Against the Architecture of Blind Obedience: An Ode to Blessed Geza, an Ode to a Free Mind

  It’s Happening by Blessed Geza, YouTube, 2025.

I miss the smell of books, of khaki and plastic covers, the stubbornness of a stencil (which we called stencler, “istensla”) and the smell of the magic marker’s ink on the front of my School books. From Jewel Damunesa, Grade One Yellow, “Mrs Z” we’ll call her, to Jewel Damunesa, Upper Six A, Biology notes, the days preceding school opening were always filled with panic. Being the last child, I was assured of help, my siblings helped me (willingly, hopefully) cover my books and write the necessary details on the front - I always preferred labelling in green, with a marker not a stencil.

The education regime, through the teachers, demanded not only uniformity, but a quality of being presentable, of underlining at certain points, writing dates in a particular format, labelling books in a predetermined way. In the classroom, teachers were totalitarians, not only able to make us do things their way, but also empowered to beat us (I went to a government school) or insult us, and cause us a great deal of shame, a poor mental health which many suffer till this day. It was not only books, but how our hair looked, never to be above a certain length, the hair cut style, the type of gray uniforms had to be, the length of the girl’s dresses and the permissible shortness of shorts that one could wear.

The teachers were also under a similar regime, the head teacher would do sit-ins once in a while to inspect conduct and pedagogy, with an expectation in his or her mind. The more dramatic times were the inspection by lecturers from the United College Of Education, who graded the teachers’ performance and aggregated the entire school’s performance. Not only did we make the classes cleaner, but so our bodies, our books, and even the way we spoke was performative. We were not even allowed to go to the toilet. At some point, the entire class was rehearsed, who was going to say what and when was staged - my class always got good grades and compliments from the lecturers. 

I have not covered my books in four years, I have done whatever I want with my hair, worn however I want on campus. Being raised by teachers, it appeared that the regime of uniformity would be eternal, that life was just like that.

The Education system’s regime foreclosed alternative ways of thinking about being, one could not just not cover their books or not cut their hair short, that was an aberration. As a result, we started to form morality around the regime’s standards, uncovered books started implying lack of order or seriousness with academic life and disrespect to teachers,  hair beyond a certain length represented a defiant spirit and that was distasteful. Girls wearing short skirts meant that they had become ungovernable, they were now seeing themselves as women (sexual activity or desire for it was implied in this kind of thinking.) Although these rules appeared subtle, doable, normal, they were shaping minds. Do you ever wonder why parents’ and teachers’ minds almost always coincide? Especially when they had a fair amount of colonial education? Why there always are memories of that one teacher who used to beat for dog ears, an untucked shirt, a distorted single file etc. 

I was a prefect, and with these moral guidelines I enforced the regime’s rules.

If school systems are capable of shaping one’s understanding of oneself, morality and the difference between right or wrong from an institutional level, so can families, churches, governments, political parties, squads, and they all attempt to. And dear reader, I invite you to resist; things are never just a binary, true or false, yes or no, but through deliberation, we should seek the truth. 

The ZANU PF regime, upon Geza’s death, was thrust into a tight spot, concerning whether he should be declared a national hero or not. Christopher Mutsvangwa did want Geza declared as a National Hero, because of his contributions to the liberation struggle, claiming that the attacks on the government, especially the president, was a result of his illness. He was right, Geza did take up the gun, he did fight to liberate Zimbabwe from white minority rule. However, declaring him a national hero would mean a state sponsored funeral, at the National heroes acre, with high ranking government officials in attendance and full honours given to Blessed Geza. It would have also meant hordes of ZANU PF supporters being bussed to the national shrine and singing in honour and praise of an outspoken critic and rebel.

It would have been very weird. Would they have sung “Geza raive gamba, tipeiwo nguva yekuchema gamba redu” >>> “Geza was a hero, give us time to mourn our hero.” Would they have honoured him with the guns as all other national heroes, and a live streaming of his funeral on the national TV, ZBC? What would the president have said at the funeral of a man who called him a corrupt tyrant who has built a fiefdom around himself to steal the country’s wealth for personal gain? What would the president have said to bid farewell to a man who called the masses against him?

