Wither Zimbabwe? ask Zim Youths in the UK
By Wellington Chibhanguza
TODAY Zimbabwe commemorates the country’s heroes who laid their lives for the independence of the country but sadly we have very little as a people to talk about as we ponder our future under an increasingly autocratic Zanu PF regime. Year in year out, we see President Robert Mugabe taking to the podium to castigate perceived enemies pauperizing the Zimbabwean masses apparently in response to his chaotic land reforms.
He never points the finger at himself and no doubt as the nation remembers our fallen heroes this week, he will again speechify without solving the country’s problems. The evaluation of the President’s speech on the recent parliament opening, served as another testimony, to the religious cult culture Zanu PF has become, and it has enhanced my understanding of this ideology know as Zunuism.
This religious element is seen as crucial to the practice and perception of propaganda, with reference to the speech, it wasn’t simply just a message from the Government to the Zimbabwean people, but also a reciprocal massage, in its self-reinforcing and flexible. A message that must contain logic and elements of truth and must explain and make sense of the political and social reality to the point that the propaganda massage will become significant to the government idealist values of truth.
The harsh reality is that Mugabe is highly intellectual and has mastered the art of propaganda. In my quest of trying to unravel and understand the influences of the purpose built messages behind his speeches in the last six to eight years, one is quick to come to the conclusion that they all boil down to the fact that they are fuelled to focus on nostalgia and sentimentalism, as one ultimate illusion to sway Zimbabweans and specific African Nations to value Zanu PF’s iconic and naïve representation of what is worth defending, in this case is Zimbabweans solvency and Africa’s fight against imperialism.
With growing literacy and extreme political and economical hardships, its somehow getting challenging and difficult for the Mugabe regime to suppress and repress the Zimbabwean people, Mugabe’s Harry Houdini master of illusion days are numbered, no amount of persuasion or oppression is going to delude the Zimbabweans and the international community that the current situation is one that is going to be turned round by the introduction of NEDPP or the so called building bridges attempt between Zimbabwe and Britain with Mkapa as mediator but the actual resolution is one that needs to address the core cause and call for an immediate political and constitutional reform.
Not only are Zimbabweans enticed in a war with the current corrupt regime but a war with established organization like the African union and Southern Africa development community for they are failing to uphold the African Constitution charter and dismally fail to recognise and take responsibility on the Zimbabwean situation. By failing to acknowledge the above, it legitimizes the Mugabe regime’s actions and prolonging the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.
Zimbabweans realize that propaganda is a tool of exclusion from the international community and in turn has exposed the atrocious domestic and international policies the government has adopted.

Wellington Chibanguza is one of the founders of the newly-formed Free-Zim Youth organization that is based in the UK