Am i my brother's keeper
Am I My Brother’s Keeper? Patterns of Leadership in Zimbabwe
When you want to discover the root of murder you go to the village and interview the blacksmith who invented the machete, African proverb
Contemporary leaders in Zimbabwe were once freedom fighters. They were also called guerrillas, sons and daughters of the soil. They waged a rancorous armed struggle in the mid-1970s culminating in the birth of a new nation, Zimbabwe. This armed struggle was dubbed the Second Chimurenga (uprising), the first one having been waged by prominent political figures such as Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi between 1893 and 1897 against colonial white settlers. As Chinua Achebe pronounces it is vital ‘to trace where the rain began to beat us’ as we trace the evolution of Zimbabwean leaders from the pre-colonial times right through the Second Chimurenga war of liberation which then culminated into independence in 1980. Such a social history tracing the patterns of leadership is critical and essential.
The armed struggle for Zimbabwe’s independence was somewhat complex, multifarious and multi-faceted. Numerous existing accounts give certain dominant perspectives such as the popular, unified and mass-driven nature of the upheavals. Terence Ranger the illustrious retired Oxford professor and historian label this type of history ‘patriotic history’. This has been the dominant history in Zimbabwe. It creates homogeneity in its officiousness. At the same time it is nationalistic and jingoistic. Any other account which deviates from or contests this sacred history is considered retrogressive and unpatriotic.
Those who flip the other side of the historical coin are instantaneously branded as sympathetic to the Anglo-American conspiracy which was hatched and inaugurated at the historic Berlin Colonial Conference in 1884 when the big powers avidly curved and partitioned Africa amongst themselves. In extreme cases such curious historians are categorized as running dogs of imperialism.
When you want to discover the root of murder you go to the village and interview the blacksmith who invented the machete, African proverb
Contemporary leaders in Zimbabwe were once freedom fighters. They were also called guerrillas, sons and daughters of the soil. They waged a rancorous armed struggle in the mid-1970s culminating in the birth of a new nation, Zimbabwe. This armed struggle was dubbed the Second Chimurenga (uprising), the first one having been waged by prominent political figures such as Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi between 1893 and 1897 against colonial white settlers. As Chinua Achebe pronounces it is vital ‘to trace where the rain began to beat us’ as we trace the evolution of Zimbabwean leaders from the pre-colonial times right through the Second Chimurenga war of liberation which then culminated into independence in 1980. Such a social history tracing the patterns of leadership is critical and essential.
The armed struggle for Zimbabwe’s independence was somewhat complex, multifarious and multi-faceted. Numerous existing accounts give certain dominant perspectives such as the popular, unified and mass-driven nature of the upheavals. Terence Ranger the illustrious retired Oxford professor and historian label this type of history ‘patriotic history’. This has been the dominant history in Zimbabwe. It creates homogeneity in its officiousness. At the same time it is nationalistic and jingoistic. Any other account which deviates from or contests this sacred history is considered retrogressive and unpatriotic.
Those who flip the other side of the historical coin are instantaneously branded as sympathetic to the Anglo-American conspiracy which was hatched and inaugurated at the historic Berlin Colonial Conference in 1884 when the big powers avidly curved and partitioned Africa amongst themselves. In extreme cases such curious historians are categorized as running dogs of imperialism.