Creating Ndebele identity

I have told you the story of how the 4 royal kids became homeless and how they were handed over to their mothers by Chief Magwegwe eShangane.For months the Tonga people looked after them and nursed the wounded while laying to rest the departed. Thousands changed surnames to those of the BaTonga and married in that land while others went to as far as Gokwe, Zambia, South Angola and Botswana and never to return. The kingdom was no more.

I will now turn to why the royal kids ended up in forced exile in South Africa and why they created Highlanders FC. For you to capture the context of the reasons for sentencing the little kids to exile, I will take you to the Bulawayo of 1894 to 1899.

In February of 1894 the biggest news to hit Bulawayo was the story to all the settlers that King Lobengula had died and that he was buried in BaTongaland with all his royal treasures.

Jameson and Selous made a quick cheers and went straight to work to develop a suppressive settlement for Africans in Bulawayo while they layout a progressive settlement for their pioneers.

So they worked on creating a new identity for the local Africans before readmitting them to this new Bulawayo they were setting up. The identity they selected to give these people was the Ndebele identity.

Before 1893 the indigenous citizens of Bulawayo never called themselves the Ndebele or even thought themselves as Ndebele. Their identity was the Mthwakazi identity and knew themselves to belong to the nation state of Mthwakazi.

One can go back to the indigenous knowledge banks of these people before 1893 and you will not find in their vocabulary the use of Ndebele as identity. You will only find it after 1894.One can however find a lot of the vocabulary of Mthwakazi as identity.

King Mzilikazi did not create or build a Ndebele nation.He did not even know it existed. He founded and created the Mthwakazi identity and nation hence the patriotic praise name 'Mthwakazi Ondlela Zimhlophe.'

The Ndebele as an identity for the people who identified themselves as Mthwakazi was created and first used by missionaries and hunters for reasons best known to themselves.It had nothing to do with the people themselves.

Sitting at the planning table Jameson and Selous where not going to endorse the use of the Mthwakazi identity in their new Bulawayo. It was considered risky and dangerous identity. This would not kill the spirit of these people.They then chose to enhance the Ndebele identity as used by the missionaries and hunters.

The Ndebele identity was for divide and rule by Jameson and his people, while the Mthwakazi identity was for unity and diversity in recognition of the rock recorded people who had painted this countryside, the San.

The suppressive settlement for Africans was created in present day Makhokhoba known then just as the African Location in 1894 and it is here were the new Ndebele identity was shaped and people enticed to accept it as their own identity.

By Cont Mhlanga ebhalela Imfazwe Imp' enkulu

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A must read for all people in the land currently known as Zimbabwe!

Dr Mpiyseizwe Churchill Guduza
MLF Vice President
London, United Kingdom
3 June, 2016

I. Introduction
My argument is three-fold. Firstly, that the major thesis of Shona intellectuals regarding the 'First Chimurenga' led by an imagined 'Spiritual Medium' called 'Nehanda' is nothing but a fraud that has hitherto not been tested. Secondly, that there is virtually no evidence in history that supports the existence of Shona kingdoms or dynasties in whatever guise or form prior to 1980. Thirdly, that the existence of so-called 'dissidents' was a smokescreen used as a pretext, deception and justification by the Zanu-pf regime of Robert Gabriel Mugabe to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing against the people of Mthwakazi.

2. Nehanda and her disciples
Since 1980 until this very day, our Mthwakazi children have been subjected to untold debilitating psychological toxics of 'Nehanda' heroism who led the so-called 'First Chimurenga'. Nobody has ever questioned this absurd deception. Until today, we had all accepted it as a given and gospel truth when it cannot stand any scrutiny. It was not until around 1896 to 1897, we are told, that a certain spiritual medium called 'Nehanda' mounted a spirited resistance against the settler colonialists. But we are not told where this spiritual medium, 'Nehanda', was hiding or sleeping when the settler colonialists raised the Union Jack Flag at Fort Salisbury without a single shot being fired. We are not even told about the fore bearers of 'Nehanda' where they came from and their historical habitat. 

