Wild assumptions
I spent most of my life in Mutare even though I was born in Bulawayo and I am now a permanent resident of Bulawayo. This places me at a distinct advantage: I am very familiar with both the Shona and Ndebele worlds. There are a lot of things that both sides do not know about each and wild assumptions that damage relations are made.
Considering the history of Matabeleland: The slaughter of about twenty thousand people, there is always suspicion between Ndebele and Shona and a number of times I have to pull two warring sides apart as I happen to see things in a clearer light than a person who is exclusively Shona or Ndebele. I have a friend who believes every Shona person in Matabeleland is an enemy, planted in Matabeleland as part of the Gukurahundi agenda (the total disempowerment of the Ndebele people by flooding the region with Shona people and making sure that Ndebeles do not get any opportunities).
I cannot say for sure that the Gukurahundi agenda does not exist, but I believe individuals should be judged on individual merit not broadly based on the sins of a few mad people who did not have the people’s mandate to do what they did.
When my friend suggested that I happen to get opportunities because I have one leg in the Shona world and the other in the Ndebele world I knew the Shona-Ndebele thing had gone too far; I happen to have worked abnormally hard and continue to do so to get to where I am. The so-called Gukurahundi agenda is now being used by lazy people who do not exploit opportunities as a crutch.
Whilst it is important to address past and current injustices, we have to remember that were we come from matters less than where we are going.
Thursday, March 31st 2011 at 4:29 pm
It is easy for you to say as one told you, you have one leg in mashonaland and the other in Matabeleland definitely you would not see a thing as you are blinded by the opportunities you have. Before independence all blacks both Shona and Ndebele owned almost nothing and whites thought just like you think, they worked hard for what they had yes by use of the disfranchised poor blacks to prove that just go to South Africa check the disparities and tell me why? At all times those on the greener side they will tell you all about the hard work they have done to reach where they are forget that it is the government which provide level grounds for one to do so check today there many Shona speaking primary teachers in Matabeleland than it was during smith’s time so are saying Ndebele did not want go to colleges after independence?
Check how many and who owns local banks today in Zimbabwe “simply one tribe why?” check the arm commanders “JOMIC” that tells you how favourable conditions are toward the Shona speaking tribe in that god forsaken Zimbabwe. They are many examples Shona pretend not to see as if they do not exist. If look carefully rural Matabeleland is much developed that rural Mashonaland because people who were denied opportunities went South to work as garden boys and developed their country side you can not compare rural Matabeleland with rural Mashonaland, doesn’t that tell you that people you claim are lazy actual they are not. In south Africa it is well known that Ndebele (Zimbabweans) are harding working people.