NDEBELE BROTHER GIVES VERY SAD PERSPECTIVE OF GUKURAHUNDI!

This letter was written by Qhopheni Ndlovu (qhoshi03@yahoo.co.uk )

I corrected only spellings and gramma but otherwise its exactly as it landed in my In-Box.

Rev Mufaro Stig Hove.

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I find ads posted sad for people like you to try and make money out of other people's misery.

What have you done for the victims of the killings considering that you are making a killing from the ads posted on your site. You might think that you are promoting some tribal unity or something but let me tell you the truth straight , WE THE NDEBELES DO NOT WANT TO BE PART OF ZIMBABWE ANYMORE BELIEVE IT OR NOT.

We are sick and tired of the treachery perpetuated by the Shonas day in day out we are sick of having our salaries eroded every hour you may say the Shonas are suffering too but let me tell you that our suffering dates way back to the 80s.

Take Zodwa for example, her father left home when her mom was still pregnant to join the war came back at independence and in 1982 was collected at night by the fifth brigade and was never to be seen again the result is that without a father Zodwa's mom had to struggle to raise her, pay her fees and Zodwa went to school barefoot, was not doing well as there was not enough food at home; they were living like destitute in a country whose independence Zodwa's dad had sacrificed his life.

Because Zodwa has no father she cannot get a Birth Certficate and ID and in turn no Passport to escape the poverty and live in the UK like you so she can send money back home for her parents. She turns to the local eligible man, gets married and thats the end of the story of her youth. Now she has to fend for her kids who in turn (because she has no Birth Certificate) find it hard for them to get them themselves and they drop out of school at Grade 7 because they can not write Grade Seven exams with no Birth Cerficates, and yes the cycle continues vicious as it is and the next thing the boys who lost a grandparent border-jump into SA.

IF LUCKY THEY MAKE IT; if not they are either eaten by crocodiles or are caught and sent to Lindela.

On the flip side here's a boy in Mash East who grows up with with his mom as his dad has left to join the war dad comes back, gets his demob pay; is senseless, blows it all but is able to get his son a Birth Certificate and son gets an education up to Form Four. Son does not do well at school but as the crunch time comes in, son gets a passport, dad sells some of his cattle son goes to the UK starts a new life, sends dad some money and amongst other things dad buys his cattle back. Its not a blessing to have a father. Or should i say not having a dad is curse?

The sun is setting: the old guard is going; no one is man enough to stand up and challenge the old guard but need i reminder you and your likes in the words of Malcom X

"When you let your chickens out in the morning do not expect them to roost in your neighbour's run: they will come to yours."


Here I was just highlighting to you how deep our problems with the Shonas are; so whatever you are promoting as long as it does not benefit the victims directly you are just as bad
as Mugabe and Chiyangwa: you are enriching yourself with the suffering of others; you hands are blood-stained.

I have attached a link below just to give you an insight as to who the dissidents were, if a notebook signed by Notalks Mabhena is found in the pocket of a terrorist called Mombi Macheni, the rest is food for thought.

www.rhodesia.nl/mission.htm


Have a good day!

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Comments:

Peter Moyo (Peter.Moyo@etv.co.za)

Just a matter to reply this letter. I thought of it for a while, the sensitivities surrounding this issue but I have a problem with this posting because it paints everyone with the same brush hence this cannot go unchallenged. I am Ndebele by all instances, my great grandmother comes from KwaNdebele in South Africa and grew up in the Mema clan before she was married to my great grandfather known as Ndebele and later nicknamed Mantshontsho by the people in Mazvihwa near Zvishavane where he settled and got a farm as pension.
I have for a long time had a problem with this tribalistic shit and tribalists themselves. Just because to justify their actions, they usually dwell on trivial things to demonise another tribe. It erodes the impact of the atrocities committed during Gukurahundi.

We all know that mothers are allowed to take birthcertificates for their children – the law has been in force for a very long time. I remember that if the father was said to be absent for whatever reason, the mother had to use relatives, uncles or the nearest brother to take the documents for the children. That is exactly what happened to me when my father could not own up to impregnating my mother. What happened to Zodwa’s father is unforgivable but to use this to qualify your hate for each and every Shona child who got a birthcertificate is just not on. And there are many Ndebele children who have grown up to be great leaders and businesspeople, both at home and in the Diaspora.

And why does your writer think that the UK is the Mecca for all Zimbabweans – many of them who have ended up in UK have swallowed their degreed pride to work in mental and old age homes – four shifts a day to be able to make a few measly pounds.