What is even more baffling is that there is not a single shred of evidence of any battle that we are aware of, where this 'Nehanda' succeeded against settler colonialists. The history as written by the victors themselves, the European colonialists bears no evidence about this 'Nehanda' heroism. On the contrary, it is battles fought by Mthwakazi warriors against settler colonialists (such as the Battle of Shangaan, the Battle of Mbembesi, etc.,) which find expression in the language and history compiled by the settler colonialists themselves.   

Recently one defender of the Zanu-pf hegemony emboldened by corruptive power and pursuant to keeping the people of Mthwakazi under psychological and physical chains made yet another absurd and dangerously incoherent claim that states that:
 
'Shona Nationalism is based on the restoration of the Zimbabwe State which existed about 650 AD until imperialists and colonialist settlers named the country Southern Rhodesia on their conquest'.

We are not even told how this spiritual medium connected to the power base of Shona people, which as we are made to believe today, dates back to around 650 AD. This date would represent a phenomenal staggering period spanning one thousand three hundred sixty six (1,366) years of the existence of Shona kingdoms and dynasties led by spirit mediums. Really! Only deranged sycophants would believe such a claim. 

But just in case such a state did exist from 650 AD, the following questions immediately arise. Did the current imposed territorial boundaries of Zimbabwe, a product of ' The Rule by Conquest' that forcibly incorporated the territories of Mthwakazi and Mashonaland as defined by the Jameson Line in 1898 into a single territory constitute the so-called 'Zimbabwe State' which dates back to 650 AD? It is imperative that this Zanu-pf defender and apologist not only provide a chronology, but also a clear account of the territorial jurisdiction of this so-called 'Zimbabwe State' from '650 AD until it was 'named' by 'colonialist settlers' as 'Southern Rhodesia' in accordance to his/her claim.  

Surely, in this chronology, this Zanu-pf defender and apologist must tell us about the battles fought by the defenders of that 'Zimbabwe State'. We also need know how this so-called 'Zimbabwe State' dating back to 650 AD functioned. Exactly who was in charge of such a state? Was it a single spiritual medium or successor spirit mediums since 650 AD until the assumption of that state power by 'Nehanda'? We know for example that the European colonialists raised the Union Jack Flag at 'Fort Salisbury' in 1890 without firing a single shot. This is also supported by the same Zanu-pf defender and apologist who observes  clearly that the so-called Shona power that was in existence before European settler penetration was not destroyed, but simply 'named as Southern Rhodesia' in a game of musical chairs. 
 
How was that possible for European colonialists to raise their flag without firing a single shot when the 'Zimbabwe State' had been in existence since 650 AD? Why did Mashonaland become a British Protectorate in a game of musical chairs when they had this unshakeable history of state power? If the power dynasty and succession of Shona hegemony was through the lineage of spirit mediums bonded by blood (just as in the case of kingships and various so-called royal family trees), why was this succession discontinued after Nehanda's demise or death? Most importantly of all, why has this institution of spirit mediums not been restored since the so-called restoration of Shona power and hegemony under Robert Gabriel Mugabe's Zanu-pf from 1980 until today? 

Realising my own limitations about what a spiritual medium entailed led me to consult a dictionary. In terms of the definition that I found, it simply refers to 'mediation' or 'communication' between the 'living and the dead'. This form of communication and mediation in my own language is championed by so-called 'izangoma' or 'izinyanga' what is referred to in English as witchdoctors. Now this discovery that a spiritual medium refers to the practices of witchdoctors or 'izangoma' or 'izinyanga' is all the more shocking. To actually suggest therefore that resistance against the settler colonialists was led by a witchdoctor or isangoma borders on undermining our intelligence with the contempt that goes with it. Azikho izangoma ezake zabusa loma ngaphi. Mthwakazi rulers also had izinyanga and izangoma within their midst, but their role was restricted to those issues dealing with spiritual rubbish and never ever with real and actual power.

