"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" that, according to Dante in Divine Comedy is the inscription on the gate into Hell.
Since March 2008 Zimbabwe has loitered outside the gates of Hell fearfully to enter. We read the grime warning at the gate, peeped at the darkness beyond and heard the blood cuddling screaming in the distance and would not follow Robert Mugabe shrill commands to enter.
On Wednesday 11 February 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai will be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister together with his two deputies. Two days later the ministers, governors, etc will too take their oath of office. Zimbabwe’s GNU will be dually constituted. The marriage made in Hell will be dually consummated and Tsvangirai, the blushing bride, will become just another one of Mugabe’s many concubines. His main task is to make sure that we all follow him through the gates!
History will acknowledge that Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai and MDC in March 2008 out of desperation – any one else other than Mugabe and Zanu PF! We were painful aware of his poor leadership qualities and lack of vision but were so desperate for change we voted for him. So he had the nation’s electoral mandate, although the GNU was never in MDC’s election manifesto, and sadly he is now abusing that mandate.
Zimbabweans have suffered a great deal and many lives have been lost needlessly many at the hands of Mugabe’s political thugs, the Police, CIO and Army. The journey to the gates of Hell has been a hard grind. What the nation has been yarning for is the light of freedom, liberty and economic prosperity. What Tsvangirai is doing, taking them through the gate of Hell and beyond is NOT what the people wanted to do.
We are now through the gates of Hell and the tour is set to last another fours years. Our challenge is:
1) to make sure that the GNU does not last that long,
2) make sure we do our best to reduce impact of the suffering and misery that lies ahead and to save as many Zimbabwean lives as we can and
3) Prepare ourselves for the difficult task of not just getting out of Hell but to rebuild the free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe we all want.
There next few months Zimbabweans will be tried and tested like never before and if we are going to pull then we must have hope, courage and the iron will to fight on.
As the nation pass through the gate into Hell take a fresh pair of sandals – the path will be rough and hot –, take all the food and drink you have – you will need it and commit to memory these wise words from Lord Alfred Tennyson (from Ulysses) if you can:
. . . . Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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