Time to address Zimbabwe’s post-independence errors: A crying letter to our esteemed war veterans

I, Moses Tofa, decided to write this “crying letter” to Zimbabwe’s esteemed war veterans. Note that I use the word “esteemed” cautiously because there are many Zimbabweans who have credible reasons for not holding our comrades in esteem despite the gruesome sacrifices which they made during the liberation struggle.

We, as Zimbabweans, know why the liberation war was fought. We know that it was not fought for the benefit of individuals, families, or group(s).

We know that it was fought to uproot colonial injustices, to restore the collective freedoms, rights, dignity, and wellbeing of all Zimbabweans, to liberate Zimbabwe’s natural resources from the unrepentant vultures of colonialism and ensure that they belong to all Zimbabweans, and to take Zimbabwe on a new path of inclusive development.

We, as Zimbabweans, also know and deeply acknowledge the supreme price that our comrades paid to liberate Zimbabwe from colonialism. Many of our comrades paid with their own blood.

This explains why no one can credibly contest the historical fact that when Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, war veterans were a highly regarded constituency of the Zimbabwean society.

In fact, it is difficult to think of any other group in Zimbabwe that carved out pride of place in the Zimbabwean society as the war veterans did.

I vividly remember the overwhelmingly happy atmosphere that saturated Zimbabwe during the first decade of independence, but always remember Gukurahundi.

As boys and girls, we would sit around the fire as our elders narrated incredibly heroic, heart-wrenching, and movie-like stories of the liberation struggle: the comrades who were brutally killed or maimed by the colonial regime, the comrades who joined the liberation struggle and never came back home until the struggle was over, the villagers who lost their limbs, life, and livelihoods, the villagers who were killed after being falsely accused of siding with the enemy, how the villagers were always viciously caught between the Rhodesian forces and the comrades, the difficult life that was endured by the villagers in concentration camps (makipi), how our elder brothers and sisters forsook educational and other opportunities (voluntarily or by force) to join the liberation struggle, the harassment and abuses that characterised the liberation struggle, especially against young women, the fear of violent death that reigned over the villages, how the day-to-day activities of the villagers were constantly disrupted by the war, and how our parents were caught in the crossfire and dodged stray bullets while we were strapped on their back.

I affectionately remember how, as boys and girls, we deeply applauded and appreciated the sacrifices that were made by our comrades during the liberation struggle.

Our elders were experts in telling the stories of the liberation struggle such that we were able to visualise the whole struggle as it unfolded. We felt, not only as if we witnessed the liberation struggle ourselves, but as if we participated in it.

We were young, but we were able to comprehend the values and aspirations that undergirded the liberation struggle. I remember how we passionately and seamlessly connected with the values of the liberation struggle.

We also strongly connected with the people of Zimbabwe that we did not know in real life because they lived in other parts of the country, far from our village. Indeed, we lived far from each other, but we enjoyed a shared atmosphere of triumph.

This signature connection was fortified by the inspirations and energies of liberation war songs and the national anthem. Indeed, it appeared that the signature song “Tondosangana kuZimbabwe” had been amazingly filled.

Today, Zimbabwe is approaching half a century into independence. I do appreciate the small gains that we made as a nation since 1980. However, whenever I juxtapose the values and expectations that undergirded the liberation struggle with what Zimbabwe is today, my heart of hearts breaks down.

This is because I see a Zimbabwe that tragically departed from the values and expectations of the liberation struggle.

I shudder to imagine that there are comrades who fought valiantly to liberate Zimbabwe, with many of them still restlessly lying in mass and shallow graves that are far from home and many others struggling with life threatening injuries which they incurred during the war.

Let me take corruption as an example. You need to have a seared conscience for you not to see and condemn the vile corruption that has devoured Zimbabwe.

During the liberation struggle, corruption was, in all its forms and manifestations, roundly abhorred. Some of the values of the liberation struggle are passionately encapsulated in the lyrics of a famous liberation war song; Nzira Dzemasoja.

There are ways in which soldiers of the liberation struggle conduct themselves: Obey all ancestral spirits in ways that are good. We should not take the belongings of our masses. Surrender all the things that were taken from the enemy.