My own take on this, is that the people of Mthwakazi origin should and must be collectively ashamed of having been deceived for so long with such outright and fraudulent lies which represent the rule by conquest through the greatest mythology and deception of our time. For those who want to know how states or kingdoms for example are formed, they are referred to Jonathan Maphenduka's book, 'The Rule by Conquest - The Struggle in Mthwakazi, 2015'. In this book, Maphenduka provides an indisputable chronology of how the Mthwakazi state was formed by King Mzilikazi. He also shows how the name Mthwakazi came into being. This is a sharp contrast to mythology and deception of being told about imagined so-called spiritual mediums (Nehandas and the likes) and their associated spiritual dynasties. 

For a multiplicity of case studies, they can also interrogate the history and the fall of the Roma Empire, as is the case with interrogating the history of conquests of various nations. Whether we interrogate the conquest of Britain by the Roman Empire, or by the Vikings, and so on, there is virtually nowhere we can unearth evidence about the role of spiritual mediums being dominant power brokers in whatever form or guise. The corollary of this argument is that there is similarly no evidence in respect to any country even in Africa where spirit mediums were prominent within the context of power and hegemony dynamics. This is a significant contrast to the argument by the defender and apologist of Zanu-pf who simply states that the 'Zimbabwe State' dates back to 650 AD without telling us how it came into being.

3. The creation of 'dissidents' by Mugabes' Zanu-pf regime 

In July 1982, Robert Gabriel Mugabe's regime announced the abduction of six (6) foreign tourists. This was the first instance in which the whole country learned about the existence of so-called 'dissidents'. According to Cephas Msipa, in his book, 'In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice, 2015', the 'dissidents killed a group of six tourists – two Britons, two Americans and two Australians – on the road to Victoria Falls only 76 kilometres from Bulawayo'. 

Again, the claim by Cephas Msipa and his boss Robert Gabriel Mugabe represents the naked deception which was invoked as a pretext to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing against the people of Mthwakazi. From this claim a number of questions immediately arise. How, for example, did the so-called dissidents identity the vehicle that these tourists were travelling in? Why tourists in particular? What was their motivation? Ransom if so for what? Robbery, theft, rape, carjacking, or what? Did they smell that such and such a vehicle would be carrying tourists? 
Or did they stop all the vehicles that were travelling to Victoria Falls only and not those coming from the opposite direction, in order to isolate the one with tourists? Anybody who believes this might as well believe in the existence of the so-called 'Zimbabwe State' which we are made to believe dates back 1366 years. It is simply a monumental lie. What pains me most is that most the people from Mthwakazi just accepted the narrative of the rule by deception without questioning the motivation behind it.

My own argument is that the announcement by Robert Mugabe's regime represented an orchestrated international campaign aimed at discrediting Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and ZAPU in general at the time. Although Mugabe's regime blamed the abduction of the six tourists on the so-called "dissidents" (presumably faceless people acting on the orders of Mugabe himself), it is interesting to note the following, that:

➢    it was only Mugabe's regime who had full intelligence information about the arrival into Zimbabwe of the six tourists;
➢    they also had intelligence information about the visiting, travelling and accommodation plans of the tourists and their destinations;  
➢    the Zanu-pf regime also had intelligence information about the mode of transport the tourists would use and the times of their journeys between destinations; 
➢    the main point of entry into Zimbabwe for the tourists was the immigration and customs departments at Harare Airport, and that, it is here where investigations about the disappearance of the tourists should have begun.

