Zimbabweans will commemorate Heroes' Day this year in a somber and melancholic mood. Celebrations in the streets of Harare when Robert Mugabe was deposed in a military coup, which many Zimbabweans hoped would signify a change in the tide, have been thwarted. Not only has it become clear that the many human rights violations committed during the Mugabe era will continue under the newly elected president and his "new regime", but also that the violations will be more brutal and will be committed with impunity in front of the whole world. glance. The bloodbath committed by the Presidential Guard following the harmonized elections of July 30, which resulted in the deaths of six unarmed civilians, as well as the brutal repression that followed against opposition supporters, candidates and electoral agents, testify to the worsening of the situation and exact a heavy toll on Zimbabweans and a profound regression of fundamental freedoms in the five years to come. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay. What is even more poignant about the atmosphere surrounding Heroes' Day is the paradox between who those responsible for current events claim to be and who they present themselves to be through their actions. For a very long time, ZANU-PF and its governments appropriated the status of "heroes" in Zimbabwe and presented themselves as the "liberators of the people" who, as Chris Mutsvangwa recently stated, gave this country to the people . Heroism has been presented in a sterile political version that only recognizes those who: fought in the liberation struggle; that is, those who crossed the borders, mobilized the “povo” and literally fought the Rhodesian soldiers; with an added bonus for those who shot down one or two Rhodesian helicopters; or were threatened with arrest, hunted down or detained for short or prolonged periods in Rhodesian prisons, for having expressed political thought concerning the need for the black majority to access the same civil status as the white minority; orAlign their political thinking and strategies during and after the war of liberation with ZANU-PF and wholeheartedly support the vision of a ZANU-PF-led government (with Robert Mugabe as leader for life); orAre men and the women are related to a man who meets criteria a, b and c and is very high up in the official ranks of the party structure. The selective, subjective and inconsistent application of these criteria has mired the process of recognizing heroes and heroines in mystery and secrecy, as sometimes these criteria apply conjunctively and simultaneously (e.g. denial of hero status in Ndabaningi Sithole, who, although he fought in the liberation struggle and was detained for his political ideas, did not support Mugabe and therefore no place was made available for him), but in d Others, the rules do not apply cumulatively (e.g. Border Gezi, whose liberation war credentials were sketchy, but his zealous service to the Mugabe-led government and his ingenuity in creating a wing of paramilitary youth who subjugated rural populations to vote for ZANU-PF secured him a good place in Heroes Acre.) Many have already noted how the status of national hero has been politicized, leading to only the friends and family of former President Robert Mugabe be recognized as heroes, excluding deserving individuals and including those who did notnot. In all these constant conversations, discussions of the marked exclusion of women's contributions to the liberation struggle have been anecdotal. Rightly defined as the “forgotten heroes” in a 2012 exhibition, Zimbabwe’s women freedom fighters remain unknown and unsung. One story explains how the promise of a fairer and more equal Zimbabwe inspired women and fighters to participate in the liberation struggle; However, they were systematically denied this ideal for which they sacrificed themselves. Those who dominate the stories of “female heroines” are either included in the realm of the mystical, which makes them demigods and not just women (like Mbuya Nehanda), or they were linked to male political figures, so their recognition comes by association. and not on his own merit. The likes of Sally Heyfron Mugabe (wife of Robert Mugabe), Johanna 'Mama Mafuyane (wife of Joshua Nkomo), Sabina Mugabe (sister of Robert Mugabe), Victoria Chitepo (wife of Herbert Chitepo) Julia Zvobgo (wife of Edison Zvobgo ), Sunny Ntombiyelanga Takawira (wife of Léopold Takawira) and Ruth Chinamano (wife of Josiah Chinamano) are often presented as simple beneficiaries of “hero status” by association with their male relatives; denying the fact that these women, in their own right, were fierce and courageous and gave their lives and well-being to the fight, as much as any male hero. Mostly, men's names dominate what are often presented as the three definitive stages of Zimbabwe's life. history; a glorious pre-colonial past in which our ancestors prospered economically, politically, socially and scientifically, inventing magnificent infrastructure projects such as Great Zimbabwe and the ruins of Khami; producing expressive works of art such as the Domboshawa and Matobo Hills rock paintings and carving magnificent works of art such as the Zimbabwe Bird; a horrible colonial past in which our ancestors were unjustly stripped of their beautiful lands, where the black majority was separated from the white minority population, their land expropriated and their dignity stolen; and a recent pre- and postcolonial past, in which a distinct group of “liberators” died for the country and used this real and metaphorical death as the determining source of their right to power and perpetual rule. the inconvenient truths of the brutal and bitter wars of the pre-colonial Mutapa Empire, the two Shona-Matebele wars and the black-on-black violence of the Second Chimurenga, including the summary killings of those deemed traitors; the appropriation of livestock from poor communities to feed entitled soldiers whose role in the "bush" was considered more critical to the liberation of the country than simple resistance within the borders, the rape of women as spoils of war and the forced abortions that female fighters endured at the hands of their male counterparts. The version of history presented as a single, intrinsic and intractable truth, denies the fact that Zimbabweans, not ZANU PF, purchased the liberation of their country with blood, sweat and years of torturous detention, of isolation in the tsetse fly. infested reserves and denial of fundamental rights. It was Zimbabweans who stood up for their rights to freedom, dignity and equality. This version excludes women because it forced the nation to adopt an understanding of colonialism in its political and economic sense, paying little attention to the social and cultural impact, particularly how colonialism was adopted. The marginalization and profound silencing of women's voices is a product of misogyny and.