Correcting historical issues is impossible

In the twenty-first century, there are people obsessed with attempting to address historical issues. The African continent is betrayed by those attempting to correct colonial injustices, committed by powerful nations. No one can give life to those who perished during colonialism.

In recent times, Afro-Americans have displayed their commitment to tracing their African roots. However, this can be a daunting task for several reasons. The first reason is that it is impossible to connect with the culture that existed at the time of ancestral slavery. Secondly, by virtue of those complainants having been born in America, they would be Americans.

Thirdly, it is impossible for them to connect with their tribal identities. Fourthly, language would be a barrier, let alone that most African languages are headed for their demise. Fifthly, there are no administrative structural consistencies among those Africans, affected by greed and corruption.

However, the more slavery issues are put on the table the more susceptible to slavery those blacks would be. The best thing is for the vulnerable races to promote the eradication of racial tensions, according to the United Nations charter on Human Rights. Those attempting to address past evils, by pursuing seclusion would be attempting to do the impossible.

The Mthwakazi Republican Party, (MRP) is very clear when advancing tribal agenda. Ndebele speakers are encouraged to separate their relationships with the Shona-speaking people. The objective goal is to create a Ndebele kingdom, dissociated from the Shona-speaking administration.

They assume that to be correcting the tribal injustices perpetrated in the early 1980s. However, just as the perpetrators of Gukurahundi were genocidal and insane, the advocates of the Ndebele kingdom agenda are driven by insanity, attracted by the Gukurahundi genocide. There are two reasons supporting this assertion.

The two reasons manifesting the unworkability of such idiosyncrasies lie in falsehood. The first is mistaking language for a tribe. Language alone cannot exclusively describe a person’s tribal identity. It merely denotes a common communication formula, used in a particular area. The second reason is that the MRP uses emotion more than it ought to use reason.

The perpetrators of Gukurahundi had one common objective. This was to eliminate opposition so that everyone would agree to their dictatorial agenda, driven by a one-party system of governance. The short-sighted ordinary people agreed, but without examining the workability of such an agenda.

Some countries are governed by a one-party-state system. Such a method may not be different from a monarchy. As long as adopted with clearly defined intentions, I suppose a one-party state could be as workable as some monarchial governance can be workable. Problems arise where there would be dishonesty. Rather than Engage the public in a referendum, such dishonest characters purport to champion the cause of democracy but pursue dictatorships.

Those people would be aiming at enriching themselves, more than enriching ordinary people. In short, they would be criminals. The most difficult thing is to distinguish between honest people and criminals. The apostle Paul highlighted an axiomatic principle, deserving adoption, for survival purposes:

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?  What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty’” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 RSV).

Whether accepted or discarded by many people, the formation of ZANU, in 1963 carried some hidden agenda. There was nothing democratic about its formation. The assertion is merely based on the fact that the formation of that party was not through an inclusive congress. There are those who suggest that ZANU was formed on a tribal agenda.

But that statement cannot be sustainable when considering that the founders were not tribally coalesced. Enos Nkala, in whose house ZANU was formed, came from Matabeleland. This is just as its founding leader was not, necessarily, of a Shona origin.

The tribal dimension may have been manipulated, to de-popularize Nkomo’s supporters from Mashonaland regions. This was done by fabricating spoken languages for tribalism. The language is not necessarily descriptive of tribal identity. This is revealed analytically through the study of the mind.

The human mind contains a reactive mind, which is insanity, as opposed to the analytical diagnosis. The upshot of it is that, when communicating out of emotion, one uses the reactive mind, rather than the analytical mind. The reactive mind is unreasonable. Hence, the Rwandan massacres cannot be understood by ordinary historians, without digging into the functionality of the mind.

To understand, one has to be educated on the mechanics of the mind. For instance, concerning his murderers, Jesus prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34 KJ21). Those people were behaving out of a reactive mind, rather than analytical reasoning. To achieve their nefarious objectives, criminals commonly manipulate those gripped with reactive minds.

In 2 Corinthians 14-18, Paul identified those gripped by reactive minds, as nonbelievers. They could not reason properly, due to the manipulative reactive mind. Paul advised being wary of those bent on influencing wrong reasoning. God is identified with order and reasonableness.

To borrow from Paul’s axiom, Joshua Nkomo had been yoked with unbelievers. His fight against colonialism got tainted by this oversight, leading to the Gukurahundi debacle. Was Mugabe, his true comrade, in the PF alliance? That alliance had received raving approvals from the majority, as an achievement for the cause of the liberation struggle.