Whilst these tourists were never again seen alive or dead, it is important, also to note, that their disappearance marked the beginning of the infliction of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the people of Mthwakazi. The justification was that these so-called dissidents were destroying property. Which, what and whose property? According to Cephas Msipa, the dissidents destroyed 'development projects, schools, clinics, hospitals, tanks, government offices and police stations'. All this is just said and believed, when there is no shred of evidence on the ground. The fact of the matter is that there never were any scars of wars and devastation as witnessed in countries such as Somalia, Syria, etc. This is perhaps the only time in history where the infrastructure of a country (Zimbabwe in this case) remained intact whilst all the destruction by dissidents was taking place, and where buildings housing schools, clinics and so on were not destroyed, but remained intact without traces of any structural scars and collapse, cracks, bullet holes, fire, etc.

On the contrary, we now know fully well, a fact and reality also now known by people of Shona origin, that it is in fact the Zanu-pf regime that has been destroying everything that had been inherited from the former Rhodesian regime of Ian Smith during the past thirty six (36) years. Nothing has been spared and there is abundant evidence of this destruction in both countries of Mthwakazi and Mashonaland or Nehanda, whatever they want to be known as. In the case of infrastructure and roads in particular, one can even think that they are being dug up at any time of the day with picks and shovels by faceless people, yet such destruction is simply a product of wear and tear, and lack of maintenance and upgrading.

The fact of the matter is that in April 1982, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo had emerged from hiding during that time, to address a huge rally at the White City Stadium. But Mugabe's regime reeling in its failure to arrest and humiliate him earlier before he had gone into hiding had other contingency plans in store for him and his followers. There can be no doubt therefore that the arrival of the tourists in Zimbabwe presented real exploitable opportunities for Robert Gabriel Mugabe's regime and ZANU-PF to discredit ZAPU and its leadership within the country, regionally and internationally. This determinism was in pursuit of establishing Shona hegemony and imagined spiritual medium dynasty or dynasties by inflicting genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Mthwakazi people. 

It is therefore not surprising that Mugabe's regime's  propaganda about the existence of the faceless so-called "dissidents" emerged and gained prominence simultaneously with the disappearance, abduction or kidnapping of the six foreign tourists in July 1982.  These toursits were never seen alive or dead ever again. Only Mugabe's killers know where they lie buried. Thus, the abduction and disappearance of the six tourists not only gave Mugabe's regime a pretext, but also a justification to begin implementing the genocide programme against the Mthwakazi people. 

Within days after the disappearance of the tourists, Mugabe's regime deployed the army supported by tanks, artillery, helicopter gunships, fighter aircraft and the CIO (comprised of only Shona soldiers) in the Mthwakazi areas of Lupane and Tsholotsho. This deployment was justified under the pretext of searching for the whereabouts of the missing six tourists. Scores of villagers and communities were raped, beaten, tortured, killed or disappeared. Hundreds of thousands more were compelled with threats of torture, beatings and killings to join and buy ZANU-PF membership cards.

4. State building through deception, genocide and ethnic cleansing

My argument is simply that, the people Shona origin had never been exposed to any power base and hegemony prior to 1980. They had never ruled anything before, and as shown above, even by their own admission, their so-called spiritual medium ('Nehanda') never wielded any power other than communicating with the dead. It was therefore this lack of any historical experience in nation building exercise that compelled them to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing against the people of Mthwakazi. It is not surprising therefore that Colonel Perence Shiri also wanted to be known as a 'Black Jesus' when he guided his extermination Gukurahundi sychophants to commit the following crimes against the people of Mthwakazi:  

