Dumiso Dabengwa’s Barabas dilemma

New Zimbabwe.com

27 October 2010

By Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana

THE historical revival of PF ZAPU and the formal re-entrance of Dumiso Dabengwa in the troubled Zimbabwean political landscape are both very grave matters of history.

Very grave, first because of what ZAPU is, has gone through and aims to achieve in the contested Zimbabwean historical and political affairs, and also very grave because of what Dabengwa is, what he has gone through and the potential he bears to recover Zimbabwe from Mugabeism and restore her to political and economic normalcy with the deliverance of justice for victims of tyranny and freedom for captives of fear, guilt and hopelessness that the late Joshua Nkomo died still trying, at great personal and political expense, to achieve.

Both Dumiso and ZAPU, in reality, are victims of Mugabeism and ZANUism that have arisen from the ashes and the dust of genocide and ethnic cleansing either to haunt the perpetrators for justice or to let them loose. In my view, it is only those two possibilities and nothing else.

Dabengwa has two choices. The first one, which is dangerously likely, is that he will follow Nkomo’s costly path of clinging to nationalism and turning the other cheek while his opponents resort to ancestry and primitive tribalism and reduce him and ZAPU to an ethnic laughing stock.

That everyone agrees today that Dabengwa is not forming a new political party but reviving ZAPU indicates that ZAPU was previously suppressed, swallowed, destroyed or disturbed in its workings that it now needs to be revived.

There also is no denying that ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo, was a nationalist Zimbabwean political party. So what happened to it?

The tale of how such a colossal nationalist movement was reduced to a regional and tribal party is a textbook case of how genocidal tyranny destroys nations and robs a people of peace — worse that slavery and fascism combined.

In an Organisation of African Unity-organised conference in Addis Ababa in 1961, Joseph Msikavanhu of the then ZAPU noticed another ZAPU cadre Morton Malianga reading what looked like a confidential document. Upon grabbing it and reading it, Msika discovered with shock that it was a tribal manifesto and blueprint that chronicled how the Shonas in ZAPU should undermine the “zvimuNdevere” and take over the leadership of the party.

Eventually in August 1963, led by Ndabaningi Sithole and Leopold Takawira, a number of ZAPU cadres broke away to form ZANU on no other grounds except tribal reasons. In 1972, unarmed ZIPRA cadres were slaughtered by ZANLA cadres for no other reasons than that they were Ndebele.

In the first elections in independent Zimbabwe, Mugabe campaigned on no other grounds other than that the Shona people should not vote for a Ndebele. In 1982, Mugabe unleashed the North Korean trained exclusively Shona militia that massacred above 20,000 Matabele civilians for no other justification except that they were Ndebele and ZAPU.

The Shona-speaking ZAPU cadres were spared imprisonment and persecution while the Ndebele ones who escaped death were imprisoned or scattered into exile including Joshua Nkomo himself.  The many ZAPU supporters in Mashanaland were just warned to stop supporting the “zvimuNdevere” and left in peace while the whole of Matabeleland and the Midlands were surrendered to one of Africa’s most hellish genocides and whose proportions and enormity are yet to be told to the world.

In short, dear readers, this is how nationalism was killed in Zimbabwe. There was no way Mugabe could reduce and defeat Nkomo except to resort to the tribal and genocidal card. There was no ideological or political way in which ZANU could defeat ZAPU except to divide the country on tribal lines and reduce ZAPU to a regional Ndebele party that it has become.

Mugabe’s fatherhood to tribal politics in Zimbabwe does not need any DNA confirmation or forensic investigation. It is as obvious as the sky.

It was shocking and insultingly ironic, when a few weeks ago, Nathaniel Manheru had enough foolish temerity to ask how ZAPU had become a regional party. When ZAPU surrendered to ZANU in 1987, it was a brutalised and massacred victim of genocidal Mugabeism and ZANUism that had been effectively reduced to a Matabaleland and the Midlands political party.

It is clear that Mugabeism and ZANUism have divided Zimbabwe on tribal lines almost beyond repair. David Coltart and Welshman Ncube have publicly observed that it is not possible for a Ndebele person to be president of Zimbabwe through democratic electoral means. Very true this is because Mugabe “educated” and scared the people of Mashonaland into not voting for and accepting any form of Ndebele leadership. A Ndebele with political opinions can only be a sell-out, a CIO, a crazed separatist, a tribalist or worse.

On the other hand, Mugabe massacred the Ndebele into fearing and hating the Shona beyond measurement. If your father and mother’s killer and persecutor comes to your doorstep speaking in one language always, his language also becomes your enemy.

In reality, therefore, and not in wish and imaginism, in a free democratic electoral process it is not feasible for a Ndebele person to win the presidency of Zimbabwe. The electoral landscape is a dangerously anti–Ndebele by the deliberate design of Mugabe and his party.

