Please respect the victims of violence

DEAR EDITOR—I am really saddened by the ever increasing deaths being reported as part of the “political violence cycle”.

What I find extremely galling is that the dead are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who have got names and have achievements in their lives, yet they remain nameless.

The practice of someone calling out 25 dead without giving them the necessary respect we give to our departed is so unZimbabwean (if I may coin the word).

We have the ‘tomb of the unknown soldier’ which commemorates those who remain nameless, having lost their lives in the Chimurenga struggles.

Should we still allow political parties of any creed to sell us the harrowing stories of families who have lost loved ones as simplified as raw statistics to gain some political mileage?

I believe quoting numbers of the dead is inevitable, but first proper respects have to be paid to the ones we have lost.

It would be a mark of respect to name them and at least say something about them to show they didn't die in vain, rather than remaining silent on who they are and ignoring the story their life has been.

We all know every funeral has a eulogy, so why do political parties not eulogise the victims they claim to be their own. If they know to claim them as their own, surely they should have enough information to do an obituary on them.

The dangers people now face in Zimbabwe is if people have a vendetta against each other they might start killing one another and apportion blame to political violence. We must try not to fuel lawlessness to prove a case for political violence, hence the need for parties to prove who their members are by providing information that removes doubt.

We all know that during the farm violence that broke out before and beyond 2000 nearly all the white folk victims are accounted for—by name. So why it is the black victims are only nameless statistics.

I was particularly saddened by an article in an online publication that showed two homeless kids from Mvurwi sleeping rough—after their house was burnt down—because of political violence. The picture was harrowing, to say the least, and my heart and prayers are with the kids and hope the publication concerned reaches out to help them and not consign them to newspaper gimmicks dustbin and promptly forget about them.

It broke my heat to note their picture was the headline news, but their plight was summarised in two sentences after the picture and the article went on to talk about more people dying without expressing our traditional regret at the loss of lives.

I may not see this issue the same way as everyone else, but I wish more respect was shown to loved ones we lose so prematurely through violence or the forgotten victims of sanction-induced hunger and poor health care system.

People have a right to have different political affiliation; but let’s not forget that Zimbabwe is the land of our fathers and mothers. Let’s not strive to damage it further, but start rebuilding it.

The 2000s should not become a stolen decade, but a reminder of why everyone wants a piece of our land and its resources and ensure Zimbabweans campaign for Zimbabwe not against the country; by wishing for the tightening of the noose (sanctions) around an already groaning public.

Munhumutapa

munhu.mutapa@yahoo.com