Linda Masarira is one of the pro-democracy activists who rose to prominence this year after a wave of protests against President Robert Mugabe’s rule.
the big interview BY OBEY MANAYITI
She spent over 80 days in remand prison for her role in the protests that shook Mugabe’s government and her plight touched many Zimbabweans who supported a fundraising initiative to assist her.
However, in a cruel twist of fate, Masarira last week sparked outrage on social media following reports that she told a Crisis in Zimbabwe (CiZ) forum in Harare that people from Matabeleland were cowards for allegedly not supporting the anti-Mugabe protests. CiZ, a grouping of civil society groups, issued a statement distancing itself from Masarira’s remarks.
Yesterday the firebrand Masarira (LM) told our reporter Obey Manayiti that she had been misquoted and insisted that she was not a tribalist. Below are excerpts of the interview.
OM: Did you insult the people of Matabeleland as alleged in reports early this week?
LM: Firstly, I am a daughter to a Ndebele woman. Secondly, for seven of my 10 years of work as a [National Railways of Zimbabwe] train driver, I was based in Bulawayo. So to say I insulted Ndebele people is itself an insult to me.
I will never insult myself, my mother or any human being. It is inhumane and satanic to discriminate people on any threshold, be it racial, ethnic, political, sex or tribe.
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I am very human and a staunch Christian who believes in the equality of all men and women. Those allegations are false machinations and imaginary creations.
OM: Please tell us what you said exactly and why your statements drew such a reaction from Zimbabweans?
LM: We were in an all-stakeholders conference where we were making candid reflections on our Zimbabwean struggles and the way forward.
It indeed is true that when each presenter made a presentation, honest comments, questions and remarks would be made to them in the spirit of coming up with strategies to develop our nation.
I made my presentation and was critiqued, questioned and candid remarks were made about me. I received them all in good spirit as I was sure they were for the best for Zimbabwe.
Students, women representatives, the disabled, religious leaders, representatives from all provinces (etc) made their presentations and the same process of questioning, querying and candid commenting was done. A similar thing happened in Bulawayo.
I am, however, shocked at the immature levels exhibited by some people we call our leaders. I have worked and stayed in Bulawayo for many years. I have done my activism in Bulawayo.
OM: What is your position on tribalism?
LM: Documented research-based history through archaeology, via the zinjanthropus skulls excavated at the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania (read Tanganyika — the beginning of humanity), proves that humanity emanated from Africa.
Religious facts, through the word of God i.e the bible, tell us that in the beginning the Almighty created Adam, then Eve, and from them mankind was created.
Thus, as a staunch Christian who is also an avid student of history who is disgusted with the contemporary establishment and fighting for a better Zimbabwe, Africa and world that is responsive to the needs of its citizens, I believe that we are one despite race, ethnicity, sex, tribe, religion or geographical location.
It is this oneness that above all, our saviour Jesus Christ wanted to preserve and champion when he said the golden commandment is to love your neighbour and instructed us to do unto others as we want them to do unto us.
It was a command to us, that despite all virtues and vices, we should preserve our oneness for we have one creator, share the same origins, and most importantly, He had come to earth to serve and save us all, for we are one. This was a message that also reminded us of our equality as mankind. So, I do not condone tribalism and I vehemently condemn tribalism in all its forms.
OM: Did you try to reach out to people that were offended by your alleged remarks?
LM: I tried very much, but it’s disappointing. I am realising some disappointing factors in our Zimbabwean struggles. If you do your research, you will discover that despite the presence of numerous journalists at this event, this story was created, written and then given to a journalist by people I considered to be my brothers in the struggle for a better Zimbabwe.
So it is disappointing. If you check the history of Africa, men with evil intentions came and fanned racial differences in the world and it resulted in whites being called a superior race and blacks inferior people who had to be kidnapped en masse and enslaved.
Some black leaders even aided this by fanning tribal differences and portraying other tribes as inferior to justify selling them to slave traders and enriching themselves.
These men of malicious interests also fanned tribal differences that led to the unfortunate disasters like the Rwandan genocide. More so, we are witnessing with pain the happenings in Syria’s Aleppo, innocent people are suffering.
In Nigeria innocent people are suffering. Check Libya. It is because some fat cats with malicious interests use reasons like tribe and religion to divide people and trigger wars for them to benefit from oil and other resources.
In our own nation, imperialists fanned tribalism to divide our people so they could loot land, resources and colonise our land. It is malicious elements like these who had power interests who fanned tribalism that resulted in the death of thousands of revolutionary fighters in camps in Mozambique.
It is also people like these who fanned tribal differences that led to the unfortunate and regrettable 1980s massacres [in Midlands and Matabeleland].
It is people like these in our contemporary Zimbabwe who are in the struggle for personal enrichment. If you do a background check on the people who blew this issue out of proportion by writing fictitious statements, they are people who are renowned thieves and are only in the struggle to enrich themselves, not to transform our society for the better and develop the welfare of Zimbabweans.
OM: Will this not affect your activism considering that already people are saying a lot of things about you?
LM: It is not the first time that these people have acted in such a retrogressive manner to sabotage me and my efforts to fight for a better Zimbabwe.
