I vouch for you my king
Sir,
More than 4 000 people have died in Zimbabwe in less than three months (from a cholera outbreak, with over 90 000 infected); and even more have died since President Mugabe had ‘disagreements’ with the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
I am a Christian, and as such it is expedient for me to be neutral in many ‘issues’. There is war in Zimbabwe, not for wealth or land, but for power and control.
Many, speaking generally, criticise, judge, and condemn President Mugabe (and it is easier to do so) for all the lost lives and the trouble in Zimbabwe.
But war is always between two conflicting forces: and Mugabe’s war is not against his Prime Minister, nor his people. It is a war against the colonialists rule, a cry for freedom from their former masters (but are they truly: former, that is), a war for true independence.
If Mugabe is to be condemned, then equally yoked should be Tony Blair and perhaps even George W. Bush. Lives have been ended, disrupted, and some (for the most fortunate) put on hold: heads of state have fought, and the battlefields have been people’s dreams, aspirations and hopes; all shattered, and lost now.
Surely these men were dealt a horrible blow, and dealt so not by saintly or just men; but by evil, power craving, control seeking, and unscrupulous monsters.
They built a whole nation out of blood and hate. When did they repent of their ways, when did they lift their hands (perhaps on a Sunday in church) to seek, and find salvation. When did they become saintly that they ought to be listened to? And while all this happened who punished them with sanctions and the like?
Think about that, for it is as recent as the 1960s that we see the minorities struggle with a different kind or breed of slavery in the USA. But enough said, for this letter is neither about Zimbabwe nor the United States of America, but about us.
Soon the ‘world’ will focus on Swaziland.
I consider many recent occurrences, too many to put in one letter; but I have questions. I dedicate this entire letter to my king (Mswati III), and anyone else who is in an administrative position, who may have answers.
1. How shall we justify ourselves to the world, if even the slightest introspection proves disheartening?
2. And when the attack has been fully launched (with sanctions, accessibility issues and all), shall we be defensible: in word or in action?
3. Shall we vocally defend our choices based on rational justification, or shall we conquer based on our ability to prove our independence, and Sovereignty?
4. Shall we prove to ourselves and the world that we have enough to need foreign co-operation: and as such are truly independent?
If the answer to any of these questions kills all courage, then perhaps it is best that we learn, and let reason and rationality reign in the governance of this nation: and ultimately avoid the war that we are convinced we cannot win.
N. P. M. N
Zombodze (Emuva)