Speak respectfully to the masses so that they can understand the objectives of the liberation struggle. Duly pay for the things that you buy. Return all the things that you took from the masses.

Let us not commit sexual abuse in the liberation struggle. Let us not torture the captives that we would have captured. These are the words that were uttered in ancient days by Mr Mao as he taught us.

You can tell from this legendary song that a Zimbabwe that is free from corruption was one of the cardinal aspirations of the liberation struggle.

It is conscience-wrenching when one juxtaposes the values of the liberation struggle with the genocidal corruption that is mostly committed, protected, promoted, tolerated, and enabled by the very comrades who executed the heroic liberation struggle.

There is no doubt that had we remained true to the values of the liberation struggle, we would not have the breadth and depth of corruption that we have today. What we are witnessing today is not nzira dzemasoja, it is nzira dzembava.

Anyone who participated in the liberation struggle who has a pure conscience can never accept or protect the vile corruption that we have been seeing in Zimbabwe since the late 1980s.

It is heart-wrenching to take stock of the resources that we have as a nation against the economic wretchedness that is afflicting our nation. We are celebrating the construction of roads and bridges in the 21st century while other countries are in the era of Artificial Intelligence.

We use political office, tenders, and “development projects” as avenues to access and loot state resources without a grain of conscience. We have failed, not only to build new infrastructure, but even to maintain the infrastructure that we inherited from the colonial regime.

Our hospitals are death traps. They do not have even the first line of defense. Most of our roads are in a state of disaster. Our education system has collapsed. Local authorities cannot provide basic services such as water, electricity, and even garbage collection.

The unemployment rate is seating at more than 95 percent. Our people have been forced to leave the country in large numbers.

The Chinese and other foreign interests are exploiting our natural resources, desecrating our natural environment, harassing our people, and evicting them from their ancestral land, the very land which was fought for.

It is unutterably painful to imagine that it is never possible, either in this age or in the age to come, for Zimbabwean companies operating in China, if at all they can, to evict the Chinese from their land and exploit China’s natural resources; but it is a norm for Chinese companies operating in Zimbabwe to evict Zimbabweans from their ancestral land and carry out a state-sanctioned heist.

Today, most Zimbabweans, especially those who were born after independence, argue that the independence struggle was fought in futility and that independence is not worthy celebrating.

As I am writing this article, there is a raging debate on social media about comparisons between the colonial regime and the post-colonial government, with many Zimbabweans arguing that the colonial regime was better than the post-colonial one.

That this comparison is being made is a strong statement about the unimaginable failures of the postcolonial state.

It is saddening to hear Zimbabweans confidently making such claims, especially considering the dehumanization that Zimbabweans endured under the racist and ruthless colonial regime and the price that was paid to liberate Zimbabwe.

However, it is wrong and lazy to insult and demonize Zimbabweans who believe that the liberation struggle was fought in futility.

This is because ours is a painful story of a liberation project that went rogue. It is true that unspeakable sacrifices were made to liberate Zimbabwe from colonialism. However, while sacrifices are important, they are not important in and of themselves.

This is because they are not an end, but a means to an expected end. It is tragic that the sacrifices of the liberation struggle were intended to benefit the masses but they are benefiting only a few.

Sacrifices that failed to achieve the end for which they were made, especially because they were desecrated by the very people who made them, cannot be appreciated by those who did not make them. It is therefore justifiable for the masses to view them as “egocentric sacrifices”.

From where I sit, there are three tragic errors that our esteemed war veterans made after independence. The first error is that they took a political side and sought to establish themselves as the bastion of that political side.

They mistakenly thought that this political side would allow them to continue championing the values and expectations of the liberation struggle.

This was expected because the liberation struggle was itself political.

However, it was a huge miscalculation because by taking a political side, our comrades allowed themselves to be fashioned into a partisan political weapon and this alienated them from the masses who were their “water” during the liberation struggle.

They should have known that their power is naturally embedded in the masses and that should they take a political side, they will naturally lose a bigger share of that power.

For them to continue fighting for the values and expectations of independence, they should have remained as a non-partisan force that is above and beyond political parties and interests.

