Pastor Richard Tembo.
Zimbabwe is falling deeper into Economic,
social and political problems and is seeking investors to resolve the chaos yet outstanding traditional, cultural and spiritual issues are not being addressed.
Zimbabweans are very much aware of what needs to be done to resolve the country’s problems yet they continue to sit back and cry instead of taking action.
Remains from the First Chinurenga war heroes are still lying in the foreign land of England yet Zimbabwe political leadership, traditional leadership, spiritual , religious leadership and the general population are very much aware of the urgent outstanding issues dating back back as far back as 1896 from the First Chimurenga war have not been addressed.
Following the June 30 2018 conference to kick-start the need to pursue repatriation of the Zimbabwe ancestors’ remains from the United Kingdom to back home Zimbabwe for a proper burial, we secured an appointment to meet with the director of the Natural History Museum in London on September 18 and in attendance were Pastor Richard Tembo and Princess Eugene Majuru.
At the museum we discussed the issue of repatriation of the remains and the other issue discussed was the reason why there was a delay in completing the project. We were told that the delay was not from the British side, but instead it was on the Zimbabwe government side.
In order to complete the exercise, a formal letter requesting the remains to be repatriated has to come from the Zimbabwe government and the museum trustees will then make a decision.
However, the london museum director Mr. John Jackson conceded that there were in the museum some remains from Zimbabwe, but as at that date it had not been established if those remains were indeed of those heroes whose names we had. It was after he mentioned that point that we then proposed to him the issue of DNA to help solve that problem and he agreed that it was the only and best way forward. We had a very cordial meeting which lasted about 1 hour and 25 minutes.
We approached the museum director in our capacity as representatives of the community and descendants of the heroes in question who have not been able to find that opportunity. However, it was agreed that the next and all other further meetings will not take place without a letter from the government asking the museum trustees to release those remains, said Mr. John Jackson. Zimbabwean government was notified about the requested letter by the Brotidh museum during the same week of September 18 2018 to which Zimbabwe’s Director of National museums Dr Godfrey Mahachi promised he would send the letter the very same week. Till today December 8, 2019 just over a year the letter is still outstanding. Efforts to get comment as to why the letter is not being written have proved fruitless. Several letters have been written to Zimbabwe to send the required letter and unfortunately nothing is moving due to the oustanding letter.
Consequently, it became clear that the holdup is mainly on the letter to the trustees requesting the release of those remains and any delay to send that letter will only lead to further delays in accomplishing this valuable exercise. There may be other unforeseeable technicalities or legalities attached to this issue, but there was no mention of such if any at all, by the museum director Mr Jackson except that the decision is for the trustees to make after receiving that letter.
Following the repatriation conference held in Leicester on October 5, Princess Eugene contacted Mr Jackson to check on progress only to be informed that Zimbabwe had still not written the letter.
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