By Hon Job Wiwa Sikhala
31st July Movement
Isolated from family, friends and acquaintances gave me time and opportunity to deeply reflect and search in heart and soul the meaning of everything that is happens in my life and many other Zimbabweans as well. I was six years old in 1980 and l remember vividly my Uncle, the youngest of my father’s siblings Samuel Sikhala who is my closest friend today of all my family members arguing with my father and my other Uncle. The argument was on why it was right to vote for PF ZAPU and Joshua Nkomo for a new independence leadership of our country as they prepared to go to Pamushana Mission to vote. They agreed all of them including their wives, to vote for PF ZAPU. Although young, l understood what they were conspiring to. As a young boy l was always taken to pungwes of ZANLA forces by one Chidoori who purported to be a Svikiro possessed by the Spirit of Mbuya Nehanda who was given sanctuary by my father at our family farm after he ran away from his Mandivengerei village from Bikita. He claimed that the Smith regime security agencies wanted to kill him for the role he was playing for the liberation struggle. On daily basis ZANLA freedom fighters led by comrades Kasikai, Bonde and others were always camping at our farm as it had mountainous and forest hideouts.
I always witnessed my mother’s chickens eaten daily. On other days, young village boys would be send to neighbouring farms to get chickens and mealie meal to feed the guerrillas. Chidoori would smear the ZANLA combatants with snuff (Bute) after making some growling noises which he said was some form of communication and conveyance of the messages to the ancestors and Spirits above. Chidoori lived 23 kms from the Smith forces that were hounding him from his village in Bikita. For almost 2 years he stayed at our home from 1978 to 1980. For all this long they wouldn’t know where he was. He only went back to his village after independence.
It did not take long for people in independent Zimbabwe to live the same life which Chidoori lived. PF ZAPU supporters everywhere started to be hounded for alleged insurrection. Anyone supporting PF ZAPU was labelled a dissident, terrorists as opponents of the current government are being labelled. This included men and women in villages who only had their hoes and ploughs as their weapons of survival. Dear Zimbabweans, some Zimbabweans of deflated mindset urged on the ZANU PF government to assassinate Joshua Nkomo. They labelled him all sorts of names that are currently being thrown against all opponents of the system.
Dear Zimbabweans, in our sober reflections today many of those who supported the persecution of Joshua Nkomo and his supporters are regretting. The sin of omission and commission haunts all of them to the present day. We lacked unity and persued parochial sectoral and party interests. Our daily preoccupation was obsession with power. The hunting for power superceded the core challenges of our society. We sow evil, division among ourselves and normalised absurdities. We lacked compact unity and voice to say this is wrong and we can not allow it. A wrong is a wrong.
Those who are abducting and killing our kith and kin do not have anything or a decent home they call theirs. They are suffering like all of us when their masters eat in abundance. They kill someone for pittance reward and nothing more. It is common in cursed societies, where someone kills for a dollar.
Never again shall we ever be divided by the rulers for them continue plundering our nation. Today, all Zimbabweans have found their voices. Let the voices continue to echo. From Human Rights organisations to Catholic Bishops, to Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe to every men and women in the streets, professional bodies to everyone. Speak Zimbabwe Speak. Let nothing divide us again as a people. Lets remain resolute.
#Free Hopewell Chin’ono
#Free Jacob Ngarivhume
#Free Godfrey Kurauone
NO to Corruption
NO to Looting
NO to Abductions
NO to Torture
NO to Violence Against the Citizens
NO to All Forms of Human Rights Abuses
#ZimbabweUnited
##ZimbabweansLivesMatter.