This is because any meaningful fight to change society should not be built on partisan politics, but on core values and aspirations that are supreme to partisan politics.

Our war veterans needed to gain the respect and trust of Zimbabweans across the political divide.

What it means is that at independence, they should have transitioned from a partisan and weaponized political force to a formidable “force of values” to which all Zimbabweans account, whether ruling or opposition.

They were supposed to be regarded by all Zimbabweans as the center of accountability, the fountain of wisdom, and the compass from which all Zimbabweans seek counsel regarding the direction of the country.

They were supposed to be a force of unity that maintains and cements the unity that the people of Zimbabwe had during the independence struggle.

This would have positioned them as the chief whip of the national affairs of Zimbabwe. The polarization and toxicity that is afflicting Zimbabwe today is largely because our comrades failed to play a unifying role.

During the liberation struggle, while our comrades used fear, they also emphasized the need to respectfully talk to the masses and convince them to support the struggle.

After independence, our comrades focused on using fear, coercion, and intimidation against the masses, especially those who are opposed to the ruling party. Instead of making itself accountable to our comrades, the ruling party took them as a political tool with which to retain power.

The ruling party was supposed to be afraid of departing from the values of the liberation struggle because of the knowledge that the no-nonsense war veterans would not accept that aberration.

Comrades, by taking a political side, you took a tragic departure from the collective values and aspirations that undergirded the liberation struggle. You moved from the pursuit of collective good to the pursuit of egocentric and individualistic good.

The second error which our comrades made is that they became more concerned with their welfare instead of the welfare of the nation as a whole.

Scholars such as Norma Kriger argue that the war veterans portrayed themselves as “victims of official neglect” and used their contribution to the liberation struggle to justify their claims for preferential access to state resources: jobs, promotions, compensations, pensions, and land.

There is no one who can credibly refute the position that after independence, it was non-negotiable for the government to purposefully promote and protect the welfare of our comrades.

However, while the wellbeing of war veterans is vitally important, it should never be dissociated and differentiated from the wellbeing of the larger Zimbabwean society for which the liberation war was fought.

In fact, the wellbeing of the war veterans is best promoted and protected in a context where the wellbeing of all Zimbabweans is promoted and protected.

We ought to always remember that what made the liberation struggle meaningful is that it was fought to achieve collective arrival and not individualistic arrival and that true arrival is collective and not individualistic.

The third error which our comrades made is that they wrongly believed that in post-independence Zimbabwe, the liberation cause could only be protected and furthered by one group of people who are united by their political affiliation.

The truth is that building a nation is an intergenerational project which is above and beyond partisan politics. There is no meaningful journey that can only be finished by those who started it.

If you want to set yourself for failure in this life, then consider yourself as the alpha and omega of the journey that you would have started. Comrades, we want a Zimbabwe that is not centered on partisan politics, but on collective values and aspirations.

I would like to conclude by saying to our comrades that you fought a good fight against the colonial regime, but after independence, you took a tragic departure from the values and expectations that undergirded the liberation struggle. It is not helpful for you to deny this reality, it what it is.

You need to go back to the masses and sincerely confess the errors that you made, by commission and omission, and assure them that you are now taking foolproof steps to address them. In this life, we all make mistakes.

What distinguishes us from each other is our attitude towards the mistakes that we make. Those who acknowledge their mistakes and commit to take corrective action succeed but those who refuse to do so fail.

To our esteemed war veterans, find it in your heart to acknowledge the errors that you made and do the best that you can to address them. Your window is closing. In the next few years, you will all be dead.

I implore you to make use of the last window that is still available to you. Otherwise, you will go to your graves with a toxic legacy. You fought from the right side of history, but you will die on the wrong side of history, tragic! Comrades, I respect you. Gracias.

Dr Moses Tofa is a Research Leader, political analyst, and self-critical Pan-Africanist. He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Johannesburg and a PhD in Conflict Studies from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He is the Head of Research at the African Federation’s TAF Governance. He is also an Investigator at the University of Andes, Colombia. He writes in his capacity. He can be reached at [email protected], Twitter handle: @DrDrMTofa.