On Friday 10 June 2011 the national news paper , The Herald announced that the decision making body in Zanu pf , the Politiburo had decided to confer the hero status to Cde Tekere who succumbed to prostate cancer on Tuesday 7 June 2011. What caught my eye was what some member from this body is said to have said when asked for his vote to decide the fate of Cde Tekere , ‘’By the way who is Edgar Tekere ? ” He is said to have asked. What a question . Lets hope Cde Matasa did not hear correctly because if he did ; then what a fix we are in for!!!
Surely i guarantee you that most Zimbabweans thought Cde Tekere was long dead because we are still in a revolution and the people who truely initiated it are not known to be alive. The media is annoying and brain washing us everyday with nonsensical reports about a myriad of good for nothings in Zanu pf and the MDCs and subsequently in our government to such an extent that this nation is now turning into a Zombieland. We can’t afford to discard and forget our real heroes because also by so doing we will be forgetting about our independence and how we got it .Look at Edgar Tekere today . The true son of the soil ; a man who really fought for Zimbabwe only to be talked much about on this day when he is dead , a crime which even i the writer am guilty of. Surely you are a nobody until somebody kills you , either God or men . Why is it that we can’t give these people their roses until they go to the grave : munhu ngaapiwe maruva ake achirikufema.
In his book A Life Time Of Struggle Cde Tekere says his only regret in the struggle was convincing Cde R.G Mugabe to join Zanu pf !!! Now i don’t know about that and if i did that would be another topic for another day. If true then the hero must have died a worried man because Cde Mugabe is still at the helm of Zanu pf and subsequently Zimbabwe as a whole or maybe over the time Cde Tekere did let bygones be bygones. Well that was me just wondering
Tomorrow we are not only going to bury Edgar Tekere , we are also going to make the grave yard richer. Is there anyone out there who has Cde Tekere’s heroism ? We Zimbabweans are the losers because we have been left one hero – less. He was somebody whose mere mention of his name brought that twinkle in our eyes and accelerated our heart beats because we would know that he was still there , still alive and kicking. But now , well his name invokes glowing memories of resoluteness and definitely memories of purpose . Yes we are poorer without him , the soil is richer. Goodbye Edgar ” Two Boy ” Tekere , we have loved you , we will always love you .
Every nation has its defining moments . In these moments is stored a nation’s collective memory of its commonly cherished values ; because the men and women who undertook those enormous challenges did so in pursuit of or in defence of certain values. The Zimbabwean story is forever etched in the struggles and tribulations of men and women of Cde Tekere’s calibre and this is what brought us our freedom which was our defining moment. This national hero will forever be counted amongst our finest. For it is not possible to discuss the struggle of independence of Zimbabwe without invoking the role of Tekere. The political activism and nationalism of the 50s , 60s and 70s as well as the 80s , the name Edgar Tekere applies all over the place. In terms of heroism this is as good as it gets.
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