“Zvigananda” and Frantz Fanon: Meaning and Context in Zimbabwe’s Newfound Political Elitism

By Takura Zhangazha*

I generally get over-accused of intellectualizing Zimbabwean politics.  Or even the Zimbabwean political economy.  This would include moments where I am derogatorily referred to as a socialist.  A political label I have no problem with at all.  Because there is no way in which you can be a progressive African and not have interacted with the socialism of Nkrumah, Nyerere, Machel, Ahmed Ben Bella, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara or the amazing theorists Franz Fanon, Walter Rodney and Homi Babha of Tanzania.

But contrary to our current presidents now never forgotten mantra of exhorting all Zimbabweans to ‘make money!’ I have sort of read between the historical ideological lines of where we are as a country. 

I was reminded of the necessity of this approach via a war veteran of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.  As well as one from Mozambique’s liberation struggle.

They had this term, ‘zvigananda’. 

It’s a term that was brought into contemporary public lexicon by the current Zimbabwean vice president CGN Chiwenga when he was addressing a burial of a national hero some months back. 

He reminded the attendees and the nation about a term they used about cdes who would eventually betray the values of the liberation struggle as they were ideologically taught during the struggle for Zimbabwe’s liberation. All for economic benefits even as the struggle was being fought. 

In the political education that they, the liberation fighters, received because they would eventually become political commissars like the late provincial liberation hero and literary Zimbabwean literary genius,  Alexander Kanengoni.  They were those trained not only with the gun and guerilla tactics.  But also how to explain to the masses the ideological purposes of the liberation struggle.  Including building the ‘morale’ –‘morari’ of the people via speeches and song as did the late provincial liberation heroes cde Chinx Chingaira, Solomon Skuza among many others. 

These war veteran cdes and many others that are still alive relate with ease at to what the term ‘zvigananda’ meant.  Because they were taught it in Marxian class terms. 

Some of them understand what it means beyond Marx.  As they occasionally interacted, according to them with Machel, Nyerere before deployment to the front in the late 1970s.  In these rare and occasional interactions with these African liberation icons they claim they were taught about class struggle in Africa.

 And they were also warned about a key element about what would happen post the liberation struggle victory against the oppressor.

Wherein they were told that some of their own leaders before independence was acquired would begin to mimic the colonial oppressor. Both by way of social habit and also by way  of economic greed (businesses, houses, mines, farms, education).  The argument was that  they were not genuinely for the socialist objectives of the revolution/struggle but just intended to take the place of the oppressor! 

This is where the great African intellectual and revolutionary from Martinique, France and Algeria, Frantz Fanon comes into the picture about the term ‘zvigananda’.  This is beyond his discussions on issues of the necessity  of anti-colonial violence.  

In his seminal work, “The Wretched of The Earth” Fanon has a particular chapter titled, “The Trials and Tribulations of National Consciousness”. 

In this particular chapter, that is rarely read, he makes many startling statements of analysis of the aftermath of national liberation struggles.  He references a ‘nationalist bourgeoisie’ who we can now in Zimbabwe’s case refer to as ‘zvigananda’ supported by n all bearing political leader protected by the ruling party and its historical establishment players.

And I will quote Fanon at length here,

“… In the underdeveloped countries, we have a minimum of prosperity… there was no genuine bourgeoisie but rather an acquisitive, voracious, and ambitious petty caste, dominated by a small time racketeer mentality, content with the dividends paid out by the former colonial power. This short-sighted bourgeoisie lacks vision and inventiveness. It has learned by heart what it has read in the manuals of the West and subtly transforms itself not into a replica of Europe but rather its caricature.”   

The above quote from Fanon summarises our contemporary ‘zvingananda’s’.  they are basically consumerist and cannot explain their primary sources of their extravagant wealth.  They mimic western billionaires and flight in rented airplane as though they were in movies and main-actoring their post-colonial existences.  As individuals who can still invoke religion and money as one in the same.

So the war veterans are correct in their reference to ‘zvigananda’. Zviriko. Zvaiveko (they are there, they were also there).  And this includes vice president Chiwenga' public statements in his own succession battles with his boss ED Mnangagwa.  Except for the fact of what the war veterans did to their own people in 2008-09 after they lost to the opposition is still relatively unforgiven. 

And now they have to deal with the ‘zvigananda’ and expect us to support them for them trying to correct their own mistakes.

I will end with this Fanon quote, again, “  The living expression of the nation is the collective consciousness in motion of the entire people. It is the enlightened and coherent praxis of the men and women. The collective forging of a destiny implies undertaking responsibility on a truly historical scale… No leader whatever his worth, can replace the will of the people…”

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

# The quotes herein are from Fanon. F, The Wretched of the Earth, 1963. Presaince Africain

The Church and Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3: Leveraging Faith, Politics and Patronage.

By Takura Zhangazha*

The Easter holidays always make for interesting interactions between religion and politics in Zimbabwe.   Most times they are just more of political leaders looking for photo opportunities with religious congregations that they deem have large numbers. 

Or alternatively religious leaders who want to demonstrate either deliberately or by default how their church has close proximity to state power.  And by dint of the same, political protection in whatever businesses, properties they already own or endeavour to control (schools, small-medium scale mines, hospitals, residential stands, transport companies and agricultural land).  All with the permissions, sometimes at the highest levels, of a serving/sitting government.

This years Easter gatherings were not so different expect for the current controversial development  that the serving government intends to extend its term in office to 2030.  And in order to do so has tabled before the public and Parliament a constitutional amendment bill no 3 (CAB3).  A development that has raised public debate on not only its necessity but also its democratic value proposition. 

Especially given the general historical political culture since 2000 that major changes to our national constitution are done via a public referendum for the people’s consent or dissent. 

So this 2026 Easter holiday was not only about religion and culture. It had a definitive political hue to it. 

A number of African Apostolic or Pentecostal church religious leaders with large followings and associated large economic pursuits made clear their support of CAB3.  In fact the Zion Christian Church (ZCC- Mutendi) did so in the presence of president Mnangagwa.  

While other congregations had their leaders assert the same position at also equally large or important  gatherings of their own.

This was barring the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops conference (ZCBC) that had issued a statement that expressed concerns over the need for a referendum for the people to decide on the matter. While one of its also politically powerful congregants vice president Chiwenga attended an Easter service where he was silent on the matter.   

Other orthodox churches have not been as pronounced on the matter and are probably more cautious in their approach.

All of this is interesting because of at least three political factors.

The first being that CAB3 is ambiguous in its popular political import with the people of Zimbabwe.  It has taken on a highly partisan dimension with the ruling party supporters who gathered for hearings last week being clear on their hardline support of it. 

While in the process ensuring the limited input of those opposed to it, particularly in Harare where prominent opposition leaders were harassed and a human rights lawyer assaulted.  

The contentious issue here is the political choreography of it. From the limited Parliamentary four day period for public consultations to allegations of the bussing in of supporters to the same meetings.  Add to this the apparent resistance to it from factions of war veterans then one can understand why the church is being courted by the ruling party to take their side on it. 

The second significant issue is that  of the primary reason why the church is being courted in the first place.  Its not necessarily because they have much of an option because they have to remember the fact of their existence while guaranteed by the same constitution that is being amended is also subject to  specific state-church patronage systems.  

These systems touch on both the economic as well as the moral/social fabric of Zimbabwean society as they relate to not only the law but general government taxation policies for religious institutions and offshoot businesses that I have cited above.  In this what then obtains is an elitist symbiosis between church and ruling party leaders to create what can only become a ‘ruling establishment until 2030.  One that will continually owe each other ‘favours’.

The third and final element is that because of the paucity of the opposition political parties in Zimbabwe, alternative narratives to this immediate CAB3 are limited in their reach.  Therefore it appears simpler to go with the flow until such a time the opposition movements to this become once again more structured and organic in national politics and issues related thereto.   In this, even where religious leaders were to oppose CAB3, they would quite literally become the opposition itself given the fact that they are well organized and in most cases have a significant national moral reach on at least a weekly basis. 

And in becoming as such the main opposition, they would be in violation of the constitution that retains Zimbabwe as an officially secular state with a liberal bill of rights that recognizes the right to freedom of worship of all religions. 

In conclusion however there is a growing tendency for religious leaders to want to play the ‘numbers game’ where it comes to our national politics.  Because there will least likely be a national referendum, religious leaders that are in support of CAB3 are dangling numbers in order to help the current government control the narrative.  They will get their ‘favours’ in return.  But its an exercise that remains patently elitist, undemocratic and self-centered/absorbed by the ruling establishment. Both in intent and result.   

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

 

 

Briefly, the Historicity of Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3. 2026

Briefly, the Historicity of Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3. 2026

Sunday, 29 March 2026

BY Takura Zhangazha*

I first read Zimbabwe's then national constitution in 1997. It was via a course at the University of Zimbabwe titled 'Constitutional Law and Politics.' 

This course had Professor Greg Linnington as the main lecturer. With the late Dr. Makunike as the teaching assistant.

Many of us loved this course. 

And Prof Linnington taught it with a unique passion. And he had an even more particular passion for the legendary legal case, Inre Madzimbamuto against the illegality of Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). 

So we learnt about constitutions and politics at an early intellectual age. We also eventually passed the necessary exams while being asked about monetary and employment relevance of the course. Let alone the Political and Administrative Science (PolAd) degree. 

Then there was Professor Masipula Sithole who at 8am, on Mondays (I think) would teach us about political ideas and what a 'republic' means via Plato, Socrates and Aristotle in a relatively vague order. 

We studied assiduosly and passed exams until we heard of the then Morgan Tsvangirayi led National Constitutional Assemby (NCA) in 1998. And its intentions which were to get then president Robert Mugabe to put in place a new democratic people driven constitution. 

We joined the constitutional reform movement which after the referendum of February 2000, half morphed into the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). 

It was a year in which a majority of Zimbabweans voted 'NO' emphatically to the proposed new constitutional amendments. 

I will forever cherish the moments we campaigned with cdes Tovaiteyi Karumazondo and Cde Trudy Stevenson in Bindura, Mt Darwin, Mukumbura, Muzarabani, Centenary, Mazowe with the then foreboding now deserved national hero Perence Shiri drinking Pilsener at the Mazowe Hotel. And back to Harare. 

We were sort of naive. Mainly because we believed in constitutionalism as being 'people driven.' And therefore unchallengeable. 

In another instance, same year, we went to Mataga Growth point with the inimitable lawyer Brian Kagoro and amazing Mai Lucia G Matibenga a  Matibenga.Where in my naivety  I sang songs against Robert Mugabe and got threatened with violence. We fled the place after war veterans and yuthiz threatened to kill us. 

Then there was the time we went to Gokwe centre with again Matibenga and now professor Lovemore Madhuku. We had a loud hailer where I was the cde who would invite the crowds while the other cdes  distributed fliers before they spoke as the national leadership. 

At this grassroots activist occasion a Zanu Pf cde out of nowhere asked us why we were insulting 'his' President Robert Mugabe. 

And he told me to get down from the top of the vehicle where I was waffling anti-government propaganda.  Cde Tovaiteyi hastily pulled me down and we drove off to outside Gokwe centre and re-grouped with the amazing Mai Matibenga to calm us down. 

There are two more constitutional reform incidences that we were involved in. 

Cde Grace Kwinjeh  who was then working for the then weekly Zimbabwe Mirror and had been arrested multiple times for her investigative stories on the war we had as a country in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). She led our team to Raffingora. We met a farmer Brown and she stubbornly told him that the land is ours. When we were on our way back to Harare, she laughed off our shock with a bottle of Bohlingers beer! 

The last example I am going to share is that of my elder brother Tendai Biti (boys dzepa Dzivaresekwa). 

So blah TB as we used to call him picks me up from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). We had a trip organised by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in Rushinga. If I remember correctly the mission is called Mary Mount Mission. On our way back TB said, as he drove from  Bindura, past Mazowe and through to Mt Pleasant in the Mazda B22 he eventually sold to Lovemore Madhuku, he uttered three words about land ownership in Zimbabwe. Akati, 'This is obscene!' 

With Nelson Chamisa  and Hopewell Msavaya Gumbo  I cannot cite their constitutional struggle examples. They are my Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) cdes. 

However I have cited these other above cited examples to demonstrate that the struggles for a people driven constitution for Zimbabwe were never abstract or legalistic. They have always been organic.

Zimbabweans by way of two previous referendums understand what a constitution is. And what it must be for democracy to thrive.

