ZAPU is demanding a thorough review of the school curriculum, particularly history textbooks, claiming that the textbooks currently used in schools are based on colonial narratives and have perpetuated biased historical accounts.
The call for a history curriculum review comes as some individuals and entities continue denigrating Ndebele King Lobengula Khumalo, claiming the Ndebele ruler sold the country for a bag of sugar.
The most recent incident trashing King Lobengula occurred on ZBC’s Good Morning Zimbabwe programme by two presenters who were discussing trivia, the origins and history of colonialism.
During the programme, one of the presenters, Victoria Manase claimed King Lobengula’s alleged love for sugar led to colonisation while people at that time had low self-esteem allowing the British to colonise Zimbabwe whereas the other presenter, Farai Juliet Magada said Zimbabwe’s colonisation was a necessary evil to some extent.
This video clip went viral on social media platforms on Wednesday, causing an uproar and widespread condemnation from most online users and comes barely a month after ZimDaily, which caricatured King Lobengula, made similar accusations.
In response to the current ZBC clip, ZAPU condemned the “abhorrent statements” made by the co-presenters, saying they were a symbol of a broken system that Zanu established in 1963 and has been perpetuated ever since.
“The trend of denigrating King Lobengula for signing the Moffat Treaty and Rudd Concession in 1888 did not start with this video clip under review. It is a well-sustained trend that dates back to the Second Chimurenga when tribalism began to polarise ZANLA versus ZPRA combatants. That is when King Lobengula was singled out for allegedly selling Zimbabwe for a bit of sugar and a mirror,” said ZAPU national spokesperson, Richard Gandari.
This narrative, Gandari claims, not only fuels tribal prejudice but also serves a nefarious agenda of keeping Zimbabweans divided along ethnic lines.
“The sugar-and-mirror story is openly taught in many elementary schools in Zimbabwe by successive generations of teachers who also grew up on the same lie,” he said.
“Frantic efforts made King Lobengula to disavow his signature from the Rudd Concession are completely ignored, as young minds are poisoned into believing that the Ndebele King and by extension his Ndebele subjects, were sellouts whose actions brought colonialism on Zimbabwe.”
The ZAPU national spokesperson stated unless this narrative is challenged, Zimbabweans will “easily” remain divided along tribal lines.
“At the end of last year, our ZAPU President issued a public statement in which he called for tribalism to be ‘criminalised and banished from our lives.’ If such legal remedies were in place, Good Morning Zimbabwe’s toxic episode would have amounted to a criminal offense. That is how ZAPU seriously treats this societal cancer called tribalism,” Gandari said.
Gandari said the ZBC show was yet another sad reminder that a more holistic solution eradicating tribalism in Zimbabwe was needed and also demonstrated that the country lacked honest leadership who cared about unity in diversity and national cohesion.
“As ZAPU we believe the first line of defence against tribalism in Zimbabwe is the teaching of a true and correct version of history. Our textbooks and school curriculum should be scrutinised and agreed upon by various stakeholders drawn from all walks of life,” Gandari said.
He added that ‘genuine’ historians and African storytellers must be empowered to produce ‘impeccable’ works of academic writings that will be used for teacher training institutions as well as schools in general.
“Some of our current textbooks are based on narratives established by our erstwhile colonisers. Our children must be saved from perpetuating any biased narratives that promote one tribe while disparaging another. We believe in the unconditional parity of all tribes and all indigenous languages in Zimbabwe,” Gandari said.
Concerning ZBC’s role as a national broadcaster, Gandari stated the station’s focus should be on nation building and fostering national cohesion.
“It was disgraceful for the co-presenters of Good Morning Zimbabwe to nonchalantly laugh as they disparaged the memory of King Lobengula while extolling the ‘benefits’ of colonialism beggar belief,” said the ZAPU spokesperson.
“There is no explanation for their impunity apart from either dereliction of their superiors’ gatekeeping duties or their sinister collusion. No wonder so many Zimbabweans have been alienated from ZBC, the state-controlled broadcaster in charge of telling the Zimbabwean story. What a tragedy of epic proportions when ZBC TV has fallen to such unimaginably low levels.
“A national broadcaster must be held to high ethical standards and responsible journalism to avoid civil unrest. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which 800 000 Tutsis were murdered by Hutu extremists was fuelled by ‘hate media’ powered by irresponsible journalists.”