➢    burning the victims alive, 
➢    forcing Mthwakazi villagers to dig their own mass graves and then burying them alive, 
➢    trucking and burying Mthwakazians alive in mine shafts,
➢    the use of any object to break the skulls Mthwakazians,
➢    parading Mthwakazians and shooting them before a forced audience, which is then butchered in similar fashion  in turn, 
➢    lining Mthwakazians in a single line, one behind the other facing one direction, and then firing gun shot at the back of one victim's head so that victims are killed  simultaneously by a single bullet,  
➢    torturing Mthwakazians brutally and slowly until they died,
➢    forcing Mthwakazians to lie down on their backs staring into the sun and denying them water and food,
➢    amputating the hands and legs of Mthwakazians with axes and other objects and then watching them bleed to death, 
➢    cutting open the wombs of Mthwakazian pregnant women with bayonets to see how the foetus of a Mthwakazi so-called "dissident" looked like in its mother's womb, and then watching these women bleed to death,
➢    tying up testicles of Mthwakazi boys and men with a wire and then squeezing, pulling, beating and slicing them with bayonets until the victims bled to death. 
➢    group raping of Mthwakazi young girls and women after which they had their genitals savagely cut open with bayonets and left to bleed to death, 
➢    starving Mthwakazians of food and water until they died in various notorious detention camps, and also under the imposed chilling curfew which closed down shops and restricted virtually all movement,  
➢    butchering Mthwakazians and then forcing survivors to eat  the flesh of their dead loved ones, including those of dead infants, and
➢    kidnappings and disappearances of Mthwakazians where people were taken from their homes, from the streets, from schools and  offices, from buses and trains and, also taken while  grazing their livestock in the forests,  and from many other places and were never seen alive or dead again. 

The estimate findings of the incomplete report "Breaking the Silence" of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe 1997 (CCJP) puts the number of dead Mthwakazians at approximately 20,000. This number just like the absurd argument regarding the existence of the Zimbabwe State as dating back to 650 AD was just fished from thin Zanu-pf air. The fact is that no one really knows how many people perished through direct executions from the Fifth Brigade, how many disappeared, how many were beaten and tortured and how many were arbitrarily arrested and detained for no other reason than belonging to Mthwakazi. Only a proper independent investigation and audit conducted under a peaceful climate will establish the exact number of victims who perished as a result of this Zimbabwe State building exercise by Mugabe. Above all, it is important to recognise that all these Gukurahundi victims still need to be accorded a decent burial in line with the diverse cultures of Mthwakazi.

Below, I provide only a few example of concrete evidence as to what Mthwakazians endured under the Shona state and hegemonic building exercise: 

➢    Neshango line. February 3 1983. Mass beatings of villagers and shooting of two young pregnant girls, followed by their being bayonetted open to reveal the still moving foetuses.

➢    Kumbula school at Pumula village. February 13 1983. Whole village beaten and seven shot dead, including a teacher, after digging their own graves. Witnesses refer to a fountain of blood from the pit.

➢    Tangahukwe. February 1983. All the villagers were rounded up and severely beaten. Twelve were selected and shot after being forced into mass graves. One of the chosen managed to run away so his younger brother was killed instead. 

➢    Korodziba. February 1983. Five Brigade came to the school and took about 60 pupils aged 14 years. They were beaten and asked about dissidents. Twenty to 30 girls were raped and then ordered to have sex with some of the boys while the soldiers watched.

Solobhoni. February 23 1983. Five Brigade rounded up the entire village to the borehole. Six people were chosen at random and were bayoneted to death and buried in one grave. Everyone was then beaten. Five people were beaten to death...one man who wept to see his brother killed was severely beaten and died a few weeks later from his injuries. One old lady who was found in her hut was raped and Five Brigade then set fire to a plastic bag and burned the old lady with it, setting fire to her blanket. She died three weeks later from the burns. 

➢    Emgagwini. March 1983. One young man was taken by Five Brigade, badly beaten, returned and while his parents were washing his wounds, the Five Brigade came back and shot him.

➢    Mkonyeni. January 1983. The first woman to die in this area was accused of feeding dissidents. She was pregnant and was bayoneted open to kill the baby. She died later. In the same area, in February 1983. All the villagers were forced to witness the burning to death of 26 villagers, in the three huts of Dhlamini. 

