Time Matabeleland organised

Our forefathers did not die for nothing; they did not fight the British invaders so we could be delivered to the control of other nations; they fought so we could get off our heels and get on our toes, preserve the integrity and the distinct features of the Matabeleland nation of which diversity is the greatest blessing.

Independence in Zimbabwe should have meant the ability for Matabeleland to reclaim and maintain her integrity, but just before the celebration parade finished Gukurahundi happened.

Gukurahundi was a brutal attempt to erode and silence our nation; communities were left battered by the storms of persecution and crushed by the brutality of the 5^th Brigade – a military unit created specifically for that purpose. Shona supremacists perceived that spreading terror among civilians in Matabeleland would be an effective way of achieving compliance; they thought marketing death and fear down the pathways of Matabeleland communities would silence the people.

That I am writing this post today is testimony to our resilience. Courage will take us further.

A devastating outcome of Gukurahundi in Matabeleland is the entrenchment of a political culture of intimidation in place of ideology, doubt in place of courage.

Consequently, the political pathway has been set up in the path of least resistance. In many communities, there is a deep sense of fear of suffering. People do not want to feel discomfort. We are thus living our lives in a comfort bubble, but we know fully well that it is all make believe.

We believe many people in Matabeleland resist confronting injustice including Gukurahundi because it is agony to be fully conscious of the brutality that permeates communities, culture, and society.

That said, we shall not live on our knees. Fear will not shut Matabeleland down; it will wake us all up. A call to all sons and daughters of Matabeleland, ‘Don’t agonise, organise’; get off your heels and stand on your toes. Every second spent agonising about unjust treatment under the ZANU PF regime is precious time lost on organising to strike on injustice and build back our communities.

Communities must motivate themselves to high heaven and back to organise against the intentional injustices perpetrated against our people by the tribalist ZANU PF regime.

We must set a very low threshold for tribalism to restore social cohesion and the integrity of our nation.

Passive-aggressive behaviour such as non-Shona speaking Matabeleland people being asked why they cannot speak the Shona language must never be normalised. These are not innocent questions from genuinely curious minds, rather they are a byproduct of a superiority complex meticulously cultivated by ethnic Shona supremacists.

No one should feel obliged to justify why they cannot speak somebody else’s mother tongue. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate – the right to your identity is one of them.

Fighting against tribalism and the oppression of Matabeleland people upsets ZANU PF and the Shona elite who benefit from the status quo. They will do anything to tarnish the image of the resistance movements. It is unsurprising that there are attempts by the legacy media and ZANU PF sycophants to distort reality and to label the resistance groups as tribalists without allowing them to portray their perspective.

Journalistic behaviour of the legacy media comes to question. Journalists must do their jobs – report stories they would rather were not told. We are not seeking their validation in our fight for justice. We will not be coerced into seeking the path of least resistance; we have moral clarity to understand what we are standing for and standing against, and we have sufficient internal strength to take us over the line.

No community is too small to contribute to the fight against injustice; no contribution is too small to impact change. It is not about size but effort and commitment to the cause. To those who may feel marginalised, we want you to know without you, Matabeleland is incomplete; we need the entire nation to work and walk together.

We will continue to emphasise the importance of representative local leadership and fair distribution of power across society. We have seen the dangers of political party approved representatives – they are accountable to their party bosses not the public.

An informed Matabeleland constituency is essential if we are to institute real changes on the ground. To take control of the narrative, we must create and make information readily available, so the public is aware of local projects and their goals.

Responding to what happens to us is the making of us; that is why we earnestly and persistently urge the Matabeleland public to abandon their fears and participate in the resistance to tyranny. Together, we will not yield; we will not be bullied; we will not be threatened into silence; we will stand for what is right by our nation.