STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

By Cde Chewukai Chiremba

Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. As we celebrate Africa Day today, we stand on the shoulders of great sons and daughters of the African soil. Before Mugabe, Sithole, Nkomo and their peers we had Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi, and King Lobengula to name just a few. They laid the foundations of the 2nd Chimurenga that saw the birth of modern day Zimbabwe after observing the treachery of the “visitors”.  These visitors viewed their land as a business opportunity in the form of the British South Africa Company. 

This is a day not just for celebrating but to reflect on Africa’s continuing struggles and achievements since the dawn of colonialism. This is a day that ranks up there with Independence, Heroes and Unity day commemorations. Without the domino effect started by the Independence of Ghana, our heroes would have had no Tanzania, Zambia or Mozambique to seek refuge in. In the same way without a free and Afrocentric Zimbabwe, the majority rule of South Africa would have taken much longer. In the same way we found support from other movements across Africa, we did the same for South Africa and Namibia. Even former president Thabo Mbeki and the assasinated Chris Hani were once the ANC’s point men in Zimbabwe.

Over the past century there have been numerous unnamed heroes who have fought in the name of their people. Soon after the British gave up control of South Africa to the Afrikaners, the the African National Congress was formed. The new Afrikaner government wasted no time in implementing the Land Act which saw blacks losing their land and being moved into what became townships and having their movements restricted. They became the fuel for South Africa's present day economic dominance. In the townships, a movement to fight racial oppression was brewing.

Similar stories of resistance have been told all over Africa, one that embodies the resilient spirit of the African woman is that of Ghana’s Queen Yaa Asantewaa. A leader through birth, she is said to have led a rebellion against the increasing dominance of the British in her land. Her lasting legacy is in part due to the rallying call she made to her people as she took on the leadership of the Asante Uprising of 1900. 

"I see that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. No European could have dared speak to chiefs of Asante in the way the governor spoke to you this morning. Is it true that the bravery of Asante is no more? If you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight! We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields”

President Mugabe alluded to that cry in one of his ovation inspiring speeches at the United Nations. He would know a thing or two about Ghanaian nationalism as he worked and learnt in Africa's first independent state. After living and teaching in a country where the legendary Kwame Nkrumah led a black government,  how could he return home unchanged? The seeds of nationalism had already been planted at Fort Hare - the rest as they say is History.

After West Africa, we move to a land that seems to revere Barack Obama more than Dedan Kimathi, the leader of Kenya’s Mau Mau Uprising. It is now generally agreed that the Uprising was only defeated after Kimathi was captured and killed by the white settler government. While he lay in a hospital bed, unable to defend himself, Kimathi was sentenced to death. For a long time successive Kenyan governments had sought to erase Kimathi’s name from the history books, apparently carrying on with the  colonial government's depiction of their hero as a terrorist!

A story is told of how Nelson Mandela requested to meet Dedan Kimathi’s widow. The Moi government's frantic search for her family led to her being eventually found living in poverty. Thankfully the current government of Kenya appreciates the contribution of their fallen heroes and has taken steps to recognise Kimathi as such. Without an appreciation of where we come from, can we have any hope of knowing where we aspire to be? Perhaps, one day the young people will decide for themselves who is a greater son of Kenya. No prizes for guessing who the other world famous “Kenyan” is. 

Having summarised the revolutionary movements of South, West, East regions of Africa, this writer will end with a call for the United Nations to heed the African Union’s demands for serious debates on Western Sahara. Western Sahara is the last colony on the continent, largely due to the refusal of certain Western nations to be firm with Morocco, occupiers for the last 4 decades. It has been said that Africa can never be free until each and every last of it’s inhabitants is free. 

The story of the economic and political oppression of the people of Western Sahara is long, painful one and for another day. Zimbabwe and the AU principled leadership says NO to colonialism.  The rest of the world must now follow suit. ZANU PF as a party continues to say NO to neo colonialism through the economy or any other means. President Mugabe never fails to assert Zimbabwe’s sovereignty at whatever international platform he stands on, neither does he fail to call for a United Nations that acknowledges the African continent, When you talk to almost 200 world leaders and you get thunderous applause, you must have said something right! 

Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrica, Ishe komborera Africa as the struggle continues.