➢    Bonkwe/Nyanganyoni. A young woman from Bonkwe going to buy mealie-meal was beaten for wearing her husband's watch. Her husband was summoned to Nyanganyoni and beaten to death. Every bone in his body was broken - he is referred to as being "like a cloth" 

➢    Tshomwina and Dzokotze. January/February 1983. All the villagers of Tshomwina were force-marched to Dzokotze nearby. They were beaten and five were killed. One man died after terrible mutilations which included having his jaw broken and his tongue cut out. This man ran away and was found by his family in a neighbouring village. He took eight days to die, without medical care.

➢    Mpungayile. 1983.Five Brigade shot dead a mentally retarded boy and then shot three other men. Because the women wept they were shot too, four of them.

➢    Nkwalini. February 1983. A man from here, trying to take his wife away to Bulawayo, was shot dead at Mlagisa siding and so was his wife when she cried when she saw him shot. 

➢    Sipepa Area. February 1983. Whole village forced to dig roots, some were then beaten and two school boys who looked too old for their class were shot dead.

➢    A four month old infant was axed three times and the mother forced to eat the flesh of her dead child. An 18 year old girl was raped by six soldiers and then killed. An 11 year old child had her vagina burnt with plastics and was later shot. Twin infants were buried alive.

➢    Dry Paddock area. February 1984, A young woman and her father-in-law were asked about dissidents and beaten. They were then stripped naked and told to have sex with each other. The father-in-law said he would die first. A shot was fired, missing them, and the two were severely beaten and left for dead.

➢    Donkwe Donkwe. February 1984. Five Brigade rounded everyone in the area to a local school. There were about 200 men, women and children. Everyone was beaten and kicked from sunrise to 10 am. Then some were made to dig two graves, while others were made to fight each other. Six men were chosen at random and placed in two groups of three. They were then shot dead. Everyone else was told to sing songs praising Mugabe and condemning Nkomo... While some sang and danced, others were beaten. Some of the villagers were made to bury the six dead and then had to join in the singing while being beaten. At 4 pm about 19 young men were taken away and another man was shot as they departed. 

➢    Mloyi area. February 1984. Approximately 100 adults and school children were rounded up... they were told they were in for a treat... People were then beaten, including a 12 year old girl and her sister and their father. The two girls were so badly beaten they were later hospitalised. Their father was then shot in front of everyone and his children were made to search his pockets to see if they could find any evidence that he was a dissident.

➢    Mbembeswana area. February 1984. An ex-Zipra soldier was taken from his home in nearby Silonkwe to Mbembeswana. He was badly beaten and then his family were summoned to fetch him. He had both arms broken and no teeth. He refused to leave, saying he was dead already. He was then shot dead".

By any conceivable human standards these few factual examples of brutality represent a systematic and deliberate strategy of annihilating a people from the face of the earth. Not since the time of Hitler (and his fascist cronies) had a regime in Africa put into practice its extermination designs against it's a defenceless innocent citizens (infants, children, pregnant women, the mentally retarded, the disabled and the old), for no other reason than for belonging to a particular ethnic group. 

To kill in the manner in which they did vividly illustrates the fact that there never were in existence any so-called "dissidents". Rather, this slaughter had been intended to drive out all the Mthwakazi people from Mthwakazi in the imposed colonial boundaries of Zimbabwe, as well as to create conducive conditions for the establishment of a one (ZANU-PF) party state in that country. 

The majority of the Mthwakazian people who met their deaths in the manner described above had been rounded up and transported either in army trucks or forcibly marched to various killing fields at gun point. In various rural areas the common method employed was to march villagers from one village (A) to the next (B), where they would then be forced to dig their own graves and forcibly buried alive by people in village B. Villagers in village B would then be forcibly marched to village C where the whole process of digging their own graves and having to be buried by villagers in village C was re-enacted and continued. An example of this method of killing which took place on 12 February 1983 in Gulalikabili village in the Tsholotsho district is noted in the Electronic Mail and Guardian as follows, 