I listened with deep sadness when Arthur Mutambara was speaking in London saying “there are extremists” in Matabaleland who were agitating for secession and separatism. The truth is that extremists, led by Mugabe, have already carved the country into two nations using genocide, tribal propaganda and economic marginalisation accompanied by cultural and linguistic colonialism against the Ndebele.

Led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC-T who are in essence Mugabeists and have harvested the evil fruits of genocide through the “anger” or “protest” vote that Matabeleland continues to give them, have not helped the situation by perpetuating ZANUism and Mugabeism in sparing Mugabe censure and challenge for genocide and ethnic cleansing.

In fact, the genocidal conspiracy between MDC-T and Zanu PF is a shocking story that is yet to be told to humanity in good time.

As things stand, true nationalism in the historical and political sense does not exist in Zimbabwe. It is a bleeding tragedy how the same victims of genocide and manslaughter are being accused of “extremism” and blamed for their painful condition when their reaction of anger and protest is a normal reaction that human beings give to murder and injury.

In various ways, the Ndebele people are being pressured and persuaded to apologise and to be sorry for what genocide and primitive Mugabeism has done to them. A people who were slaughtered as Ndebeles are being asked to react to their slaughter as Zimbabweans. Not only that, but are being challenged to persuade their killers to join them in their struggle for justice, which, dear readers in my humble opinion is an impossible task.

The Shona people of Zimbabwe will never participate in the struggle against Gukurahundi and Mugabeism because at one level, they are perpetrators at another they are beneficiaries and at the last they are unconcerned and biased spectators, whether they are in Zanu PF, MDC-T or in ZAPU itself.

In the pompous graffiti that Nathaniel Manheru churned out in The Herald, he accused Dabengwa of playing the “regional” card and challenged him to the traditional nationalism of ZAPU. In my view, to invite the Dabengwa-led ZAPU to campaign in Mashonaland as things stand in Zimbabwe is comparable to a hungry crocodile inviting a man to a wrestling match in the deep end of the wild sea.

Nathaniel Manheru knows that his master has done his evil homework of shepherding the Shona away from ever considering Ndebele leadership, and is inviting ZAPU to certain humiliation, a waste of time and money.

There are no doubts that Manheru fancies himself as a prowling information predator that patrols the dry savannahs of the Zimbabwean media landscape ready to pounce on any unprepared commentator that challenges the genocidal order. To the contrary, I think the fellow is a lousy propaganda mosquito whose thin noise only disturbs the slumbers of political fools and does nothing to frighten or convince discerning political observers.

The sad truth is that if Dabengwa works too hard to reach to the reluctant and largely unwilling Mashonaland voter, he stands to isolate and lose the Matabeleland voter who naturally sees himself as a victim of the Shona. This is the voter who is awaiting justice for Gukurahundi and has lost all belief in Zimbabwean nationalism.

So dear readers, in what grammar is Dabengwa to speak? From what lexicon is he to draw the vocabulary and idiom of his campaign? With what proverb is he to invoke nationalism and conjure the spirit of nationhood that existed before Mugabeism set in?

There is no doubt Dabengwa is a seasoned and decorated soldier and politician who is not called “the black Russian” for nothing. Let me attempt a description of the man.

Those who are close to him call him DD. Others call him “the intelligence supremo”.  Most of his colleagues refer to him as “the black Russian” because of his well documented mentorship by the Russian KGB.

He is of robust physical health and generous build. He is known to think very fast and speak slowly and guardedly. He listens to so many people and confides in very very few, leaving his mind and intentions largely a slippery subject of speculation and conjecture.

A former student of Anglican Cyrene Mission, he is gifted with an agile intellect and sober reasoning. Famous for wearing an expressionless face and speaking in a low and deep voice that carries a mixture of melancholy and unmistakable courage, he is said to possess a photographic memory and volcanic temper, yet he is one of a very few people who are known to smile and laugh when angry.

He carries the bleeding scars of Gukurahundi imprisonment by Mugabe and the painful loss of his mother to the murderous Rhodesian regime. He possesses a sugary personality that makes him dear to his friends who value his company and society and yet it is also true he has a number of enemies who fear and hate him to the marrow.

This in short, is the complex soldier and sophisticated politician whose intelligence background flavors his imposing personality and calculated approach to life. He once appeared on TV loudly and clearly advising citizens “to shake the Zanu PF government corridors of power” and the following morning he reminded everyone that he was misquoted, knowing that his point had been taken.

It may not be wisdom to take him lightly or underestimate his capabilities and potentialities. He definitely has ingredients of personalities who are known to wrestle with gods and seize history by the collar in the process listing their names among the children of destiny.

