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Speaking at the first diplomatic meeting towards the establishment of the Museum of African Liberation on October 21 last year in Harare, late Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Dr Sibusiso Moyo said the project “is key in documenting the rich history of Africa which has for long been distorted by the continent’s former colonisers”.

“Colonial history has often ignored and paid lip service to the existence of a rich history that existed before colonial Africa.

“Great empires such as Munhumutapa and Ashante are often relegated to insignificance on colonial histories on erroneous and deliberate distortion that a white man should be behind every successful history in Africa. It is these stories that the Museum seeks to unravel and mostly record.

“We are therefore calling upon various member states who have either participated directly or indirectly in the liberation of the African people to support the establishment of this museum through contributing information, historic documents, oral evidence and artefacts which compel new and revised thinking on the history of Africa,” said Dr Moyo.

UNESCO Regional Director for Southern Africa, Professor Hubert Gijzen delivered a solidarity message during the historic event.

Dr Moyo, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s liberation war, officially launched the first diplomatic meeting towards the establishment of the museum, but sadly, will not see it come to life.

If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that African liberation stories need to be told.

Dr Moyo (59) succumbed to Covid-19 on Wednesday morning a day before the joint burial of liberation war stalwarts — the late Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba and the late Zanu-PF Central Committee member Cde Morton Dizzy Paul Malianga.

Africa’s liberation heroes are dying.

Officiating at the Museum of African Liberation ground breaking ceremony, President Mnangagwa said the glamorous institution will enable the African continent to tell its history.

“The construction of the Museum of African Liberation is an important infrastructural project, which will go a long way towards immortalising and preserving the resistance, acts of patriotism and sacrifices made by our founding fathers and liberation veterans.

“Their determination to liberate Africa from the yokes of colonial bondage must embolden present and future generations to achieve greater exploits. Zimbabwe dedicates this piece of land to the preservation of the rich liberation war heritage of our great African continent,” said President Mnangagwa.

The Museum of African Liberation will serve to immortalise the most important part of African history and luminaries like SB Moyo will feature in this amazing story.

The museum will also serve as a reminder of the great works of a man who played a huge part in rebuilding Zimbabwe.

A man who served his role as chief articulator of President Mnangagwa’s foreign policy with unparalleled dedication and dignity.

A man who sought to forge good relations with formally sworn enemies of Zimbabwe.

The dream must come to life, the journey must go on. The Museum of African Liberation must never die.