"Red Hills of Home" as a critique of the betrayal of Independence

Exerpt from Where is Chenjerai Hove’s Resistance? by Maurice Vambe, January 1, 2005, zimbabwe.poetryinternationalweb.org

In Red Hills of Home, Hove continues to bemoan the environmental disaster wrought by colonialism in the form of the “bulldozer” that desecrates African burial sites and undercuts their sense of place, to the extent that the village is “home no more”. But he goes on to suggest that the wounds of the red hills of home, which fester with “pus”, have not been healed by independence. In ‘Independence Song’, Hove’s persona underscores the enigma of freedom: “Independence came” but ordinary men and women were still bound by “the noose”. Cynicism informs the poet’s understanding of the capacity of Zimbabwe’s leaders to do good: “people’s bare feet maul the dry earth till freedom come”. For Hove, Independence becomes a dream deferred, as members of the new parliament debate ideas but fail to raise issues that will improve the lives of the people in whose name the war was fought and whom the delegates supposedly represent. In ‘Child Parliament’, the debate degenerates into a demand for higher salaries for MPs. The duplicity of the representatives of the new political dispensation is revealed in the way they discuss again and again, “stale overdue projects that crawl now when they should have run yesterday”. There is a real sense in this poem that the new political élites have failed to deliver, because there is “no debate about us”.

---

Maurice Taonezvi Vambe is a lecturer at the Bureau for Learning Development, University of South Africa, where he teaches African, African American, and Theories of Literature.

Born near Zvishavane in 1956, poet, novelist and social commentator Chenjerai Hove now lives in exile in Europe. His critical social and political commentary in the weekly newspaper The Standard (2000-2002) gave rise to threats that he was forced to take seriously. For a creative writer who cares deeply about his country’s welfare, leaving is a moment of profound loss. And yet for a writer for whom ideals are central, such loss is intensified by what he believes is a betrayal of governance in an independent Zimbabwe. ~~ from zimbabwe.poetryinternationalweb.org

Sanctions on Zimbabwe

 The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA)) of 2001 says that U.S. sanctions are against the Zimbabwean "government". Is this not a euphemism for "the people" of Zimbabwe?  ZDERA also says that these sanctiosn will continue as enacted until the U.S. President (Obama) certifies that the "rule of law has been restored in Zimbabwe, including respect for ownership and title to property. . . and an end to. . .lawlessness."  ZDERA 2001, no matter how well-intentioned, is clearly not targetted towards ZANU-PF alone and its impact has a devastating effect on the ordinary peasants on the "Red Hills of Home". The influence of ZDERA 2001 goes beyond the USA's jurisdiction.

The MDC campaigned for sanctions in a systematic manner. ZANU-PF created the conditions where it was deemed necessary to impose such sanctions. The only people who do not deserve these sanctions and contributed nothing to their imposition are the ordinary people who live on the fringes of the Red Hills of Home.

ZANU-PF is the primary culprit in having brought about the whole situation that led to MDC agitating for sanctions. This situation is similar to the conduct of the Rhodesian Front under Ian Smith. However, sanctions on Rhodesia affected only the minority white Rhodesians precisely because the majority black population where already under severe economic sanctions imposed on them by successive Rhodesian Governments (on its own black citizens) such that international sanctions on Rhodesia were nothing more than the status quo for the majority black population. ZANU-PF should have realised that a chaotic land reform programme (1) that is undertaken at a time when this party was loosing popularity, (2) that does not take into account the national economy, (3) that maliciously exposes the economic vulnerability of our nation, would amount to irresponsible and corrupt conduct of treasonous propotions. The mere size of the diaspora point to the disastrous consequences of the irresponsible conduct of ZANU-PF and its leadership. That they were resuming the prosecution of the legitimate Chimurenga revolution aimed at resolving the land question is not a sensible excuse - in fact, it is an irresponsible claim as there is no real  reason why Chimurenga of this nature could not be waged while taking into account economic stability, the health and general welfare of the people of Zimbabwe.

Impossing economic sanctions, of the ZDERA 2001 sort, on your own people is the brutish and highest form of punishment that one could ever impose on one's own people. The people of Zimbabwe have no other government except that which is the subject of ZDERA 2001. It is generally agreed: 1) that MDC did have to do with sanctions, 2) that they did put some effort towards their being put into place against Zimbabwe; and 2) there are different views as to the degree to which the MDC involved themselves in these sanctions with some people saying they designed and other saying they supported and yet others, indlucing the MDC itself, saying they have absolutely nothing to do with the sanctions. Note that this is a scale of the degree MDC involvement in the range:

designed <---> supported/encouraged/campaigned <-----> did nothing

The ordinary people on the fringes of the Red Hills of Home do not support sanctions of the ZDERA 2001 sort. It is in the interest of the people that these sanctions be removed. The view from the Red Hills of Home is that ZANU-PF must deliver to the people the freedom package from Chimurenga and this include the people's freedom to give birth to political parties such as the MDC and the freedom to decide peacefully how they are to be governed and whom they choose to be governed by. There is also the view that the MDC must act responsibly and exercise retraint in selecting strategies that involve powers that they cannot control and have the potential to hurt the people of Zimbabwe. The Rhodesian era strategy of international economic sanctions on Zimbabwe were grossly inappropriate in the Zimbabwean scenario.

The "Red Hills of Home"

Red Hills have come
With wounds whose pus
Suffocates the peasant.
The peasant's baby sleeps
Knowing only thin dreams of moonlight joy
Dying too are the songs
Of the seasons that father once sang
Red Hills and the smoke of man-made thunder
Plunder the land under contract

"Red Hills of Home", Chengerai Hove, Mambo Press, 1985: Pages
68

This blog's is concerned with the effects of human technological advances, political and other turmoils, and the new ways of life, on the simple but versatile minds of the common man whose innocent and genuine struggle is against the odds that are characteristic at the centre of the Red Hills of Home.