ARE WE ALL ZENOPHOBES?

A discussion and perspective

All of us have a certain pride and Mother Nature has it that we have a certain level of xenophobia and ethnocentrism to survive and to preserve our cultures. We all feel threatened when our way of life is being changed by outsiders. The ‘us and them’ mentality has always been here and we will leave it here. Whites against blacks, northerners against southerners, Ndebeles against Shonas, my family against their family, our team against their team, west afrikans against southern afrikans. We all have expandable and deflatable and interchangeable cliques. Xenophobia comes about when there are perceived threats and order gives way to disorder.

I remember when I was working in Bulawayo in the late 80s and early 90s. The Shonas were filling our city and during the Gugurawundi were telling us that they had come back to take their ancestors’ land – rightfully theirs and dispossessed by our forefathers. It also didn’t help that Umkonto WeSizwe was operating and training together with Zipra forces.

It was an open secret that Shonas had it against Ndebeles, whatwith the Zanu secret document detailing the Zanu plan and Shona domination of Zimbabwe. All the time us Ndebeles were being told, ‘go back to South Afrika, go back to South Afrika’. I went for several job interviews and was interviewed in Shona; in Bulawayo for that matter. Everywhere, customer service positions and all job openings were being filled by people from Harare or Mashonaland; all non-Ndebele speaking people. We already had lots of Shona people living in Bulawayo; I was fluent in Shona without having to leave Matebeleland and the Shona people that we knew were all Ndebele-speaking. Now Shona recolonisation was being effected in an adverse manner.

How time changes things. The situation is reversed now. The Shonas are not telling us to go back to South Afrika, in fact, they are beating us to the border. Zimbabwe is now held and defended by Ndebeles, the Philip Sibandas, the Jonathan Moyos, the Sikhanyiso Ndlovus. Meanwhile, the Shonas are butchering each other in Mashonaland. On the other hand, the Ndebele speakers do not have as many problems in South Afrika, hardly any. If there are three million Zimbabweans in SA, then every bit of two million are Shonas. The Ndebele people have always gone Egoli to work and our population has never been allowed to grow at home i.e. Gugurawundi, opportunity. We also have always come back home. When the Shona or Zanla were amassing wealth and getting jobs and education after independence, our Zipra brothers were being chased down and killed or persecuted and our culture was being suppressed. Zimbabwe has always been this same miserable Zimbabwe of today for us Ndebeles, minus the shortages.

Xenophobia has always been a problem for Afrika. Fortunately, in southern Afrika we have never had violent divisions in times of peace, at least not civilian against civilian. Only Gugurawundi, Ovambundu (Savimbi’s people) in Angola and the Caprivians have suffered govt sponsored brutality. This occurrence in South Afrika is a first. This is what quiet diplomacy gives, this is what denial of crises begets. Mbeki himself is a xenophobe, Mugabe an even bigger one. It is impossible to imagine that Mugabe would be educated in South Afrika all those years and not speak any Zulu or Xhosa. It is hard to believe that Mugabe would teach at Hope Fountain/Mthombothemba south of Bulawayo and not speak Ndebele; especially after living in SA for so long, they are one and the same Nguni dialects after all. It is inconceivable that Mugabe with all those degrees would be unable to learn Ndebele – we know he is no dummy. It is all by design. The man speaks and understands Nguni languages, yet chooses to be a xenophobe and not speak them.

Now his people are embarrassed and exposed. Not to say that there are no Ndebeles that are suffering violence, but most Ndebeles have been able to merge and assimilate much more easily. The Shona that were encouraged to hold out are paying for the ugly haterisms and xenophobia that they were taught and are now suffering down south.

We remember the slogans and the things the Gugurawundi used to say to the children of Mzilikazi. Now Mugabe, the great equalizer, has made us all the same. Now the Shonas all have to trek south like we always have, to find economy and for us, to enjoy our culture which was being suppressed back home.

Let us learn the great lesson of the greatest leader Zimbabwe has ever had, King Mzilikazi. He grew his nation out of every tribe and every nation. As he moved up north from KwaZulu, he amassed every tribe, every type and made everyone assimilate. Only ‘amadoda sibili’ survived. From that, he grew a great, vibrant nation that was the envy of all those that learned about it. Even the Shona people that he brutalized in his raids, he let them live in peace among the Ndebeles. Those were times of raiding for riches, but, by including everyone, Mzilikazi made the Ndebele nation a nation for all. Kalangas, Vendas, Tshanganes, Zulus, Tongas, Xhosas, Tswanas, Suthus, Amahole (former Shonas some of who after independence changed their Ndebele names back to their Shona names and joined in the xenophobia) – all made up the Ndebele kingdom; they also kept their original identity and languages but above all, they were all considered Ndebeles.

The problem was then solved, no-one could oppress anyone anymore. All were equal and all respected each other. That tradition and manner of living together with other people remained. Malawians in Zimbabwe came and went as they pleased. People from Mashonaland came to Matebeleland and still went back and it was okay. The Ndebeles have always been are uniters and have no animosity toward other groups. Zapu and Zipra the original formations, were diverse as we know. Bar ethnocentrism, (which is not a bad thing) there is a great lesson to be learned and adopted from these people – as we say, ‘induku enhle iganyulwa ezizweni’.

Muthwa Diliza Ndlovu.