VANA vatinodzidzisa kuchemera chirungu mangwana vachatiramba nokuti chirungu hachina ushingisi, hachisicho chinokoshesa munhu sezvaari, hachisicho chinochengeta munhu kana achinge awirwa namatambudziko.
Hachisicho chinodzidzisa kuzviramba pamusana pavamwe.
Kuvati varungu ivo vari vanhu vatema kuvatuka, hakusi kuvada, kuvaputsa.
At the Zimbabwe Heritage Trust Writer’s Workshop in August last year, Dr Augustine Tirivangana clarified that to be African is to have unhu/ubuntu, as such unhu/ubuntu is the kernel of Africanness.
It boggles the mind how we can originate from such a precious heritage and then abandon it in preference for something so empty – just ‘whiteness’.
It is no longer enough to say we were once colonised.
Colonialism was defeated.
The time to make choices that are good for us and our children is long overdue.
The African values that engender fear of God, love, respect and honour for elders, for human life, for others, self-sacrifice, humility, moral rectitude, communality, understanding, peace loving, intolerance of evil, protection of the vulnerable, appreciation of others and respect for the family are what distinguish us from the predatory nature of ‘whiteness’. Thus to be African is to be heir to the most precious values which build and not destroy.
If we do not raise children correctly, after some time they go astray.
Muchaita marooro echivanhu, mugovachatisa muchurch, but after some time they just abandon it all because deep down they are not Africans. We have not raised them to be African, to cherish African values, deep down the African values of chastity are not so important to them, but it is the materialism of the West which is so deeply entrenched in them; social status and the stations they can boast on facebook.
After sometime, the marital partner they boasted so much to the whole world does not look so attractive anymore – you cannot boast on facebook that he has lost his job, or that he has cancer of the liver, it is just not on.
Kutsvakisisa mari nokuonererwa pane zvinoshaina kunoparadza unhu zvachose, being African means appreciating each person ashe/she is:
l Mukufara nomukutambudzika
l Muupfumi nehurombo
l Mukurwara nomukusimba
These are our core values which are being irretrievably eroded by the West with our collusion.
Varungu havazvitsvaki.
Their perennial cry is: “What is in it for me?”
And to this question, love alone is not enough.
Patinopereka our daughter after all the wedding rituals are done, vana mai, vana vatete, varoora, madzikoma navanin’ina, all ensconce to say we have brought you something special among your people, someone we so love and cherish but she too has found something special among your people, so we bring her to you but she is still so very precious to us.
Well and good, the bride enjoys all this attention, but sometimes it does not go very deep because we have raised our children to be white deep down.
To them, this might just be an empty ritual, to be fulfilled so that she can get on with her new life.
She might even sigh with relief after they are all gone to their homes.
“One wonders where ‘they’ get all the energy?,” some are heard to ask of all the dancing that takes place at our African weddings.
They totally miss the depth of the spiritual force of their people embracing them and giving their best send-off to what they hope and pray is a permanent destination, a life-long marriage.
It’s not that all these people have nothing better to do, but they have come to give their love.
This old world is forgotten as soon as the rituals are done with and she is ready to fly free.
Pakava nezvinonetsa, ‘ah how can vatete, maiguru mainini or mbuya know how to deal with modern marriages’?
So they deal with them in their own ‘white’ way, the modern way that makes them feel good about themselves; ‘kwete kungozvi peta-peta sokunonzi imhosva kuroorwa’, they sigh with relief.
But there is something that does not change; true values or African values go deep.
Murume haatukwi, haapopoterwi, they said at the bridal shower.
Anoshingiswa , haatsverudzwi, baba ndivo vakuru, hapana chaunobva kana ukazvidukupisa it was all spelt out musi uyu.
This is said again and again at each bridal shower, but the advice that is so correct to them, that makes them feel so good is that which brings them close to whiteness, the books by whites, the radio and television programmes by whites, the advice of friends who are so close to whiteness like them.
They listen with one ear while lapping up all the extravagant presents, never reflecting sometimes on why so many spent so much money and time to give them a good start to their marriage.
Kana pakava navanambuya vanoramba vachitaura nezvokutsetseka kweunhu hwake, the bride is sometimes put off, ‘ko havana kuona Benz yake yeblack yandauya nayo here, ko havazivi here kuti ndichiremba.
I mean he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he’s nice but I am not looking for a priest, he’s ok.
KuMadokero ikoko marriages don’t last, people remarry three, four, five times, everyone you know comes from a broken marriage, almost.
The moment parents fight, children ask: “Mummy, daddy are you going to divorce?”
It is too harsh, too heart-breaking, but that is ‘whiteness’.
Why do our marriages last and theirs break?
Why do we have more broken marriages among those of our children we have raised like whites, than among those who have been raised the African way?
Do our ‘white’ children even recognise that it is a tragedy that marriages break down?
Why is it marriages which are stable here at home break kana vaenda kuchirungu, kumadokero ikoko?
Can these be the ideal marriages characterised by divorce, violence, where spouses kill each other, children have to be taken in by the state welfare department because the family has become dysfunctional, vana dzangove n’ombe dzamashanga, where nothing holds the parents together anymore, where nothing holds the parents and the children together?
What is the missing glue?
Once the back is broken, the organism disintegrates and soon dies.
We take for granted the African values we were raised on and dispense with them for white ones because they are so ‘lowly’ and whiteness is so with it, so superior and yet these African values are the glue that holds everybody together.
You raise your children to be white, you teach them to detest everything African, they do not even speak the African language; what would be their mother tongue if you would let them?
Then you tell them Zimbabwe haiite, and you do everything to send them away kumadokero, and you tell them never to come back nokuti hapana chokudzokera.
Sometimes they do not come back, not even for you.
They forget you as well when they ‘forget’ Zimbabwe.
You are part of the shameful past you schooled them to disdain, and when they forget you, you cry foul.
‘Whiteness’ is selfish; it is contrary to what you have taught them for them to remember you.
They are ashamed they came from you with your flat nose and kinky hair, not to mention the ‘black’ skin.
In the West they put their old mothers and fathers in old people’s homes, they do not look after them at home as we do.
They visit them at Christmas and on their birthdays.
Uhwu hahwusihwo unhu hwedu.
Is it any wonder that children we taught to be white forget us?
Ndizvo zvinoita chirungu.
Our children have graduated in the manner we taught them.
What is the future of these our children, their children and their children’s children?