PART OF THE ZIMBABWE STORY: LESSONS FOR THE REST OF AFRICA

The Zimbabwe army is an African first in modelling respect, discipline and restraint instead of “the law of the jungle” I continued as I became intensely interested in the end game because it would have profound implications for the rest of Africa. I was marvelling at how civilians went about their normal businesses as soldiers smiled and waved at them in an unprecedented display of cordiality. It was refreshing to watch a properly behaved African army going about the business of defending the supreme law of the land.  A disciplined African army guaranteeing the absolute safety of the very commander in chief that was at the centre of the contention was beautiful to behold. The Zimbabwe army’s skilful adherence to the country's constitution was a complete departure from the lawless and barbaric so-called national armies that abound in Africa! 

The statement from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces which was read by Major General Sibusiso Moyo brought to the forefront the spirit of Chimurenga, a Shona word that loosely translates to a fight or struggle in which everyone participates. Over time, Chimurenga was broadened to define Zimbabwe’s revolution, struggle for human rights, political dignity and social justice over a drawn-out period that finally led to the country’s independence from Britain under the leadership of the very Robert Gabriel Mugabe that was now at the centre of a dispute with some of his comrades. By the time Mugabe became president of Zimbabwe, the country had had two significant Chimurengas with the first one occurring between 1896 and 1897 and the second protracting from about 1966 to 1979. Chief British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes whose final resting place is present day Zimbabwe is reported to have cunningly set out to dupe the locals to create an ‘African Kingdom’ for Britain which included present day Zambia and Zimbabwe. He named this so-called ‘African Kingdom’ Rhodesia after himself!    

Zimbabwe’s second Chimurenga which was also known as the Rhodesian Bush War or the Zimbabwe War of Liberation was a guerrilla war that was fought between a minority Rhodesian government of descendants of white settlers, headed by Ian Douglas Smith and black nationalist movements of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) led by Robert Gabriel Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) led by Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo. Other nationalist groups participated in the second Chimurenga without taking up arms against the government of the day. These included groups led by Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa, Ndabaningi Sithole and Chief Jeremiah Sikireta Chirau. Born to British immigrants on April 8, 1919 in Selukwe, Southern Rhodesia which is present day Zimbabwe, Ian Douglas Smith served as Prime Minister of this southern part of Cecil John Rhodes so-called 'African Kingdom' from 1964 to 1979. As leader of the Rhodesian Front (RF), a right-wing political party that called for independence from Britain without an immediate shift to the requisite Black majority rule, Smith led a predominantly white government that unilaterally declared an internationally unrecognized independence from the United Kingdom in 1965.  It was the first unilateral break from the United Kingdom by one of its colonies. Consequently, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and the United Nations all deemed Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) illegal.    
 

As the second Chimurenga lengthened, Ian Douglas Smith negotiated and signed an agreement dubbed the Internal Settlement with the non-combative African nationalist leaders on March 3, 1978. This agreement led to the creation of an interim government in which Africans were included for the first time in Rhodesia. Zimbabwe which had been called Rhodesia until that agreement became known as Zimbabwe Rhodesia. An election was held in April 1979 which brought Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa to power. However, because the Internal Settlement was not approved internationally and Rhodesia Zimbabwe was still unrecognized as an independent country, no country acknowledged the election of April 1979! Moreover the black nationalist warring movements of ZANU led by Robert Gabriel Mugabe and ZAPU led by Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo were excluded from Smith's interim government. Meanwhile, Smith's government whose seat was based in Salisbury which is present day Harare continued war against the black nationalist movements led by Nkomo and Mugabe. The very Mugabe that was now in a public wrangle with some of the battle hardened veterans who fought in the second Chimurenga had emerged as a hero for the masses of Zimbabwe even though the government of Ian Douglas Smith referred to him and Nkomo as terrorists. The adage “one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter” couldn’t have played itself out with more clarity.  The second Chimurenga ended when an agreement dubbed the Lancaster House Agreement was signed at Lancaster House in the United Kingdom on December 21, 1979. This agreement allowed for the creation and recognition of the Republic of Zimbabwe. It included the terms of an Independence Constitution and the holding of elections under British authority. The agreement would enable Zimbabwe Rhodesia to proceed to lawful and internationally recognized independence, with the parties settling their differences by political means and not the barrel of the gun.   