Regai tione zita remwana. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

Takura Zhangazha

Email: kuurayiwa@gmail.com

Twitter: @TakuraZhangazha

On Mvura/Amanzi/Water Disband the Harare City Council

 

By Takura Zhangazha*

You cannot even begin to believe it. The Harare  City Council is pursuing a prepaid metre plan for water access.  That is basically a privatisation of what is Earth's most abundandant and necessary natural resource. Whether its from the sky, our rivers, the oceans or underground. 

In our African tradition, if you have a visitor, the first thing you offer is a calabash of water. Its for free. No questions asked. Until your thirst is quenched. 

In this there is no pre-payment. It is just basic humanity. And if you need to go to do any ablutions, as a visitor, we do not stop you. Except to give you more water to wash your hands afterwards. 

But now the Harare City Council has under the directive of the central Ministry of Local government decided without any iorta of resistance, to put a prepaid price on water distribution in the capital.

Not just drinking water as was already the case. But all types of water usages. 

There are those that easily argue that water is a 'commodity' like bread, sugar or tea. 

The truth of the matter, as established by the Univrrsal Declaration Human Rights via the United Nations, article 3 without direct reference to water. 

Infact it is one of the most fundamental. 

No human being can live without water. Whether you drink it, wash with it or marvel at its spectacular river course from Mosi-oa-Tunya  to the Indian ocean. 

Water belongs to the people. How you pipe it, treat it, distribute it will should always be framed within the ambit of its equitable access for all. Rich, middle class, working class, rural farmer or the downright poor. 

I know a number of cdes who have a colonial hangover about water and its distribution in our cities in Zimbabwe. They have a very capitalist mindset about a resource that is essentially an equalizer.  Mainly because they have boreholes or can purchase  Nigeria style the same said water as a privilege. 

All the while ignoring the universal right to water for all human beings. And assuming they are priviledged because of, again, their access to water.

And then enter the Harare City Council. I know some of the councillors. Some I have known for years on end when they were opposition 'ground activists'. 

 In particular I also know the current mayor Jacob Mafume as a one time very close cde. 

In that time of knowing each other we would discuss issues of social and economic justice.

 While we never dwelt much on the issue of water and water rights of the people, we probably found it ridiculous that someone can make a proposition that water can be privatised. 

Now I have never been to remand prison as my brother Jacob Mafume on what it appears were politicised charges. Neither have I had to face a Commission of Inquiry about my conduct in office. 

But I have also never been at the forefront of as ridiculous a proposition as that of privatising water. Mvura, Amanzi? 

So when I opened the gate to where I currently stay, expecting macde eJehovahs Witness, lo and behold there were young cdes from a company called Helcrow. 

They advised me that they were there to install a pre-paid water metre. I didnt argue with them. They asked for my council rates/metre number.  I gave them. 

Then they proceeded to change the old one that they claimed was now digitalised. 

I told them but there is currently no water anyway. They said it did not matter. It will only matter when the water eventually comes. 

I understood the young cdes. They were at work. And they also warned me that if I refused to comply I would be fined. Or they would lose their jobs. 

I sort of get it. I have served in many boards or organisations both private and public. All in which I have faced multiple tricky situations. 

I remember one in which we had to debate a question of medical aid versus funeral insurance. The latter was cheaper. I refused and thankfully won the argument that we cannot employ people in order to bury them with a subsidy.

Water, as one of my close friends says, is not a rumour. It is a human right. It should never be privatised. When it rains, we are all happy because water belongs to all of us. And it was, will never be prepaid. (Tichasvitsana kuma penalty)

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

Africa and the Immediate Threat of a Third Global World War (Israel-USA-Iran)

 Africa and the Immediate Threat of a Third Global World War (Israel-USA-Iran)

By Takura Zhangazha 

In another time I wish I did not have to write this article. 

But as an African, in Africa, it is necessary to do so in light of not only recent seismic global international events such as the USA/Israel military attacks on Iran. Wherein a 'nuclear option' is rumoured to be on the USA/Israel table.

But also the shifts in a long held assumption of global human equality under the auspices of the United Nations Charter and its one-time humane liberatory history.

