Ideas are immortal,I will not be silenced!

By Reason Wafawarova ? December 29, 2007

Zimbabwe’s citizens, especially the young generation born after the attainment of independence – together with some of our global citizenry, now fear or hate the phrase “land reform” or more precisely “land redistribution”. This has been the sequel of eight years of perfidious and slandering propaganda against the Zimbabwe land revolution and its ideas as articulated by President Robert Mugabe and many other sovereign minded people.

Lacking any basic idea of the social and political roots of Zimbabwe’s current problems in particular and of the objective laws governing the development of human society in general, a sizeable part of Zimbabwe’s people – as well as that of the global community, have been victims of confusion and deceit – all perpetrated by the ruthless and lethal precision of imperialistic forces.

The major drive has been to destroy the image, figure and person of President Mugabe through attempts at character and physical assassination. Fidel Castro of Cuba, himself a target of these imperial forces many times over, has a favourite saying that goes, “You cannot kill ideas.” He borrowed these words from the mouth of an army officer serving in Batista’s repressive army but on the side of the Cuban people – who despite being part of the reactionary army, was able to make an alliance with the Castro-Guevara led guerrilla fighters fighting Batista for the well being of the Cuban people.
The captives of the unsuccessful 1957 raid on the Moncada barracks were to be put to death by the guns of Batista’s army and as the firing squad was about to execute the blindfolded guerrilla captives, this officer shouted, “Don’t shoot, you cannot kill ideas!”

This is a true saying all reactionaries ought to understand. One cannot kill ideas just because ideas do not die. This is why it is so ludicrous for the reactionary forces fighting Zimbabwe’s land reform programme to bank on the age of President Mugabe as a source of hope to killing the revolution. The revolutionary ideas of President Mugabe – based on the need for the emancipation of indigenous Zimbabweans, on the spirit of self sacrifice, self rule, sovereign standing among nations, economic emancipation and total possible benefit to Zimbabweans from the wealth of their motherland – cannot be killed. These are ideas that will live after President Mugabe and many other revolutionaries to come.

That Father Zimbabwe icon, the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, was called Father Zimbabwe because he carried the revolutionary ideas of giving the land to its rightful owners. Yes he died in 1999 but he is alive today through the living ideas he so much cherished and many of us draw inspiration from his nationalist commitment and actions as well as his words of wisdom. Addressing indigenous entrepreneurs in the mid nineties, among them Strive Masiyiwa and Philip Chiyangwa, Cde Nkomo said, “Travel across Zimbabwe, drive to Gwayi river and go to every corner of the country and then you will know how big the crime of theft committed against this country is.”

The anticipated physical absence of President Mugabe, whether by retirement or the ill wished departure from this world couldn’t and should not be construed as a victory against revolutionary ideas.

President Mugabe is today regarded as a revolutionary among revolutionaries in Africa; he is regarded as a vanguard of Pan-Africanism – that foundation laid by Kwame Nkurumah; as an icon of liberation, a man of the deprived and oppressed and a fighter for equality and equity among nationalities. Mugabe, the man – will always live through these ideas and this is the lesson reactionaries ought to learn fast and now.

Joshua Nkomo was taken away by the way of our fathers and so was Simon Muzenda, Josiah Magama Tongogara, Jason Ziyapapa Moyo, Herbert Chitepo, Samuel Parirenyatwa and many others but the ideas they stood for never died with them.

Imperialist bullets, right under the skies of Bolivia, cut down Che Guevara, that Argentinian born adopted Cuban revolutionary. But all the imperialists did was get rid of the image and figure that carried those ideas and it is a standing fact that none of the ideas Guevara stood for was shot down by those reactionaries – not one. No bullet could kill Guevara’s passion for world freedom, international human dignity, justice for all and happiness for all. To this day many people are still fighting against oppression and domination, against neo-colonialism, imperialism and against class exploitation.

Imperialist brutality killed Patrice Lumumba, right in the infancy of his Premiership but up to this day the ideas that Lumumba stood for cannot be removed from the hearts of the Congolese people and the generality of Africans.

Imperialist ignominious intolerance took away Samora Machel, that gallant son of Africa, right in the skies of apartheid South Africa but the reactionary forces of Alphonso Dhlakama never saw the light of day and up to this day the ideas Samora Machel believed in are still alive in all of us who subscribed to his revolutionary thoughts.

