Becoming The Muse

Coffee With Unity Day

If you are having coffee with me, I would welcome you into my tangle of words, its astronomically summer this side of the world, the rain is raining and at this rate, like clockwork, we will have rain for Christmas, the way others have snow on Christmas Day.

@beatonm5

Rain 🌧 #mvura #bagga #zimtiktokers🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼

♬ Mvura – Bagga

Every 22^nd of December, Zimbabwe pauses, to reflect on the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987, an agreement that brought an end to years of political conflict and unrest following independence in 1980, where mistrust and political rivalry led to a dark period in our history, whose trauma still festers like an open wound.

The Unity Accord, signed by Robert Mugabe (ZANU) and Joshua Nkomo(ZAPU), sought to heal the rift by uniting the two nationalist liberation movements into a single political entity and affirming the principle that strength lies in unity rather than division.

While signing the Unity Accord did bring an end to the conflict, it conveniently ignored the elephant in the room, calling for peace without adequate provision for reconciliation. 38 years later and the wound festers still, there have been commissions and hearings that have done no more than poke at the wound and our history textbooks are largely devoid of brigades, dissidents and what really happened between 1982 and 1987, save for calling it a dark period…

Some say the tribalism and marginalisation in the country can be traced back to this period, while others argue that it was always there, and weaponised by the settlers, who used the discord to divide and conquer, then post-independent Zimbabwe simply adopted the blueprint.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that, in hindsight, the Unity Accord was an elitist and top-down compromise which resulted in a one-party state by effectively eliminating opposition.

While multiparty democracy is entrenched in law and explicitly stated in the 2013 Constitution Amendment, opposition party members and supporters tend to be treated as second-class citizens at best or agents of chaos, sponsored by foreign interests to discredit a constitutionally elected government and subject to security scrutiny, in case of treasonous intentions.

A typical example of the culture of intolerance could be seen when a local Radio Station host conducted an end-of-year poll, where listeners could nominate and vote for Zimbabweans who dominated headlines or generated significant public conversation during the year.

The winner of the poll was Fadzai Mahere, a lawyer, lecturer, and former Member of Parliament known as the Iron Lady for not only her daily 5am workout regime, but also her unrelenting and unflinching quest to hold elected officials to accountability with her social media signature sign-off #WeNeedNewLeaders.

The propaganda apparatus has been mobilising, calling for heads of not only the radio station but the radio presenter who created the polls for having an agenda by crowning the Zimbabwean of the year to someone who has not had any tangible development, except critiquing the government, when there are more deserving nominees (who, of course happen to be pro-ruling party).

The radio station had to even offer up a disclaimer on the awards to placate the situation, but there’s still others who are either trying to curry favour or perhaps singing for their supper, in continued attacks on the winner, the radio and its host.

If you are having coffee with me, I would ask if you can imagine what should have been a fun, audience-driven morning radio poll, got people all worked up like this, imagine how actual elections play out.

Sometimes I think we should end the democracy charade and save on campaign funds and end the illusion of choice when casting votes… but then its Unity Day, so maybe can we at least all get along despite where we come from, the side our family fought for during the liberation struggle and its aftermath…

The gospel of peace
of humorous
of tranquility

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunity is very impoooooooooooooortantpic.twitter.com/41WJPHw2de

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) December 22, 2025

Compliments of the festive season… what’s been going on in your neck of the woods?

~B