He has published two books – “The Ndebele Nation: Reflections on Hegemony, Memory and Historiography” and “Do Zimbabweans Exist? Trajectories of Nationalism, National Identity Formation and Crisis in a Postcolonial State (both in 2009).
He grew up herding his family’s cattle in Matshetsheni under Gwanda District.
“My parents were also competent small-scale peasant farmers and if I was not herding cattle, I assisted them in the fields. Our clan was well-known for owning a lot of cattle. It was these cattle that my parents used finance my education and that of other family members.
“My parents valued both farming and modern education and they worked hard to make sure all of their children got good education. Consequently, seven of us have degrees and three are pursing PhD studies,” he told The Zimbabwean.
He started his career as an academic in 1995 at the University of Zimbabwe’s history department. In 200 he was one of three young lecturers tasked to establish the Department of History and Development Studies at the newly opened Midlands State University. He gained his PhD in History in October 2004 and began to research Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis.
Sabelo laments Zimbabwe’s brain drain, and attributes it to bad governance. “It’s indeed terrible that a country like Zimbabwe, that invested heavily in education, is today suffering from brain-drain – mainly because of undemocratic government conduct. This is correctable if the Harare political elites would commit themselves to good governance,” he said.
“While it takes time to fix an economy that has been in free-fall for over a decade, the political issues can be solved quickly – as long as there is political will, as long as the political gladiators put the nation first and desist from pursuit of unproductive, partisanship and unnecessary grandstanding that destroys the image of the country.”
He said many in the Diaspora would be willing to come home if there was political sanity, “which is a pre-requisite of economic prosperity. But no one in his or her right senses can countenance a situation where political party thugs can easily be unleashed on innocent people and where the state becomes a terrorist rather than protector of citizens.”
He said free and fair elections were necessary to give birth to a legitimate government, but another botched election would spell disaster for Zimbabwe.
On the issue of the role to be played by exiled professionals in putting the country back on track, Sabelo said he was already assisting in supervision of PhDs as a way of capacitating human resources for universities.
“Of course I am willing to go back home as long as political sanity returns. I am eager like other Zimbabweans to take part in reconstruction. Once I am sure there is political paradigm shift towards tolerant governance and all the infrastructure of unnecessary violence is destroyed, I am on the next plane back home,” he said.
Analysing the source of the country’s problems today, Sabelo pointed out that the nationalist leaders who spearheaded the anti-colonial struggle were products of colonial education and never exposed to democracy and human rights.
“Their psyche was deeply interpolated by colonialism and despite pretences to be democrats and they could not escape the shadow of colonialism,” he explained. “Our leaders don’t respect African life. They torture, maim and kill just like their colonial progenitors.”
He said a free and democratic Zimbabwe could only be created by fully decolonized citizens under fully decolonized leadership. Freedom and democracy are never given to oppressed people, they are fought for.
“It is not a matter of time before a free and democratic Zimbabwe is born; it is a matter of the quality of the struggles that are free from latter-day imperialist agendas and are free from nationalist populism.”
He said Zimbabweans should learn from their crisis to be vigilant in future. “Let us learn never to entertain dictatorship of any colour or creed, any tribe or race, any class or gender—to ruin the future of another generation.”
Post published in: News