Swapo from Namibia, ANC from South Africa, Burundi’s CNDD-FDD and MPLA from Angola sent a clear message to all and sundry that the future of Southern Africa is in solid hands.
If there is anything the West fears most in Africa, it is the rejuvenation of historical bonds that spearheaded anti-colonial struggles in Africa.
This fear is shown by their monetary and material investment in some pliable post-colonial political parties whose sole existence is first to villainies the whole essence of African liberation, and, secondly, to foist upon Africa regimes they can control.
It is not an exaggeration to state that the whole southern African region is facing an existential threat from erstwhile colonial masters, keen on reversing the liberation map by sponsoring pliant regimes.
The holding of the ZANU-PF Youth League Congress with the attendant strong solidarity bonds from sister parties in the region have ruffled the West’s stooges, who are now attempting to use all manner of tactics to herd the masses into acts of destabilisation.
In a week in which social media was awash with details of how the American Embassy has fervently sponsored anti-Zimbabwe acts, literally making them active participants in the political arena, their toadying henchmen have been desperate to come to the Master’s defence.
Historical baggage is weighing heavily on the recently rebranded CCC, whose leader is playing hide and seek with his senior colleagues, who have grown weary of being in a political outfit lacking constructional and ideological direction.
History has shown that the absence of a foundational ideology that glues the membership together has been the major source of divisions that have often led to numerous splits as divergent individual interests manifest after every electoral drubbing.
Devoid of an ideological direction, the CCC and its surrogates are now clutching onto anything that may make them relevant in the eyes of the electorate.
Of course, their recent poor showing in the by-elections has unsettled the leadership, which is now in a panic mode ahead of the 2023 elections.
Forget all the pretence about representing the people. This is a political outfit that suffers from rootlessness and has over the years managed to hoodwink some into thinking that it is a genuine outfit.
Charles Mungoshi (May His Soul Rest in Peace) alludes to the malaise afflicting this outfit in his seminal book “Waiting for the Rain”. The main protagonist, Lucifer, suffers from serious alienation and identifies more with the priest than with his own father.
He is so de-familiarised from his own community and blames his own people for their circumstances, and has no historical consciousness of forces at play.
So, as the family prepares for his departure to Europe, the old man has something to say to his alienated grandson.
“Remember you are Black and no soap will wash away that colour off your face. And no amount of sleeping with the (palest) of their womenfolk nor any amount of eating at the same table with them will ever make you clean enough in their eyes,” the Old Man says to a disinterested Lucifer.
And in his address to delegates at the ZANU-PF 7th Youth League Conference, President Mnangagwa in a way echoes the words of the Old Man in “Waiting for the Rain” when he says the youths must not be like Lucifer, who is willing to disown his own clansmen for some trinkets of silver from the white masters.
President Mnangagwa exhorted the delegates to “strengthen collaboration and partnership towards youth empowerment as well as modernisation, industrialisation and prosperity of our respective countries.”
He reminded the youths that the independence, freedom and democracy enjoyed today came through the painful sacrifices and bloodshed of many sons and daughters of this great region.
“The baton has been passed to you. Now it is your turn to defend the revolution, to defend the party and to defend the country,” the President said.
The need to defend the revolution can never be overemphasised considering neo-imperial forces having permeated our body politic by recruiting some among us to do their bidding.
It must never escape us that the goal of African unity is to defend our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our independence including eradicating all forms of colonialism from Africa.
The war in Ukraine has taught us that unless we speak with one voice as Africans, we are bound to continue to face some selective treatment from those who claim to be custodians of flourishing democracies.
Videos of Africans pleading for help and showing discrimination went viral on social media where authorities were pointing weapons at students who were unarmed.
Some had the audacity to accuse black people of being uncivilised enough to be rescued. There is an alarming level of discrimination in Europe which reminds Africans that we are either together or we perish.
What is needed today, after liberating the state, is to work on liberating the mind. Liberation movements have the mammoth task of not only delivering the liberation promise of prosperity, but to embark on a deliberate institutional mental decolonisation programme.
We have so many Lucifers amongst us who suffer from rootlessness and alienation because of lack of knowledge of the country’s historical circumstances.
They are easily persuaded to frown upon any positive development in their own country because of their affinity to white imperial interests.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter