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Labour, Economists and African Democrats (LEAD) leader Linda Masarira has called for the revision of the country’s history, to help future generations with factual knowledge of what happened before, during and after the liberation struggle.
Masarira said this on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe Peacebuilding Initiative (ZimPI) to honor the late former Zimbabwean Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa, who was labeled a “puppet” of the Ian Smith administration during the colonial period.
Addressing journalists in Harare, the outspeoken opposition politician explained how she benefited from engaging in a meaningful gathering with Muzorewa’s family, government, and war vets, who revealed how the late Anglican Church Bishop contributed to the liberation of the country.
She added that more engagements should happen periodically to help the younger generation with an unbiased history of events that happened when Zimbabweans fought the liberation struggle.
“What is subjected to my generation is a distorted history of the late Abel Muzorewa, and today I’m happy we got clarity from people who worked and stayed with him, who explained the false realities we have been holding all along. Maybe it came from his detractors, so there is a need for a rewrite of our history,” Masarira told reporters.
Gospel musician Pax Gomo, who also attended the event, said he was uncomfortable producing songs aligned to the late Muzorewa because of existing narratives.
“I appreciate this event because it taught me various things. Personally, I was afraid as a musician to produce content aligned to the Bishop, because I thought I would be caught on the wrong side of the law, but the event educated me the late was a real Zimbabwean hero.”
Also in attendance were Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume and Women’s Affairs Minister Monica Mutsvangwa, who was the guest of honor.
Mutsvangwa spoke on the importance of the country’s history, reiterating that Muzorewa contributed positively to the country’s attainment of independence.
Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa, born April 14, 1925, in Southern Rhodhesia, now Zimbabwe, died in 2010. He was the Prime Minister of the short-lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, which only lasted from June to December 1979, in a transitional period preceding independence on April 18, 1980.
