A question of identity
EDITOR - The Zimbabwean identity is a genuine, essential, and inherent characteristic; it is transmitted from generation to generation. Defined as an identity that is renowned for its culture of tolerance, pride and unity.

Never before has this identity ever been questioned for its integrity especially by the international community, until now when the Zimbabwean Diaspora community is failing to exempt the basic principals that form the foundation of our identity which are tolerance, pride and unity.With a growing culture of ignorance, arrogance and selfishness amongst the Zimbabwean Diaspora community and misconception of tolerance by turning a blind eye to the Zimbabwean situation, failing to take responsibility and failing to realize the importance of uniting as a people and realization that the voice of the Diaspora could potentially be a major catalyst in the fight for a new Zimbabwe.

Ignorance, arrogance and selfishness can easy be justified as self defence in minds infiltrated with years of propaganda and Zanu-ism, but never before has the question of Identity been of such importance, at a time when the nation is subdued to harsh political misconduct and economic meltdown, of which it has resulted in gross human rights violations by the regime in a bid to clinch onto power and suppress the people from any up rising.A time where the nation is in prayer for change but constrained by various legislative laws making it virtually impossible to excise freedom of expression and stand up for the right to good governance, excess affordable good standard health, education, rule of law, shelter, child care, food and security.If the Zimbabwean Diaspora community, an estimated 3 million of us, took pride in our Identity and not only practised the basic fundamentals Tolerance, pride and unity, we will be in a position to regain the dignity of the Zimbabwean people and be it in solidarity in order to restore our legitimate rights in Zimbabwe, to re-establish peace and security in our country, and to enable its people to exercise national sovereignty and freedom.

United we stand a chance of making history and paving way for the birth of democracy and restore rule of law in our motherland.

WELLINGTON CHIBANGUZA, Free-ZimYouth UK

Charity begins at home Mr Mbeki
By Alois Phiri Mbawara
IT’S a shame that we, young Africans, have such a big deficit in role models. All our heroes are falling from heroes to zeros, they are actually becoming villains faster than we ever imagined. I’m talking here about South African President Thabo Mbeki.
It sounds too ambitious for Mbeki to stretch himself saying South Africa is ready to intervene in the Middle East if called on to support peace initiatives by United Nations when right next door his own neighbours are suffering under the autocratic rule of another former hero, Robert Mugabe. Well, it is very vital for South Africa to join hands with the International community in pushing for peace in the Middle East but I think Mbeki’s bigger problem right now should not be the Israel and Lebanon but Zimbabwe, whose problems have for long being a cause of pain in his own backyard.
Speaking recently he said it was essential to end hostilities in the Middle East. Mbeki openly pointed out the negative and positive things that will pave way for peace in the region while supporting a transition and the need for negotiations between Israel and the other stakeholders, which is a good thing.
He even said that his government will launch a joint initiative with the South African civil society to channel humanitarian aid to the Middle East. Well charity begins at home Mr President. Mbeki was given a mandate to solve the Zimbabwe crisis but has failed to even acknowledge it. Why go to solve problems so far away when in your own neighbouring country, Zimbabwe, people are being denied life. How can he see hostilities in the Middle East when he can’t see children in Zimbabwe who are being denied basic health care, meals, clean water, basic education and related things.
There are people who are sleeping on the streets, in shacks not because of natural disasters but because of a ruthless regime which has destroyed their livelihoods. Is Mbeki waiting for a civil war for him to intervene and talk openly and honestly about the Zimbabwean crisis or is it there are no casualties openly being displayed on the streets as in Lebanon. Or are they waiting for Zimbabwe to be another Angola for them to intervene?
Africans should boycott and push for major reforms in the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other such institutions which we are increasingly coming to believe were designed to fund and protect African leaders and not the general populace on the continent. Or is it Mbeki wants to maintain his “quiet diplomacy” because South Africa is benefiting a lot from Zimbabwe’s crisis. What with all the Zimbabwean doctors, teachers, lawyers, builders, prominent people, investors who are fleeing Zimbabwe into South Africa and contributing a lot more to their neighbours economy. South Africa’s interests in Zimbabwe are also increasing by the day – the Zesa-Eskom deals, its mining interests and many others. Why destroy your fellow brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe, Mr Mbeki.
Mbeki needs to openly criticise Mugabe's policies which have lead the country to ruins. He needs to point out that there is need for a transition in Zimbabwe – he needs to encourage Mugabe and all the other political stakeholders to sit down and iron out the problems affecting the country while at the same time mapping out the future for the troubled country. Mbeki should stop sympathising with Mugabe and desist from protecting him and for once put the Zimbabweans people first. They have suffered long enough in the land of “milk and honey”. As the Zimbabwean youth in the UK, we call on our fellow Zimbabweans all over the world to speak-out and push our African counterparts to reform from their softer stance towards Robert Mugabe and his government. And to our fellow Youth in Zimbabwe, we say let us get up and show the Mugabe regime they can jail, kill a revolutionary, but they can’t jail or kill a revolution.
Our criticism is liberty because the Mugabe regime has never done anything for us the youth, especially now when people are being denied their civil rights.