However, Nkomo’s mistake was a failure to take due diligence, associating with ZANU, to form the Patriotic Front. He ought to have known that nothing patriotic could come out of a rebellious party. According to Paul’s axiom (2 Corinthians 14-18), the PF alliance was as dangerous as connecting positive and negative currencies.

Britain’s Margret Thatcher never supported the PF, at all. She may have desired a democratic establishment in Zimbabwe but on British terms. The Conservative party had its own aberrational fears about the cold war. USSR had provided arms to the PF, through Joshua Nkomo.

During the Lancaster House talks, the enemy spotted differences between PF’s co-leaders, Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe. Although rhetorical about the ideals of Communism, more than Nkomo, Mugabe was more British than Communistic. For those desiring to know the Gukurahundi origins, they ought not to go further than this revelation.

Later, the 1987 unity accord, although achieved and hailed as successful, was a farce. The unity Accord was not driven by principle but forced onto the vulnerable ZAPU. One would have assumed that a new beginning was evolving, through that unity accord. However, this was a wrong trajectory toward national destruction, currently manifesting.

Insurgences were curtailed so that there was a semblance of peace throughout the country. Nevertheless, unprincipled peace pacts can be more harmful than principled confrontational combats. Darkness cannot advocate for peace; only the light produces lasting peace.

The evil nature of that unity accord is manifested in thousands of people without national IDs in Matabeleland. The MRP has connected the Gukurahundi evils with every Shona-speaking person. Others suggest that the perpetrators should be tried in Hague, for justice to prevail.

Whatever the case may be, there can never be adequate justice for such heinous crimes carried out by mentally sick people. The little that could be done is to compensate the survivors whose relatives perished. However, that can still not reach the innermost conciliation of the affected people.

Of course, to a people from a degraded country, such as ours, compensation of any magnitude, is acceptable. But, when dignified, no monetary compensation appeases a person’s loss of a beloved one. There is only one workable therapy for both victims and the perpetrators, suggested by Christ:

“But love ye your enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete, therewith it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:35-38 NIV).

The most fascinating declaration is: “For with the same measure that ye mete, therewith it shall be measured to you again” (Verse 38). Any evil committed against another, boomerangs; in this life, or in the next life. In the germane prayer guideline, Jesus instructed: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12 KJ21).

Very few people can accept as real that the physical body carries no significance, whatsoever. Of course, the body needs protection from harm. But, when harmed, the person who harms needs prayer, more than the harmed. This sounds queer but very true and workable. Everything said by Jesus can be scientifically proven as workable.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44 KJ21).

I have never come across a passage of Scripture, where Jesus instructed His disciples to pray for their friends. In the entire four gospel Books, Jesus never instructed His disciples to pray for one another or for their friends. This is profound but very true. Jesus provided us with the prayer model, which is in plural form. But, if praying for other people, the disciples were instructed to pray for their enemies.

The perpetrator is more vulnerable than the victim. The perpetrator needs prayer, more than the victim or his friends. God would not be worried about those praying for friends, out of ignorance. But God is, certainly, worried when a true believer disregards Christ’s instruction, which can be more than committing suicide. Christianity should never be taken as a casual matter.

The person who harms other people needs more prayers than the good people—but why? Jesus did not die for the physical person, but for the Spiritual person who cannot be seen by physical humans. This spells the reason why Jesus declared:

“He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall find it” (Matthew 10:39 KJ21).

Losing one’s life for Jesus’ sake implies adopting the characteristic of Jesus. Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, means that those committing themselves to adopt that principle receive eternal life. However, those committing themselves to do the opposite would have lost the same eternal life. This spells the reason why Christianity is unattractive.

However, Jesus was not teaching this principle, as a formula for guaranteeing eternal life. A person conditionally applying what Jesus taught might not necessarily gain anything. The key is in appreciating true repentance before Jesus gets into the person’s life. Hence Paul declared:

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2-3 KJ21).

One can carry the Bible for the rest of one’s life, but without applying what it teaches. Without God’s revelation, it is impossible to understand these mysteries. To be redeemed from life’s calamities, one must sincerely forgive and pray for the wicked people. Bear in mind, those people would have ignorantly committed those evils.

I like the caption by the CCC spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” There is truth in this; where the strength would be in the spirit, more than physical strength. The key lies in that the most important component in any person is the spirit, more than the physical. The safest idea is to forget the past and live in the present time, in order to make positive contributions to a better future.

 

Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. Most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope, in a simple conversational tone.

The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99

Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com  for $6.99