ZIMBABWEANS have a history in Burma. Many of our grandfathers lie buried beneath her soil because in WW2. They were shipped over there to fight against the Japanese for the British, but a few survived and are living out their winter years at home now.
Zimbabwean Raphael Chikukwa is a curator at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester. Inspired by the campfire stories told him by his father when he was a boy, Raphael began a journey of discovery across eastern and southern Africa, uncovering the forgotten stories of the “Afrikan Heroes” in WW2. During Black History Month 2006, his exhibition “Afrikan Heroes” displayed stunning sepia portraits and personal stories of black war veterans from East and southern Africa who fought in far off places.
Enlisted into khaki uniforms these then fit young men, who had never left home before, travelled from Southern Rhodesia, to Elizabethville via Northern Rhodesia, Nairobi, Moshi near Kilimanjaro until they eventually sailed on the Queen Mary from Mombassa to Ceylon and then onto Burma, to fight against the Japanese, in Burma, a country they had no stake in.
So feared by the Japanese were these African soldiers, that whenever the Japanese killed an African, they dismembered his body and flung the head, arms and legs in different directions so that they would never be able to come back to life and face the Japanese again. It was because of this fear, that when confronting the Japanese, the British soldiers took to using black boot polish to alter their appearances so that they may be mistaken for the feared black Africans.
In Burma today there are over 100,000 dead and everywhere is flooded with salt water. Some of our own ancestors lie buried beneath those flooded fields. People have no option but to eat dead fish! Rotting carcasses are contaminating drinking water. (Did you even bother to give thanks for that slice of pizza before stretching across to snatch it - before anyone else?)
Who knows how many foreign journalists were illegally in Burma desperately trying to "get a story" when it happened? We will never know.
If many are of the opinion that bird flu was an airborne virus, what will happen when the winds blow across the remainder of that continent littered with rotting flesh?Dont be fooled by the media which keeps claiming "its a natural catastrophe". This is not a "natural" catastrophe as they keep claiming. We are not gullible. We stare transfixed at the tv screens, and in our sinking stomachs we know deep down that there is nothing "natural" about this catastrophe.
It is because in despair God turned his face away from the violence and cruelty against his people and the devout monks in that country, a violence that deprived a people of living out their normal day-to-day lives. Don't come with your usual Christian rhetoric that "It's their own fault because they did not accept Jesus into their hearts!" or, for that matter, turn from their own beliefs to Prophet Mohammed (Peace be on His Name Always). The Holy Bible says "Thou shalt not judge!" and this is no time to judge the Buddhist monks who were following their own ancient path to God, who lifting His hands up in horror for just a moment ,and in an instant, removed his caring, protective arms from Burma. It was in that split second, when like a roaring lion, it happened and literally, all Hell broke loose.
Each one of us is starkly aware that we have a beautiful country, that we are privileged to be a part of a precious Nation that belongs to one and all, and if this is not a reminder now that we should forget our differences between rich and poor, MDC and Zanu PF and other Opposition Parties, black/white/brown, and do our level best to work stringently for the good of one another and our one million orphans (if only we could each adopt one child, eh?) and our country with any Government of National Unity that our leaders decide upon, then we are missing out.
We must grab this opportunity with both hands and face our future together and stop messing with God's own plans for our country, before He again, turns away in another moment of despair and leaves us to face the consequences. God forbid that Zimbabwe should end up like Burma today.Its our move!
.
Donette Read Kruger
Executive Editor: THE PROMOTA
Stringer for The Zimbabwe Guardian
USEFUL ATTACHMENTS
READER OPINIONS
ERIC, FLORIDA, U.S.A. • n/a Subject: CYCLONES ARE NATURAL. Thu, 08 May 2008 09:35:23 • Sometimes I don't get your writing... perhaps there are cultural differences that hinder me from grasping your perspectives. This starts off so very well, with the historical perspective, rooted nicely. And then, what happened?
Did you even bother to give thanks for that slice of pizza before stretching across to snatch it - before anyone else? Is there a need to assume your reader is ungrateful, selfish and glutenous? Does it serve the story, and does it help to endear your cause [the plight of the Burmese people, I assume] to the reader? Perhaps this is a Subcontinental literary and/or storytelling device with which I am not well-versed... you have used the unprovoked guilt trip device before. Some writers wrap their clubs in velvet; this one seems wrapped in barbed wire.
Dont be fooled by the media which keeps claiming its a natural catastrophe. This is not a natural catastrophe... We are not gullible. We stare transfixed at the tv screens, and in our sinking stomachs we know deep down that there is nothing natural about this catastrophe.
It was a cyclone, Donette. Cyclones are natural, last time I checked - devastating, ruthless... but natural nonetheless. If your poetic assertion that God turned his back in discouragement is valid [which would make you more spiritual savant than editorialist], then the disaster is still natural, and any disaster that doesn't happen becomes unnatural, i.e. - miraculous, because God prevents them all.
'Don't come with your usual Christian rhetoric that It's their own fault because they did not accept Jesus into their hearts! or, for that matter, turn from their own beliefs to Prophet Mohammed (Peace be on His Name Always). The Holy Bible says Thou shalt not judge! ' I have heard no such statements made, all I've read is a certain editorialist building for herself straw-man Muslims and Christians to judge and find in contempt. There's that venomous and unprovoked guilt-trip thing of yours again, and for what purpose?
And the final bend in the winding, bumpy road is to use the threat of the wrath of God to straighten everybody out! Doesn't that sound like the rhetoric you condemned earlier? More guilt-trip weaponry, only this time your pointing an arrogant thumb over your shoulder at the Almighty of all beings, who, in your mythos, is more fickle Norse storm god than benevolent lover of souls.
How can a storm-ravaged people be so re-engineered into a weapon for browbeating? So much anger lashing out in the oddest directions is mystifying.
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