Alois Phiri Mbawara is one of the founding members of Free-Zim, an organisation formed to educate young Zimbabweans to take an interest in the politics of their country. He can be contacted on freezim6@yahoo.co.uk

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

Mugabe the African Castro
By Alois Phiri Mbawara
LONDON - I have always admired and respected our Chimurenga history starting from the First Chimurenga how our Ancestors Ambuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi played a massive role in protecting our Sovereignity and their resistance against minority rule.
These political figures, Nehanda and Kaguvi, will always be remembered, respected and will be a silver-spoon which will be passed on from one generation to the other – they are icons. So as the Second Chimurenga to a certain extent.
I strongly agree with a recent letter that said the liberator had turned monster. We all had respect for our liberators after independence till they started to take Zimbabwe as their personal property. Mugabe has managed to mislead the region, the African Union and others that the economic and political meltdown in Zimbabwe was due to economic sanctions imposed by the European Union due to his controversial land reforms. Mugabe used the land reform as a political gimmick not only as a way of propaganda to gain support from the Zimbabwean electorate but to spread controversy among Africans.
It is 100% true the land question has always been a driving force for independence for us as Africans. But the way it was done in Zimbabwe was with no logic and unconstitutional. Mugabe failed to address the Land issue according to the Lancaster House Agreement. He tolerated corruption, Kumbirai Kangai being the first minister to be accused of graft, within the government leading to the drastic meltdown of the economy. As a result many have lost their trust in Mugabe’s government. I strongly believe the Zimbabwean solution lies in the southern African region.
It is our civic right and responsibility to strive hard and expose to our African counterparts that the Zimbabwean situation is due to one’s misrule not a racial issue. We need to expose to our African brothers that the economic meltdown in our motherland is due to one who has jeopardised the agricultural system which was the backbone of the economy, one who has with no logic taken farms from commercial farmers (from a economy which is based on Agriculture) giving them to subsistence farmers. Differences between the two farming systems - commercial farmer produce for commercial bases and subsistence farmer does for his own consumption. We need to expose to our African brothers how it is impossible to campaign or win any election with the present Constitution. We need constitutional reforms. Why some African countries are not criticising Mugabe it’s because Mugabe's propaganda tactics have worked in selling the Zimbabwean situation as a bilateral dispute between Harare and London taking Africans back to the start of Pan Africanism hence the land reform in Namibia, South Africa giving Mugabe the Fidel Castro image. Castro has a long bilateral dispute with the West, mainly America, for his undemocratic style towards his people.
Even though I don’t fully support America's influence towards Havana, its pledge of US$80m to fund anti-Castro organisations in Cuba to spearhead the end of the Communist rule is wrong, it is very crucial for Cubans themselves to be on the centre stage of pushing for a democratic transition not a direct involvement of the Bush Administration this will give Castro support from his other communist allies China,Venezuela, Russia, Korea, Mugabe and libya (but now reforming). No wonder why he is celebrated as a hero throughout Latin America. In conclusion we Zimbabweans need to work with our African counterparts for them to acknowledge the Zimbabwean crisis. I think its high time we respect and follow the fundamental principles and rules of art of war, our attack formation has to change lets study and learn our opponents so as to win them, I think I have mentioned it before but now I mean it, Mugabe has succeeded regionally in using the colonial card to dismiss any EU interference and the more pressure given to Mugabe the more he gets regional support, that is why Kofi Annan is failing to openly criticize Mugabe because of Annan's Ghanian roots, the birth place of Pan-Africanism.
But it is a shame the original ideology of Pan-Africanism by Kwame Krumah was to serve the will the people but now it has been catastrophed by self interest it is now used to serve the will of African leaders. It’s high time we put pressure on our African brothers not to turn a blind eye on the escalating situation in Zimbabwe and to criticize them to save and sympathize with Zimbabweans not Mugabe. We Zimbabweans we should be in a position to dismiss and react to Sam Nujoma's notion. He recently threw a baseless defence of Zimbabweans from British invasion and educate them. What Zimbabweans need liberation from is the Mugabe regime. Let’s all try and stop this African Fidel Castro before it spreads in the region. Zimbabwe should be an example for Africa of emancipation from so-called liberators. It is important for us young Africans to realise and recognise the fall of prideness and oneless as Africans and push for a reform of African Union for the sack of our future and our unborn children. And as we always say our criticism is liberty, why because the Mugabe regime has never done anything for us the youth with our whole nation being denied their civic rights. Alois Phiri Mbawara is one of founding members of Free-Zim Youth, a youth organisation based in the UK.