The Sunday Mail
Patrick Zhuwao
This past week has seen Zimbabwe’s independence and sovereignty being subjected to a renewed onslaught that has broadened its target from His Excellency President Robert Mugabe to now include the two Vice Presidents, Honourable Emmerson Mnangagwa and Honourable Phelekezela Mphoko.
As we moved towards Unity Day, the previous week’s Zhuwao Brief sought to deflate the misconception that the appointments of the Vice Presidents were about succession. The appointments of the VPs are guided by the Unity Accord and the values espoused in Section 35 (1)(b) of the ZANU PF Constitution as amended in 2014. That article was meant to be followed up this week with the Zhuwao Brief’s explication of those values of “skill, experience, probity, integrity and commitment to the Party, its ideology, values, principles and policies”.
This past week has seen Zimbabwe’s independence and sovereignty being subjected to a renewed onslaught that has broadened its target from His Excellency President Robert Mugabe to now include the two Vice Presidents, Honourable Emmerson Mnangagwa and Honourable Phelekezela Mphoko.
The targeting of the two Vice Presidents is expected and was foreseen given the fact that these two gentlemen are liberation fighters with impeccable records.
They are made of sterner stuff which renders them non-compliant to becoming stooges. They both come from intelligence background and are well versed in statecraft to such an extent that they cannot conceivably be described as “simple”.
The attack on our independence and sovereignty has been in the form of purported discourses which have been mischievously directed towards conceptualising the appointments of the Vice Presidents along so-called tribal considerations with some online publications having headlines such as “It’s Karanga Time – Stupid!” and pressure allegedly mounting on VP Mphoko for abandoning a self-proclaimed Ndebele cause.
The tribalism discourse is not only imprudent and counter-revolutionary, but is the recreation and reincarnation of the colonial divide and rule tactics particularly targeted during the week that Zimbabwe celebrates Unity Day. Tribalism is inimical to unity.
What makes the matter so disheartening is that the purveyors of such nonsense and drivel are Zimbabwean black people whom one would expect to know better.
Black Zimbabweans are found at the forefront of perpetuating this colonial discourse out of ignorance of the origins of tribalism.
Is it a wonder that such charlatans and quislings are described as ideologically bankrupt?
What is a Zezuru?
What is a Karanga?
What is a Manyika?
My maternal grandmother, Ambuya Bona, is from the Gumbo totem which is believed to be largely domiciled around the Gutu area of Masvingo.
I am told that Ambuya Bona’s parents left Gutu to go to the Musana area in Mashonaland in search of their original home.
They settled around Chishawasha first and then moved to Kutama in Zvimba. What does that make them? Are they Zezuru or Karanga?
What about the Gushungo people who form the bulk of the people under Chief Serima in Gutu? They travelled from the Zvimba area after having been involved in a dispute with some of their own relatives. Are they Karanga?
How then do they relate with their fellow Gushungos who are said to be Zezuru.
You will find a person that chooses to label themselves as a Zezuru claiming that tiri kutonga by virtue of the belief the President Mugabe is a so-called Zezuru.
How can you claim that you are part of those ruling when you cannot even determine the direction of the burial society in your area? Such imbecile thinking is driven by what Benedict Anderson refers to as imagined communities as well as the creation of imagined identities.
The concept of tribalism within Zimbabwe has been propelled as a result of ignorance and mischief designed to asphyxiate the Zimbabwean total liberation, independence and freedom project which has built up such momentum and energy towards delivering sustainable political and socio-economic development, empowerment and transformation as the basis for enhanced quality of life for all Zimbabweans.
Tribalism has always sought to further the colonial and imperialist agenda, and still remains a major component of the neo-colonial arm of cultural imperialism.
Consequently, the Zhuwao Brief will be embarking on a mission to debunk the myth of tribalism by relating some of the research and academic works of such scholars as Benedict Anderson, Ngwabi Bhebhe, Herbert Chimhundu, Marissa Cramer, Terrence Granger, Pedzisai Mashiri, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Leroy Vail. All of these researchers are agreed that the concept of tribe in Zimbabwe is an invention of the missionaries and colonialists.
The Zhuwao Brief hopes and prays that this forthcoming series of articles will accurately reflect the import of the body of knowledge on the creation and invention of tribalism in Zimbabwe.
This body of knowledge recognises that the so called Shona and Ndebele people did not exist as distinct tribal entities but are abstract and ideological inventions of colonialists and missionaries.