It was not going to be weird because it is not a strange thing when politicians cross party lines to confer hero status to members opposed to them, or their critics. For example, Dumiso Dabengwa, was declared a national hero because his contribution to the liberation struggle was “unquestionable.” Other apolitical actors, like Father Ribeiro, a catholic priest who as a prison chaplain helped prevent the execution of the now president Emmerson Mnangagwa, was made a national hero, and so was a musician, Soul Jah Love and another, Oliver Mtukudzi. So what was Geza’s sin that made him so bad the regime could not risk declaring him a national hero, but a liberation war hero instead?

In a country where men and women cower, pale or look away at the face of injustice, untruth and corruption, where members of the ruling political establishment are too disciplined to caution or call out their leader, Geza was different, bold and defiant. In a country where those who oppose what is unjust, where speaking out against violating and dismantling the constitution, or for the poor and defenseless, is rewarded with lashes, jail time, violent attacks on property and even death, Geza was the voice crying out in the desert, the voice of the voiceless. Geza represented the old guard, the silent voices within the Party who get by on crumbs from the table of the wealthier and more powerful, and many of them are war veterans with wounds from the liberation struggle.

More often than not people assume I am just an opposition supporter, but I am also critical of opposition politics that discourages multiplicity of opinions and voices within the opposition movement. If, for example, an opposition movement takes Nelson Chamisa’s word as an axiomatic, unchallengeable truth, and demonizes those who call them out, I will have a huge problem with that. Geza was one voice ringing in the place of multiple others which should be ringing and wincing at every injustice and unfairness. He was a brave old man. 

Geza’s life, to which I dedicate this blog, is a call to dare to be defiant, to be different, to be ungovernable, to not be mind controlled by anyone, to think for yourself. We may not all be able to take to the streets, Geza failed to convince the millions, but the shutdown did happen. Our minds, in our rooms, homes and schools can and should always be free, we can still speak the truth to ourselves and to each other. We need not be militant protesters on the streets, or prophets on social media, but let no one speak your truth for you. Let no one tell you Zimbabwe is a democracy or that the economy is doing wonderfully or that the currency is the strongest in the SADC region, find that truth out yourself! And treasure it!

The powers that be, can change or even destroy the constitution, they can do whatever because they are stronger and violent, but not because they have convinced us to think like them. They will not dictate to us who to glorify as a hero, we will know in our hearts and minds. Our minds should be free! 

References

Amnesty International. “Zimbabwe: Authorities Must Investigate Brutal Attack on Constitutional Lawyer and Political Activists.” March 2, 2026. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/03/zimbabwe-authorities-must-investigate-brutal-attack-on-constitutional-lawyer-and-political-activists/.

AllAfrica. “Zimbabwe: Explosive Cartel Report Uncovers the Anatomy of a Captured State.” February 18, 2021. https://allafrica.com/stories/202102180810.html.

“Bombshell Geza Was a Hero – Mutsvangwa.” The Zimbabwean. n.d. https://www.thezimbabwean.co/2026/02/bombshell-geza-was-a-hero-mutsvangwa/.

Blessed Geza. “It’s Happening.” YouTube video. 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijbAc-RTUYQ.

The Herald. “UPDATED: Dabengwa Is National Hero… His Contribution Unquestionable.” May 26, 2019. https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/dabengwa-declared-national-hero/.

Ngcobo, Khanyisile, and Shingai Nyoka. “Zimbabwe Protest: Harare Shuts Down as Blessed Geza Calls for Emmerson Mnangagwa to Resign.” BBC News, March 31, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9w8krjyk01o.

Nyoka, Shingai. “Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Blessed Geza and the Drama of Succession.” BBC News, March 13, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdel6e9570jo.

Reuters. “Zimbabwe Declares Popular Musician Oliver Mtukudzi National Hero.” January 24, 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/world/zimbabwe-declares-popular-musician-mtukudzi-national-hero-idUSKCN1PI2N6/.

NewZimbabwe.com. “Father Ribeiro Declared National Hero.” June 19, 2021. https://www.newzimbabwe.com/father-ribeiro-declared-national-hero/.

Figure 1. Screenshot from It’s Happening by Blessed Geza, YouTube, 2025.