The Sunday Mail
THIS past week, from January 22-27, I had the pleasure of leading a high-powered ZANU PF delegation to the citadel of Pan-Africanist thought, the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School.
Dr Obert Moses Mpofu
This was a follow-up meeting to discuss several issues pertaining to the operationalisation of this unique school, a brainchild of six sister revolutionary parties — ZANU PF (Zimbabwe), ANC (South Africa), MPLA (Angola), CCM (Tanzania), SWAPO (Namibia) and FRELIMO (Mozambique).
The six sister parties were represented by their respective secretary-generals, who serve as the board of trustees.
I have been fortunate enough to bear witness to the launch of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School.
I have also been able to see this doyen of African thought become a living and breathing entity as well as a repository and intermediary of Pan-Africanist ideology.
The Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School (MJNLS) was jointly established by the Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa
This institution is definitely the citadel of scientific decolonisation thought.
We have, indeed, come a long way since the inception of the school, which has been a milestone in the post-independence life for all our liberation movements.
It is a home of African decolonial thought and symbolises victory of the intellectual facet of our unrelenting anti-colonial enterprise.
Without doubt, it is a citadel of scientific decolonisation thought as we continue in our quest to self-determination.
This great school is indeed a pride to the cause of African liberation theoretical and pragmatic predispositions as espoused in Mwalimu Nyerere’s Uhuru na Ujamaah philosophy and Kwame Nkrumah’s concept of African Consciencism.
It marks an awakening to Kenneth Kaunda’s creed of African humanism and Thabo Mbeki’s recent contribution to the decolonisation debate through the idea of African renaissance.
The Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School is indeed a strategic hub for rethinking policymaking on our continent.
Therefore, it is no accident that our great leader of ZANU PF, Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa, found it fit to give full support to this initiative.
Through this school, we will be able to re-articulate our commitment to decolonisation.
In the same vein, the Zimbabwe Government is heavily invested in promoting the establishment of the Museum of African Liberation under the Institute of African Knowledge.
Upon completion, the museum will be a one-stop complex for African liberation memory.
This institution will not be a museum in the conventional sense, but its specific mandate will be that of archiving all our seminal records and artefacts of the wars that were fought across Africa in the quest for decolonisation.
The Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School has come at an opportune time for Africa.
We as a continent are under attack from our detractors; more so, the liberation movements. However, the solidarity and revolutionary bonds which tie all our sister parties together are unbreakable.
We are the parties that were instrumental in ending the subjugation of our people by the imperialists and bringing independence to our respective countries.
Even to this day, we still continue to fight for self-determination and economic freedom.
The Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School is a symbol of a new approach with regards the completion of Africa’s decolonisation agenda as well as the continent’s route to self-determination and economic success.
Therefore, going forward, the school is going to be instrumental in strengthening and accelerating the multifaceted African leadership strategies and programmes towards promoting and safeguarding Africa’s rich liberation heritage.
The leadership school will now also play a crucial role as an apex institution, assembling all our critical intellectual resources, facilitating the cross-pollination of ideas from the region and beyond and help align the work of the national leadership and ideological schools.
There are several elections on our continent this year, notably in South Africa, Tanzania and Namibia.
There is, therefore, a need to be wary of the hidden hand of our detractors, who have made it a point to attack liberation movements and cause divisions amongst us.
There is need to remain vigilant of such manoeuvres and remain united.
Lessons can be drawn from our harmonised elections held in August last year, where my party, ZANU PF, emerged victorious.
After this victory, there were attacks influenced by our detractors, which culminated in the (Nevers) Mumba report that was disguised as the SADC preliminary report. The school will, thus, play a critical role in guarding the continent against vicious attacks.
The school must, therefore, ensure that it teaches unsullied African ideology so as to stave off the influence of our detractors.
With the school at the centre of taking ownership of and propagating the true Pan-Africanist ideology, we are poised to spur the continent forward to greater heights.
With more institutions such as the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School, the continent’s rich history and future aspirations will forever be safeguarded.
Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is an academic and the Secretary-General of ZANU PF. He writes in his own capacity.