"whole village abducted from nearby to the Pumula mission area where they were beaten. Some were then forced to dig a mass grave, made to climb in and were shot. They were buried while still moving and villagers were made to dance on the grave and sing songs in praise of ZANU-PF. The number of dead given as 12".  
Furthermore, a witness account is captured as follows:
 
"Every night for 'many weeks', I was told by local people, army trucks were seen driving to and from this shaft. Bodies were unloaded and thrown down the rectangular hole. Sometimes, the locals said, the corpses would snag on supporting iron girders across the shaft's interior. On some nights the trucks made only one trip, on others, several. I leaned over the open shaft and peered into the darkness. It was too far to the bottom for me to see anything. But the stench hit me like a sledgehammer... At another mission, run by the Salvation Army, 15 miles away, staff had to plead with soldiers to allow hospital patients to remove their babies from their backs before being beaten... But the worst stories of atrocities concern Bhalagwe itself. I was told that in the camp detainees had their wrists and ankles broken by being jumped on by soldiers in heavy boots. The hospital at Antelope had treated more than 100 fractures caused this way since the curfew was imposed". 

The following account was given to Peter Godwin, journalist with the Sunday times in 1984, when a survivor showed him the remains of his father's charred bones still lodged between two rocks of the hill: 

"The soldiers gathered all the people of the area together for a compulsory rally. They made us shout government slogans and they beat many people with rifle butts - screaming at us the whole time - Where are the dissidents? They then selected three men at random, including my father, and took them behind the hill. We heard three shots and the soldiers returned alone. They warned us not to collect the bodies. They were left there for weeks and their rotting remains were eaten by dogs". 
However, it was Mugabe's regime's policy of exterminating the Mthwakazi people by starvation under an imposed curfew which was even more deadly, given the crippling drought of the 1980s - the worst ever to be experienced in Mthwakazi since the turn of the past century. During this period the Mthawakazi people were already dependent not only on buying food from the shops but also on food aid donated by the international community. There was however no sympathy at all from the powers that be, as explained by the Zanu-pf commander wielding the power of death:
   
First you will eat your chickens, then your goats, then your cattle, then your donkeys. Then you will eat your children and finally you will eat the dissidents". 

"This is a dissident baby. This is what will happen to your babies if you help dissidents. He then dropped the tiny corpse in the dust... They began beating us with sticks and guns, bayonetting us, burning plastic against our skin while our hands and mouths were secured. They tore curtains, put cushions into our mouths. We were tortured for about four hours".

"Do you think that this government is so stupid to send soldiers to defend you from dissidents when there are no dissidents? Therefore you are the dissidents, you that hide the dissidents... You are screaming, who are you calling, is this a sign that you are calling dissidents...

Then the commander shot Tshaka and Wilson Ndlovu, and released Maganda Dube. Next he killed Daniel Ngwenya and  Sigidini Dube , who was shot five times... On the grave we put branches. I also saw a big grave which had stones in it. There are 16 buried in this grave. I can identify the commander who did the shootings".

"The men were made to raise their hands while being beaten. The young women were made to sing and dance... They beat me with mupani sticks, shambok and truncheon. They were all beating me at the same time. I was beaten until I fainted. They pulled up my dress and beat my bottom and back and I was bleeding". 
Geoff Nyarota, a journalist with the Chronicle Newspaper at the time, also supported the above slaughter with these words:

"When bandits were on the rampage in the same areas in 1982 the Government unleashed 5 Brigade, a move which earned widespread condemnation of sections of the world press. But it worked. The bandits were routed... A return by the Army in force would be welcomed by the masses and that restoring peace was more important than risking dents in Zimbabwe's image. The troops must go in - no holds barred". 

5. Mugabe's justification of the Slaughter of Mthwakazi people
The following is how Robert Gabriel Mugabe justified the slaughter of Mthwakazi people:

"The solution in Matebeleland is a military one. Their grievances are unfounded. The verdict of the voters was cast in 1980. They should have accepted defeat then. The situation in Matebeleland is one that requires a change.  The people must be reoriented". 