They have been brewing these teacup storms for quite some time now. Remember when they made an unholy alliance to sabotage the November 18 demonstration against bond notes. Zimbabweans are perpetual victims of a grand coalition of hunger, disempowerment, poverty, joblessness, corruption, bad governance, sterile leadership both in government and the opposition.
I am including the opposition for they have over time failed to have a coalition on creating alternative solutions to the development of Zimbabwe, but are quick to have a coalition in creating teacup storms against me, a mere mortal.
Unfortunately, that will never break me, for anything built on nothing amounts to nothing. After all, this is just but a teacup storm which can never even choke me.
It will only affect my activism in that I now know the kind of people I am dealing with. I now know that as a freedom fighter in Zimbabwe, I should fight with one hand for the other will be busy blocking blows from those I thought were my comrades. OM: What is the way forward now?
LM: The way forward is to go down to the people and mobilise them around development ideologies and initiatives for all Zimbabweans, both at home and abroad.
The way to go is to genuinely fight for a Zimbabwe that is responsive to the social, economic and political needs of its people.
The way to go is to appreciate the efforts made by previous generations dating back to inspirational leaders like King Mzilikazi, King Lobengula, Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi, to the generation of Herbert Chitepo, Josiah Tongogara, Edison Zvobgo, the revolutionary Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo and their departed and living counterparts.
The way forward is to appreciate facts that Zimbabwe is not what it should be, to appreciate that we all as a people are not doing enough and should stop being cry-babies.
The type of leadership in any society is very well reflective of the people who are in that society. We always cry foul and are cry-babies because we do not want to get out of our imaginary comfort zones.
We are cry-babies for we always cry but do not know what we are crying for. The way forward is to come up with new initiatives and strategies for continuing to do the same things again and again and expecting different results will never deliver us from our problems.
So the way forward is for us as a people, to come up with solutions which will mobilise our compatriots. The way forward is to come up with the people’s manifesto in which we will appreciate the struggles fought by our predecessors, address the problems which we have now and pave way for prosperity of generations to come.
So yes, we are engaging people on the ground, we want to restore the social contract in Zimbabwe and indeed we are coming up with a people’s manifesto for the people by the people.
OM: Will you consider quitting activism because of the backlash you are receiving now?
LM: No, I won’t quit. Quit is never in my vocabulary. Quitting the struggle before Zimbabwe is fully transformed for the better is tantamount to committing suicide and condemning the future of our kids and the future generations to the wrath manipulative fate engineered by manipulative people in our society.
I will draw upon the same strength that helped me to endure my tribulations at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison’s solitary confinement section.
Of course, I am pained by these malicious machinations for they illuminate a picture of directionless leaders who are in need of leadership themselves in our nation, but we have to change that. Zimbabwe is better than that. We can do better. It is for these reasons that I will never quit.
OM: There are allegations that activists are getting money from western governments and they are abusing that money. Is this true?
LM: I can neither confirm nor deny that. I can only speak in my personal capacity. I have never received any money from any government whether western, eastern, northern, southern or local.
And I will never accept such monies for I don’t need to be sponsored for me to know that Zimbabwe is troubled. I do not have to be sponsored to know that our future, the future of our children and the future generations is in jeopardy.
I don’t need sponsorship to know that we have to fight for our future in the same manner comrades in the first chimurenga, second chimurenga, and this chimurenga we are in to have social, economic and political freedom.
OM: You have attacked other leaders of political parties, including Joice Mujuru of ZimPF. What is your relationship with other political party leaders?
LM: I respect Joice Mujuru. She is a woman who took up arms as a young girl to fight for what she believed in.
However, her downfall from Zanu PF and government top posts is proof that women have a glass ceiling which we have to not only crack, but break and remove totally.
Women have potential but there is a devillish stereotype that some chauvinist bigots have thrust upon us. But they should be reminded of Isaac Newton’s third law that postulates that for every action , there is an equal and opposite reaction.
So they should be warned that their anti-women mode is to be confronted by women who have what it takes to break the glass ceiling. We call it the glass ceiling for people say the sky is the limit for women but there is an invisible ceiling that is imposed on us.
We will smash it! I respect political parties, but I also urge them to change their strategies. They are using the same strategies they have been using since 2000. We can do better.
OM: There are allegations that social movements have lost momentum. Do you think they are still relevant and can make a difference in the democratisation movement?
LM: No, no, no, no, no! Social movements are the backbone of survival of our people, especially when the government and state is incapacitated to take good care of the welfare of our people at this juncture.
Social movements still have critical significance. The people who are saying so are those who mistake campaigns like Tajamuka and social movements.
Tajamuka was not even an entity or movement but it was just a campaign, just like the 16 days of occupation, mastands edu aripi [where are our stands?] campaign, the 2,2 million jobs campaign. As citizens, we have quite many incoming campaigns that will deliver us.
As Linda, I am not defined by campaigns which come and go, but am defined by who I am and the overall vision.
There are clear campaigns that as a leader of the citizens’ movement, I am to initiate with the full back up of the citizens. We are still very relevant and in turmoil and tenacity, victory is certain.