South Africa has actually provided a bigger opportunity for Zimbos, especially us Ndebele’s who can speak the language but its up to your scope of mind – whether your mind can only think as far as working in a restaurant or going for the bigger dream which is highly possible in South Africa than in any other country in the world. At a flat I live in Windsor east, many of my neighbours are both Shona and Ndebele, meaning we all jump the border like anyone else, facing the same problems etc.

I am quite aware of the lack of development of Matebeleland by the govt but then it has nothing to do with a Shona child or the generations to come after that. It has to do with the Zimbabwe govt headed by a Zimbabwean – not a Shona, called Robert Mugabe whose govt constitutes of both Shonas and Ndebeles after the merging of PF Zapu and Zanu PF on 22 December 1987.

I hope when time comes for those who committed the Gukurahundi atrocities to account, you will not tell the International Criminal Court that you are looking for all Shonas but just some govt criminals. The fact that Gukurahundi has remained in the news is because of the media and for that media to survive and continue carrying that message and history, they need funds and that funding comes through advertising. That’s how letters like yours are able to be forwarded and be read by the whole world – so there is no apology in actually carrying the Gukurahundi message and at the same time get advertising. Even for you to go on the internet, you need money to surf the web.

It’s like xenophobia here in South Africa, when they fail to do certain tasks in life, they point their fingers at foreigners. Zimbabwe has a bigger picture than some tribalistic inuendoes.

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From wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk

Hie

I agree that what we are seeing here is a sad history whose factuality is mingled in propaganda, bitterness, slander and malice on one side - yet on the other it is rooted in the reality of gross ruin and slaughter whose effect is more cruel on the offsprings of the slaughtered than it ever was on those on whom the pain was inflicted.

I would have been happier if the Unity Accord had addressed this mishappening the way it did the political question. I would be happier if the cahllenges facing Zimbabwe today were not in any way percieved as related to this black patch of our history.

I would be happier if those whose bitterness was created by this sad chapter had somewhere else to empty this betterness than on a path of recurrance and I sometimes feel like shouting at history and say "Please history, don't you dare recur."

In all this bitterness; In all this denial; In all this jingoistic mudslinging; In all this friction and in all this irrationality of the majority and the bitterness of the minority I say - Where is our hope? Where is our faith as a nation? Where is our vision and where is our love?

The blood that we lost to a bad history was not let out by a people from the pits of fires. It was let out by people, some of whom in their youth could not even kill a fly let alone a rat. It is blood let out by people who allowed themselves to be ruled by anger, slander and malice. People whose bitterness and anger created walls of division higher than the Berlin Wall.

In all this we still want a future. A future coming out of our current suffering and bitterness. A future out of a spirit that says freedom comes with running away.

I refuse to be divisive. I refuse to give anesthaesia to the repressed of this world so that they continue to be victims of supremacy driven rape. Yet I refuse to romanticise the triumph of bitterness. I totally refuse to live in a generation where hate is allowed to be a vehicle of perception and believe. I refuse to be ignorant. I refuse to subscribe to the tyranny of the majority.

The African cause is our cause. It is a cause rooted in the suffering bestowed upon our heritage by the barabaric accopmplishements of slavery, colonialism and imperialism. We hail from a history of ruin and slaughter so impiously, tyrannically and barbarically executed upon our ancestry that ours has to be a journey to freedom. It pains when the walk to that freedom entails the mistrust, hate and fascism as evidently seen in this generation.

Those whose lives were taken by the ignonimity of our intolerance and hate should play a role in our future if only we can allow them to do so. To some their death and suffering needs to be avenged, to some they should just be forgotten in the stride of history and yet to others their death and suffering should be atoned by a wave of unity and peace.

My heart continues to cry but there are tears that always make a mockery of the bitterness enshrined in our history. THESE are the tears of those who yesteryear believed we were created to serve them. Those who were sworn o the philosophy that said the black person is just good for labour, beer, dance and primitive sex. Now they gllefully appear at the funeral created by our own shortcomings shedding crocodile tears, just hoping that we keep up the trend of self destruction all for the benefit of their insatiable greed.

Zimbabwe. We are one. Together we will overcome. I refuse to be ignorant.

Reason Wafawarova

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From mangwe@ecoweb.co.zw

Dear All,

I have been quiet for sometime but like Peter I felt compelled to respond to the misguided brother who believes in the colonial myth of “tribes” called Ndebele and Shona. These are languages spoken by people of many tribes in the country and as far as I know our politics in Zimbabwe , like many countries, is not based on tribes but, again as in many countries, on class and regional interests. This is only natural as people of a given class or region would be expected to share certain developmental or other needs. That is why all vibrant democracies recognize the need to have an appropriate balance of power between central and local government. Selfish central government politicians are the ones who often mess countries up by centralizing power and rendering local governments powerless.

