By Brenna Matendere
Prominent Kwekwe-based poet Nkosilathi Emmanuel Moyo, affectionately known as Rebel Leader, has penned an epic poem describing yesterday’s Independence Day celebrations as empty.
Titled Takawana dzamira nemhuru ( The great betrayal), the poem lays into post-independence government leaders for looting national resources to an extent where the young generation literally does not have a reason to celebrate their role in the armed liberation struggle.
Moyo vents his anger about corruption in government in the opening stanza where his first line reads Vana mukoma makatirasisa (Leaders you betrayed us).
He goes on to use various poetic devices like imagery, irony, metaphors and rhetoric questions to show how the country has been bled by corrupt leaders since independence in 1980.
Yesterday, Moyo told Standard Style that the views he expresses in the poem were long held realities about the mismanagement of the country’s economy and general affairs.
“There is absolutely bad governance in the country and the youths are bearing the brunt of poverty yet this nation is endowed with rich resources. These natural resources have been plundered by our leaders,” he said.
“It is against this background that I thought to lay bare my views about the situation in our country because people are suffering. So in essence, the Independence celebrations are meaningless to our young people. There is nothing to celebrate.”
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Yesterday Zimbabwe turned 40 after getting sovereignty in 1980 from a lengthy period of painful colonial government.
However, Moyo said the majority of citizens rue the day.
On the other hand, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who rose to power through a military coup in November 2017 and has been in government since 1980, maintains his administration is transparent.
Moyo in the past has written several other poems poking holes into Mnangagwa’s leadership style with the latest being a comic piece that laughed off his “idyai sadza nemurivo” infamous speech urging Zimbabweans to be vegetarians yet majority of them yearn for nutritious balanced diets, but cannot afford due to poverty.