This is the last Chimurenga in Zimbabwe, I declared as I continued watching events develop in Zimbabwe like everyone else around the world who wished Zimbabwe the absolute best. My assertion was a verbal expression of elated hope that Zimbabwe will become a model for the rest of Africa when the dust of the week’s events settles and a better way forward is mapped by both the country’s leaders and its citizens! I was very optimistic that the Zimbabwe story has enough lessons ingrained in it for the rest of Africa to garner. I was convinced that through the story and unimpeachable continent-wide Chimurengas, Africa can rise above the never-ending degeneration at long last! Chimurenga, the Shona word that can be interpreted to mean everyone needed to participate in a fight, struggle or revolution for human rights, political dignity and social justice was being personified before our very eyes as well-attended, exuberant and super peaceful public demonstrations continued to lend legitimacy to the intervention by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. Under the constitution, it was the masses of Zimbabwe that could legally terminate the tenure of a sitting President and not the army. Consequently, a well educated and fully informed Zimbabwe Defence Force understood that the army needed a nod from the masses of Zimbabwe for their intervention to transition more smoothly to the next level in a legal process mandated by the constitution of Zimbabwe.  The masses obliged with jubilation and a re-ignition of the true spirit of Chimurenga! The people’s peaceful demonstrations organized in Harare and all major towns in the country beginning on Saturday, November 18, 2017 to support the actions of the army spoke loud and clear. They became a legally binding demand for the commander in chief of Zimbabwe to step down or face the full wrath of the law through impeachment.   

It was obvious that Zimbabweans expected a complete reversal of their country’s extreme retrogression to Rhodesian times and this could only be accomplished through a true Chimurenga, not a distorted version. Something had gone terribly wrong between the euphoria of Zimbabwe’s Independence and the day Robert Gabriel Mugabe resigned as President of Zimbabwe on November 21, 2017.  Something unplanned had obviously occurred throughout the 37 years following the official end to the second Chimurenga and the big win for the people of Zimbabwe when Robert Gabriel Mugabe took over the oars after being democratically elected Prime Minister.  However, there is still a lot of hope for the country to metamorphose into the beautiful multi-coloured butterfly the masses of Zimbabwe fought for during the second Chimurenga.  Instead of turning into an elegant butterfly, Zimbabwe experienced arrested development and it degenerated into an ugly caterpillar that continued crawling in dirt!   

Zimbabweans can collectively fix their country with the correct Chimurenga, I dialogued as I browsed through a quick chronology of the week’s events and became fixated on the inauguration speech by Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the new President of Zimbabwe. 

Updates of events evolving in Zimbabwe by various news outlets had been splashed everywhere. Although there were reports of arrests by the Zimbabwe military and alleged ill-treatment of some of the individuals declared to be the criminals that were responsible for the army’s intervention, a publicly disciplined Zimbabwe Defence Force had continued to manage the turning point in Zimbabwe’s 37 years of existence as an independent African country with distinguished protocol. In other words, publicly, everything appeared very peaceful and the Zimbabwe military continued to display exceptional professionalism. The army never broke its promise to defend the country’s constitution and protect the very commander in chief that was at the centre of the quandary. By Wednesday afternoon November 15, 2017, the roadblocks around key government buildings in Harare had been removed. Armoured vehicles were off the streets and there was no longer extra security in the Borrowdale suburb, where most senior officials had their private homes. This had signalled the return to normalcy promised by Major General Sibusiso Moyo in his statement to placate the public. It supported a fair guess that most of the key alleged criminals responsible for the country’s degradation had been brought to book. Although there was less overall traffic in the city and armoured vehicles remained at key locations in the capital city Harare, on Thursday November 16, 2017, ordinary citizens continued their normal activities as if nothing out of the ordinary was occurring in Zimbabwe. This continued to speak volumes about the effectiveness of using a legal option backed by the threat of force to recover a people’s ruined aspiration. 

The fact that President Mugabe presided at a graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University in Harare on Friday, November 17, 2017 while the tacit coup d’état was still in motion affirmed the high regard the Zimbabwe National Army had for the country’s constitution.   

Please click on the link to view   "Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, center, arrives to preside over a student graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University on the outskirts of Harare".