Back to Index

A Strong Conviction
Lovemore Madhuku
From Conscience be my Guide: An anthology of prison writings
Edited by Geoffrey Bould, Published by Zed Books Ltd and Weaver Press
March 2006

Dr Lovemore Madhuku, a lawyer, is the chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a civic organisation in Zimbabwe working for the adoption of a new constitution as an essential element in establishing a true democracy. Since 2000 he has been in police custody twenty times, either for a day or overnight or for several nights. He has never been charged with any offence but has been brutally beaten and, on one occasion, left for dead in the bush.

I first became aware of the government's attitude towards peaceful civic protest during the civil service strikes of 1996. At that time I had just returned from Cambridge and was working with the trade unions. Over time I became convinced organised peaceful resistance was needed to push for constitutional reform.

But what really made me fully committed was the arrogance of the government when we, in the newly founded NCA, met their representatives led by Edison Zvobgo in 1999. They totally ignored our point of view and dismissed us saying: ‘You can go to hell. If you want, you can go and get guns and fight in the bush. We fought for these things and there are limits to what you ordinary people can have.' I realised how serious our situation was and, inspired mainly by Nelson Mandela, I decided I had to become fully involved in a new struggle for Zimbabwe.

The NCA started an education programme about the need for a new constitution and backed this up with peaceful demonstrations. It was then that I began to be repeatedly arrested. Sometimes they got wind of a meeting or a demonstration before it took place and they came for me. At other times they would come when the meeting or demonstration was in progress. Or they would say they were informed about the speakers. I became fully identified with the cause, inspired by the feeling that what we were doing was right and convinced that I had no alternative but to be engaged in this new struggle.

I soon found that I had crossed the threshold of fear in the sense that I became strong through resisting. You cannot theorise about these things and say I can face the police. No, you just get involved and then you face the situation at the time. Sometimes when you alert people to the risks they say it is not worth it. But it is worth it. Until things happen you don't know. Once I was badly beaten up and thrown to one side. I found I had no feeling of fear.
Then you discover it is worth it. There was another time when we were marching towards Parliament and there were all these police with dogs. I cannot believe the strength I found. We just went on marching.

I am not saying I am never afraid of state force and what its agents can do to me. But I have discovered that they have no power to subdue me. You can get depressed but quickly you can overcome this by a strong sense of conviction that what you are doing is right. My conviction that I am doing the right thing is my strongest weapon against fear. I have felt alone at times and I worry about my wife and children. But then I have this sense of doing what is right and this carries me through. There could be 99 against me. But then God always ensures that there is one person who will come and whisper that he believes what I am doing is right. Or he might say ‘your relative came and was not allowed to visit you.' Or ‘we are trying to get you into a better cell.' One gesture means more than the 99 who just go with the crowd.

Also, those 99, they make mistakes in the way they put their case. Their anger betrays them. The way they defend an evil system betrays them. They show they don't know what freedom is. Can you imagine: 24 years after the end of the war Parliament wants to pay people for going to war. These people put across values that are not values at all. They say there will be elections but there is no evidence that they will be free. You meet young people who have no idea what a constitution is or what human rights are. So, once again, you get so convinced you are fighting for the right things.

During our liberation struggle there was a clear goal. Though we were often divided among ourselves we were united in a common noble purpose: to win the freedom that would allow us to follow our own destiny. Today that freedom has been snatched away from us again and we are in thrall to a lie. We are told to believe that we live in a free Zimbabwe and that our elections are ‘free and fair.' The reality is that there is no freedom - either in elections or the press or in the media. And many of our people have become accustomed to the lie. Some are actually convinced that the situation is normal. I have found that I am not only repeatedly put in prison by the state but that the whole nation is a prison - and some think it is normal. Zimbabweans have to overcome the mindset that says, ‘I cannot take the risk of getting involved.' We will not have success in one day. There will be setbacks. But we want to build a broad foundation of convinced people who take a conscious decision to take risks and overcome their fear.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP