The spirit of
this nation is female. Yes, Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana. If you ask me, I’d say Nehanda
Nyakasikana was Zimbaremambwe’s ultimate feminist. She remains undying and
immortalized in history and legend. To her name we now add the respectful title of “Mbuya” – the real “machembere”, as Zimbabwe’s urban youth would
glorify anything magnificent. The maternity section of Harare’s
Parirenyatwa Hospital is now named after her – such a life-giving name in
this now wretched place where our women give birth. The College of Health
Sciences of the once great University of Zimbabwe is also located
there.
 |
| Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi in captivity, 1896. |
The story is told
that when subjugation and humiliation came, Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi,
they not having attended law school or any manner of school, and they not
having read the Bill of Rights or anything of that sort, knew that their
dignity and humanity had been stripped. That this was fundamentally wrong did
not escape them, and they knew they needed to act. And they did.
They rose, with
blood, sweat and tears to set themselves free in the land of their forefathers,
their heritage. They could not fathom the idea of being slum-dwellers, squatters
in their own land, begging for bread and butter. They needed their land,
freedom and dignity back.
But there was a
problem: the white settler from overseas had guns and cannons. Mbuya Nehanda
and Sekuru Kaguvi didn’t. They had bows and arrows and spears blacksmithed from
whatever little iron they could gather through the yet-to-be developed
extraction mechanisms. They were under no illusion: from the start, they knew
they would be defeated; the weaponry was just not equal to the task. Yet they
went ahead and fought. For them, what they were fighting for was an ideal they
could not let go and fold hands on. Like Steve Biko would say, they believed it
was better to die for an idea that would live, than live for an idea that would
die. So they fought. And yes, they were defeated. They were killed. They were
hanged. That is how we lost Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi. They put themselves
on the line for us. A master class on sacrifice, right? But then here is the phenomenal
thing: they lost that First Chimurenga battle but they started a revolution
which continued beyond their deaths. “My bones
will rise again,” she said under that tree where she was hanged. And they rose.
Those who remained regrouped, re-strategized and fought on, and the
Second Chimurenga was fire! The rest is history. Nehanda’s
heroism became a significant source of inspiration in the nationalist struggle
for liberation in the 1960s and 1970s. The result: white minority oppressive
rule was defeated and the black majority took their country back. And Ian Smith
and his unholy “not in a 1000 years” declaration? Egg-faced and later self-exiled
to the Cape where he met his demise! Down south across the Limpopo, young Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu would later walk
and die in true Mbuya Nehanda fashion: “My blood will nourish the tree that
will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must
continue the fight”, he said.
In those days,
young boys and girls risked and left everything and they went to fight; they
believed in their nation. They were true patriots. On their own volition they
left school, left their villages, husbands and wives, and they crossed the angry
rivers and skipped the treacherous mountains into camps in Mozambique and
Zambia. They were fearless. Without smartphones and internet, they organized
and they mobilized. They brought home independence.
Fast-forward 37
years after independence. Today, we face a situation that faced Mbuya Nehanda
and Sekuru Kaguvi. Some of those who took over and fought for this country are now
good boys and girls gone bad. The dreams Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi rose
up for, are the same we yearn for today; same land, same people. Those who
claim intellectual property rights over the struggle our parents and
grandparents fought now behave like they have title deeds to our country. Is
there any difference between them and the likes of Cecil Rhodes who claimed
title to whole heritages and even named nations after them? Remember Rhodesia?
Is that not what was being fought against? Those erstwhile liberators now play
the hopes of the people – those dusky imitators of petit bourgeois Europe; far
worse that they learnt the oppressors’ way and now behave more fierce than
they. Chinua Achebe must be telling Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi: “I warned
these people before I left!”
Question: if
Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi were here today, what would they have done? Fold
hands and watch? Make social media jokes out of their suffering and laugh at
themselves? Throw stones at those who dare rise and speak out? Nah! Those two
were allergic to indignity, exploitation, suffering without action, disenfranchisement
and subjugation. Certainly they would not have suffered in silence and then
congratulate each other for being “resilient” as they suffer some more!
Yes, the forms of
struggle now take different shapes. But the point remains: there is a struggle
and a decision to be made. You decide what you want to do about it and how you
would want to wage your struggle: vote; run as a candidate; conscientise the masses; support progressive running
candidates – you decide, as long as it’s positive action to contribute to your
liberation and economic freedom against the former liberator-turned oppressor. Nehanda
and Kaguvi fought guns and cannons with bows and arrows out of love for their
dignity and their country. And today? Today we are dead scared of the Great
One’s army, police, CIOs and party militias, so much so that very few ever
speak or act in the face of injustice and disenfranchisement. Nehanda and Kaguvi
knew they could die by speaking out and acting, but they also knew they could
and would die if they remained silent and inert!
Published by Kubatana.net in the Weekend Reading - 21 July 2017
