The raised fist is not just a Zanu-PF symbol

What does the raised fist mean? Chibhakera chinorevei?

If you follow Zimbabwe politics you would have come to believe that the raised right fist is the personal trademark of Robert Mugabe. Indeed he is informally referred to as 'kamudhara kechibhakera' (the old man of the fist) in some circles.

The misunderstanding on the use of the fist has grown so much that some now treat it like the official symbol of Zanu-PF the party.

The MDC factions, use the open palm as the official party symbol. As such most of their supporters have come to assume that the open palm as a direct result of opposition to Zanu-PF.

They have been subtly brainwashed into believing the the clenched fist is a Zanu-PF symbol. It is not.

Most of them are oblivious of the fact the open palm signifies opposition to much more than Zanu-PF.

Amandla! Ngawethu!
Nelson Mandela uses the clenched fist symbol during a speech.

Indeed in the subcontinent, world icon, Nelson Mandela used the raised fist symbol much more than Mugabe does. Jacob Zuma is so enthusiastic about it that he often raises both fists. Steve Bantu Biko was another prominent user of the raised fist.

As far afield as the United States of America people like the civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr used the raised fist.

It is no coincidence  that all these politicians who cut their teeth and made their names fighting colonialism, supremacist racial segregation and generally fighting for the rights of black people, use the raised fist as their symbol of choice. They use the raised fist in its context as the Black Power symbol.

It signifys the black man's demand for his rights. The raised fist is the symbol for black power, black empowerment (often characterised as indigenous empowerment in Africa) and black consciousness (which what Steve Biko died for).

Jacob Zuma enthusiastically raises two clenched fists

Probably the most iconic, and at the time most controversial, use of the raised fist, was the 1968 Mexico Olympics Black Power Salute. Winning American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, with the support of white Australian Peter Norman, raised their fists in the black power salute. All these athletes were subsequently ostracised, and treated as villains, by their national Olympic committees.

Back in Zimbabwe, at the time the MDC was formed and the open palm was announced as their symbol I didn't put much thought into it. It was just another party symbol. However as time has passed I come to realise the subtly clever strategy, behind it.

MDC activists have almost completely forgotten that the official Zanu-PF symbol is the cockerel (jongwe) and an image of the Great Zimbabwe. They now treat the raised fist as if it is the official Zanu-PF symbol. Together with the demonisation of the party and its leader, Robert Mugabe in the international media, it has come to a point where they think to associate themselves with the raised fist is to associate themselves with 'evil'.

In short, black people have been turned against black empowerment, without them even realising that they are being turned against their own empowerment.

These days the argument often advanced is that black people are already empowered because they now have equal rights and political self-determination. Those advancing this argument are forgetting one crucial detail, power is not just exercised through politics, but through the control of wealth as well. It is not a coincedence that throughout history kings, emperors and chiefs often had more cattle, more gold, more wives, more land, more wealth than everyone else.

The 1968 Black Power Salute at the Olympics in Mexico

The rule of thumb is that those with wealth will take the political power, or those with political power will take the wealth. Political power and economic power are like two oxen. They need to be tethered to the same yoke. Blacks now mostly have political power, but they do not have the economic power to be completely self-determining. Thus black economic empowerment remains a necessity.

Moreover, economic power did not just fall into the hands of a particular racial group by some divine right, laziness of the black race or their lack of intelligence as it is often made out to be. For centuries plain physical aggression was used firstly to extract labour from the black man for free (slavery), and secondly to prevent the black man from enjoying fair and equal opportunity (racial segregation and oppression).

Wealth for many was created by centuries of a policy of exploiting the black man's strength. According some historians, the British industrial revolution of the 18th century was financed by profits from the slave trade. Some argue that the slave trade is the reason why Britain and its former colonies such as the USA, are the leading economies in the world today.

Indeed some of the world's biggest corporations today like JP Morgan Chase, America's second largest bank, were given a kick-start in their business by the slave trade. Companies that later formed JP Morgan Chase started business by accepting slaves as collateral to give loans to plantation owners. Blacks were treated as collateral the same way we do with livestock today.

Martin Luther King, Jr stressing what he stood for.

When laws abolishing slavery were passed in 1833, Britain paid out more than 20 million pounds (17 billion pounds in today's values) to about 47 thousand slave owners who lost their slaves. For those who invested this windfall wisely, the families are still rich today.

Not only did such benefits accrue from slavery and general exploitation of black people. When colonialism retreated, the former colonialists left behind laws that made sure that wealth and property, such as land, which they grabbed violently from the natives could not be taken back by the methods they used to acquire that property.

In other words the rule of law is now being used as a method of retaining property that was acquired under the racial supremacy and right of race doctrines. It is important to understand that the rule of law does not automatically equate to justice and equity. If it did then we would have no reason to complain against laws such as the Group Areas Act and the Land Apportionment Act of 1930.

It is policy which brings about justice and equity. If fair policies are pursued then the laws passed to implement those policies will also be fair. Unfair policies will lead to unfair laws.

The bottom line is that to undo centuries of black racial deprivation, carefully crafted policies of black empowerment need be followed. Laws to support these policies need enacted. Even with these empowerment laws in place it will take generations if not centuries to undo the disadvantages of centuries of oppression.

Kamudhara kechibhakera

These policies need to publicly advocated and politically marketed. Politically marketing policies needs the use of symbolisms. The symbolism of black empowerment is the raised fist.

To slow down or maybe even stop blacks from getting back property rights they lost in the supremacist era, what better idea could be there than to actually get some blacks to vehemently oppose the symbols of black empowerment.

Can anyone explain to me how the MDC now find themselves vehemently opposing the symbol of black empowerment? It is not even the symbol of their opponents. Could they have been carefully manipulated into the position, where they trivialise their own empowerment?

Could it be that their open palm symbol was subtly positioned to de-market the idea of black empowerment among the black masses?