Luke-ing the Beast in the Eye: A nation of heroes —- Rethinking national hero status

Today, Zimbabweans celebrate Heroes Day; that day when national valour is honoured and cherished on our land.

It is that day when we remember, salute and commemorate the huge sacrifice that went into liberating this country from the yoke of racism, repression, oppression, indignity and colonialism.

I have often said the biggest national folly over the years has been to regard heroism as only limited and confined to the sons and daughters of this land who held the gun during our liberation struggle.

As a nation, we ought to seriously rethink and reflect on this monumental handicap.

Heroes Day should be a day to celebrate national heroism in all areas of endeavour including sport, the arts and other non-political vocations.

Even the new heroes that have emerged in our current political struggle to complete the unfinished business of our sacred war of liberation deserve recognition too.

True, our national war of liberation will remain an epic chapter in our national story considering that our national independence did not come cheap.

Zimbabweans—both villagers and the liberation war fighters—combined as fish and water to swim the nation to political independence in April 1980.

It will always remain a unique tale of national heroism that this country waged a brutal war of liberation to subdue racist and colonial repression.

Indeed, many paid the supreme price. Thousands of patriotic sons and daughters of this land lost their limbs so the collective national whim could walk again.

Today, we remember their heroism that delivered a whole nation and its sovereignty.

The tragedy is that we have narrowed this great day only to the celebration of our political achievement.

But heroism is not just political. Many gallant sons and daughters of our land have exhibited and displayed valour in many other spheres that ought to be included in these moments that we cherish national heroism.

This fixation with gallantry as depicting only the story of our liberation struggle has led to the tragic folly in which a partisan organ determines and declares heroes in our country.

But even within Zanu PF itself, we recently saw the inconsistencies and contradictions when Sydney Gata was declared a national hero, a status denied to the decorated soldier and war veteran, Claudius Makova, who died a few days later.

True heroism, even if a nation decides to go for declaring it, should have such declaration and conferment done by a non-partisan, multi-stakeholder national committee that looks at excellence beyond the current narrow, biased political lens.

Even if politics were to be the yardstick of heroism—which it should not–heroes are not necessarily found in Zanu PF.

All those patriotic Zimbabweans including Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Zivanai Tekere and Morgan Tsvangirai were and are national heroes too.

We may sit in our motley political group called the Politburo and claim to be “declaring” national heroes but the truth is that true heroism is never declared or conferred by anyone.

True heroism is attained in one’s lifetime; it is the cherished memories human beings leave behind in the course of the storied journeys of their lives.

Nelson Mandela died a few years ago and was buried in his home village of Qunu, not in any special acre or hectare reserved for heroes.

Yet world leaders, including the then US President Barrack Obama and our own Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai descended on that village as the world saluted the global icon.

No ANC caucus sat anywhere to confer Madiba with hero status but his funeral in that village grabbed world attention and left no one under any shadow of doubt that true heroism is never conferred.

It imposes itself.

As Zimbabwe celebrates Heroes’ Day today, we must reflect on whether we are doing justice in the way we cherish national excellence.

One would have thought this is the moment to celebrate our country’s sons and daughters in all spheres whose works and capabilities have shone through the mediocrity of our time.

Heroes go beyond politics. We all have our frailties as mortal human beings but I will hazard a personal view and say today we ought to be celebrating our national heroes such as Peter Ndlovu, Moses Chunga, George Shaya, Willard “Mashinkila” Khumalo, Thomas Mapfumo, Alick Macheso, Benjani Mwaruwaru, Byron, Wayne and Cara Black, among many others.

On Oliver Mtukudzi, we did well by granting him the highest national honour.

Heroes Day should indeed be broadened for the nation to spare a thought for Proud “Kilimanjaro” Chinembiri, Afonso Zvenyika, Jairos Jiri, Margaret Dongo and the many sons and daughters of this great land whose achievements we must all cherish across the racial, political, religious and ethnic divide.

Today, we should be celebrating the gallantry of an unsung heroine of our land, Progress Muzuva, the Bikita nurse who was rewarded with a broken spine for her selfless service to a thankless government.

This Wednesday, on the seventh anniversary of her sordid ordeal, I will do a separate piece in honour of her exemplary service in the health ministry.

On this day , we should remember even our Mighty Warriors who in 2016 were one of only two teams representing the African continent at the Rio Olympics in Brazil. They were in Rio de Janeiro representing not even national but continental excellence.

We must always cherish their achievement.

Only recently, our national rugby team, the Sables, clobbered the continent and emerged champions of Africa. They will now represent the continent at the Rugby World Cup scheduled for Australia in 2027.

They are national heroes.

Heroes’ day should be about celebrating the broad successes and achievements of this nation’s sons and daughters in their various zones of distinction.

Given our painful national moment, I wish to conclude by saying today should be about celebrating every Zimbabwean within and outside the country.

Indeed, we are a nation of heroes and heroines.

When you have millions of people slugging out a living every day with whole families surviving on less than US$1 a day, they are national heroes.

The rest of us are vendors and small-time traders, honestly earning a living through the rigours of honest, hard work.

We are national heroes

Those millions who survive by selling wares on the pavements of our cities need to be celebrated today. They chose a life of honesty and hard work.

They too are national heroes.

Millions of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have left the country to do menial jobs but collectively, every year, they remit billions of dollars that are aiding national sustenance.

They are national heroes.

Those old men and women in the villages queuing for food handouts without raising a whimper of the indignity of it all are true national heroes.

The civil servants who toil every day and wait patiently for inadequate tokenism at the end of the month are national heroes.

They deserve to be celebrated today.

Indeed, we are a nation of heroes but when it comes to those to be buried at the National Heroes Acre; there must be a non-partisan, multi-stakeholder committee to do the job.

Otherwise the Zanu PF politburo is not fit for that noble purpose.

If anything, the Zanu PF politburo has desecrated the National Heroes Acre by recommending thieves, conmen, philanderers and murderers to be buried there.

It is ridiculously ironic that even Robert Mugabe, for all his certified murderous and villainous credentials, refused to be buried there!

Happy Heroes day Zimbabwe!

Luke Tamborinyoka is a Zimbabwean citizen from Domboshava. He is a journalist and a political scientist by profession. You can interact with him on Facebook or on the twitter handle @luke_tambo.