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Safety of Matabeleland’s social and political space is everybody’s responsibility
Condemning all forms of violence will be the first and most significant step in the second revolution of African politics where the enemy is no longer external to us but among us, and in our minds. We can no longer justifiably use Western governments’ meddling in local politics as reason for internal violence, for if […]
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Correct diagnosis gives chance for the right treatment
1983/ 84 Gukurahundi genocide survivors of Matabeleland were failed twice: once at the initial point of their abuse/ trauma when the world conveniently looked away and again when the system failed to acknowledge their needs; the Zimbabwe institutions and media has gone as far as questioning the numbers affected by that act of barbarism, that […]
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Is violent resistance by the Matabeleland movement justifiable?
Jostling for basics in life typifies civil society struggles under a ZANU PF government in an independent Zimbabwe. The Independence has been nothing short of a disaster for civil society; it has upended the lives of people of all generations, races, tribes and all regions, but its effects have been especially devastating for Matabeleland and […]
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Matabeleland movement programmes need to protect society from elite capture
Divide and conquer tactics and the deception of independence is not going unnoticed in Matabeleland; we did not fight colonial rule so we could be open to oppression by a black government. The Matabele bourgeoisie promoted by Harare will neither heal nor silence the brutalised majority. Decades of damaging mental prison has left the region […]
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Why Gukurahundi atrocities must be remembered
Great Britain was not responsible for the Gukurahundi genocide, but it did not use its obvious influence in Zimbabwe to stop the brutality. To Matabeleland, memories of the time are essential because that is the best way of keeping the atrocities real in our minds. When the Mugabe regime authorised the use of a specially […]
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Lessons from African liberation war movements
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster…” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche (1886) in ‘Beyond Good and Evil’. What should have been independence and freedom has turned into oppression; the liberator has turned oppressor. Without adequate checks and balances in a government system citizens are left vulnerable to state […]
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Raise the moral bar to better Matabeleland political systems and institutions
Public disenchantment has become a key feature in independent Zimbabwe, particularly in Matabeleland where under the pretext of addressing insecurity in the region, thousands of Ndebele civilians were starved, tortured, raped, abducted and murdered in a state conjured military operation. Following the tribal, hate-fuelled murderous and dehumanising military activities of the 5th Brigade in an […]