Has anyone read the Dynamics of History Book 3, that was written by S Mukanya? It was published by the College Press in 1995 and has been re-printed since then through 2011. People this book is being used nationwide by form 3 pupils as a text book. Our history is being distorted in front of our eyes and we are not doing anything about it. Our languages are slowly being compromised and we are not doing anything about it as a collective body. There are quite a number of individuals that have tackled this issue as single-handedly, and I must say unless we approach this as a collective body, we will lose this battle if we have not already.
Are our people aware of this distortion of our history. Surely something needs to be done to correct this:
On page 100, in the last paragraph, the book confidently claims that: "Lobengula died of Malaria."
On page 102, in chapter 10, titled: Chimurenga, the first sentence reads: "Chimurenga (Impi katthoka elibomvu) is the first liberation war in this country, from March 1896 to October 1897 and was to resume in the northeast under the leadership o Mpondera and Chingooo in 1901," it says.
This is despite the fact that the first resistance to the encroachment of imperialism in Zimbabwe was done by the Ndebele in the Anglo-Ndebele war of 1893.
On page 111, the innocent and unsuspecting form three pupils are taught that: "At full noon in June, the slaughter of the whites was to start in Mashonaland, what then broke out at full noon in June was the Shona phase on Chimurenga 1.
"But although colonial historians would like it to look like two separate risings, it is interesting to note that what they call the Ndebele Rebellion was started not by the Ndebele but by the Shona people of Mberengwa.
Whereas, on page 114, the book claims that the Ndebele were treated by the white settlers as 'dangerous' neighbours and the Shona as 'cowardly.' It was therefore a 'surprise that the very Shona people plunged into war in 1896.'
The book goes on: "The second surprise was that the Shona fought on for more than a year and demonstrated greater determination than the Ndebele," it says.
On page 172, the book claims that Joshua Nkomo was weak and indecisive and preferred to negotiate and not fight the Ian Smith regime. It claims that Nkomo chose to go and see Julius Nyerere in Dar es Salaam for the purposes of forming a government in exile. It is said that on arrival in Tanzania, Nkomo and his team were 'surprised' that Nyerere did not 'want them' because he (Nyerere) like Robert Mugabe, believed that the struggle had to be fought and won at home. This is said to have made other leaders look down on Nkomo.
"Inevitably, the other leaders were embarrassed and lost faith in Nkomo. On August 8, 1963, Zanu was formed in rebellion to Nkomo. Its president was Ndabaningi Sithole, the chairman was Hebert Chitepo, the secretary general was Robert Mugabe and the secretary for youth was Morton Malianga. These leaders needed dynamic and decisive leadership. They were for outright military confrontation with the settler regime," the book says.
On page 184, under a sub-chapter titled: The 1978 March 3 Agreement, the book says, Nkomo and former Zambian leader Dr Kennedy Kaunda feared elections and sought to by pass them.
It reads in part: "It became apparent that both Kaunda and Nkomo dreaded elections and wanted to by pass them to take over the control of the country against those confident of winning elections. Each of the settlement protagonists has his own candidate and each wanted his candidate to succeed Smith," reads the book in that section.
On page 193, the book claims that Zipra cadres disturbed development in Matabeleland and surprisingly the same chapter details history from 1980 to 1992 and has nothing about the Gukurahundi atrocities which claimed more than 20 0000 innocent lives.
Mugabe has described the period as a "moment of madness" and other Zanu-PF functionaries have like Emerson Mnangagwa have said the Gukurahundi case is a 'closed chapter.'
Reads the book: "However some sections of Zapu-PF did not accept electoral defeat of 1980. Although their representatives were brought into the government, they continued to plot a coup.
"…..In 1982, fighting erupted in Esigodini between Zanla and Zipra that were being integrated. Many lives were lost and most of the Zipra cadres retreated into the bush to continue fighting as guerrillas.
"They disrupted all government efforts to reconstruct Matabeleland and many schools closed" reads the book in part.
The book also says the 22 December 1987 was signed to stop Zipra banditry.
- Byo24News
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