Zimbabwe: A nation united in fear

Zimbabwe: A nation united in fear

17/07/03
(READ MTHULISI'S PREVIOUS ARTICLES)
IF today Zimbabweans are divided on political lines they have at least one thing in common: their collective fear for the future.

Mindful of their dire malfeasance of office the political aristocracy is dead scared of the immediate future which will soon inquire and demand accounts from the past on how the nation got to where it is.

They are scared of the moment when the next generation will begin to demand accounts of how and why they were born in economic exile. Of how Zimbabwe’s opportunity was squandered by a few selfish men and women in the name of African patriotism under a cloak of secrecy with no effective measures of review. Worse still of the mass graves in Bhalagwe and elsewhere across the country.

They are scared of the New World Order and the grip of international law. United with them in fear are the cronies and patrons of this unproductive power who are fully aware of how they have embezzled at the expense of the nation. People who are aware of their vulnerability once a new order is ushered in to demand competence and ethical conduct in any professional field.

Under no circumstance will these fold their arms when they are so threatened by the future which seeks to render them redundant and expose their utmost hollowness. The cronies and hangers on fear the day the establishment will collapse scattering their ill-gotten fortunes rendering them matters of international and legal inquiry.

Expectedly, they have, thus dug into their bag of tricks to erect various smokescreens to justify their conduct. Oftentimes you will hear them invoking the themes of “unity” and “patriotism” to mask arbitrary power and to scatter the participant civic culture.

Needless to talk of their fear of difference, diversity and the fundamental right to self expression. The result has been the relentless assault on the civil liberties, the brazen narrowing of the democratic space and arbitrary arrests.

They have arrested and beaten all from scribe to priest. From professor to ignoramus. With all these they have deployed a crude and high amount of propaganda and shut out all alternative opinions. The megaphones are all out. The idea being to shape and manipulate public attitudes and beliefs and achieve a quantum enhancement of executive power.

Theirs has turned into something of a dragnet converting many young people and vulnerable or the desperate many who can’t stand on their own feet accumulating an extensive patronage network.

Fearing that what ever remains of Zimbabwe’s already squandered resources could be washed along with this grand sweep of unyielding power many have risen to erect a massive wall of resistance.

It is this fear which has galvanised a wave of resistance against tyranny and spawned immigration and protests. To this fear can be linked the demonstrations by economic exiles in South Africa imploring President Thabo Mbeki to tighten screws on the incumbent in Harare.

"They are scared of the moment when the next generation will begin to demand accounts of how Zimbabwe’s opportunity was squandered by a few selfish men and women in the name of African patriotism"

MTHULISI MATHUTHU

In response to tyranny many have set up NGO’s and wooed the donor community to support their projects. They have tied their hearts and souls to these projects. They too live in fear of democracy which will render these projects irrelevant. Once the country returns to democracy and all the political criminals are dealt with all the projects could collapse.

Writers are no exception. What is obtaining here is a good story. It has made many a writer significant and known across the borders. Writers enjoy telling a sad story to the world and fear for the day the story will have to end for there will be a change of focus and paradigm.

The youth are also caught in cleft stick. Faced with unemployment after college thousands of young people have “visited” developed countries only to throw away their passports upon their arrival to seek sojourn on foreign soil. There they live in fear of deportations, beatings and at times racial slurs. Everywhere, in Hilbrow, Berlin, New York and Luton Zimbabweans are followed and hounded by this fear. Fleeing poverty at home many have braved the crocodiles and electric fences along the Limpopo River to seek greener pastures in South Africa.

They live in fear of the Aids pandemic as no one today is sure of anyone. Parents across the country dread the moment they will have to bury their off-spring dragged down by this disease. Thus Zimbabwe, a nation which considers itself a nation of the educated and the sophisticated is made to work by nothing but just fear. It has failed to rescue its self from bondage just because of fear.

Everyone is pulling the other direction working at escaping and not rescuing the whole nation from the jaws of tyranny. Almost everybody is fleeing. The story is yet to be told of how Zimbabweans sang and praised their way to oppression since 1980 as tyranny took root. Today, we are trapped in a whirlpool of fear. Fearing blame for their deeds Zimbabweans today have fallen victims of the Freudian sickness called projection-a sickness that drives one to identify somebody to blame for one’s failures. We have blamed everybody-Blair, Bush, Mbeki and all the journalists.

In short the code in Zimbabwe is : Fear and Blame. For the fear of blame we have captured the truth and are holding it captive at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, State House and in our chests. It will soon be out - thuthuma@yahoo.com
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS