The Sunday Mail
Rangu Nyamurundira
The British place value on age after all, on the years and wisdom attained and the anchoring of generational purpose. Britain has just celebrated 90 years of the life of its monarch and Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II, and what she means to British identity past, present and future. Queen Elizabeth II has ruled Britain for a good 63 years and the British put on a grand show for her.
There was a Horse Guard Parade of more than 1 600 soldiers and 300 horses, and a flotilla of 50 boats down the River Thames, not to mention the Royal Air Force flypast of Spitfires, helicopters and Red Arrows.
It was a three-day affair from June 10 to 12, 2016, and the second of the Queen’s two birthdays held every year in a tradition going back 250 years. In British tradition, they embrace the value of it and converge annually with pride.
It began with a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, giving thanks for the queen’s “faithful devotion” to Britain and her leadership through war and hardship, turmoil and change that “fearfully and wonderfully sustained” Britain. And so Britons took time to look back on Her Majesty’s 90 years “in the life of our nation with deep wonder and profound gratitude”.
Never mind that such leadership by the British Crown, for which the British are thankful before God, imposed colonial subjugation, its inhumanities and death, including those visited upon Zimbabwe, that still haunt our socio-economic livelihoods today, a new generation into political independence.
Done with prayerful thanksgiving, 10 000 people attended the Patron’s Lunch in celebration of their Queen’s patronage of more than 600 organisations in the United Kingdom and around the Commonwealth.
Zimbabwe was part of that celebrated Commonwealth trophy until President Mugabe boldly declared “enough of it”, in a step towards our total independence. But Britain can still celebrate the economic spoils of colonialism.
This generational inheritance was displayed as Queen Elizabeth II stood at the royal balcony next to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and the British subjects below. It was a highlight of a legacy for British posterity, set on its path by Zimbabwe’s historic subjugation.
Must we be denied that same feeling of security, reassurance and promise when it is our turn to celebrate President Mugabe, now at 92? Why attempt to dismiss our Million-Man March in honour of President Mugabe when the Queen’s 10 000 is told so beautifully to the world?
It is time we understood our past, making it the platform upon which our new generation can celebrate those who advocate and sacrifice for our yet-to-be achieved liberated and empowered future.
We are far from being the so-called “born free” generation. How can we be when we are born to a political freedom far divorced from any economic freedom? We must understand how our past was shaped and defined to alienate our economic claim.
Do we know that leafy Avondale, Harare where young Zimbabweans struggle for tenancy was named so by British pioneer Thomas Meikles in memory of his mother’s birthplace in Avondale, Scotland?
A simple google search of Strathaven next door to Avondale will tell you it is named after a historic market town in South Lanarkshire, the largest settlement in Avondale, Scotland.
Try “Little England”, reference still made to our town of Nyanga, where we endeavour to make a holiday. To whom do such names speak and give reassuring comfort and confidence in laying economic claim and title here? Certainly not to “born frees” called Nhamodzenyika or Zvichanaka.
How are we “born free” to a Zimbabwe whose comforts bear names in honour of a British legacy celebrated through the life of their Queen, while alienating wevhu made fearful to proclaim our heritage?
Take Harare’s Fife Avenue, deriving its name from the Duke of Fife, who was mukwasha to the British Crown and a director on the board of the British South Africa Company.
BSAC was given official dominion by the British government over Rhodesia in 1894, and that company represented and secured British economic interests in the new colony.
Understand the historic perspective that gives just cause to indigenisation, which President Mugabe so passionately advocates almost as a lone voice here. Upon the defeat of King Lobengula in 1893 and the looting of indigenous land, BSAC set up such a thing as the “Loot Committee” that managed the distribution of looted Ndebele cattle.
That Loot Committee was chaired by one John Meikles whose members retained for their personal benefit thousands of the looted cattle. Thomas Meikles is the more famous Meikles brother whose post-colonial empire is solidly invested in Zimbabwe’s economy today. I will hazard to guess those looted cattle have something to do with it.
BSAC and the Loot Committee are both pillars of the British Crown’s legacy for which the British people recently gave thanks in prayer on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday, a legacy they say has “fearfully and wonderfully sustained” them, thanks to their Queen’s “faithful devotion” to Britain.
Is President Mugabe’s “faithful devotion” to his Zimbabwe any lesser so as to prompt the British media to vilify him for his sacrifice for Zimbabwe and his people’s economic liberation?
Or is it because President Mugabe’s “faithful devotion” to Zimbabwe unravels Britain’s ill-earned economic interests here, their cause for celebrating their British monarch?
It is, indeed, imperative that we have the Herbert Chitepo Ideological College to engage our historical perspective. But such history must be engaged as a living reflection of the past that must constructively engage and drive a new generation into the future towards our total independence.
The youth have declared intent with their Million Man March in celebration of the life of President Mugabe, a life whose unfinished business includes undoing the British legacy of economic deprivation that continues in politically independent Zimbabwe.
Our private media may attempt to demean such celebration, yet we know our march was not inspired by the promise of food but a more sustainable hope and aspiration we have entrusted to the life of President Mugabe who has led us through war, hardship and turmoil, mostly suffered at the hands of British interests.
Zimbabwe has a legitimate claim to declare that he goes nowhere. We, too, must be left to celebrate President Mugabe’s life “with deep wonder and profound gratitude”. Rangu Nyamurundira is a lawyer and indigenisation and economic empowerment consultant
