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It was all sport for them in their 90 years of misrule.

They killed, sometimes by hangings and beheadings, shipping the heads of their victims to Britain as trophies. As we write, the heads are still in some British museums for public viewing and amusement. 

They kicked blacks off their ancestral lands, throwing them to badlands for them to start all over again.  As the blacks left, they had to leave their cattle, goats and chickens behind.  Soon their former land and all that was on it became the invaders’ property. 

They pegged gold mining claims anywhere they wanted and started mining.  They raped, sjamboked anyone, including figures as respectable as our chiefs. They enslaved blacks to work for them on the stolen farms, mines and in their homes.  

They denied blacks an education and formal jobs.  Blacks were not allowed to walk on pavements or to take certain drinks.  

To legalise the illegalities, they enacted multiple laws through whites-only legislatures.  

Zimbabwe was clearly coloured in black and white; horse and rider; baas and the slave situation.

Such barbarism could not be viably confronted through street protests.  Only through arms of war.  In 1893 and 1866, the owners of this land rose but unfortunately fell. Better trained and armed, they rose again in 1966.  They hammered the autocrats and Independence arrived in 1980.  

Although blacks won their freedom back, that does not compensate for the incalculable losses and indignity they suffered over 90 years of colonialism.  

It concerns us so much that since 1980, Zimbabweans have not formally and strongly demanded an apology, let alone reparations for the ignominy they endured at the hands of British settlers.  

Yes, some former colonies in Africa have done that — Namibia and Kenya — and won. 

For us, the beginning came on Thursday when President Mnangagwa launched an epochal study which we are confident, will provide the pathway that the country needs to secure an apology and reparations from Britain as well as the return of skulls of a number of our ancestral leaders on display in British museums.  

President Mnangagwa

The study, “Land Displacements: The Untold Stories of Crimes, injustices, trauma and losses experienced by indigenous Zimbabweans during the colonial era (1890-1980): A case for reparations,” would be led by the Zimbabwe National Elders Forum. 

“As many would recall, the racist colonial regime started grabbing land in 1893, a process that was further consolidated by pieces of unjust legislation such as the, and the Native Land Husbandry Act of 1950, among others,” the President said.

“It is, therefore, pleasing that the forum intends to go further and comprehensively document the untold story of the injustices, trauma and loss of lives and livelihoods experienced by indigenous black Zimbabweans due to colonial land appropriation and forced movements.”

He added:

“We have observed and indeed quite recently, as former colonial powers; the United Kingdom apologising to the Mau Mau of Kenya and Germany also apologising to the Mbanderu, Herero and Nama people of Namibia.

“Therefore, we ask, when are the rest of us in the former colonies going to receive similar apologies from these people, the colonisers, the British? We wonder. We need it, they must apologise.”

We support the proposed research and what the President said when launching it. 

Britain must be held to account, must be made to pay for the barbarism and industrial-scale theft they committed against our people between 1890 and 1980.  

An apology will only be the beginning, however.  We are saying this because anyone can say anything without really meaning it, words just being uttered not coming from the utterer’s heart.  Lip service.  

We will only be satisfied if, in addition to the apology, the British return the skulls, artefacts and other items they grabbed from us and then they pay monetary compensation to the people of Zimbabwe.