The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) president, Dumiso Dabengwa has paid tribute to the heroes of the war of resistance in 1893 and the first war of liberation in 1896 saying although liberation came at a price, it was a worthy cause.
By KHANYILE MLOTSHWA
Dabengwa was speaking at the Politics of the Armed Struggle in Southern Africa conference at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“The armed struggle was worth it, but very costly to the extent that not all immediate benefits were realised,” he said.
“The best result is that an independent people have acquired the inalienable right to determine their course, with ups and downs.
Zimbabwe was colonised in the 1890s and 1893 and 1896 marked the first form of resistance to colonial rule by the oppressed blacks. The blacks were, however, defeated and resultantly suffered a century of oppression until 1980 when an armed liberation war forced the white minority rulers to the negotiating table.
Dabengwa said one of the immediate benefits of the liberation struggle was that: “We got the right to choose and to control our rulers, never mind that those who got into power soon saw themselves as rulers instead of elected representatives of the people.”
“This is in clear violation of our basic demand that led to war, the demand for one man one vote.
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“Universal suffrage has virtually been replaced by universal control by a powerful President and ruling clique. A culture of ‘winner takes all’ in which outwitting competitors is given priority over goal-oriented collaboration has been built by the ruling party and unconsciously pervades even models for collaboration among the opposition parties.
“Political repression and economic mismanagement in independent Zimbabwe has led to well-known [negative] results, such as youth unemployment, emigration of skilled and unskilled, but industrious workers, and collapse of vital institutions that were among the best in the region.”
Dabengwa said in spite of all these challenges, “the armed struggle was worth it”.
“It proved beyond all doubt that anyone can wield modern state power, not just a‘chosen race,” he said.
“The armed struggle gave opportunities to people that were previously officially denied them because of their race and allotted social status during the racist regime.
“More controversially, the armed struggle made it possible to acquire or grab economic assets that had been reserved for people of European origin. The implementation of this necessary land redistribution was brutal and poorly implemented from both an economic point of view and reverse racism whose consequences are the decimation of commercial agriculture and resulting food insecurity.”
Dabengwa paid tribute to the young people who led the Ndebele nation to war against the British South Africa Company (BSAC) at the time of colonisation in November – December 1893.
“There are contemporary accounts of the 1893 Matebele war that recount the fierceness of the encounters,” he said.
“At Gadade, in Mbembesi, in their familiar bull-horn formation, several regiments threw their might, spear and shield, against the approaching invaders who were armed with guns and heavy cannon.”
