(Last Updated on May 9, 2022 by zimdaily)
HARARE – In 2016, a Zimbabwean pastor, Evan Mawarire, started the ThisFlag campaign and got into big trouble for his efforts. Using social media channels, he would appear in short videos complaining about how the ruling elite had run Zimbabwe to the ground, and urged people not to report for work, which a number of people actually heeded.
They arrested him and took him to court where he faced a 20-year jail term for attempting to overthrow the government of the late former president, Robert Mugabe. Of course, you need to be coming from Mars or some other silly planet to believe that donning a Zimbabwean flag is the same thing as overthrowing a Zanu PF government.
When they were done with Pastor E, he was so scared you haven’t heard too much about him since then. That’s what they always do, and that’s what they want you to do. Be very, very afraid of the regime.
Now, do you also remember that there was such a big noise when opposition MPs started going to parliament with the Zimbabwean flag draped around them? Those that did were thrown out of the parliament building.
That was always going to be crazy, of course. Who does that? Where on earth have you heard a lawmaker being harassed for wearing a piece of cloth that symbolises nationhood? But Zim is Zim. All sorts of crazy things go.
Let’s wait and see. Who is going to be harassing the owners of Shanghai Construction Group for putting up a Chinese flag at the new parliament building in Zimbabwe, alongside the Zimbabwean flag? Shanghai, a Chinese state-owned company, is the one that built the building.
Here is the thing. Some people got into sizzling trouble for wearing their own flag. If you can be in trouble for wearing your own flag, surely, those that bring their own flag and hoist it on Zimbabwean soil are guilty of a huge, huge crime. There is nothing that beats that when it comes to regime change.
It’s simply a no-no for a foreign nation to plant its own flag on our soil. There is no better description for colonialism than that. On April 1980, Zimbabwe went into wild jubilation when the Union Jack was brought down and replaced with the flag that Pastor E got into trouble for wearing. You know why? Your flag is the symbol of your sovereignty. It defines you. It gives you your unique identity as a nation, as a people.
What does it then mean when the Chinese flag is pitched at your parliament, alongside your own. It means that you are a half citizen in your own country. The other half is Chinese. In that regard, you may just as well go and claim your passport from the Chinese embassy. It means a Chinese nationality has been imposed on you, without your consent.
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