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NewsDay

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Zim has become replica of Rhodesia

Opinion & Analysis
The birth of Zimbabwe and many other African States came as a result of violent confrontations.

The birth of Zimbabwe and many other African States came as a result of violent confrontations.

Ngonidzashe Tamborenyoka

Ian Smith
Ian Smith

Negotiations like the ones at Lancaster House Conference took place after the violent confrontation between the guerilla fighters and white supremacists. Among the issues at the centre of the Second Chimurenga were the land question, totalitarian rule by the whites and oppression of the black populace.

Images of Ian Douglas Smith’s police officers with dogs attacking black people were captured by the media.

The dastardly acts of the Ian Smith regime were captured by the media. It is also important to note that the regime’s oppressive nature did not go unnoticed as Britain and the United Nations imposed sanctions on Rhodesia.

Fast-forward to 2000 and beyond, Zimbabweans find themselves in a similar situation. The issue of land became the crux of the battle. Words like terrorists and puppets began to be thrown around with reckless abandon against the opposition; dissenting voices are treated with disdain.

The government of the day has failed to cut the umbilical cord of colonialism. They have become a replica of the Smith regime. They have perfected the art of oppression, interchangeably using violence, draconian laws and maintaining a tight grip on State power.

Albert Bandura, a cognitive psychologist, came up with a Social Learning Theory, in which he posits that behaviour is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. He further said that at a later time, people imitate the behaviour they have observed.

Given the fact that most people in the government of Zimbabwe fought in the liberation of the country against the oppressive Smith government, it only makes sense that the leaders in our government have learned the oppressive style of rule from the very system they fought against.

It is ironic that the Zimbabwean government is becoming a black version of the Smith government, thereby, vindicating an apt assessment by Franz Fanon when he said that what changed after the independence of most African States was the skin colour of the oppressor.

But as a generation, we have a duty to – a generational mandate, a generational obligation – fight the system. We have to demand accountability, good governance and respect of the rule of law. There is much that unites us than that which divides us.

We should never engage in violence because that’s what the regime that we are fighting wants for violent ground is their turf.

They have survived and thrived using violence, that’s their forte.

But we are smarter than them, we are a different generation.

When they use weapons, we use ideas, for the modern age has provided us a platform to meet, a convergence zone of ideas, where we share ideas and make our future and that of the generations to follow bright.

We have to put faith in institutions and ideas and never in the individual, for individuals are fallible and they can disappoint. Individuals come and go, but institutions and ideas are permanent.

We have to be a better generation than the one which precedes us. We should not breed cult leadership for it has contributed immensely to the existing catastrophe.

We should be alive to the dangers of imitating our oppressors and we should not make the same mistakes that the previous generation made.