For the education of those brainwashed let me state that Ndebele or Shona (which in turn has at least three major sub-groups based on regional location in the Northern (Zezuru), Central and Southern (Karanga) and Eastern (Manyika)) areas of Zimbabwe are equivalent to England , Scotland , Wales or Ireland in the British Isles . We do not talk of an English or Scottish or Welsh or Irish tribe and yet centuries of experience have taught the British people to respect the regional interests by creating an appropriately empowered local government system that works harmoniously with the central government. The same is the case in USA and other federated countries where the state governments work well with the Federal government. I hope statesmen in our countries in Africa will one day copy these successful models of government to avoid the perennial but flawed accusation of tribalism in African politics.

A tribe is a group of people or clan descended from one individual. For example the people descended from Jacob or Israel can legitimately be called a tribe. Such people do not necessarily live in the same locality and hence it would be unusual for them to vote according to tribe. I belong to the Moyo tribe, and I can assure you that members of my tribe (even my family) do not share the same political beliefs or even language simply because we are Moyos. I can say the same about the other tribes. It would therefore be ridiculous for anyone to claim to identify a tribal group simply from language, accent or place of origin. It is even more ridiculous for anyone to then place blame to people of a given language, accent or region for faults attributable to someone who happens to be in power and shares the same language, accent or region.

Our brother is correctly distressed by the injustice and misery in our country but he should define the problem correctly if we are to have lasting solutions.

Simbarashe Mangwengwende.
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From Qhopheni Ndlovu (qhoshi03@yahoo.co.uk )

Hie there

This is an open letter to one Peter Moyo

To analyse your claim of beign a Ndebele first and foremost i would like to remind you that the present day Ndebeles in Zimbabwe were initially Zulus known as amaKhumalo and were Under Tshaka as their king they were only a chieftainship under Matshobana.As Mzilikazi left the present day South Africa he and his people were given the name MATEBELE by the tswanas in refference to their long shields, hence poor Peter, the present day Ndebeles in South Africa are not the same as the Ndebeles in Zimbabwe, even the languages are completley different. That on its own Peter does not qualify your grandmother as a Zimbabwean Ndebele. Secondly if your grandfather is Ndebele by surname allow me Peter to say that if he is your martenal grandfather, naturally Peter your attempt to qualify yourself as a Ndebele still lacks a great deal, if he is your partenal grandparent then how the hell did you end up with a Moyo surname. All i am saying Peter is thatyour claim to be a Ndebele is rather dubious given the information you have put forawrd not that i needed it anywhere. But Peter as we all know Moyo can either be Ndebele or Shona if Ndebele traditionally they (the Moyos ) are known as amaHOLE so no wonder you are attempting to defend the shonas and their spine chilling acts.


Back to the core business, there is always a tendency by the Shona who, trying to run away from their gult, paint anyone that points a finger at the perpetrators of Gukurahundi as shonas a tribalist. The fact remains that this was a tribal cleansing carried out by the 5th brigade that was shona speaking and loyal to Zanu PERIOD. SHOULD WE SAY THAT THESE WERE TONGAS OR SUTHUS no they we shonas. To say that i am painting everybody with the same brush is beside the point as nobody is in a position to stand up today and say i did the killings , i was in the brigade. So should we then throw awy the only strand of evidence that we have that is "the pepertrators were shona speaking" to do so will be spitting on the graves of the slain whether the graves are known or unknown. The scenario i gave you is real and living in Matabeleland people are still failing to get birthcertificates like it or not.

Moyo lets face the facts you can not compare the suffering of somebody who lost a parent in some cases both parents in the 8os to somebody that started to feel the crunch in the late 90s. The passing of a human life on this earth is unlike a goat or cow Moyo thats why we weep when we lose our beloved ones we need that time to go through all the stages of the grieving process and finally accept the loneliness and emptiness left behind by them. The gvt has refused to openly apologise and address this issue, all some of us need is for these lives to be recognised their names to be remembered and their famillies given the support they deserve, yes they are those that have managed to rise above that and make it but they are some who were severely affected, like my aunt's friend who was forced to chop her husbands head off and she went mentally ill from that point on wards, this is true if you like i can take you to her or people that know her. Is it not fair therefore for people like these to benefit from the moneis that others are making in the name of their cause.

