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Writers Articles And Opinions |
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29 March 2010
By Reason
Wafawarova
AMOS N.
WILSON opens his book "The Falsification of Afrikan
Consciousness" by saying: "The psychology,
consciousness and behavioural tendencies of
individuals and societies are to a very significant
extent the products of their personal and collective
histories."
Indeed, both
personal and collective psychology are constructed
from experiences consciously retrieved from memory and
those forgotten or repressed, but which still
represent themselves in individual and collective
tendencies, habits, traditions, emotional
responsiveness, perspectives, ways of processing
information, ways of interpreting events and actions,
attitudes and all forms of reactions to different
stimuli and situations.
The history
that we learnt in Zimbabwean high schools before and
after Independence was largely an adulterated version
of events that was designed to deodorise colonialism
as a way of civilisation and not an expression of
brutal repression.
This writer
was spared the misfortune of memorising the glorified
achievements of the Allied Forces and the vilification
of Adolf Hitler, having been in the top 40 of the 170
students in his Junior Certificate level stream.
That feat
meant doing Physics with Chemistry as a subject in
place of History at O-Level.
Now, it is
apparent that this writer was spared gross childhood
brainwashing about world events of the 20th century.
Most of the
people who were introduced to European history at this
tender age are today diehard believers in Western
supremacy, and it would not be an exaggeration to
assert that some of the people affected by this
intellectualised propaganda have been mentally
handicapped for life.
Sadly, even
the aspect of our own African history was not spared
the manipulation.
We had to
live with the mortal threat of Eurocentric
historiography to the African story. We were, and in
many cases are still made to live with the
functionality of an African consciousness and
behaviour that is a derivative of a history written by
our erstwhile oppressors.
The history
of the oppressed, as written by the oppressor, shapes
the consciousness and psychology of both the oppressed
and the oppressor.
It helps to
legitimise the oppressive system, such as the imperial
world order of today, and to maintain the imbalance of
power in favour of oppressive forces.
So we have a
generation of young Africans that have been
indoctrinated with apologetics for Western domination
and the oppression of African people in the past and
in the present.
This, in many
cases, is just a crude attempt to create and shape a
subordinate and inferior African consciousness and
psychology.
The world
order created by the colonial legacy has imposed on
the African social system a socio-cultural amnesic tax
that creates a reliance and dependency on a facade of
a reality that robs our people of their most valuable
resources.
These
resources are the people's knowledge of truth and
reality of self, their cultural heritage and identity,
minds, bodies, souls; their wealth, lands, products of
their labour and their lives.
This writer
recalls very well that these are the valuable
resources that were enshrined in the National Youth
Service curriculum that was drafted at a stakeholder
gathering at Great Zimbabwe in February 2001.
The whole
idea was to liberate young Zimbabweans from the
bondage of inferiority and ignorance of the real
African identity.
We
deliberated on the way forward and we agreed that it
was imperative to liberate the young Zimbabwean from
mental slavery and from the deception of Eurocentric
historiography.
We agreed
that Eurocentric history was, in fact, the most
formidable ally of Western racism and imperialism.
We resolved
to create a youth who would be unafraid to speak to
imperial power, a youth who would have a national
orientation that re-conquered the African mind, our
body, our land, our resources, and our autonomy.
We agreed
that our political system had been badly infiltrated
by a civic institution that conspired badly with
Eurocentric opinion in a way that handcuffed and
incarcerated our national consciousness.
We realised
that many of our local NGOs and some of our political
parties were justifying and facilitating the
subordination and exploitation of our people.
We resolved
that the treacherous role of a Eurocentric history and
opinion among our people had to be reversed by
introducing an African-centred historiography written
by our own people, and dedicated to the accuracy and
truth of Zimbabwe's real story.
Needless to
say, imperialism immediately fought back.
Our plans
were labelled "propaganda machinery" and the NYS was
called all kinds of derogatory names before it was
even launched on September 8, 2001.
Every act of
political violence, real, imagined or made up -- all
were attributed to graduates of the NYS programme, and
there was no sparing even of the girls-only Vumba
Training Centre in Manicaland.
In fact, any
young person that gets involved in a scuffle of a
political nature is now considered an NYS graduate by
definition, unless it is perhaps one of the increasing
cases of intra-party violent clashes at MDC-T rallies
and gatherings.
The problem
we had with the National Youth Service programme was
that there were people involved with its
administration and implementation who erroneously
thought national orientation was a fairy tale wherein
certain things are accomplished and then people live
happily ever after.
