An oppressor cannot loath the oppressed and love their language, neither would he oppress the person and not suppress the language. He would stifle both. The reason simply being that language is a reflection of a proud history of peoples and a guiding light to their future. If you kill the language of your enemies you have completely destroyed their past, present and future.
The war against Ndebele language in the parliament of Zimbabwe happening both in the upper and lower house whereby parliamentarians from Matabeleland are denied the right to express themselves in their mother language lays bare deep seated hatred, disdain and oppression.
Senator Angelina Masuku, MP Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga and Minister of Micro-economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Obert Mpofu have been, on different occasions, called to order for speaking isiNdebele in the parliament of Zimbabwe. But their Shona counterparts are allowed to freely use their mother tongue whenever they feel like. It is not surprising that the Shona or English andindzwi (I don’t here you) mentality that is maintained by Shona speakers in the communities of Matabeleland, streets, workplaces and government offices is very much alive in the parliament of Zimbabwe. The diabolical intention to extirpate the Ndebele language and Matebele masses is articulated in the devilish conspiracy document that was penned in 1979 which is known as The Grand Plan of 1979.
In a document that leaked a few years ago which reviews the effects of The Grand Plan, the evil conspirators wrote, “we should not give room to the languages of invading groups because our intention is to culturally fracture them. Ndebele Children now realise that ignorance of Shona is a serious handicap and have, therefore slowly but surely grown to accept the inevitable relegation of their own language to an insignificant and parasitical second class means of communication restricted to their homes or play in the streets. Ndebele can play only translation role in Zimbabwe nothing else beyond this.”
Given this glaring evidence it would be foolishness of highest proportions for Matebele parliamentarians and the people of Matabeleland in general to believe that Ndebele language would be given room in the parliament of Zimbabwe by a Shona leader, be it MDCT, PDP, RDZ, Mavambo ,et al. Even Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko has tasted the bitter truth of what we are saying when he is being abused by his juniors by being called “Mboko”, whatever that means. If he continues to remain in Zanupf and believe in Zimbabwe as is currently constituted, then we shall all believe and call him “Mboko” and indeed he would be ” Mboko “.
Countrymen and comrades,MLO warns Matabeles against taking such documents as the Grand Plan for granted. In Rwanda The Grand plan like conspiracy theory document known as “The Hutu 10 Commandments” led to a genocide that wiped out 1 million innocent lives of the minority Tutsi by the majority Hutu. In Zimbabwe there is not a single thing written in The Grand Plan that has not come to pass. Talk of genocide that has seen the cold bloodied murder of more than 40 000 civilians, marginalisation of the masses of Matabeleland, murder of languages, culture, identity name it all and it has happened. As in Rwanda, in Zimbabwe the perpetrators are majority Shona.
In the face of this brazen intolerance we urge legislators from Matabeleland who are currently engaged in time wasting debates trying to beg an oppressor to allow them to speak their language in the parliament of Zimbabwe to abandon this futile exercise and support Matabeleland statehood restoration agenda. Precedence tells us that it is impossible for the oppressed to transform an oppressive system from within as they lack political, financial and military muscle to enforce change. There are two choices. Its either you continue to be a good slave who does not question the master or seek freedom. Had former liberation movements in Africa tried to transform colonialism and apartheid, they would be still fighting that losing battle by now.
What is happening now is not by accident or coincidence. It was all planed long back before Zimbabwe was even independent. If their intention is to “culturally fracture” or not to “give room” to our language and have been doing that for 35 years, what makes us believe that they will change now? When you are busy crying like small babies in their parliament they are busy reviewing The Grand Plan, celebrating its success and clandestinely plotting the next move.
Besides rapping, torturing , displacing and butchering innocent civilians in Matabeleland in the 1980s , the national army, 5 brigade, code-named gukurahundi’s other notable mission was to slaughter local languages and promote Shona. This came to the surface when people were forced to dance on top of fresh graves of their relatives while singing Shona songs in praise of Mugabe. In some cases people were forced to speak Shona language and those who failed were thoroughly beaten or brutally murdered while those who could speak Shona survived.
The following are big companies and government departments which are jointly killing the Ndebele language.
(I) ZBC Tv ugogo uMagarate Mahate “vayadingwa”
(2) Chicken Slice: “umkwenyana” woqobo ubuya le chicken slice.
(3) Telecel: “amhlope”
ECONET, Delta Beverages and many others were caught in the act and were forced to pull down their boards because they were scared to lose business in Matabeleland. Those in the government departments like Home Affairs and ZIMSEC always justify and defend bad habits as they have the protection of the government.
ZIMSEC defended the use of dirty words like Isifebe, umangumba, ikhikhitha and umsuzo in grade 7 final exam paper.
Leading the pack is the home affairs office. Here we have derogatory spelling mistakes in the documents such as the passports and Identity documents which are as old as Zimbabwe itself.
All those who, like Nathaniel Manheru aka George Charamba , think that mispelling Ndebele words is on fashion should know that when a word is mispelt, its meaning changes completely e.g Themba which means hope in Ndebele, when written as Temba as they usually do at Home Affairs, the meaning changes. Temba without letter ‘h’ refers to a small dried fish. No one in Matabeleland would give such a derogatory name to their kid. It is an insult.
On 16 June 1976, in Soweto, South Africa. The imposition of Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor, as a medium of instruction in local schools, caused an up rising that marked the end of apartheid. In Matabeleland there are many political injustices that fuel the fires of revolution and one of them is the issue of language. It is just a matter of time before matters come to a head.
Like all oppressors in the world or should I say, like their apartheid counterparts, Zimbabweans are making a big blunder of thinking that we are “amused” or “fascinated” when they deliberately break our language or happy when they impose their language on us.
“When a Shona person makes an effort to utter just a single ‘ngca’ or ‘ka’ for ‘qa,’ the Ndebele stupidly get amused or fascinated,” says The Grand Plan Review.
What a joke! What self deception.
Not in Matabeleland, not now, not in the future. As of now people of Matabeleland are on high alert. Anything suspicious gets a reality check. If there is anyone who thinks we are lying they must ask motor mouth Nathaniel Manheru. He once stird a hornet’s nest when he triggered a very provocative debate on a very sensitive gukurahundi genocide matter with the topic, “Ending An Overdue Myth.” He got more than what he bargained for. Bakhwela bazehlela abantu bakithi.
Do you remember that state agent by the name Rodney Mashingaidze who tried to steal Maleme Farm from the community of Matobo? He travelled all the way from Mashonaland thinking that his title as a Central Intelligence Offficer was going to instill fear into the hearts of the people but he was in for a surprise. Wahlangana lembila zithutha.
It will not be long before the black on black oppressive rule of Zimbabwe gets a reality check in Matabeleland. Some people may take this as a joke but if you ask former colonisers in Africa. They were busy dinning and winning, marrying, partying and striking major deals when revolution unexpectedly knocked on their doors.
Matabeleland by 2018!
Akuzenzo kungemazwi!
Israel Dube
MLO Secretary For Information and Public Affairs.