THE Defence ministry has partnered with the Institute of African Knowledge (INSTAK) on a project to rewrite the country’s liberation war history and correct biased narratives peddled by former colonial masters.
Defence deputy minister Victor Matemadanda yesterday said government would use oral evidence to reconstruct the story of the liberation war.
“We are here presented with an opportunity to capture and document our liberation history narrated as first-hand information from our living veterans who took part in the armed struggle. It is important that the history of our liberation is captured from our perspective,” he said.
Matemadanda, however, expressed fear that the record could carry distortions as a result of the ongoing factional fights within the ruling Zanu-PF party.
“We are just 40 years into independence, which is almost the same time it took people to write the Bible, but how many agree with the Bible and how many disputes it?” he asked.
“So the question of agreeing and disputing cannot be erased in people de-pending on the perception of what they want, but when you are researching, I am sure you know there is a procedure of researching and validating data!”
Matemadanda called on people to be wary of the information they receive, asking them to cross-check with various sources to establish the authenticity.
“It’s not always that what you conclude is going to be accepted by everybody and people have a right to query it depending on the depth of your presentation of your data and information,” he said.