Many thought
that life after the passout parade for the NYS
graduate would all be endless accomplishments
expanding for eternity.
Some of the
NYS graduates thought as much themselves -- hoping to
graduate and be placed in nice and well-paying jobs as
super patriots equipped with anti-imperial survival
skills.
We should not
be so optimistic as to be foolish.
The mental
freedom one gets in an institution like what we
created in the NYS centres is not easy to sustain and
maintain in the real world of challenges and
pressures.
There is no
law that says freedom gained cannot be lost again, and
that is the lesson we need to learn as a people.
There was a
lot of Zimbabwean history from 1890 to 1980 that was
being taught at the NYS centres, from an Afro-centric
point of view, that is.
However, the
study of history cannot be a mere celebration of those
who struggled on our behalf.
We must be
instructed by history and should transform history
into concrete reality, into planning and development,
into the construction of power and the ability to
ensure our survival as a people.
If we do not
do this, then the liberation legacy in its totality
risks becoming an exercise in the inflation of egos --
that way cutting us further off from reality.
Let us look
at the irony in South African anti-apartheid history
for example.
We now see
people who are clearly not friends of Africans in
general and of our brothers and sisters in South
Africa in particular; celebrating the history of South
Africa's liberation legacy.
They want to
lecture us on the greatness of Cde Nelson Mandela, as
if he actually hailed from Europe.
Even his
jailers, who incarcerated him for 27 years, want to be
seen at the forefront of preaching the greatness of
Nelson Mandela.
This can only
mean that these people must be seeing in this history
some means of protecting their own interests, and they
see in it something that works for them, and possibly
against the people of South Africa.
If the people
we are liberating ourselves from can celebrate our
history and hail it as something positive, then it
means that we are not using our history in a
revolutionary sense. This way they do not see our
study of this history as a threat to their power.
If we are not
telling the African history in a way that is a threat
to imperial power then we are telling this history
incorrectly, and our celebration of such history is
only helping to maintain us in a state of deception.
It is
important that we ensure that we tell our history in a
way that advances our interest as African people, more
so our interest as Zimbabwean people.
It is very
easy to tell a history of a people in a way that only
inflates our egos and that completely blinds us to
reality.
Young
Zimbabweans and young South Africans face this danger
where the true history of our people is trivialised
and downplayed so that it has a very poor reputation.
We have an
increasing number of our young people who view history
as a set of dates and events with hardly anything to
do with today.
These
youngsters think history is not going to get them a
job, to make them money, and they cannot figure out
what they can do with their own history.
Clearly, they
cannot see the connection between history, power and
money.
It is
extremely dangerous to miss the direct connection
between history and economics.
This is
precisely why we have a legion of Zimbabwean
youngsters and others who are expressing blind anger
against the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Act, the same anger we saw being expressed by others
against the land reform programme.
These people
cannot see the link between our history and our
economy.
They believe
in the history of the African worker and they cannot
comprehend the idea of an African producer and
employer.
If there were
no direct relationships between history and money,
between history and power, history and rulership,
history and domination; then the colonialists would
never have bothered rewriting our history.
Even today,
the West would not be investing so much money into
trying to destroy our true history or to take it away
from us.
Why is it
that the Westerner wants to rewrite the history of
Zimbabwe's liberation from colonialism?
Why is it
that they want to create the image of a dictatorial
Mugabe as the centrepiece of this history?
Why is it
that they want to taint the liberation war veterans as
combative militias that fight against democracy?
Why is it
that they want to fund some of our politicians into
contrived political heroes and heroines?
Why is it
that they want to write a history of a Zimbabwean
inclusive Government with only half its members as
sane democrats and the other half as barbarians banned
from interacting with "Western civilisation"?
Apparently
the rewriting, the distortion and the stealing of our
history must serve vital economic, political and
social functions for the Westerners, or else they
would not bother and try so hard to keep our true
history away from us, and to blatantly distort it in
our own minds.
Some among us
are made to religiously believe that Westerners are
dedicated to democracy and the human rights regime,
and they actually believe this is why millions of
dollars are clandestinely poured into our political
system. We cannot be as democracy-hungry as to be
stupid.
If Africa is
not going to lose all of what the liberation movements
gained since 1956, then we need to meditate on the
issues raised and realise that there is a direct
relationship between history and economics, as well as
political and social development.
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