Key question every Zimbabwean community must ask itself

The key question every Zimbabwean community must ask itself is, what can we do within our means and circumstances to create or add value to our communities and to our nation? This was said by President Emmerson Mnangagwa today in his weekly article in the Sunday Mail.

The other question is: What support do we need for that to happen?  Support financial; support technological; support by way of research and development and, of course, support by way of skills and markets for finished goods. 

“Only that way do we live true to our mantra of leaving no one and no place behind,” Mnangagwa said. 

“I am happy that our rural communities are already beginning to witness the beginnings of industrialisation. This thrust must strengthen as we move into the future. Rural industrialisation should become the next greatest miracle Zimbabwe shows to, and shares with our African brethren. 

“China did no less, and lifted millions out of poverty. Again, I expect more involvement of our tertiary institutions, which must engage in purposeful, community- and local resource-based research for rural industrialisation.”

Below is the full article:

In two days, our Nation celebrates 43 years since attaining statehood on April 18, 1980. That momentous event in 1980 followed a protracted liberation struggle, during which tens of thousands of our people paid the ultimate price. Many more were injured, with some still nursing wartime wounds to this day. Our freedom, thus, did not come cheap, which is why we hold it so dear and priceless for all times, and across generations.

April 18 evokes mixed feelings: feelings of pain and joy; of tears and triumph; of grief and grandeur. We will never forget those brave men and women who laid down their lives so such a day would come, and so our Zimbabwe would be born: sovereign and self-governing. Many still lie in unmarked graves, closer to where they fell as they battled a brutal foreign occupying force which had entrenched itself across our land. We should never forget this grim fact as we celebrate.

We all must cherish our Independence and celebrate it without let or hindrance.

This year’s celebration of this historic and solemn day will be held in Mt Pfura, renamed Mt Darwin by the hunter-occupier, Frederick Courtney Selous, back in the 19th Century. He renamed it in honour of the racist British naturalist, Charles Robert Darwin, famed for his theory of Evolution, and whose remains lie buried in Westminster Abbey, alongside other British imperialist figures like David Livingstone. Like Selous, Livingstone also renamed our iconic Mosia-oa-Tunya to Victoria Falls, in honour of his British Queen Victoria. To this day, we still know this Seventh Wonder of the World by that name.

We go to Mt Pfura to overwrite this shameful colonial heritage; and to affirm, assert, reconnect with and proclaim our own heritage of National Struggle. Mt Pfura lies in Mashonaland Central, itself the last citadel of the Rozvi Empire before its demise. It is also the province of the decisive phase of our Second Chimurenga.

All that history must come into focus.

Continued next page

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