𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗛’𝗦 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗕𝗘𝗖𝗔𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗠𝗬 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗗𝗘𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗬 𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗡 𝗜𝗡 𝗙𝗟𝗜𝗣-𝗙𝗟𝗢𝗣𝗦.

Ian Smith and black leaders seeking a resolution to tge war.

Ian Smith ruled for 15 years. During his governance, the country had 1,800 schools, of which only 60 were secondary schools. Of these, 70% served white students, while just five prepared Asian, Coloured, and Black children for university.

There was only one university in the country, which could accommodate a mere 300 students per year. Of these, 70% of the spots were allocated to white students, while the remainder was split between Asians, Coloureds, and Blacks in a 3:2:1 ratio. Despite the glaring need, Smith’s government failed to build enough schools or universities to serve the majority population.

At that time, electricity was accessible to only 6% of the population. Within a year of Smith assuming power, his government was sanctioned by the United Nations for crimes against humanity, stemming from policies of racial segregation and discrimination.

Despite Western attempts to help Smith withstand the sanctions, young Black children—tired of poverty and confinement to overcrowded reserves with no hope of accessing university or meaningful employment—organized themselves. More critically, faced with destitute parents who never got a chance to work or earn a pension under Smith, and frustrated by the lack of opportunities and determined to create a better future, the youth left school and marched to Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique, where they learned to fight.

After receiving training, they returned home and risked their lives to fight one of Africa’s most powerful armies that was bolstered by apartheid South Africa’s soldiers and advanced equipment. Out of superior organization and tactics, in just 15 years, these African children in flip-flops, defeated Ian Smith’s well-equipped and mighty army, forcing his government to collapse.

In contrast, ZANU PF, upon assuming power, embarked on a massive development campaign. Over the next 20 years, they built more than 7,500 schools. In every major city and town, they established a university, polytechnic, teacher and nursing training college. The result was a national total of 15 universities, 13 nursing colleges, 13 teacher training colleges, 13 polytechnics, and 43 research institutions.

They also built the Hwange Power Station, which increased electricity access to 56% of the population. Additionally, the government introduced its own digital phone exchange and satellite station, reducing reliance on apartheid South Africa’s communication systems like Smith had done. This allowed Zimbabwe to connect with the world and international markets, opening up new economic opportunities.

By making education accessible to all, ZANU PF increased the number of graduates from 4,000 (black and white) in 1980, to 100,000 within ten years. This transformation allowed many Black Zimbabweans to rise above menial labor to become bankers, stockbrokers, accountants, lawyers, judges, actuaries, engineers, architects, managers, and professionals in other fields.

Entrepreneurs such as Wingirai, Mawere, and Boka emerged, founding banks and insurance companies that in turn provided capital for Black entrepreneurs to venture into industries like logistics, cellular networks, engineering, construction and even aviation. With this newfound economic empowerment, many Black families were able to buy homes, cars, and property, lifting themselves out of poverty and improving their social standing.

Under ZANU PF’s leadership, the lives of millions of people improved. Many left rural reserves for cities in search of new homes and economic opportunities, putting a strain on the urban infrastructure that was built for just 2% of the population.

The education system empowered children from even the poorest backgrounds to escape poverty. In fact schools in rural and township communities have consistently produced some of the country’s brightest students, who go on to become directors, managers, and the elites of society making this a real source of empowerment.

For those less academically inclined, land reform, the opening of artisanal mining opportunities and the Presidential Input Scheme have allowed them to work with their hands and build wealth, just as Cecil Rhodes once did.

Today, Zimbabwe has several mining and agricultural millionaires, such as Scott Sakupwanya, who rose from the ghettos to become successful gold miners and farmers despite limited formal education.

The lifting of millions of Black Zimbabweans from rural poverty inevitably placed a strain on infrastructure and demand for it —a challenge anticipated by Smith and apartheid South Africa — and whose approach was to deny basic services to the majority to fund perfect service delivery for the few. They then suppressed the discontent of the dispossessed and neglected majority by denying them the right to vote.

Liberation movements, however, faced the dual challenge of addressing this legacy of non-delivery of basic services to 96% of the population by the previous dispensation, while still granting them the right to vote to express their discontent.

This task was further complicated by the fact that colonial powers looted Africa’s easily accessible resources, exploited land and black labor without leaving any capital reserves in the money markets for future investment in mining and agriculture. They also left behind bankrupt government coffers and zero pensions for the black labor that they exploited.

In Zimbabwe’s case the Rhodesians left an international high-interest debt of over $700 million, equivalent to more than $3 billion today. Till day, we are still repaying the $380 million taken from the World Bank to build Kariba Dam.

For these colonial loans and the influx of masses from rural areas seeking better opportunities in cities, African governments are struggling to provide their citizens with basic services that the colonizers neglected. But unlike their colonial predecessors, they have not sought to avoid their responsibilities by exploiting the majority to ensure the comfort of a minority. Instead, they bravely leave no one behind and continue to allow the discontented to voice their frustrations at the ballot box, as they slowly try to increase access to basic services.

It is their commitment to pulling all Africans out of poverty—after the colonial system impoverished and dispossessed them—that has unfairly drawn criticism upon them for colonial dereliction. This is before we even visit the added burdens of neo-colonial sabotage, western funded wars and illegal sanctions imposed by former colonizers on countries like Zimbabwe, to keep Africans down.

For this reason, the demand for restitution and reparations to undo the ravages of colonial exploitation, looting and illegal sanctions is entirely justified.