When George Orwell penned his priceless novel Nineteen Eighty-Four it was as if he was predicting Zimbabwe's future. It is probably obvious, therefore, that I am not surprised to learn that 46 people are facing treason charges for allegedly plotting an Egyptian-style revolution.
This 62 year old vintage means different things to different people but, after reading it several times, I believe the author had a revelation, under the horizon of an imaginary work of fiction.
My favourite, and the central, character Winston Smith lives in the future totalitarian state of Oceania, in which almost all his actions are controlled and under surveillance. 'Big Brother' has a sophisticated system which makes access to truth practically impossible. History is continuously rewritten by the propaganda machinery in terms favourable to the state and its apparatus. All kind of brainwashing is practiced across every generation of society. Smith is guilty of dissent - a 'thought crime'. The Ministry of Love (Miniluv), which maintains law and order, net and imprison him. He is tortured by his interrogator, a man of whom he has always had suspicions, Mr O'Brien. The idea of torture is not for Smith to deny his dissent or alter what he actually believes, What is symbolic is the belief that two plus two equals five. O'Brien wants exactly that from Smith, through torture. Smith;s resistance eventually breaks down and he believes he is seeing five fingers when there are actually four. By the end of the novel Smith believes whatever O'Brien wants him to believe.
So far, Orwell's novel matches every fibre of Zimbabwe's situation since independence in 1980. It is comparable to every structure of our society and fills the horizons of many peoples minds. The events in Egypt inevitably inspire Zimbabweans to emulate and plot against the repressive regime that habitually uses torture. As a society we can always question how long we can tolerate such an institutionalised, recurrent underground of conspiracies.
There are many Smiths and O'Briens in our socity. We all have different priorities, beliefs and attitudes toward democracy and human dignity. Any sane person would have thought a revolution the order of the day in Zimbabwe. But Zimbabwe has no sympathisers and no support from the democracy-loving West. There is no oil to attain and its internal mayhem is of no political significance to World Order. Thus our fate looks negatively marginal to Western interests.
There are ingredients lacking in our society for a revolution to take off to its highest mode of perfection. Zimbabweans have to stand up and believe in themselves. Initiating an uprising requires contracts that are incomplete and sometimes difficult to enforce. What brings lack of trust is strategic behaviour and opportunism. Not until people become naturally and absolutely unselfish, then they won't rebel and successfully show their displeasure through civil disobedience, We require a general will; the common interest as prescribed by Rousseau's The social Contract (1762).
The World Order has been redecorated many different colours in recent times, by revolutions in Tehran in 1979 to the Berlin Wall in 1989. To remind us, such important revolutions were solved by entirely violent protests and physical force. I am not talking of Ghandi's concept of passive resistance, 'Satyagraha', which advocates affecting political change through non-violence. Not even the highly anointed Gene Sharp's list of 198 methods of non-violent protest and persuasion will shift our position. Zimbabwe requires an even more radical approach with a great anticipation of provoking bloodshed.
The group arrested in Zimbabwe claim that their meeting was an academic study session. An interesting line of defence but short of intellectual awakening and moral maturity. Knowing the nature of Big Brother's Thought Police, people keep making the same mistakes. Do you remember the fabrication and treason charges against the late Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole of ZANU Ndonga? No need to remind of the genocide of over 20,000 people in Matebeleland in the 1980's as a convenient truth - by pure chance! Our people should not be path dependent. To be fair, we have to understand our limitations.
More important, Big Brother is a product of a revolutionary struggle. Since independence he has been in a revolution of his own in which thousands of opponents were eliminated in order to terrorise the entirety of millions. He is blood thirsty and blood is his lubricant. His record in politic shows ruthlessness and interest in power as an obsession. The dreams of power and conquest he merrily lives in are out of phase with the physical world in which ordinary citizens live.
To confront such a character on needs a unique skill. One cannot confront an armed regime with violence but there are ways of preparing for that. So far no leader has that flair and absolutely no one has passed the test in Zimbabwe. Even if people are organised I have noticed how ideas vaporise quickly and collapse simply because they cannot be implemented as action plans and strategies. Like character Syme in Orwell's book, our people are too open and too careless such that the state is always ready and able to unmask any dissent, even in its formative stage.
Consider the Chinhoyi Battle of 1966. It was initiated by only six determined individuals recruited through the Battle Cry magazine run by students at Fletcher High School. It ran a 'Scholarship Scheme' to evade Rhodesian intelligence. More recently the Tsvangirai led ZCTU protest in 1997 against the government was a success too. I loved a joke in the which the late Vice President Simon Muzenda did not turn up for work. When Mugabe asked him why, he simply answer "VaTsvangirai vakati kune stay away" (Morgan Tsvangirai had called for a stay away). I give these examples to show how easily coordinated strategies can outmaneuver the security forces.
Ideally people would have to choose a means of protest that the security apparatus are not prepared to deal with effectively. In Zimbabwe you don't call for a protest to remove or push out a sitting authority. This is not illegal, but if detected it is reasonable to expect sever punishment, even death. Language and tone are very important. One would imagine why the women of WOZA group always raise banners with text such as "We want roses and bread, we want SEX...eh...eh...equality etc".
Our society needs all the best and plain advice it can get because we face a more complex regime than Egypt did recently. The women of WOZA should instead refuse sex with their husbands or partners to induce them in to confronting Big Brother. Again, I am not advocating Satyagraha here, but if it is a starting point for that portion then let it be so. It would have been wiser for the 46 activists, through other recognised bodies such as trade unions and civic bodies, to call for industrial action and coordinated protests, instead of grouping to analyse video footage. In so doing people from all walks of life, just like in 1997, would join in given the appalling state of our living standards, political suppression and exorbitant unemployment: there is a common cause. Everything else would have extended from there just as the Chinhoyi Battle proved.
I am not going to dwell much on the ideological weakness of Diaspora citizens who continue to abuse the precious cyberspace. While other brave people like Wael Ghonim, the hero of the Egyptian revolution, used Facebook as a stepping stone, Zimbabweans are using it as a tombstone. The solidarity culture will struggle and not make an impact when one in the UK calls for a protest march in Harare the following morning. Stupid! Worse still, this jeopardises the contingency planning of those in Zimbabwe and put intelligence services on high alert. My advice will be for these 'wise' men to shut up if they can't be part of a real solution.
People need a national collective action that they don't fear death. This is key to any struggle. Forget the belief that once you kill, the spirit of the dead will come and wreak havoc on your family. People don't need leaders for a people's revolution but just be brave and spirited individuals. Let's not forget that in a violent revolution often ends with casualties. Until people are prepared to pay the ultimate price, see themselves as lame or blind, and realise the greatest of all pain, I am afraid there will be no such Egyptian style uprising in Zimbabwe; otherwise Mugabe will shoot until all bullets are gone!
George Orwell had a vision and he deserves a place in the same sentence as other advocates of liberation. If anyone dare not agree, I will bring you closer to home. Read Professor Solomon Mutsvairo's Nehanda Nyakasikana, a poem that Big Brother would not want you to look at today. Probably it has been rewritten into a more patriotic NOra or perhaps Hondo Yeminda!
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