When the guns fell silent in 1980, Zimbabwe was hailed as Africa’s new jewel. A country of promise, blessed with fertile land, rich minerals, and a people hardened by sacrifice. The liberation war had delivered not just political independence, but the hope of a nation reborn. Zimbabwe was meant to be a shining example of what Africans could achieve when they took destiny into their own hands.

Forty-five years later, that jewel is tarnished, and the dream is on life support. Zimbabwe is no longer celebrated as a liberated state. It is spoken about as a cautionary tale, a nation where liberation ideals have been betrayed so deeply that the state itself risks collapse.

This is the tragedy of Zimbabwe with the ill-fated to keep Emmerson Mnangagwa in power beyond his questionable mandate ending in 2028: we are sliding into the graveyard of failed liberation states. We are following the path of countries where the revolution was victorious on the battlefield but defeated in government offices, where independence became a mask for corruption, repression, and betrayal.

The signs are everywhere. A state that was built on the sacrifices of peasants now survives by taxing their suffering. A government that was born out of people’s war now wages war on its own people. Leaders who once promised equality now live in obscene luxury while citizens queue for bread. Liberation has been emptied of its meaning, reduced to a slogan repeated while the nation rots.

Look at the economy. Zimbabwe is blessed with gold, diamonds, lithium, and fertile soil. Yet our currency collapses, our workers strike, and our youth flee. How can a land so rich produce citizens so poor? The answer is betrayal. Our wealth is looted by elites and sold to foreigners while ordinary Zimbabweans are left to hustle in the informal sector. A liberation state that cannot feed its people has failed.

Look at politics. Elections, once celebrated as the triumph of “one man, one vote,” are now rituals of fraud. Opposition leaders are jailed, recalled, or bought. Citizens are told their voices matter, yet results are decided long before ballots are cast. The liberation war was fought so that Zimbabweans could choose their leaders. Today, choice has been stolen. A liberation state that silences the ballot has failed.

Look at governance. Institutions meant to serve the people now serve the ruling elite. Courts protect the powerful, police repress the weak, and parliament is reduced to a rubber stamp. Ministers enrich themselves with tenders and deals, while hospitals collapse and schools crumble. A liberation state that devours itself from within cannot endure.

And look at the youth. They once crossed borders to join the liberation camps. Today, they cross borders to flee the country. They once carried rifles for freedom. Today, they carry passports for survival. A state that loses its youth is already finished, because no nation can survive when its future has given up.

This is not mere mismanagement. It is betrayal. It is the reversal of the liberation promise. It is the transformation of a people’s government into a predator government. Zimbabwe has become the mirror opposite of what the revolution fought for.

Robert Mugabe once warned that “stooges and traitors will be spat upon by their own children.” That prophecy has come true. Zimbabweans spit not only at the memory of Smith and Muzorewa, but at the betrayal of leaders who inherited the revolution and squandered it. The people know the truth: Zimbabwe is independent on paper, but enslaved in practice — enslaved to corruption, repression, and neo-colonial deals.

If Zimbabwe continues down this road, the outcome is certain. We will join the list of liberation states that collapsed into ruin  states where the ruling party clung to power until nothing was left to rule. States where the name of the revolution was dragged through the mud by those who claimed to defend it. States that ended not in glory but in shame.

The warning is clear: liberation alone does not guarantee freedom. Independence can fail. Revolutions can rot. And nations can collapse when leaders betray the people who carried them to power.

Zimbabwe is standing at a crossroads. We can continue as we are, a failed liberation state clinging to faded slogans while citizens starve. Or we can reclaim the revolution — not with guns, but with honesty, accountability, and a return to the people. The choice is stark: renewal or ruin.

History does not wait for indecisive nations. Just as Rhodesia collapsed under the weight of its illegitimacy, Zimbabwe too will collapse unless it changes course. The guns of 1980 delivered independence. The will of the people must now deliver freedom.

The revolution is not dead  but it has been hijacked. And unless Zimbabweans reclaim it, we will be remembered not as a nation that fulfilled its liberation, but as one that betrayed it and collapsed under the weight of its own corruption.

Zimbabwe is at the brink. The world is watching. The people are waiting. And history is recording.