Moreso with a clear return to a revived neo-imperialistic (also read as neo-colonial) mindset by the USA government of Donald Trump. And other western governments that under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) are too afraid to challenge the USA due to their fear of what they consider a stronger China or a re-emergent and agressive Russia. 

With China being feared by the global west for its new global economic/technological influence and Russia for its war of agression in Ukraine. 

Our reality is that as Africans we all, even if we didnt directly will it on ourselves,  live in a capitalist globalised economy. In fact we have done so since the end of the then Cold War (1989-91) mainly between the West and the East (mainly Russia before the emergence of China as also a counter-hegemon). 

So because of this reality as Africans, we need to immediately grasp a couple of matters and put them out of the way. 

The first being the historical phrase that when the global north/west sneezes, the world catches a cold (I am paraphrasing for context here)

Or to put it more into a contemporary geopolitical context, when the global north/west superpowers start a war of invasion/regime-change against a mineral rich state,  the globalised neo-liberal economy always has dire consequences for poorer countries in the global south. 

The second issue to immediately understand is that the USA/Israel vs Iran current war is not between the three countries only. It encompases a less ideological return to the equivalent of a new 'Cold War' in 2026. One which is more neo-imperialist than ideological. 

By this I mean it is more about global contestations for economic, financial (US$ vs Gold) and material (minerals, territory, military hardware) dominance. 

It is a battle that, make no mistake, does not have Africa's deliberately conscious participation. It is one that pits the USA/Israel, NATO member states against Russia,China and the now evidently fragile remaining  BRICS member states. These being India, Brazil and our African representative, South Africa. 

So we, or at least our African governments should have a full appreciation of the full import of this current USA/Israel-Iran war on oil/gas, travel/tourism, commodity exchanges (especially minerals), military repositioning and by dint of all of the above their effects on their own domestic performance legitimacy politics. 

Some African governments may fall simply because of their over-reliance on trade routes via the Hormutz Strait. 

Or their over confidence in financialised capital that is based in the mainstream Gulf States that are no longer fully functional and under current lockdown due to Iranian attacks.

But the crux of this matter as alluded to in the title of this article is Africa's placement in this USA/Israel vs Iran war, now and in the immediate future. Before we even talk about its more long term effects. 

This war is without a doubt couched in a colonial and racist ideological  narrative as clearly laid out by US secretary of state Marco Rubio in a recent address at the Davos World Economic Forum where he publicly and shockingly (I think it was deliberate)  called for a re-assertion of Western civilisation. As of racist colonial superiority old with widespread uncritical coverage in globalised private mainstream and social media. 

So this current USA/Israel vs Iran war that is increasingly becoming global wants to return Africa to an oppressive fear mongering and inferiority complex consciousness. By way of simply demonstrating military might as is the case with Venezuela, Iran and now potentially Cuba. Wherein the West is saying/implying to Africa, forget your own struggles against colonialism, imperialism and neo-imperialism/neo-liberalism. Or face a military attack or violent ouster of a current leader and subsequent civil strife. 

What has however been problematic for us has been the responses of our Africa continental ( African Union ) and sub-regional bodies (SADC, ECOWAS, EAC, IGAD).

These have been characterised by an over pliant diplomatic language that indicates more acquiesence than resistance to this newfound, global racist western neo-imperialism. 

A development which after what happened to Libya, Sudan, Saharawi and the DRC among others, still leaves a tragic sour taste in any organic Pan Africanists' mouth. 

While we can argue about Russia and China's role in this current global Orwellian 'war' state of affairs, we can be assured that historically these two countries are not as racist toward Africa as the USA and Israel have been. And they have never called us sh#thole countries. Something that some among us conveniently forget. For the money. 

I will conclude with what I consider a pragmatic way forward. In this age of global international uncertainty the words of the great pan Africanist Kwame Nkrumah are apt, "AFRICA MUST UNITE!" Beyond false diplomatic platitudes and pandering to the whims of former colonial powers. 

We cannot allow Trump, Rubio and Netanyahu to give a global impression that they can turn back our struggle hands of time to colonial frameworks of global interaction. Where we become natives again. 

That would be ahistorical and a betrayal of our own African being. 