Today in rural Matebeleland people still feel terrified when they see an army truck, i was going to Bulawayo from Nkayi when we came across an army truck everybody in the car just kept quiet and we asked each other later on "kanti bayangaphi" is that a normal scenario for people to fear their own national army an army thats meant to serve and protect them. I still stand by my sentiments that people who make money and enrich themselves in the name of the killings are just as bad. I know it costs money to go on the net but how much, all i am saying is we are sick of words on the net we want action and the action is coming soon, the chickens will be coming home to roost soon.

The Uk Moyo is the Mecca for those Zimbabweans that are there thats why they are fighting deportations day in day out, they would have gone back to Zimbabwe if it was not their Mecca, just in as much as South Africa is your Mecca, and i still find it sad for you to think that those who work in restuarants work there because they cannot think beyond that i find it insulting especially to people that have been deported more that 5 times ad still found their way back to make a living because they did not have an education as they fell into Zodwa's, shoes your insensitivity to other people's plight is sickening.

I do not hate the shonas for getting birthcertficates i hate them for tribal depopulation, and for not bringing the killers to justice . If Moyo you feel i am painting everybody with the same brush tell me who to paint, that will be the starting point for the delivery of justice to the slain. If you are saying Mugabe is not a Shona then what is he, enlighten me i thought he was a shona from zwimba.

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From Peter Moyo ( Peter.moyo@etv.co.za)

On my surname, maybe you did not read the part on how I got a birth certificate. Read it again. I was born into a PF Zapu family. Infact, there is no need for me to qualify myself as any other tribe because I am Zimbabwean first and foremost. I went to school at Wanezi High in Filabusi and I can see what you say about who is a true Ndebele because we used to have the Khumaloes at school who thought they were the superior ones and better Ndebeles than others. That is a problem on its own and I see you agitate for this point in your reply which is quite unfortunate – otherwise we would say then the whole of Matabeleland is populated by the Khumaloes. You will then realize that if you dismiss some groups as having not been Ndebele because of their surname or whatsoever, then maybe it was not the Ndebeles alone on whom genocide visited upon. It is a whole lot of many tribes as by your assertion as to who is Ndebele and who is not. I remember Jonathan Moyo clearly saying he lost a father during Gukurahundi – we also lost relatives, some uncles who just vanished during those years – how do we explain this situation – how do we fit our loss in the Gukurahundi context?

That is the problem I have had with people who think they can define others, in the process painting a whole tribe as having participated in the genocide. There are a few criminals who happen to be politician who with Colonel Dyke trained the 5th brigade to vanquish others. We all know who they are, they are a bunch of Zimbabweans that need to be punished. Unfortunately these are the same people who happen to be in power, very much aided by some Ndebele leaders who on 22 December 1987 should have helped our cause by making sure the punishment of perpetrators is put on the table during the political negotiations.

When you take a brush and just paint your misguided masterpiece, this is where you find yourself lashing out at anyone you perceive to be Shona and has a website that writes about social injustices in Zimbabwe . What have you yourself done to make sure there was some awareness about Gukurahundi? Have you talked to the all powerful Dumiso Dabengwa lately or John Nkomo – the current national chairman of the very same party where the real criminals are hiding? Those are the questions that you should be asking yourself. As for me, I will be helping to shoot a documentary about Dr. Joshua Nkomo’s life with one of his grandchildren from the US and I will be speaking to all these politicians plus victims of the Gukurahundi.

Also, on another point, how do you define a Ndebele in this day and age of inter-marriages? I am asking because Dr. Nkomo’s niece shares the surname Moyo. I am also asking because the surname Ndlovu is a direct translation of the Shona surname Nzou or Ndou in Venda . That’s why I would prefer to be called a Zimbabwean than be defined by any other tribe. The moment you start defining yourself, you are likely to die a very bitter man, with nothing to really show in achievement.

As for Gukurahundi, we will not forget it and the people who did it which we all know will be tried in our life time. We will make sure, with our websites, we lobby for that when our political and social space finally becomes free from the current vestiges of our liberation struggle.