Several researchers are united in the view that what are commonly referred to as Karangas, Zezurus and Manyikas were actually invented as part of the colonial project, and that they do not actually exist as so-called tribes.
This is evidenced by Clement Doke’s 1931 “Report on the Unification of Shona Dialects” which, amongst other things, incorporated vocabulary from the so-called Ndau, discouraged words from the so-called Korekore, and advocated that the so-called Kalanga dialect be subsumed under Ndebele.
The first article will narrate the origins of the Bantu people of Southern Africa and submit that we do not have tribes within the Southern African region.
We have what Professor Mashiri has described as ancestry.
The Bantu people are in two main ancestries of the Nguni and Mutapa people. We originated from the Cameroon Grasslands that are referred to in vernacular as Guruuswa.
We are distinguished by the fact that we subscribe to the principal value system of Hunhu or Ubuntu. This is a more reliable method of identifying people.
You will find that people will recount an accident by saying that pafa vanhu vatatu nevarungu vana. For the bantu people, a white person is not munhu primarily because they do not share the same belief system.
In the second article, the Zhuwao Brief will recount how the so-called tribes were created and invented by the missionaries as part of their efforts to translate the bible.
As various Christian denominations translated the bible to the vernacular, they used the dialects in the areas that they operated in.
This then resulted in a number of different versions of the bible in what was perceived to be a single language.
According to Herbert Chimhundu, the Southern Rhodesia Missionary Conference brought in Clement Doke, a South Africa linguist, to resolve the conflicts about the orthography of the language of the central areas.
The language politics of the Christian denominations contributed to the creation and promotion of Zezuru, Karanga and Manyika as the main dialects which Doke accommodated in a unified orthography of a unified language that was GIVEN the name Shona. Note that this was a language that had to be given a name.
Article three of this series will describe how the Rhodesia Front government deliberately incited tribalism between the so-called Shona and Ndebele during the 1960s and 1970s.
It will also illustrate how the liberation movements attempted to counter these divide and rule tactics such that in 1976 ZANU and ZAPU created the Patriotic Front, and were able, in 1987, to agree on and sign the Unity Accord.
The fourth article will interrogate in greater depth the concept of Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities and the related practice of imagined realities.
This will touch on how identities are fluid and created for convenience. During the early and mid-1980s, several people of so-called Shona descent in Bulawayo changed their surnames and took on names that reflected their totemic identities.
Similarly, strong males who were abducted by the Ndebele during their raids on the Mutapa peoples of Northern Zimbabwe were assimilated.
They became subject to the Stockholm syndrome and created identities that saw them fit in.
It is often these characters that have imagined identities that seek to speak and act strongly for their adopted communities. Only the Khumalos are true Ndebele.
The series will conclude by exhorting all patriotic and nationalistic Zimbabweans, particularly the leadership, to not only question such foreign inspired narratives, but to engage in deeper conversations about the concepts of leadership, duty to the people and national service. Such conversations must be informed by accurate reading of history.
But before the Zhuwao Brief embarks on these conversations, it is necessary to emphasise that these conversations are not intended to cause any injury, discomfort or hurt. Zhuwao Institute aims to educate, inform and encourage debate amongst Zimbabweans.
The Zhuwao Institute is always inspired by the story of the person who goes to the river to take a bath. That person takes off their clothes, folds them neatly, and places them onto the ground. A mad man comes, takes away the clothes and starts to run away with them. The bather chases after the mad man in the full glory of their birthday suit. What will people think when they witness the spectacle of a person, clutching onto some parcel, being chased by a naked person?
Should the Zhuwao Institute inadvertently become the mad man who steals the bather’s “clothes”, please do not chase after us in the nude lest people will regard you as the mad man. On our part, we will strive to resist the temptation of being the mad man who steals people’s reputations and integrity through deliberate misrepresentations. Zhuwao Institute apologises in the event that we regress to those levels, and only offer the plea that as human beings we falter and are fallible.
About the writer
Honourable Patrick Zhuwao is the Chairman of Zhuwao Institute which is an economics, development and research think tank that focus on integrating socio-political dimensions into business and economic decision making, particularly strategic planning. Zhuwao is the holder of a BSc honours degree in Computer Systems Engineering and an MBA degree in Information Technology Management (City University, London). He also holds BSc honours and MSc degrees in Economics (University of Zimbabwe), as well as a Master of Management (with distinction) degree in Public and Development Management (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). [email protected] or [email protected]