We can overcome if we re-unite as Africans and revive the global humane solidarities that are now sorely lacking globally in order tonstop these unnecessary cruel globalised wars. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity 

Twitter: @TakuraZhangazha

Zimbabwe Foreign Policy Has to Change, Return to the Principled Source

By Takura Zhangazha*

The Zimbabwean government under the ruling Zanu Pf party has had as a central narrative and dictum to its foreign policy, "A friend to all and an enemy to none."

In this it also adds the caveat that in all its dealings with Zimbabwe's central national interests in international relations that our country is quite literally 'open for business'. 

It has maintained these foreign policy positions since 2017 when President Mnangagwa announced what he refers to as the 'second republic.' And also after the 2018, 2023 harmonised elections where Zanu Pf retained both legislative and executive authority over state power. Albeit in still disputed circumstances. 

But their electoral and, in the contemporary, functional retention of power is a reality that we live with. 

As is with their government's foreign policy positions as they affect how we look at the world and how the world in return looks at us. 

A little bit of history is important here.

 Zimbabwe over the years between 1997-2009 was viewed as a 'pariah state'. A term which was both academic and political in the global north as well global liberal (read that as neo-liberal) democratic or Blairite/Clinton 'third way discourse.

This was mainly due to two main issues. The first being that in the late 1990s, we had a radicalising left-wing motivated workers movement that was countering the ruling Zanu Pf via labour unions that went on to form the mainstream opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) before the turn of the 21st century. 

This was against a perception that the world had reached what we now know as a discredited assumption of a global 'end of history' as ennunciated by intellectual and populist supporters of global neoliberal ideology. 

So Zimbabwe was, contrary to the late 1990s popular opinion, not liked for its emerging left leaning opposition politics which were eventually re-harnessed into more conservative narratives. 

The second historical point about Zimbabwe's global 'pariah status' was the still politically argued but structurally real, Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) from 2000 to present day. Though today it is increasingly more formalised in relation to central government land policies. 

This is Zimbabwe's almost, to use a biblical term, 'original sin', within private property/capital motivated international relations post the start of the millenium. 

A sin that a decent nunber of future generations of young Zimbabweans will still have to resist, suffer or eventually atone for at the altar of globalised financialised capitalism.

Now that was just a little bit of history of Zimbabwe's placement in the world. And why it is viewed, even in an African context as 'pariah'. 

But where we look at our current context with a government that claims to be a 'friend to all' and 'enemy to none' in the world, we should raise a number of questions in the 'global now'. 

The first question is if we have had this foreign policy since 2017, what has it achieved that changed our pariah status? Others may argue it has opened up new avenues to global financialised capital and investments from the west. 

But the counter argument is that this has only been incremental over the course of  at least 9 years. And the country remains under a complex western sanctions regime that is more intrumentalised than seeing its own backdoor on Zimbabwe. 

So it has not had the intended immediate effect. Nor is it guaranteed to.

The second question that arises is that of, okay, we did the FTLRP, challenged assumptions of colonial private property rights and fulfilled one of the key tenets of our own national liberation struggle.

 Only to turn back as a 'friend' to former colonial and post colonial white farmers and offer them compensation. As part of an appeasment foreign policy framework? At an estimated US$3,5 billion cost. 

The third and final question that arises from Zimbabwes current foreign policy trajectory is what does it mean in an emerging age of global unilateralism by global superpowers and the undermining of the United Nations 'rules based' global world order. Especially by Donald Trump of the USA. 

And within the global economic protectionism by the same said supepowers (EU, Russia, China, The Emirates, Israel) as they scramble not only for new markets, rare earth minerals but more significantly for compliance with their own foreign policy interests. 

In such a polarised and unpredictable context, Zimbabwe cannot be a'friend to all'. Or an 'enemy to none'. 

That is unrealistic and dangerous to our organic national interests in global relations. As a matter of fact, its highly impractical. 

As of old, Zimbabwe's foreign policy has to revert to principled historical, solidarity and non-aligned tenets with Pan -African countries, the global south and the global east before it assumes what is essentially a 'false global neutrality'. 

Historically and progresively our foreign policy was never designed to be self centered or self absorbed since not only the liberation struggle but after it and as designed for posterity. 