And remember brother, I am not Shona nor Ndebele nor any other tribe you might want to classify my surname, I am a Zimbabwean



“To say that i am painting everybody with the same brush is beside the point as nobody is in a position to stand up today and say i did the killings , i was in the brigade. So should we then throw awy the only strand of evidence that we have that is "the pepertrators were shona speaking" to do so will be spitting on the graves of the slain whether the graves are known or unknown”



If we were one day to make an audit of the army, we will find out who did it and we will do so in good time. One of the easiest way to do it, especially in South Africa , has been to go for the top brass, which will happen in good time. So, please don’t use your ignorance to persecute each and every Zimbabwean that you see just because the people who did this despicable act spoke the language they are speaking. It’s a myopic way of trying to deal with real issues



As for the birthcertificates in Matabeleland , I know the difficulties faced there and I acknowledge them, but then I think it is time to ask the MDC MPs who have been running those areas for the past 7 years what they have done to solve this problem. Have they done anything? I believe when the people of Matabeleland for the first time chucked Zanu PF out of the province in 2000, they had things this party had failed to solve and wanted MDC to help them with these – did they then follow up or did MDC follow up in these provinces and villages to really find out what the problems they are facing are? I am still to hear what the MDC really did in the province since winning the elections and if they ever made noise about these issues or try to help families find their relatives lost to Gukurahundi. The catholic organization has talked about mass graves in the province, what has the political leadership chosen in the province done? I have never heard this issue in parliament yet almost the whole province politically belongs to one party. Should we then blame all the other Zimbabweans who got birth certificates for this or we should try to find out why this hasn’t been done and why the political leadership is very silent on this issue.



To me Mugabe is not Shona, he is a Zimbabwean who did a despicable did. This classification of people is the one that makes you paint everyone else with a brush. And as I have said, I have seen it in South Africa where if one foreigner robs a South African, all the radio stations and newspapers start saying foreigners are to blame for crime in the country. But the facts are that only 3% of South African crime is done by foreigners.

So when you see chickens are coming home to roost, are you gonna go charging with a machete or machine gun at any Shona you see since you seem to classify and blame Gukurahundi on Shonas? Maybe you should read about how the Rwandan genocide started. There was the slogan, ‘kill the coachroach’ and ‘a child of a coachroach is also a coachroach’. By the time the Hutus were done, 800 000 mostly Tutsis were dead. The simple thing could have just been to identify the criminals and try them and the country would have gone ahead in peace.

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From remember.moyo@yahoo.com

With all due respect to the views expressed by comrade Reason Wafawarova, Sir, I wish to observe that his contributions are nothing more than vailed attempts at appeasing his Zanu sick mind.

There is nothing of substance that one can lay a hand on considering that Reason should be well informed about the history of Zimbabwe from the enlightened perspective of a "former" Zanu pf activist!!

Take heed cde, the high sounding articles are a lot of storm in a tea cup!

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From wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk

I remember Remember Moyo from news items as many may do. I seem to realise that the response in question is more directed at my regular opinion pieces in the three publications I write for and not necessarily to the issue being discussed here.

I also note that there has been no effort to pick any particular aspect from any article but just to accuse the writer of a fictitious past and attempt the usual negative labling theory, something we article-writers use frequently to gauge the strength of a piece. Normally if readers can respond with emotion (negative) and they cant say what exactly they are upset about it just means the intended message got home, especially if they attempt to discredit the author by associating him with something they perceive to be defamatory.

This writer does not believe in warnings from writers or anyone else because he is a believer in knowledge and facts and not a political activist, Oh please that is a task for people who believe in being followers of individuals. I am an ideology follower and no one can make me a political activist because it is an exercise outside a framework of analyses and sometimes rationality.

I kindly ask Remember to try to remember what exactly got him unhappy in whichever piece(s) that he may have come across and I will be more than happy to calm the storm he is talking about, whether in the MDC teacup as he says or anywhere else.

Otherwise what I wrote about the issues at hand here is exactly what I feel. We cannot afford to agree to ring the worst out of a bad history. That is counterproductive and what we need to do is to find the best possible way to heal the wonds inflicted by that bad history without necessarily inflicting any more wounds.

Again I refuse to be ignorant. Zimbabwe, together we can overcome. We are one.

It is homeland or death for Zimbabwe and the revolution will prosper.

Regards

REASON

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From remember.moyo@yahoo.com

Preposterous response from the "new" comrade! I was merely noting in a literal sense the lack of a clear cut line of thought in his piece of work. My observation had nothing to do with a personal vendetta whatsoever, nor was it meant to undermine the person of Mr Reason Wafawarova in any way subtle or otherwise. I find his personal insecurity rather disturbing and heavily smelling of a political hangover that refuses to acknowledge that in a democratic space people are free to air their personal views on any matter without reducing that objective discourse to a personal level!

I mean, is my Cde that important that I can single out his person for ridicule for the first time ever in my life?!

To point out one flaw I kindly meant for him to address in his future writings; his syntax was very highly strung but the gist of the matter was neither here nor there. I hope it will come out one day what "ignorance" my comrade is "refusing", with a passion of religion!