The chief reason why both the Koran and the bible are called the books of life is that they provide a wealth of scenarios and case studies that Christian crusaders, missionaries, Islamic jihadists, freedom fighters and others have learnt from and used to inform their varied purposes.

The barabas biblical scenario is one rich such scenario that I propose Dumiso looks closely at.

In the thickness of Roman colonialism of Israel, there arose two leaders from Israel.  Barabas was a radical of jihadist proportions who was imprisoned for plotting terror against Rome. Jesus Christ, the son of man refused politics and declared that “my kingdom is not of this world “and preached “turn the other cheek” ideology.

When time came for the children of Israel to choose one to be liberated between Barabas and the son of man, they chose Barabus and the son of man was surrendered to be crucified.

Since Jesus was the direct descendant of the warrior King David who did not only defeat the titanic giant Goliath but also slaughtered 200 philistines when he had only been asked to bring the foreskins of a hundred, the jews expected Jesus to provide such warrior leadership and they knew he was capable of it like his ancient ancestor Abraham who also slaughtered “many kings“.

Dabengwa must guard against a “kingdom” and leadership that “is not of this world” to the people who expect his leadership in challenging genocide and seeking justice for wanton murder.

Dabengwa cannot successfully escape that he is a Ndebele leader who is expected by the Ndebele and understood by the Shona to be coming to solve Ndebele political and historical problems. Believing and doing anything else will not be only an exercise in futility but also politics that are “not of this world” and leads to the political cross.

It is not Dabengwa’s fault nor is it his burden that Mugabeism and its genocidal ZANUism has polluted the Zimbabwean political and electoral landscape to such an unfortunate reality. Speaking in the language of real politik, the many but electorally inconsequential Shona people who have joined the revived ZAPU are good enough only to soften ZAPU and mislead Dabengwa into futile “nationalism” that is a recipe for failure.

Dabengwa and the revived ZAPU must learn from the sad example of Joshua Nkomo who clung to the pursuit of nationalism in a land of Mugabeism and ZANUism which led him t to a painful “harvest of thorns” — mass graves, tears and blood.

Nathaniel Manheru promised “to take off” his “gloves” in debating those who are purveying “Gukurahundi monologues”. I resolve to take Manheru seriously for the one reason that his words are an accurate indicator of what Mugabe thinks, not that there is anything important the graffiti journalist has to offer.

Instead of taking off his “gloves” to unleash a robust bare knuckled debate, I think he took off the ideological underthings of tired tyranny to expose the disgusting anatomy of genocide and Mugabeism that is struck with fear of a revived ZAPU.

Besides trying to lure Dabengwa to futile nationalism, Manheru and the CIO information engineers will obviously avoid direct and vigorous criticism of Dabengwa in order to sell the dangerous impression that Dumiso is sent by Zanu PF to disturb the MDC-T in Matabaleland. This, Dabengwa and ZAPU should be aware and deliberately move to lead ZAPU in a direct and unapologetic confrontation of Zanu PF.

Already some CIO agents have started spreading rumors that he is not Dabengwa but Tavengwa.  The Mugabeists will go that far to attempt to drive a wedge between Dabengwa and the people he seeks to liberate or who under normal circumstances he should seek to free.

It is true that a combination of guilt and fear has been used in Zimbabwe to domesticate and control Ndebele leaders. The guilt of appearing like a tribalist and the fear of being labeled a separatist ironically by founders of tribalism and separatism in Zanu PF and the MDC-T has kept Ndebele leaders politically shy and apologetic at the great political expense of the victims of genocide.

Dabengwa and Zapu have the opportunity to shake the guilt and the fear of empty labels and confront Mugabe head on. Among the many myths that the ZAPU information department should explode is that Tsvangirai and MDC-T are a genuine opposition to Zanu PF.

Dinizulu Mbikokayise Macaphulana is a Zimbabwean student living in Lesotho. He is contactable on e-mail: dinizulumacaphulana@yahoo.com

The second choice, which is painfully doubtful, is that Dabengwa will lead ZAPU into the real politik of first bringing Mugabeism and ZANUism to book for genocide and then restoring Matabeleland and the Midlands to their place in the historical and political affairs of Zimbabwe as provinces occupied by citizens and not victims.

Both the above choices are difficult choices. In debating these choices, and because of the presence of political commentators of the Nathaniel Manheru category on the Zimbabwean information scene, whose sad job is to try and lend respectability to tyranny and genocide, I am aware that I am entering a historical minefield and a political hard hat area for which I must be prepared for bare knuckled political and historical combat.

I believe that the time is now that ZANUism and Mugabeism must be exposed as Zimbabwe’s smelly political and historical armpits that they are and their role in polluting, poisoning and infecting the Zimbabwean historical and political landscape with primitive tribalism and ethnic hatred, which has created a near impossible environment for a free and fair election for political players of Dabengwa and the revived ZAPU type, must not escape exposure.