Financial Gazette
By Ken Mufuka
16th June 2016
DAVID Coltart is best known for his participation in the exposé of Gukurahundi atro-cities in 1991 in Matabeleland.
Though the Roman Catholic, through its Peace and Justice Commission had compiled damning reports, starting in 1983 culminating in a summary of the atrocities in 1987, the hierarchy sat on the report, praying that the events described therein were merely a bad dream, and that in due course, they would disappear.
Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, a longtime friend of President Robert Mugabe, despite his many gifts, only achieved a princely place in the church because the liberation war had driven white priests out of the country. He therefore, had a feeling that the white establishment would exaggerate the missteps of any African leadership, whether political or religious.
He was reluctant to expose Gukurahundi atrocities for these two reasons. Coltart can be credited with Breaking the Silence, the name of the Gukurahundi exposé. Coltart is Rhodesian-born, served in the British South Africa Police, went to college in South Africa, and during those years adopted the black cause. His history on behalf of civil rights is beyond dispute.
His book, 50 Years of Dictatorship, is an eye witness account of the events in both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe during that period.
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is annoyed for the reason that the book mentions him as a provocateur during the Gukurahundi atrocities. Many foolish things were said during that period. ZANU leadership adopted a false Marxist ideology, were cocky, and the whole world lay at their feet in adoration. They could do no wrong. Judith Todd was raped for daring to inform the High Command of the atrocities.
I was a witness of these events as well. Because of my experience in Jamaica, I knew that no good would come out of it. I said my piece and went into voluntary exile.
Rather than deny the truth, it is better to adopt a humble position, accept the insouciance of youthfulness, and pledge to make amends. The archives are full of the foolish statements made by the ZANU leadership at the time. Joshua Nkomo was likened to a snake, and that the head of a snake must be crushed.
Archival evidence now suggests that the atrocities were probably pre-planned, well before independence, and that a compact with South African regime was reached for the purpose.
Brother Jonathan Moyo is acknowledged by my esteemed Brother George Ayiteyi as an intellectual prostitute. He too objects to Coltart’s rendition and perspective of history. Since Moyo is a paid hatchet man, we do not need tarry on his case, any longer. He sings for his lunch.
Brother George Charamba is a different kind of fish, because he presumes to speak for the powers-that-be. His objections to Coltart’s book are as follows.
Coltart, being white, cannot write a fair history of Zimbabwe. Underneath it all, white liberals, and Charamba make a list, Terence Ranger, Dorris Lessing, L.H. Gann, and others, are at heart imperialists. Once the issue of land (occupation) was raised, on which white economic power was based, they abandoned the liberal ship and showed where their bread was buttered.
Charamba raises an important point. Let me address this issue in another way. This Pan African ideology further argues that there is no white man free from prejudice. Even Christian missionaries are tainted. And that is Chakaipa’s point. They will exaggerate black inefficiencies and corrupt practices in order to maintain some moral superiority.
The fact that Coltart is white does not negate his experience. Precisely because white domination was a fact of life, a perspective from a white angle helps explain that reality. Now, more than ever, after black oppression became a reality, it behooves us to understand white premonitions of that reality. But even more important, independence has taught us that a black devil is no better than a white devil, perhaps even worse, due to lack of restraints.
Further, Coltart has said nothing new. That Coltart has said nothing new misses the point completely. Chronicles are not necessarily written for the generation that was witness to the atrocities, but lest the next generation should forget. That is why Jews remind their children about the holocaust, lest they forget.
I surmise that Coltart has introduced an argument first brought to our attention by our white Sister Judy Todd. To what purpose was the violence leashed by Murambatsvina? Neither the 150 000 families nor the oppressors benefitted anything.
These issues have bothered me for the last 20 years, and following Coltart’s and Todd’s works, I have laboured in the vineyard also. The only answer I can find is that somewhere during the liberation struggle, the stalwarts lost a sense of righteousness. Right is that which is inherently good and universally valid. Coltart need not feel uncomfortable for being white and challenging activities that were inherently evil.Surely, their whiteness does not exclude him from stumbling upon perpetual truth.
My political consciousness was first provoked by Dorris Lessing’s book, Burning Grass, when I was 13. I have since visited Chikanga’s country, and Odzi Country Club where the district commissioner hatched a plot to remove Chikanga’s people from their land. Chief Chikanga had not stepped out of a path to let a 12-year-old white girl pass.
Coltart, Todd and Lessing have established, and this is the narrative of the book, 50 Years of Dictatorship, that oppression has no colour. I go further than Coltart. Black oppression benefits no one, even the chefs who return to pauperism the moment they leave office. It makes no sense whatsoever.
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