Zimbabwe Silver Jubilee 25 Years of Independence, Democracy and Development ZIMBABWE We Will Not Capitulate

Zimbabwe Silver Jubilee 25 years of Independence, Democracy and Development ZIMBABWE We will not capitulate An Special Report Zimbabwe Silver Jubilee 25 years of Independence, Democracy and Development Swaziland“It was the bulletEnglish Language that brought the ballot” Zimbabwenationalsm is 25 years old as an independent country. The year-long celebrations kicked off on 17 April (eve of independence) with a state reception where honours and awards were given to Zimbabwean heroes and luminaries of Southern Africa who played key roles in the country’s struggle for independence (see story on p12). Looking back over the past 25 years, the country has changed so much for the better in every sphere of national life (despite the economic downturn of recent years) that it is diffi cult for its citizens to remember there ever was a mini-apartheid state in the same land they now live in. It is a credit to the fi ghting spirit of the Zimbabweans. t was a British prime minister who once said “a week is a long time in politics”. Today Britain is a dirty word in Zimbabwe – and vice versa. But going by the prime minister’s reckoning, 25 years must be a very long time in Ithe life of a nation, at least if that nation is called Zimbabwe where the “born frees” (the post independence generation) can hardly fathom what life was before independence on 18 April 1980. Compared to those days, the country has changed so much for the better in the last 25 years that even the older generation have to pinch themselves to remember that the following was the norm in their country before independence: g No African was allowed to keep more than a herd of six cattle; any government offi cial could seize the excess. This, in a land where cattle was king, and keeping cattle was the main occupation of the people. g No African was allowed to go out after 6pm without a letter (deemed as a pass) written by a European giving the date and time limits of the travel or outing. g No African was allowed to sell his maize produce directly 23 March 2005: President Mugabe on the campaign trail – regular elections during the to the state-owned Grains Marketing Board (GMB). That was last 25 years of independence have made Zimbabweans forget the era when Africans reserved for white farmers. The African sold his produce only were not allowed to vote to the Farmers Co-operatives run by white farmers, who then sold on the maize at huge profi t to the GMB. g Pavements were reserved for white people, and no African g No African was allowed in a supermarket. There was a hole was allowed to walk on them even when there were no whites in the wall where all African shoppers were made to queue around. Africans walked on the road which they shared with for hours, and from where they shouted at the African shop cars owned by white people. If an African saw a white person assistants inside the supermarket what they wanted to buy. on the pavement, he stood aside, at attention, until the white g No African was allowed in First Street in the heart of the person walked past. capital, Salisbury (now Harare) where all the big banks, owned g No African was allowed to vote. That was reserved for by white companies, were situated. In this way, Africans were whites. It took a bitter war of liberation in which African blood denied capital to start their own businesses. The place for the was shed in copious quantities to get the current one-person- African was on white-owned farms and homes where they one-vote system in the country. It makes the current hoohah toiled for hours as labourers and domestics for very little pay. in Europe and elsewhere over democracy and human rights in 2 Special Report n June 2005 Overview All interviews and articles in this Special Report where conducted and written by the editor of New African, Baffour Ankomah Zimbabwe a rather hypocritical and insincere affair. waged by our people for nearly a century, struggles meant to Human memory is really a wonderful thing. Otherwise, dislodge British settler colonialism which, in 1890, had planted how else could 25 years appear so long ago that the norm in itself on our soil through force of arms. Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) could so easily be forgotten, an When this day finally arrived, we had paid the price of obnoxious norm perpetrated by descendants of the European British bondage for 90 long and arduous years of systematic continent which today, in a state of self righteousness, has assault and injury to our body and soul as a nation under imposed sanctions (smart, economic and more besides) on occupation. To this day, we bear the lasting scars of that dark Zimbabwe for not being “democratic enough”, for allegedly encounter with colonialism, often described as civilising. abusing the human rights of its citizens, and for “not observing Important as it is, this magic day of 18 April did not mark the rule of law”. our destination or herald the end of our struggles. 18 April In 1926 (equally not very long ago), when Southern Rhodesia announced the beginning of new and even more demanding became a self-governing colony, its first prime minister, struggles ahead. We had to secure peace; we had to integrate the medical doctor Godfrey Huggins promoted the idea of three previously warring armies; we had to resettle thousands “partnership between blacks and whites”. When asked to be of displaced persons and refugees from the war; and we had more specific about what he meant by “partnership”, Prime to rehabilitate a war-ravaged countryside. The challenge was Minister Huggins calmly replied: “I am talking about a daunting, a real matter of faith. partnership between a horse and a rider.” Twenty-five years later, we have an opportunity to look at Thirty-nine years later, Ian Smith – one of Huggins’ how we have lived as a nation since then. But we do so having successors in State House in Salisbury – a man who thumped achieved the landmark of 25 years which this day, 18 April, his nose at his kith and kin in London and rebelliously declared represents, for it was the day on which, in 1980, we proclaimed self-government in Rhodesia in 1965, who still lives a free man our birth and presence to the world with a collective voice. in Zimbabwe and criticises the current The emotion-laden visual of that government like there is no tomorrow, proclamation was the lowering of the famously declared that “black majority Union Jack – the British flag – and its rule will never happen in my life-time, not “In 1926, the Southern Rhodesian subsequent replacement by our own. The even in a thousand years”. prime minister, Godfrey Huggins, lowering of the Union Jack was a ceremony Fifteen years later, on 18 April 1980, promoted the idea of ‘partnership performed by a British royal person – His the poor man was eating humble pie as between blacks and whites’. When Royal Highness, Prince Charles, now being black majority rule swept into town on asked to be more specific about maligned for recently shaking my hand in what he meant by ‘partnership’, the heels of the demise of his white-only he calmly responded: ‘I am Rome, at the funeral of our Pontiff, Pope government and discriminatory policies. talking about a partnership between John Paul II. But I had met him several The African revolution was on, and 25 a horse and a rider’.” times before. Was it not one revered Briton years down the road, the man who led the who said a century or so ago that ‘small country to independence, Robert Gabriel minds and great empires go ill together?’. Mugabe, can justifiably – despite the last five years of Western Comrades and friends, when we ascended to full sovereignty economic sanctions leading to a massive turndown in the and freedom, we clearly communicated our resolve never again fortunes of the country – blow a bit of his own horn for turning to be in bondage. The new flag represented the wealth we carry the land formerly ruled by discrimination into a lovely place for as a nation, although, sadly, it was wealth we were not able to all its citizens. control or take over quickly. That, of course, included our land, On 18 April 2005, as Zimbabwe celebrated its silver jubilee as and that which grows on it, and all that which is embedded a free nation, President Mugabe, hugely rejuvenated in health deep within its bowels. 23 March 2005: President Mugabe on the campaign trail – regular elections during the last 25 years of independence have made Zimbabweans forget the era when Africans from the last time I saw him in December 2003, and bearing The new flag also expressed our deep compassion, our wish were not allowed to vote no visible marks of the bruises from the recent wars with his and offer of peace to the world. As a war-weary people, we badly former colonial masters, let his achievements of the past 25 needed it, both at home and abroad. And the circumstances years speak for him. His anniversary speech, coming on the were most delicate, for the embittered Rhodesians were plotting back of a sudden turnaround of the economy in 2004, was a the reversal of the people’s revolution… masterpiece of a review of the last 25 years, and deserves to be [But] a united people can never be really defeated.

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