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Liberation Context and Evolution
Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) was at the forefront and actively participated in the liberation of our country, Zimbabwe, leading to the 1980 political independence. Shortly after our hard-earned independence a military operation codenamed Gukurahundi was launched via the Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, unleashed by the ZANU-led government of the day, ostensibly to eliminate armed dissidents purportedly working to topple the newly inaugurated government. From January 1982 to December 1987 over 40,000 unarmed civilians were wantonly massacred by the Fifth Brigade with collaboration of other security departments both official and unofficial.
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) [and the International Association of Genocide Scholars] estimated that over 20,000 people lost their lives, but their figure was conservative as it covered one district in Matabeleland North (Tsholotsho) and another in Matabeleland South (Matobo). Midlands Province as a whole was not considered. By all definitions, a genocide was committed by the ZANU-led government of Zimbabwe using primarily the Fifth Brigade which was directly answerable to the then Prime Minister, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and no one else. The Fifth Brigade was created solely for Gukurahundi and disbanded with the signing of the Unity Accord on 22 December, 1987. Members of the Fifth Brigade were integrated into regular army units with many of them posing as gallant veterans of the liberation struggle, promoted and decorated by their Commander-in-Chief.
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- Written by: Richard Gandari
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Gukurahundi victims deserve justice in their living years
When the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished by Britain in 1807 with the United States following suit in 1808, many former slaves were alive and lived to see a new dawn of freedom. Though the slave trade continued illegally well into the 1860s at least it had been outlawed formally with many former slaves rising to not only be free but to actually beat the odds in academia, business and sport championships. Some former slaves were even assisted by Uncle Sam to sail back to Africa to establish their own colony in Liberia. Others remained in America and used their freedom to fight for civil liberties. To them, liberty was a secondary issue. Freedom was the first step towards justice for the trans-Atlantic slave trade that had spanned across 400 years.
History also records that when Soviet soldiers poured into Auschwitz in January 1945, they found some survivors of the Holocaust, left behind by the Nazis to die. They were still alive, albeit emaciated and on the brink of death but their liberation gave them a fighting chance. To the Jews liberated by the Red Army, freedom meant the dawn of a new era. They could finally find their own place in the world as free men and women.
Even those that perished shortly afterwards died knowing that freedom had finally come even within moments of their final days on earth. They had tasted freedom even for a fleeting moment. Those who made it went on to beat the odds and thrive in the world of business, espionage, media and political influence.
The above examples, plucked from a large volume of human history, clearly prove the African adage that says there is no night so long that it does not end with dawn. It goes without saying that there are many who perished during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Holocaust. Estimates peg the death tolls in the millions. Exact figures vary according to source and context but every death caused by the oppression of a man by another is one too many. Yet humanity has shown sustained resistance to learn from history. Every single day a new tyrant is born. Pol Pot, Idi Amin Dada, and Robert Gabriel Mugabe penned their own chapters in the blood of their own kinsmen. Without absolving the likes of Adolf Hitler who committed atrocities against Jewish people in Nazi Germany, no one expected Zimbabweans to perish at the hands of their own kith and kin, Robert Mugabe.
The Gukurahundi Genocide of Ndebele Zimbabweans between 1982 and 1987 is Mugabe’s greatest blemish and makes it regrettable that he was born at all. It is debatable but there was something inherently evil about Robert Mugabe. He was an eloquent anglophile with excellent table manners but his heart emitted darkness that only the devil could admire. It was Sir Robert Mugabe who singlehandedly masterminded Gukurahundi and deployed his legion of minions to execute his evil plan to the letter. Anyone who opposed Mugabe or tried to reason with him about the demerits of annihilating a whole tribe from existential memory might as well have slapped the dictator for good measure. Mugabe reserved his deluxe packages in hate for those who commiserated with his victims. There were many willing foot soldiers no doubt, but a good number of Gukurahundi perpetrators were too afraid to disobey Mugabe’s orders.
When the atrocities stopped with the signing of the Unity Accord on 22 December 1987, Mugabe made it the remainder of his life’s mission to evade accountability let alone punishment for his Gukurahundi bloodbath. In his warped thinking, Gukurahundi was a closed chapter. Victims of Gukurahundi had to endure decades of watching a free Mugabe enjoying all the standard perks of a tin pot dictator. Under his iron dorm of a heavily armed security detail, nothing uncomfortable ever happened to Robert Mugabe, except the time he tripped and fell on arrival at Harare International Airport due to a badly laid carpet – not old age, you! Mugabe’s demise only came on 15 November 2017, when his own disgruntled army generals deposed him in a coup d’état supported worldwide.
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- Written by: Mthulisi Hanana ZAPU Secretary General
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