Current issue: Vol.1, No. 2 May 2001

Go to Content page Feedback We need an Uprising of the Conscience By Oskar Wermter, sj When Rhodesian leaders refused to contemplate "one man - one vote" and locked the nationalist leaders up in prison, they did not know that theysealed the fate of many of their own sons who would die in the civil war that their intransigence made inevitable. Leaders of nations often do not know what the consequences will be of their decisions. When World War One broke out in August 1914 the people were assured "our boys will be home for Christmas", but most bled to death over four years of war in the trenches of Flanders. Violence by its very nature is uncontrollable. Military tacticians talk about "surgical interventions" as if it was possible to control a war and use it rationally as an instrument for a defined purpose. But once you have unleashed violence you have given up control over your affairs, like a person overpowered by rage and anger. When the nationalist leaders decided on armed struggle as the only option left open did they know that the war would last that long and cost 40 000 lives (or even more)? I remember vividly a chance encounter with a few ZIPRA cadres in March 1980. In a jolly mood with laughing faces they said they had "finished off" Smith and Muzorewa; the next one would be the then victorious Mugabe. I thought they were joking and did not take them seriously. I soon had to change my mind. Who could have guessed that such facile talk would become bloody reality when government hit back a couple of years later with unimaginable ferocity? We are like little boys playing with matches next to a petrol tank. We never seem to know that our silly little games can set the world ablaze. For how much longer are we going to play with the uncontrollable fire of violence? It happened in 1978 in a small mining town where I was parish priest then. Muzorewa's party received strong support from the locals. It was the only option they saw. A bright young man whom I knew quite well became party chairman. One night there was a knock at his door. Some men demanded to see him. He went out to talk to them. That was the last his family ever saw of him. His grave was never found. And his party died overnight. It would appear that murder is still an available option in our political culture even today. The gun was not phased out as a political weapon to be replaced by the normal arsenal of democrats like campaigning, debate, and offering the better argument and the better record. Recently a church group met with party officials to appeal to them to stop using violence in political battles. They promised to stop the violence by "overzealous" supporters. Were they serious? One of them remarked that 35 "casualties" in an election campaign was "not too bad" after all. As long as a party wants to retain or gain power "at any cost" human lives will be sacrificed on the altar of ruthless ambition for power. Democrats know the risks of political life: it's a game where one day you win, another day you lose. But those ambitious for power "at any cost" do not accept the risk of losing. For them it is not a game, it is deadly earnest. Respect for human life must overrule everything else. No political objective justifies that even one innocent human life be sacrificed, let alone 35 lives. Leaders ask their people for immense sacrifices in times of war while giving them the hope of a lasting and prosperous peace afterwards. So what is the use of a war that never ends? Who can endure it? We must put an end to this war and its killings once and for all. Spilling blood has been glorified on our heroes' acres for the last twenty years as something glorious. Heroes spill other people's blood and sometimes even their own. Nowadays it is only other people's blood that is being spilled. Are these the only heroes we respect? That would be unfortunate. We need to remember also heroes of a very different kind: people who stayed on in the war zones unarmend and defenceless because, as doctors and nurses, they would not leave their patients uncared for, or, as pastors, would not leave their flocks untended. I am thinking of George Bherebhende who died because he stayed at his mission in Hurungwe and shared the daily dangers the people round about were exposed to. For that he was murdered.I am thinking of John Bradburne who stayed with his friends, the lepers of Mutemwa, even when he was warned he should leave. He died two months after Dr Luisa Guidotti, the mission doctor of Mutoko. There were countless others like these. Is it not time that we started honouring the heroes of non-violence so as to un-learn violence? There are people in all parties who are fully aware of the danger of civil war in Zimbabwe and are frightened by the prospect. Are they also aware of the terrible responsibility that rests on their shoulders to warn their leaders and party colleagues against this mortal danger? Will they allow their conscience to speak and be able to act according to its verdict? Blindness by a few in a relatively minor matter can have unforeseen catastrophic consequences on a big scale. But it is also true that just one farsighted and courageous person can make all the difference, at least in the long run. Many abhorred the mass slaughter of Word War II, but in the end they took part in it "for the fatherland". Very few said, "No, my conscience does not allow me to kill". Franz Jaegerstaetter said so, knowing he would die under the guillotine. He will be remembered long after all the heroic warriors have been forgotten. A priest friend of mine refused to leave his flock. Later people said he died because he was politically naive. I know he died because his conscience would not allow him to run away. We need an uprising of the conscience. We need a revolution, not of the gun, but of throwing the guns away. We need heroes that listen to and act on the voice of their conscience, that risk their lives, not to kill, but to save lives. Oskar Wermter was born in 1942 in Germany, a Jesuit since 1961, arrived in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia - in 1966. Worked as a pastoral priest, writer and broadcaster and since 1987 as social communications secretary of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops'Conference. African Scribe is guest on PeaceLink web site