The fallacy of a better Rhodesia….
6 min read
Munyaradzi wekwaChivi
One has often heard some dimwits speak with exaggerated nostalgia about how Rhodesia was better and about how they wish to go back there.
It is obviously the opposition lot that speak such nonsense. It always leaves a sour taste inh mouth. How it is that a person who supposedly went to school and got his or her education courtesy of the Zimbabwean government suddenly sees Rhodesia as better? What was this person not taught? I always wonder why people like Tendai Biti, who was 14 years at Independence from the racist Rhodesian minority never has any stories to tale about at least the Liberation Struggle.
This piece is not really about the Liberation struggle but it is an attempt to get people to think better and to expose the fallacy by throwing in questions that expose Rhodesia for what it was. It is an attempt to expose that a claim of a better Rhodesia is nothing but a composition of fallacies created in the heads of those with natural sellout tendencies. It is not a surprise that most of those in the opposition rank and file trace their heritage back to those who were either in the British South African Police or Rhodesian African Rifles.
Let me give here a random fact; in 1978 Rhodesia had 177 secondary schools, for a national population of seven million. Of this population, 90 percent was black. Of that vast black population, only four percent blacks were allowed into the secondary schools and only two percent were allowed O Level education.
What was fine then during colonial rule? By 2015, Zimbabwe had 2424 Secondary Schools for twice thre1978 national population. To add to that, everyone is allowed secondary education up to A Levels too if uour passes allow.
On this front alone, one must then dismiss the claim of a better Rhodesia with the contempt it deserves!
There is also the argument that the Rhodesian economy was excellent and people lived better lives. I do not know which Rhodesia that was but if the people lived so great, why would they rake up arms against a better life?
In Rhodesian times, people lived in shacks made of poles and mud, and with grass roofs. This was the standard African home. In towns like Masvingo, there were even hearts like the famous kumaR where the late Soul of the Nation, Vice President Simon Vengai Mzenda lived.
There was no portable or borehole water for Africans. They drank water from rivers. It is a surprise really to hear one speak with nostalgic nonsense of a time when blacks had no access to electricity as being better.
One would like those who speak glowingly of Rhodesia to tell us ehat was the rate of use of proper sanitation? Did black people have flushing toilet? Potable water for the natives? Can they revert back in their heads and tell us if they did not use the bucket system?
How many Africans lived officially in urban areas? We are asking here for those who were allowed to live there not those who played hide and seek with the municipal police at the Mbare flats. Did people not get random inspections at odd hours of the night to see how many lived there and with who?
I would also like one to give me the figure of the Africans in the civil service- middle and top management. Its every strange to hear such wild and outlandish claims by people who should know better.
One always hears baffling tales about how the Rhodesian roads were better and where tarred. Well, I know this may come as a surprise to the speakers, but if Rhodesian roads were tarred, how were the freedom fighters able to dig them up and bury landmines to blow up the trucks transporting Rhodesian soldiers?
Exactly how many kilometers of road network was tarred and how many was gravel and where did these roads end? Can someone kindly provide the number of bridges?
I hear tales of better health facilities during Rhodesian times and I am even sadder. I ma a rural boy and I know the distances my people had to travel to get to a hospital. But perhaps the claimnants of a better Rhodesia would like to tell us how much of this world class health care was available for the blacks? What was the distance from a hospital or clinic? Can they compare that with what is it now and the services available to the rest of the population?
Can we talk of education again for it is one of the greatest success stories of Zimbabwe. It unfortunately has also been able to produce the greatest idiots of our time and they are the reason why thos article is being penned. How many lower and full primary schools were there at Independence? How many secondary schools were there in the rural areas at Independence? How many do we have now and can one compare the distances walked and who is allowed and who is not allowed?
How many universities does Zimbabwe have? A random fact; there are more rural university students than from urban areas now. And most of these are from rural day secondary schools and are studying in fields including engineering and medicine.
I know blacks did not vote during the Rhodesian times and certainly did not own any properties in towns or even rural areas. The government even determined the size of your herd of cattle.
So longing are they for a return to Rhodesia that they run to the British and Americans, the same enemy we fought to free Zimbabwe and the same one still at war with us via sanctions to demand they do something about our country.
I read a United States diplomatic cable, of a Zimbabwean politician, Nelson Chamisa begging a foreign power to bring soldiers here to invade our country. Inviting a foreign army to make our country an ungovernable Afghanstan, Lybia or Iraq? They hate the freedoms that they have currently that they think inviting the enemy we fought to free ourselves is better?
I always am forced to think that African countries, especially Zimbabwe needs nuclear weapons. Perhaps if we did, the enemy we face today would back down or would be afraid to take the sort of liberties it takes with us. I make that argument fully aware of the dangers of nuclear weapons. But lets look at the North Korean situation a bit.
North Korea recently tested despite the sanctions, a medium range ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear war head. The aim of the North Koreans is only to protect themselves against American aggression. They have never colonised anyone nor have they ever invaded and other country to impose their own will and wishes on others.
I do not view them as a threat to anyone other than those who seek to dominate them. It is the Americans we need to worry about as far as who has nuclear weapons. No other country than them have already used the atomic bomb. The Americans not Zimbabwe or North Korea have just had one of the most unstable Presidents the world has ever seen. Donald Trump was a train wreck but even he did not dare attack North Korea. Even though he did not lift sanctions on it, he did talk to Kim Jong Uhn the North Korean leader. If Zimbabwe had nuclear weapons, perhaps we would not have them riding rough shod over us. We certainly would not have them being invited to invade us.
The Americans who back the local opposition which speaks with nonsensical nostalgia of Rhodesia have also appointed themselves the world’s policeman and regularly export death and destruction to other nations. The Americans are somehow involved in every war going on in the world and have been since the Second World War. They consistently and constantly interfere in the affairs of other nations as a matter of policy.
In Zimbabwe unfortunately they are invited by our opposition to do so. An opposition which does not like to see the dignity of a black person restored. An opposition against land ownership, an opposition that prefers periodic checks in their houses for who is there. An opposition that prefers to see only a few blacks in positions of authority and education.
An opposition that shouts, claps and ullulates when a clueless British, Thandiwe Newton who calls herself a British Zimbabwean but has no knowledge of Zimbabwe at all, calls Zimbabwe our ex colony?
A person nostalgic about a colonial past and seeks to see the former violater of all known rights to a person come and impose their will again?
I feel sad when faced by such countrymen and wonder what it is we did not teach people.
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