Imperialist powers sponsored the assassination of Thomas Sankara on October 15, 1987, a week after he had honoured Guevara by naming a Quagadougou street after him – but neither Guevara nor Sankara’s revolutionary ideas were killed by this action.

This writer has been threatened with actions far less than death if he does not cease to get his ideas published in this column. The threats have come largely from the pugnacious support base of the opposition MDC and it’s a real marvel to see how much faith and belief some of these reactionaries put in the power of deprivation. They think material deprivation can kill ideas and that is precisely why they have invited their backers and masters to sanction Zimbabwe in the vain hope that ideas can be punished through sanctions and isolation. What crass naïveté!

Most laughable are the efforts of one Rhodesian columnist at an “independent” Zimbabwean weekly, an old man whose race based frustrations and chagrin is a joy to watch, or is it to read, for those who enjoy the poetic justice of role reversals.

Equally laughable have been the amateurish attempts at character assassination by the Zimbabwean website kids smitten by the wonderful powers of Western information technology. Any revolutionary that can be silenced by the noise of mesmerized children trying to make sense of an encounter with new technology is not worthy the name. Now the little houses of lies are crumbling as would any of the castles built by children at play and of course the destruction is self-inflicted.

It would be a real shame if this writer were to be silenced by threats of deprivation, post Mugabe persecution and possible expulsion from the so-called new Zimbabwe.

The revolutionary ideas expounded by this writer weekly are the ideas for which the likes of Sankara, Machel, Lumumba and Martin Luther King died and this writer would never betray their commitment by running for cover at the threats of ill-natured reactionaries masquerading as fighters for democracy even if Rhodesians and the whole machinery of imperialist forces reinforced them – indeed as is the case right now.

Ideas are immortal and can only be fought by other ideas. Imperialism cannot answer back by ideas because it is an unjustifiable cause. Who has ever heard George W. Bush answer back on the international attacks on the Iraq war? All that has been done is to try and pacify the Americans while pretending he is not hearing the complaints from all over the world. He cannot answer back because evil unlike good is not based on justice but on greed, lust and a covetous spirit.

This writer can only be silenced by counter-ideas that can convince us that we are meant to be dominated and to play servitude to imperial forces as a matter of social justice. Other than that no gospel about the power of market forces, New World Order theories or globalisation rhetoric can stop the tide for self-emancipation.

Revolutionary ideas are not dogmatic propaganda and are owned by the revolution and not by individuals. This is why they cannot be killed. We are not going to pretend that we have a revolution if our ideas are based on a barren, monolithic, paralysing and sterile kind of unity. Revolutionary ideas are fertilised by the enriching, varied and manifold expression of many different thoughts and diverse activities – all put forward courageously and sincerely in the framework of accepting differences and respecting the need for criticism and self criticism. Of course all this diversity is guided by one goal, which can be none other than the pursuit for the justice and happiness of our own people, be it us as Zimbabweans or as the generality of Africans.

That happiness cannot and will not be pursued by a perpetuation of servitude and neither will it be realised by a culture of receiving aid and begging for more. It will be realised by reclaiming what is ours and using such heritage to produce for our own people relying on our own means of production and trading the produce on our own terms and conditions. Any outsider who is prepared to help us reach this goal is indeed welcome to be our friend, partner and colleague. He who wishes to benefit from our perpetual subjugation will indeed have to put up with the wrath of revolutionary ideas as those who dreamt of owning Zimbabwean land forever will testify now and for many more generations to come.

This is the context in which some of us have chosen to have our opinions published and it is a context that will live well after all of us in this generation are gone. Those who refuse to acknowledge the death of historical injustices and choose to appear at the funeral of slavery and colonialism in white suits – totally refusing to wear the black armband of a bad history orchestrated by their own forefathers and banking it all on the might of imperialist military arsenal, must be reminded here and now that ideas cannot be killed and good always prevails over evil.

Let those who have tasted the sweetness of imperial wealth be reminded that the cheap labour they are providing in order to have a feel of that ill gotten wealth is more than enough payment for what is on offer. There is no need to try and cap it all by attempting to sell a country like Zimbabwe – all for more imperial crumbs.

Fellow Zimbabweans, fellow Africans let us not act in futility. Ideas cannot be killed.

Africa, its homeland or death, we will triumph!