Will society accept you?

EXPERIENCE has taught us that all conflicts are resolved through dialogue – and the ongoing talks between Zanu PF and the two MDCs give us hope that finally our politicians have decided to do the right thing, putting Zimbabweans first before themselves. My respect goes out to President Mugabe, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and Prof Arthur Mutambara for taking this initiative.

Whenever there is a quarrel within the family, there are outsiders who are quick to “empathise” with the aggrieved, and offer to fight on behalf of them. Sometimes such offers are too tempting to resist, because we will be so hurt that we will want revenge at any cost. Because our reasoning capacity is so diminished, due to anger, we become vulnerable to manipulation even from the most dangerous people on this planet.

However, once that period of “madness” passes, we then realise that blood is thicker than water. We may have fought as siblings, or as extended family members, but ultimately at some point in our lives, when it matters most, the family will always stand for each other.

Looking at the voting patterns in the recent elections, the vote was split almost in half between MDC and Zanu PF.  It is not wrong to say in almost every family in Zimbabwe, there is a member of MDC and Zanu PF, which is why it should be easy to unite the people of Zimbabwe through a negotiated settlement instead of expecting some kind of ”foreign” pressure to turn brother against brother.

In earnest, as Zimbabweans we can safely say we have travelled through this rough terrain before. We fought a bloody liberation war to claim back our dignity and self-determination. Yes, we had to fight to reclaim our self-worthiness.

It was never going to be easy to reclaim economic independence.  As in all revolutions, there are trials and tribulations along the way. There has been some who have gone beyond “the call of duty” across the political divide to further their personal economic gains by destroying other people’s lives. These have been disguised as fights for “indigenisation”, “freedom of press, human rights and democracy.”

Some our brothers and sisters had become overnight western press “political analysts”, not to defend their country, or to promote democracy in Zimbabwe, but to chastise their own country in return for a few silver shillings. Some, either through ignorance or selfishness even called for military intervention in their own country. Others conveniently renamed military intervention with a much nicer name, “international peacekeepers”.

Back home there are others who declared themselves “supreme war veterans”, some too young to have participated in the war, using this status to settle their personal grudges and causing distress to some neighbourhoods. There are certain actions that are just unforgivable no matter how justified.

I’m reminded of an incident that occurred just before Independence.  My late grandfather was one of the few black farmers to be allocated a farm (known as the mixed farms) in the then Wiltshire (now Chivhu) during the Smith regime some time in the 70`s.  They used traditional methods of farming because they just could not access capital from banks to finance their farming (it’s hard being born black on this planet, I tell you!)

The Save River divided the white commercial farmers (where the tarred road, electricity and telephone lines ended) from the black farmers on the other side of the river. Because of the good infrastructure of the road up to Save river, Ian Smith’s regime army had easy access to this part of the country where they terrorised and killed any young man they found as they perceived them to be collaborating with the freedom fighters.

The local youths decided to defend themselves by destroying the bridge along the Save River to prevent the soldiers from using the road.

Mr Chiminya taught at the local primary school then and was well-respected by the local community and was often referred to as Teacher Chiminya. He lived just next to the bridge and during school holidays would use his personal car as a commuter to and from Harare to get extra income. He had vehemently objected to the idea of destroying the bridge as this would affect his “business”.

For the local youths, destroying that bridge would mean saving lives. For Teacher Chiminya it meant loss of income.

The youths, with the consent of the elders in the community, went onto destroy the bridge. Teacher Chiminya got so angry and did the unthinkable. He crossed the Save River, into the white farmer’s residence and together they summoned the army. The youths were ambushed and they all perished on that Save River Bridge on that fateful afternoon. They numbered up to 20 and most probably they would have been Teacher Chiminya’s students at some point.

The whole community was inconsolable.

Teacher Chiminya did not return back home after his assignment. When the war ended in 1980, most people who had fled their homes for various reasons came back to their homes but Teacher Chiminya could not. The farm lay with overgrown grass well into the 90`s unoccupied, perhaps only serving as a stark reminder to the community of its occupant’s actions on that fateful afternoon.

All the bus operators who plied the route, upon reaching this sacred bridge would drive very slowly as a mark of respect of the youthful lives that was lost here. There were just too many and too young to die in such a manner.

“This is the place”, you would hear passengers on the bus appraising each other, shaking their heads and holding back tears, 20 years after the incident happened, yet while the wounds appear healed outside inside they still are heavily bleeding.

Perhaps it is time to ask yourself, seriously, this time: have you ever in your life failed to manage a personal conflict and sought to nationalise it along the way by destroying someone’s life?

Will Zimbabwean Society, (not law enforcement agents), accept you?

Nancy Nyamhunga