Where we think we can stand alone with this current unprincipled foreign policy, we will fall alone as a country. Unless we change it and return to the source. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity

Twitter: @TakuraZhangazha

Saluting Dr. Blessing Makunike

 By Takura Zhangazha *

I learnt of the sad news of the recent passing away of Dr. Blessing Makunike from a journalist colleague Godwin Mangudya. 

Apart from the shock of the news, I was deeply saddened that a cde who was relatively young had passed on. 

Dr Makunike was my and many others senior at the University of Zimbabwe. To be specific he was a teaching assistant in the Political and Administrative studies in the Faculty of Humanities then run by the late Professor Mukonoweshuro in 1997. 

He worked closely with again the late Professor Masipula Sithole as his tutorial assistant for a course titled (cdes can correct me if I am wrong) "Survey of Political Ideas". And subsequently on another course which related to Zimbabwe's political history and Pan Africanism. I cannot quite recall its title. 

So we were undergraduates and he was assiduosly studying for his PhD. Together with, if I remember correctly now Dr. Knox Zengeni who also tutored us at that time. 

Dr. Makunike was an undergraduate students helper. He was allowed to review our assignments for the courses he tutored and generously gave humorous advice about where we had messed up. Be it in referencing or factual and theoretical misnomers. 

He was affable to a fault. He would talk to us as though we were his peers but he was already doing a PhD. And he would wade into student politics with snide comments about how we, his students, didn't know what we were doing. 

This was based on his own history of student activism as he would explain it to us. 

He had a great relationship with the Students Union at the University of Zimbabwe. He, as rumour had it, helped Tafadzwa Musekiwa, who was later on to become Zimbabwe's first youngest Member of Parliament, campaign to again become the first vice president of the University of Zimbabwe Students union coming from the department of Political and Administrative Studies (PolAd). 

He gushed over the achievement of a student of political science being a vice president of the students union. And thereafter he always followed Prof Masipula Sitholes dictum of arguing that you cannot study political science if you don't want to practice it. 

We would laugh about this in tutorials about Africa and Zimbabwe while arguing about Samuel Huntington or even Nkrumah, Ujamaa and Pan Africanism. 

And for sure he had a satirical sense of humour when some of us got low marks.

Moreso when laughing at how, why and where we got it wrong

If I remember correctly he also directed myself, Linus Tsuro, Chofamba Sithole and Charles Mangongera to visit the main University's Stack Room 3 more often! That was the main floor for many social science students library readings as listed in course outlines. 

In all of this he was focused on finishing his post graduate studies. And when he got his PhD most of us the R97s had left the University if Zimbabwe.

He had also moved on to the academic registrars department . I think he had a speciality in administration.

And he eventually became a deputy academic registrar with a focus on post-graduate studies. 

But I will never forget that time he asked me, 'Pinda mu SRC mpfana (get into the SRC young man)'. This was after a meeting where mdara Morgan Tsvangirai and cde Thoko Matshe among many others had come to address the students union on the issue of a new constitution in 1998. I had waffled a question that got rapturous applause. And my brother Witness Zhangazha was already a Campus celebrity.

Dr. Makunike was ever active in following student politics and understanding the dynamics of the same.

When I won the SRC presidential election in 1998 he laughed at me and said, 'Yah, now you will know the real political science'. And for sure I learnt the hard way. But thanks to his regular advice, I survived suspensions and expulsion. 

Post my undergraduate studies and as emplyees, Dr. Makunike would after 2004 occasionally phone for a meet up. He, like his mentor Prof Masipula Sithole would say 'ngatiitei one'. He would normally be with cde Godwin Mangudya and we would meet at the press club at Ambassador Hotel, Harare before they made their way to Mufakose. 

When I would ask him about politics cde Dr Blessing Makunike would just say 'takakudzidzisei vapfana?' (What did we teach you?) And he would give a haughty life while we were convivially imbibing. 

My impression of the now late Dr. Makunike was that I could tell a man who had an intellectual presence that did not require the usual praise and sing songs. He believed in his work. He gave the impression he loved it. And I believe that to be completely true.

Furthermore he had no problem with passing on the baton stick. 

I remember trying to get into academia and setting up a meeting.with him at the registrars office at the University of Zimbabwe. I got the appointment. He told me, ""Imbomira sonny. Pano panonetsa. " 

We can only thank him for the consciousness. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity 

Twitter: @TakuraZhangazha