6. Nkomo's response to the infliction Genocide on Mthwakazi people

The following is how Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo responded to the Shona state building exercise through the Gukurahundi instrument:

"I told Parliament that soldiers had rounded up six men and accused them of failing to report the presence of anti-government guerrillas. They were beaten and buried in two shallow graves... I also informed parliament that government troops were preventing food getting into the curfew area and that several children had died."

"There is something terribly wrong. There has been a curfew since February 3. The press cannot go into this enormous area. There have been horrific eye-witness reports, some of them in your British papers. Yet not one of the so-called dissidents has been arrested and brought to court. No minister has been to the area. Nothing has happened except military action".

"I said it was the duty of the Zimbabwe Government to make a full official investigation. I pressed for this urgently. I find it disturbing that after a series of these crimes in Matebele country, all we have seen in court are just armed robbers. We would like to see these politically motivated people we are told about, the dissidents, brought to court and, if found guilty, convicted. This is either inefficiency or else there is something terribly wrong". 

"The estimates [of the dead so far] vary from 3,000 to 20,000, but no one knows. I know of six young men who were shot by the soldiers of the Fifth Brigade, and dumped in a mass grave. I have received reports of our young girls raped, and other Matebele people whose limbs have been broken by these soldiers".

"I asked the minister if he would be prepared to meet a delegation of six - two who had seen the young men shot and know the grave, two who saw the rapings, two who  saw the bones being broken. But the minister said "No, I believe you". So that makes the case for an official investigation more urgent". 

"I presented the men who had buried the six victims in Kezi to cabinet ministers. I also brought them two teenage schoolgirls who had been raped by Fifth Brigade soldiers... I have done my bit to tell the government about these things. It is up to the Government to discover what has happened".
"You cannot have a one-party state when people are torn apart by hatred, tribalism and racism". 
"I can't say what has gone wrong with Zimbabwe, because I don't know what is right with him (Mugabe)".

"All my men were disarmed. I have no military support. I have asked the Government to set up a commission of inquiry, but they have refused. There has been no investigation of allegations I have made in Parliament about the killings and rapes".

7. Conclusion
As highlighted above in the course of this series, it is noteworthy that there has never been a time neither will there be such a time when the people of Mthwakazi can be defeated by any nation large or small, without a fight that results in heavy casualties on the opposition. The British colonialists armed with heavy machine guns know fully the number of casualties they suffered against Mthwakazi warriors fighting only with spears during the 1890s. The Rhodesian forces of Ian Douglas Smith were brought to their knees by the Zipra forces resulting in the independence of Zimbabwe. Before Zipra was disarmed, Zanla suffered enormous casualties throughout the country when they ever dared start a fight, they know this, and it is a fact. 

This is why Mugabe's Zanu-pf not only used Nkomo (through so-called Shona intellectuals within ZAPU – who comprised the entire national executive) to disarm his forces, but waited until Zipra had been completely disarmed, before inflicting genocide and ethnic cleansing on a defenceless Mthwakazi population under the pretext of fighting faceless 'dissidents' with full knowledge that there would be no response. What a shameless regime of cowards. 

One shudders to think why these so-called 'dissidents' did not engage the Gukurahundi or any other units of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces that might have been on the ground at the time, but chose instead to destroy property as cited  by Msipa above. What a shameless deception yet again. The fact of the matter is that there never was anything amounting to rebels against the Zimbabwe regime. This because by their own admission, Mugabe's forces never suffered a single casualty throughout that period. There has never been any war where only the opposition suffers casualties, even those wars fought in computer games by competing adversaries. Never, never has that happened, perhaps it happens with spiritual mediums, not real human beings. 

A word of warning, in conclusion, the infliction of genocide happened under the leadership of Joshua Nkomo who was showered with accolades of father Zimbabwe, but it will never, ever happen again because we are Mthwakazians. We will not allow it under whatever circumstances, deception, shapes or forms.